Life of a Test Knitter

I was lucky enough to come across this post on Instagram and simply fell in love with the raglan ribbed sleeves and cabled sides.  Fortunately, Markéta was looking for test knitters and I was fortunate enough to be selected.  Since my Hyozan (氷山) project was on hold, it was the perfect time for me to try what I thought would be a simpler project.  Little did I know, it would not be as simple as I thought it'd be.

We were supposed to get our tests pattern on our holiday, 05/29/23 but it really came in a few days later on 05/31/23. Since I was in the midst of digging myself out of email hell at work, I couldn't start on the pattern until 06/03/23.  

While I casted on and did the neck just fine, I had difficulties with the next to shoulder transition.  Thankfully, we had a Ravelry group.  I was about to post a question on it, only to find that I was not alone in this endeavor and one of the other test knitters were able to figure out how to actually transition this area.  What really helped (me) was that person posting a picture of how it's supposed to look like. 

Since I had initially made my neck portion a little short (because I didn't want a high neck), after seeing that person's picture and referring back to the original Instagram picture (and deciding that I wanted the neck to have that fold-over look) as well as being stuck on the neck to shoulder transition AND since I had to rip back a portion of the neck line (thankfully, I didn't get too far), I decided to knit the neck portion as described.  

Then, I finally got back to the neck Increase and after (still) fumbling a bit, got the next 2 rows done.  I think what I found most confusing was that the pattern referred to an Increase Tip that was 2 pages down, plus, they had also updated that page (so now it was a separate file) and that's where I got a little lost.  Here's what it looks like so far:

(Those 2 little orange markers are my neck to shoulder transitions.)

Now onto the saddle shoulder increase.  I read the instructions three (3!) times before moving onto this section just to be sure I understood it, especially since the instructions were on 2 different pdfs (& essentially 2 different pages).  Here's what it looks like 5 rows in:

At least it's starting to look like the other test knitter's version so I can't be too far off the mark!  So, I thought I'd be adventurous and add in stripes just to the front and back sides.  And here's how it started to turn out:

Conceptually, I think it would've been a cool idea.  But, I had already started to have reservations about the stripes as soon as I started making the second set of them; so, I decided to sketched it out only to realize that I really didn't like the colour combination and that the stripes would take away from the pattern itself.

So, I ripped it back and here's what it looks like now that the saddle shoulders and shoulder & yoke increases done:

Oddly, it felt really big and when I double checked the pattern, I realized that I did one (1) extra shoulder increase which is why it seemed so big and went way past my bust (plus my stitch count wasn't making sense).  So, I decided to rip it out the extra shoulder increase and redo the yoke increase. So, here's how it looks like now:

It's so much better and my stitch count matches!  I must say, the way this pattern was written (now that we had a revised version), it was quite clever on how the saddle shoulders were done as well as how the sleeves and yoke increases helped to "shape" the sweater.😯👍🥰

I was "showing" my work as I went along and (thankfully??🤔) the pattern maker caught me making the wrong sized sweater! (I was on automatic pilot and making the S instead of the M that I signed up for (which said the chest width was supposed to be a semi-loose fit on me)🤦).  So, instead of ripping out what I already did, I just used some of my other yarn and casted on again.  Fortunately, it took me eight (8) days to catch up! 👍🥳  Then, I found that she was OK with me knitting the smaller size. 🤦‍♀️ (It was my bad since I wasn't regularly checking the platform we were corresponding on.🤷‍♀️)

Now that I could go back to my other sweater, it was time for the body.  It took me what felt like forever to finish the body (even thought it really took me four (4) full days to actually knit it; in real time, it was really seven (7) days since I didn't have the vain space to knit every day. 😭).  Here's how the body turned out:

I really love how the cables turned out (even if it was a sixteen (16!) row repeat).

And, finally, it was time for the sleeves.

Well, I started on the sleeves and got to my elbows before realizing ... something was wrong ... My sweater fit ... weird - like I couldn't actually move my arms around.🤔😳😔😶🤷  So, I emailed the designer and told her:  I need to rip out my sweater and restart because I can't really follow your pattern to a T.  I realized that doing the yoke repeat four (4) times was really too long for me and I should've just done three (3) repeats but I was trying very hard to follow her instructions. 🤦

In the end, I did provide my feed back to her but, I did not finish my sweater on time (and at all).  I ended ripping it out and using my yarn for another project.

My Thoughts on Being a Test Knitter:

Overall, this was a good learning experience for me as I learned a lot about myself, my (general) knitting "style", and basically, the simple fact that test knitting just isn't for me at this time in my life due to the following:

1. Because I'm in the process of destashing, I realized that I'm the kind of knitter that will make do with what I have for a project.  Apparently, when a design "recommends" x weight yarn, as a test knitter, that's code for use this weight yarn - it's not a recommendation, which in turn means that if one wants to participate and you don't have that weight yarn, you need to buy the right yarn for it.  Now, I understand why I see posts on the cons of being a test knitter since a lot of test knitters are expected to provide their own yarn for the project.
   
2. I'm also one that reads (& uses!) patterns as more of a "recommendation" or recipe of what the knitted item could be.  Following it word for word is not necessarily my forté (even when I do read the pattern over & over (like 3-4 times!!) to make sure I understand what I'm supposed to do!  I'd like to note that I often do follow the written instructions with most sweaters patterns I've used but clearly, while I'm managing to complete the sweater, I might not actually be following it word for word. 🤷).   
3. The time it takes to actually test knit.  I was lucky this time that the designer herself was delayed in providing us everything we needed to finish her sweater on her initial timeline but, if she was actually on time, I would be stressing and spending every waking moment as soon as I got off work on Fridays through the weekend to get this done.  I didn't realize how busy it would be during this test knitting time at work which meant I was more tired and exhausted (mentally and physically) than normal which in turn didn't allow me to have enough brain space (and vision (my eyes are so tired to the point where my vision is blurry at night from looking at the computer for 12+ hrs a day! 🤦😭)) to appropriately follow instructions while working with what I have.  

The experience as a whole was not terrible; it just showed me that it's not for me at this time in my life.  A bright spot in this experience was that I was part of a group and it was really thanks to the group and sharing their work, that really helped me in the actual testing and making the sweater.  Between finding errors on the pattern (& trying to follow all the revisions (which lead to different pdfs to refer to as well as other people's posts of the correction(s)), it was getting confusing on which pdf/post to refer to for what section) and that the fact that some of us (including me!) were not super experienced knitters as well as newbie test knitters, I found the group to be my savior in this adventure.  There a few times in which I was like: Is this what it's supposed to look like?? 🤔🤔🤔 It looks kinda weird ... 😳; thankfully, within our group, there was someone who was willing to also share their thoughts that they were also getting lost but found a possible solution; that was a real life saver for me to get me on track quickly as well as getting my work done (mostly) on time (although oddly I felt like I was the last person to get my part done!).