A warning: bad, bad patterns

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I recently had a very negative experience with a pattern. This is being sold on Ravelry for a relatively high amount, but I had got it for free on a promotion (and I can only hope nobody ever spent money on it). So, I took a peek, saw it was a relatively easy lace pattern and, having very little experience with lace, thought it was ideal for practising it. Big mistake! The pattern is riddled with errors and typos. I ended up wasting a lot of time and, in the end, I frogged everything. Even though I could have tried to fix it, I decided to cut my losses and quit.

Even for a miser like me, the time wasted was more valuable than any money I could have spent on it. And I actually know this is not an unusual experience. There are plenty of unprofessional "designers" out there thinking they can make a few coins (or more) selling patterns. And Ravelry has made the process very easy for people who do not even bother to check their patterns for errors.

So here is a word of advice: be careful when choosing a pattern. If this is a very popular pattern, written by a well-known designer, or has been professionally published, chances are that there are no errors or an errata has been published. If that is not the case, Ravelry is your friend. Check out the projects other people (not the designer) posted. If there are negative comments or frogged projects*, forget it. If there are very few of them, be cautious. I would definitely not buy, but, if it is free, you can take a peek and decide. Check the ratings. Most knitters love everything they knit, so the ratings tend to be high, even when the pattern is not very good. But a pattern that has errors will probably not be kindly rated.

* Frogged projects may not be the fault of the pattern. Very often knitters frog because they made too many mistakes, used the wrong yarn or got the wrong gauge and/or size.

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