Author Archives: Catherine Whelan

Now, this is a huge topic and in one blog post, I can’t talk about all the different ways of being accessible in your patterns. So, I’m just going to talk about a few ways of being accessible. I want to start with everyone is different and therefore it’s about making your pattern fit aContinue reading “Ways to make your patterns accessible”

As it’s still near the beginning of the year and I like making February a clean slate. January for me feels like a month of rest. I use February to start afresh! I thought I would talk about something that you may want to add to your habits. I notice people (including myself) say ‘I don’tContinue reading “Design Process & Using Your Time Wisely”

The last few days I’ve been looking around and going through the knitting patterns that I own. I’ve noticed a few have patterns which we are one size only. Can you truly be an inclusive designer if you have patterns that are one size only? This also includes accessories in my opinion. The number ofContinue reading “Does one size fit all ever fit all?”

Recently I’ve been updating my patterns and talking to people about low vision patterns. There are two different versions to consider low vision and screen readers. This is something to consider as both need different things on what you would like to do.  I decided that I would make a pattern that combines both ofContinue reading “Low Vision Pattern Checklist”

Welcome back to the final part of Things I believe make a good pattern.  Charts: In my opinion, charts can be one of the hardest items to get right in a pattern and can be done poorly.  Something that I feel about them is to make sure that you print them off on your printerContinue reading “What makes a good pattern – Part 4”

Welcome back to the third post of my miniseries of what I think makes a good pattern.  This time I’m going to talk about the main part of the pattern.  The section that everyone who knits your pattern will look at. Everyone will want this section to look different. Some designers will be writing moreContinue reading “What makes a good pattern? Part 3”

To see part 1 of this series please click here So this part of the series is all about the information before the pattern even starts. The stuff that needs to be available for someone to make the item. There doesn’t seem to be any specific order in which you need to show these andContinue reading “What makes a good knitting pattern? Part 2”

So this is going to be a blog post series as I discovered I had too much to say in just one blog post. I will attempt to work in order though. So this takes you through the first few sections of a pattern before you get to the actual pattern. Title – Every patternContinue reading “What makes a good knitting pattern? Part 1”

There are several things you should check before you send your pattern off to your tech editor. There are many reasons for this but in my opinion the big one is that it will help your tech editor spend less time on the little errors and this will also save you money. I can probablyContinue reading “Things to do to Save Money with your Tech Editor”

We should start with. What is a tech-editor? A tech-editor is someone who will go through your pattern in a short amount of time and check your work. They will check for inconsistencies, typos, your numbers plus a lot more. A tech-editor is your second pair of eyes they will make sure that your customersContinue reading “Why should you hire a tech-editor?”