Class: Pattern writing for knitters

I just finished a class on Craftsy on pattern writing for knitters. The title of the class is "How to say it: Pattern writing for knitters" and it goes in depth on how to write patterns for publishers and for self publishing. The instructor, Edie Eckman, is an experienced knitting designer, technical editor and author and she spends considerable time on the professional aspects of writing patterns--the roles of editors, copy editors, technical editors and others who you will deal with if you write for a publisher as well as those roles you will have to assume as a self-published designer and the roles you really should hire, even if you are self-published. In the course you will learn:

• How to keep your patterns concise and accurate
• How to use a style sheet in writing and technical editing
• How to format your patterns for easier sale and publication
• How to balance charts and schematics with text in a knitting pattern

What I really like about this class is that once you pay for it, you can go back to it over and over to review different parts because it is always available to you. The only thing that really bugged me is that there was no easy way that I could find to download all the classroom materials in one fell swoop. I had to print each one individually which I chose to do by saving them first as PDFs, then selecting just a few key pages to print. Otherwise it would have been 30 pages or so of printed material--lots of trees that I'd rather not kill. My suggestion to Craftsy is that they create a download with all materials in one package for easy saving. There was one lesson where Edie spent 1.5 hours going over the style sheet, abbreviation by abbreviation. That one was a little long, so I skipped through it and will go back to it if I have questions.

If you are interested in taking your knitting up a few notches to become a designer, then this class is definitely worth the time and money. I highly recommend it.