I saw a newly published pattern on Ravelry one Friday afternoon, and decided to buy it and cast on. It was a cute pattern, I had the called for yarn and I knew that my PinkyD would love it. Printed the pattern, wound the yarn and cast on.
[Long story short, worst pattern I've ever knit. Pattern needs to be fixed/updated but the designer can't be arsed to do it. Upside, love the yarn!]
A funny typo, a flawed chart and a symbol that was not in the key. I really should have known at that point. However, I'm stubborn and not very bright. It was easy enough to figure out the set up chart and move on to the increases and all that st st.
I had started a project page and mentioned being less than thrilled with the pattern issues. The designer messaged me and offered to refund the $5 for the pattern. I told her what the issues were and that a refund was unnecessary. Not the first bad pattern I ever bought on Ravelry. Sort of doubt it will be the last.
She was very sweet, took my feedback well and refunded me all the same. She fixed the issues I mentioned but did not know how to post an update to a pattern. I told her what other designers have done, and she figured it out. We messaged and emailed a bit. She had me look at another pattern for her, told me how she was looking at Craftsy info on writing patterns, and even made me an editing assistant...
For about ten minutes.
Project Page w/corrections
Then I messaged her about the edging chart. The edging chart was utterly unknit-able because it did not include the NO STITCH boxes that sort of made the whole thing workable.
Or would have if the chart was otherwise correct, which it wasn't. Btw, she told me that the edging chart was wrong but has STILL not updated the pattern. I think this is about the point where I lost my job as her editing assistant. Along with my shit.
I was so frustrated and angry that I did something I've never done before. I put the scarf in-progress in a bag with the yarn and pattern, and shoved it all into the Ottoman of Shame. I moved on to other well done patterns and tried to forget about the mess under my feet.
If you know me, you know that didn't last long. I pulled it out, ripped back to the start of the edging chart and gave it another go. Thankfully, we can zoom in on pattern photos on Ravelry or I might still be working on it. Yes, that chart is so bad I needed to look at a photo to figure out what I needed to do. Decreases going the wrong way for a start.
Once I figured it out and had done a lot of swearing, I finished it, soaked, blocked and nailed it to a fence.
If the pattern was actually updated with charts that would work, I think it could be a cute little project. However, as is, it's a hot mess. Honestly? I am outraged that someone would publish a paid pattern that is not knit-able and clearly had not been test knit. This may be my biggest pet peeve about Ravelry. ANYONE can publish ANYTHING and call it a pattern.
If it has been test knit, I would love to know who did it and WHY has the pattern not been updated with a fixed workable chart.
There is so much what the fuck in this mess.
For the record, I actually like the designer. I think she's really cute and has a lot of potential if she could actually produce patterns that are in fact workable. Right now, I would warn folks to steer clear. Not worth the frustration.
As a friend mentioned yesterday, life's too short...
