technical editing and test knitting

I want to give due attention to the functions of technical editing and test knitting, hopefully provide some insight and some solutions, however small they might be.

People new to the industry often conflate tech editing and test knitting, thinking they are the same thing, or that one can replace the other. People really new usually don’t know what those terms even mean or their roles in pattern development. I’m not going to go that far - if you’re here, you know what they are - but there are things to say and flesh out. I’d like to get into the weeds a little bit, and make some claims. I would love to hear your questions or thoughts as always. If you have them as you read, do comment below.

While I’m not going to wax on for ages, boring you with the obvious, it’s always preferable to start out just about anything defining the terms we’ll be talking about. Instead of thinking of these things as abstracts, let’s describe them as the people doing the work. These are both roles that require skill to do well, and some sort of training, whether formally attained or not.

Technical editor: A knitting technical editor is a person working with designers, yarn companies, or magazines to ensure that knitting patterns are accurate, clear, and easy to follow. Their role in this is editing: hunting in knitting patterns much like a copy editor does, looking for any errors in math, grading, and style, working systematically through the entire pattern. They are checking every number, letter, line and punctuation mark, with a goal of completeness, consistency, and accuracy.

Tech editors are completely fluent in the language of patterns and instructions, and are familiar with all the details and variations of the types of patterns they edit, to be of most use to their clients. Most tech editors review the entire pattern until no errors remain, and provide resources and support to be sure the pattern is ready to publish and will be a success for knitters.

Test knitter: A test knitter or pattern tester is a person (usually a volunteer) working with a designer to knit a specific pattern, following the pattern instructions as well as the designer’s guidelines and stipulations on gauge and materials, recording any confusions, ambiguities, or other things that hinder the knitting process. Test knitters play an essential role in the pattern design process by also providing feedback on fit considerations, modification needs, and their general experience in knitting from the actual written pattern, as well as in the item it produces.

Test knitters can be new or experienced knitters, but are well versed in knitting terminology and basic stitches. They are also organized and astute, keeping to the designer’s timeline for the project, and meticulously reporting issues they have with the pattern and communicating clearly with the designer, to ensure the best outcome for future knitters.

In my view, both of these roles are invaluable in pattern production. They can be accomplished a whole bunch of different ways and with many varied approaches.

Compensation for these roles is often a hot topic, mainly circling around the thoughts that tech editing costs too much, and test knitting doesn’t pay enough, and vice versa. As with most things, the truth there varies too, with gobs of evidence on both sides. We’re not gonna make those people happy debating that here. That is definitely not my expertise, so here I'm gonna stick to what I know.

The pattern experience for the (tech) editor and the (test) knitter, is not the same.

Two questions I get a lot are:

1. Should I get my patterns tech edited before test knitting, or after?
2. Why should I get my patterns tech edited if I have test knitters?

Being as I am a tech editor, I am sure you can guess the vein of my answers. They have nothing to do with me wanting more work for tech editors, nor for any sense of bravado about my own work, nor a need to elevate knitting technical editing. My answers have all to do with giving our best to knitters, be they test knitters or customers.

Just simply, why would you give a pattern that you know could be full of mistakes to a knitter (who has the pattern for the express reason of being able to reproduce the item by following only the pattern)? Hmmm.

Editing and making things their best is just a core part of who I am and have always been. It matters to me that what I put out there is the best I can do.

When you were a student and had to turn in work (for me, a long time ago and actual pages of paper) to a teacher or professor, and your name was on that work, did you have any anxiety about that? Did you experience any nervousness about what your grade would be, or how marked up your paper would get?

I certainly did. Turning in work to a teacher - that whole dynamic of an authority figure examining my work - would get me to do the best job possible. This is the same in our jobs and work in our careers, that apprehension of our bosses (or clients) examining our work and basing our salaries on how we get the job done.

So I think about knitters like professors and bosses. Like, they are the ones, the ones that give us our final marks, bonuses, feedback. There is trepidation for me in making sure what I put my name on is the best it can be before I turn in work.

And that is what I am doing as an editor, is being that person first, making marks and helping to make my client’s work its best, before they have to turn it in, with their name on it. Because hey, that’s their name on the line. When you’ve got your name on something, you’re saying: this is me, this is who I am, this is how I do this thing. We want our work to be its best before we turn it in, and that goes for turning patterns in to knitters too. We want to give them our best. Not only for their support, but so they can actually use the pattern as intended, and get the thing!

Cuz I mean, don’t you want them to love your pattern, to have a great time working from it, to tell all their friends about it?

You damn well do.

Do you want them to be frustrated with it, scratching their head, having to rip out work, be disappointed in what they get on the needles?

You sure as shit don’t!

That goes for your test knitters too. How are you going to get good knitting test results using a pattern that is a mess? And why would you expect your test knitters to edit your patterns for clarity and correctness? Test knitters are awesome for pointing out when things are not clear for them, that’s true, but they should be working with excellent and correct instructions and a tight pattern so they can see and understand what needs to be clarified to work better in real time on the needles.

Let’s just really look at what a technical editor is doing and what a test knitter is doing, cuz they’re not the same thing! There are simpler terms that are glaring at us that make it all clear: a tech editor is editing, and a test knitter is knitting. That’s the soup to nuts version, right there in the titles.

A tech editor doesn’t knit the pattern. However, they are experienced knitters, with extensive skills working in patterns and pattern language. They go through the whole thing editing language, instructions, schematics, and every single number for every line and every size, to make sure it’s right, to make sure it’s clear with no hiccups or confusions in any part of it. And they work with the designer until that pattern is on point. They’re not knitting, though, so there’s things that may be correct, but they can’t see how it plays out like a knitter knitting it can. They are working it in their heads, on paper, in a spreadsheet, a document, on graph paper, with a ruler, calculator, working all angles of that whole pattern.

A test knitter is knitting the pattern, usually relaxed, in community, and hoping for a great make. Their work is most valuable when they can faithfully follow the instructions and see how it works out. They can offer suggestions from a knitter’s perspective on how the details in the pattern make sense or don’t in active knitting. Sticking them with a pattern full of math errors and typos is going to make them super frustrated, just like it will for any knitter, and will result in you getting less of that valuable feedback you want.

Also remember that a test knitter is only working one size, and will only be able to see errors in one size, and not how all the sizes relate, or how the pattern parts connect to each size. Nor does every test knitter in your group have the same skill set or point of view as the next test knitter, making any mistake corrections you receive really difficult to sort through and apply.

Test knitters offer a unique perspective, giving you valuable information on how the instructions worked for their knitting style, what they want or need from a pattern, and also how the finished item fits! They can give you incredible insight into a body different from your own, or your fit model, and how your item works on different bodies.

It is impossible for them to do this very useful task with a bad pattern. If the instructions can’t be the control in the experience, then there is no way to know what fix needs to be made to the fit or to the pattern.

TL;DR: Have a great test knit, y’all, and start it by handing your test knitters a tidy edited pattern. Number one thing to do. Check. So get the hell on your tech editor’s calendar.