Monday, August 8, 2011

New design tuesday - test knit frenzy

There has been test knit gold this past week, the Plum Blossom cardigan pattern is as close to complete as a pattern can get, my test knitters are a lovely industrious bunch and we have some finished objects to share.

I'll link to the first 3 as they are modelled on real little people.

Sarah's version is a beautiful shade of blue from our friends at Skeinz

and Marrianne chose a delightful shade of green, once again from Skeinz

Suzie's uses a Moda Dea yarn in another pretty blue

I will shamelessly exhibit Polly's photos though, as there are no little people in them, and they show the sweater with short sleeves (meaning that it in the small size it is a one skein project using the nommy Madeleine Tosh DK)



The test knitters caught a couple of issues, wrist width and buttonholes, which I have ironed out, so now the pattern is, well, ready to go.

I had considered running my first KAL  along with the launch of this pattern, however given the palaver I have made of hosting a test knit myself this week I've decided to give the KAL a miss, I will however set up a thread in the Just Jussi forum on Ravelry in case anyone needs help or wants to share their progress.

So, go get it! I've discounted the pattern by 50% until friday midnight my time only, tell your friends!

Plum Blossom Cardigan


Now, that palaver I was telling you about...you see I've had the flu for weeks now, everytime I get almost better I get sick again, anyway I got it into my head to run a test knit on the Just Jussi forum for the baby basics. Long story short I cocked up the gauge, when I finally figured out what I had done at least one person had finished! (they are fast these kiwi test knitters!) So I re-wrote the errant sections and hopefully all will be well from here on in. I still can't figure out wether a tech edit first, then a test knit, then tech edit check is best, or a test knit, then tech edit. I'm starting to err on the side of the former...I hate embarrassing myself in front my testers!


I do like having the test knit on my own forum though, and will continue to work this way, my testers are always such lovely people and I feel I can get to know them better when I am not clogging up a testing forum.


The Big Love sweaters are coming along nicely, I'm knitting them in colourways for boys and girls and having loads of fun doing it, and thats all I have for now, with this dreaded 'flu I have realised that it is best to keep my head away from calculating patterns for the time being, save myself a lot of hassles in the long run (and save myself lots of red faces in front of test knitters!)

In other news I have taught myself enough about how to use Freeway to be dangerous, the laptop where my website currently resides is almost dead, which means that there will be no way of updating the website in the near future, so I have forced myself to upskill enough to build a replacement...and I'm actually quite happy with how it is coming along, I'll show you guys in a few weeks.

Until then, stay warm , stay safe and tell your social media network about the Plum Blossom!

1 comment:

Marie said...

That is an ADORABLE little sweater! Nicely done.