Intuitive Knitters Make Lousy Pattern Writers

Ok, talk about a wild generalization, I admit it... But here's why I say this.

Intuitive knitters design wonderful pieces based on their experience and what they feel in the moment. They 'go with the flow' and modify existing designs or create new ones on the fly. If they look at their sweater, or cap, or scarf and think, 'gee, this really needs a color change, or a cable, or ___________", they just do it. They tell themselves that they'll write it down later (if they remember) because they don't want to break the wonderful rhythm and creative flow they are feeling. Why do I know this? I am one of those, by nature. Before I opened the shop, this is how I worked most all of the time.

Fast forward to today, when I follow patterns to the letter in order to be able to teach others and share important tidbits to make the designs successfully. I find that I understand more and more the challenge that newer knitters or knitters that prefer explicit directions have with so many patterns. Example: A few months ago, I started a cute little cardi by one of our vendors. I got about 2/3 done with it when I noticed that the lace charts did not reflect the armhole decreases and the pattern just said, "Continue in pattern." This required some rather unintuitive counting backwards to figure out what the first stitch of each row needed to be and where it was on the chart. I called the designer, who told me in no uncertain terms, that she is an intuitive knitter, writes the pattern after the design is done and assumes that others will just be able to figure out what she is intending because it's all "pretty obvious based on the pattern". I consider myself to be pretty darn good at recognizing patterns, but dang, this just seemed harder than it needed to be. She was very nice about it... that's just what she believes is the approach to design she chooses to embrace. I ripped out the cardi and made something else with the yarn. Why? because, while I knew I could figure it out for myself, I no longer knit just for myself and could not reasonably pass this confusion on to others.

I had nearly forgotten about that episode until today, when I began the decreases for my very lovely Mini Mochi Fair Isle Hat. It has a really simple 8 stitch, 6 row diamond fair isle pattern that is repeated throughout. When the decrease rows began for the crown, I was expecting some clear directions about how to maintain pattern while working on fewer stitches. But there it was... "maintaining diamond pattern, do thus and such decreases!" Ok, I admit that I thought, no problem, I'll just count and figure it out. After a row or so, I realized that I had no idea what the designer had in mind regarding maintaining the diamond pattern. I mean, it was morphing down to nothing with each row, so what part of the pattern did she want me to maintain?  Then it dawned on me... ahh, yes, another intuitive knitter who made the hat, then wrote the pattern!

I decided to proceed without the diamond fair isle pattern. How bad could it be? And the hat turned out just fine!

Here it is in it's unblocked state. Tomorrow, I'll block it, which will only make it nicer.

So, lesson learned? When you find directions that suggest that you just continue on 'in pattern' while making numerous alterations and expect that you figure it out, assume it is not you that is lacking. Think that you may have encountered an intuitive knitter that has written a pattern from an already-produced design. Don't give up, don't give yourself 30 lashes and throw it in the wip basket.  It can be worked through or modified so that you will love it and it will be just your own! It's just that the pattern doesn't have the roadmap to get that done.

Note to self... make sure all of my written patterns give step-by-step directions...