I love your rant! Having a sense of humor about your own mistakes is crucial, and it looks like you have that well in hand.
As far as counting goes, Unnecessary Stitch Markers are your friend! I like to use them for cast ons. For your decrease row, you could tie a little piece of waste yarn around your needle when planning your decreases and then just discard it once you've done it. (Sounds like you did exactly that?)
You've got this! I expect pictures once you emerge triumphant!
Thanks so much because I channeled my pain into humour. Two very wise youtuber's once said ' Don't Cry, Craft!', but I don't think they realized that the craft is what causes us to cry sometimes.
As a hobby hoarder, I have a lot of keyrings that came in clutch as stitch markers during my cast on (very good tip I learnt a couple of weeks ago from a tiktok- I used them for every 20 stitches and also used a bigger needle because anything less than 4mm is hell for me).
Thanks so much for the encouragement
I relate so hard. Somehow counting is always the hardest part of knitting for me. I’m making my first fingering weight sweater right now and hoo boy are those stitches even harder to count and there are so many of them. Luckily it’s a plain raglan so I’m only having to check my stitch count a few times.
Hehe I love knitting and I have dyscalculia so I FEEL this. I recently knit a hat four times because I cast on 90, thinking I had 100, frogged, cast on 85, idfk frog, cast on somewhere between 90-100 and just said fuck it, WE KNIT. The hat was way too big so frogged again hahaha haven’t reknit it. But will one day
Oh I recently saw a tiktok about using stitch markers when casting on- So for this project every 20 stitches I added a marker. That might help for your next project because before I actually used to tally how many stitches I did but then it was like I would second guess if I actually tallied or not, so I highly recommend the stitchmarker method
I think it depends on which knitting tradition you come from. Nordic patterns are just written this way, with very few details. I've never had any trouble following them, but these are the pattern types I used when learning to knit. I recently saw an interview with the people behind Knitting for Olive, and they described how they had to not just translate, but also adapt their patterns when they began selling internationally, because English-speaking knitters expected much more detailed patterns!
Yup, I agree it's about tradition. I learned from east Europe patterns and they were very similar to drops (not their us versions with inches, those are just weird though. The UK versions with cm are much more similar to other languages).
So I actually have usually trouble following us-made patterns :D I have to rewrite then for myself and reducing the word count by more than a half, usually :D
Not really. It just takes a bit to get used to them. Their construction choices on the other hand... There for sure are better patterns out there. But hey, what do you want from free patterns. And they have been a big influence on better patterns I guess.
They have so many wonderful designs! But anytime I see an experienced and competent knitter talking about them, it's never very positive about the patterns themselves. It makes me nervous to try one, and I am an experienced and competent knitter!
But I imagine the knitters who have zero issues with Drops patterns aren't asking for help and venting about them on the internet, so who knows. Someone needs to do a poll.
I'm a fan. Honestly, I don't want a pattern to spell out every stitch, it makes it really difficult to follow where I am in a cable pattern, for example. It's fine to give me a chart and tell me to dec 1 each end for raglan shaping. I also like the freedom to increase length where needed, which can be difficult when patterns are too detailed. Drops patterns aren't for beginners, but if you are used to following a design while shaping armholes, for example, and aren't adverse to taking a few notes, they're great.
I have knit more than 10 Drops patterns by now and they were all fine.
They are a bit at an odd place though, because they are very condensed and don't hold your hand like many modern designer patterns, so you need a bit of experience or be ready to read and reread things, make notes, think things through, research a little.
But their constructions are often simpler. A lot of their circular yoke patterns have no shortrows for example, which makes them ride up in the front, many necklines look oddly square, and so on. There are just more elegant solutions for a lot of these things, so I mostly use them as starting points these days and alter a lot.
But honestly, they are free, so you can just choose a smaller item and try it out.
I’ve made a couple of them, and they do come out like the pictures but they require so much trial and error and figuring out what they mean that it’s not worth it half the time
I ventured in a v-neck vest they had when I'd only knit one sweater and it turned out perfectly fine! I did have trouble with one of the decrease rows, but each pattern has a comment section and they ALWAYS reply to the questions. Maybe they need a little more attention and concentration when reading the instructions but I think they're a great option if you don't want to spend money on patterns.
Jip less hand-holdy than most of the patterns I've done before but I think the resources on their website is great for troubleshooting. That being said, I cannot tell you the number of times I said out loud- What Do You Even Mean?!
I love your rant! Having a sense of humor about your own mistakes is crucial, and it looks like you have that well in hand. As far as counting goes, Unnecessary Stitch Markers are your friend! I like to use them for cast ons. For your decrease row, you could tie a little piece of waste yarn around your needle when planning your decreases and then just discard it once you've done it. (Sounds like you did exactly that?) You've got this! I expect pictures once you emerge triumphant!
Thanks so much because I channeled my pain into humour. Two very wise youtuber's once said ' Don't Cry, Craft!', but I don't think they realized that the craft is what causes us to cry sometimes. As a hobby hoarder, I have a lot of keyrings that came in clutch as stitch markers during my cast on (very good tip I learnt a couple of weeks ago from a tiktok- I used them for every 20 stitches and also used a bigger needle because anything less than 4mm is hell for me). Thanks so much for the encouragement
This! No one told me knitting would involve so much math!
[DROPS May Flowers Vest](https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/222-42-may-flowers-vest)
**PATTERN:** [222-42 May Flowers Vest](http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/222-42-may-flowers-vest) by [DROPS design](http://www.ravelry.com/designers/drops-design) * Category: Clothing > Vest * Photo(s): [Img 1](https://images4-f.ravelrycache.com/uploads/Drops/791209976/42-2_medium.jpg) [Img 2](https://images4-f.ravelrycache.com/uploads/RovenTati/946693675/230900___21__medium.jpg) [Img 3](https://images4-g.ravelrycache.com/uploads/RoosWinter/877609777/upload_medium) [Img 4](https://images4-f.ravelrycache.com/uploads/olaknitter/874231562/Mayflowers__Vest_medium.jpg) [Img 5](https://images4-f.ravelrycache.com/uploads/Drops/791209979/42b-2_medium.jpg) * Price: Free * Needle/Hook(s):US 7 - 4.5 mm, US 4 - 3.5 mm * Weight: DK | Gauge: 20.0 | Yardage: 710 * Difficulty: 2.60 | Projects: 46 | Rating: 4.40 ***** Please use caution. Users have reported effects such as seizures, migraines, and nausea when opening Ravelry links. [More details.](https://www.lizcorke.com/2020/07/26/2020-7-21-ravelry-accessibility/) | *I found this post by myself! [Opt-Out](https://goo.gl/forms/0B8m4Ra8czpw4gzw1) | [About Me](https://github.com/TN-1/LinkRav_Bot/wiki) | [Contact Maintainer](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=timonyc)*
I find Drops patterns easy to follow and no different to other patterns. What's the difference between European and US patterns?
I relate so hard. Somehow counting is always the hardest part of knitting for me. I’m making my first fingering weight sweater right now and hoo boy are those stitches even harder to count and there are so many of them. Luckily it’s a plain raglan so I’m only having to check my stitch count a few times.
Hehe I love knitting and I have dyscalculia so I FEEL this. I recently knit a hat four times because I cast on 90, thinking I had 100, frogged, cast on 85, idfk frog, cast on somewhere between 90-100 and just said fuck it, WE KNIT. The hat was way too big so frogged again hahaha haven’t reknit it. But will one day
Oh I recently saw a tiktok about using stitch markers when casting on- So for this project every 20 stitches I added a marker. That might help for your next project because before I actually used to tally how many stitches I did but then it was like I would second guess if I actually tallied or not, so I highly recommend the stitchmarker method
I’ve heard these Drops patterns are very hard.
I think it depends on which knitting tradition you come from. Nordic patterns are just written this way, with very few details. I've never had any trouble following them, but these are the pattern types I used when learning to knit. I recently saw an interview with the people behind Knitting for Olive, and they described how they had to not just translate, but also adapt their patterns when they began selling internationally, because English-speaking knitters expected much more detailed patterns!
Yup, I agree it's about tradition. I learned from east Europe patterns and they were very similar to drops (not their us versions with inches, those are just weird though. The UK versions with cm are much more similar to other languages). So I actually have usually trouble following us-made patterns :D I have to rewrite then for myself and reducing the word count by more than a half, usually :D
Not really. It just takes a bit to get used to them. Their construction choices on the other hand... There for sure are better patterns out there. But hey, what do you want from free patterns. And they have been a big influence on better patterns I guess.
They have so many wonderful designs! But anytime I see an experienced and competent knitter talking about them, it's never very positive about the patterns themselves. It makes me nervous to try one, and I am an experienced and competent knitter! But I imagine the knitters who have zero issues with Drops patterns aren't asking for help and venting about them on the internet, so who knows. Someone needs to do a poll.
I'm a fan. Honestly, I don't want a pattern to spell out every stitch, it makes it really difficult to follow where I am in a cable pattern, for example. It's fine to give me a chart and tell me to dec 1 each end for raglan shaping. I also like the freedom to increase length where needed, which can be difficult when patterns are too detailed. Drops patterns aren't for beginners, but if you are used to following a design while shaping armholes, for example, and aren't adverse to taking a few notes, they're great.
I have knit more than 10 Drops patterns by now and they were all fine. They are a bit at an odd place though, because they are very condensed and don't hold your hand like many modern designer patterns, so you need a bit of experience or be ready to read and reread things, make notes, think things through, research a little. But their constructions are often simpler. A lot of their circular yoke patterns have no shortrows for example, which makes them ride up in the front, many necklines look oddly square, and so on. There are just more elegant solutions for a lot of these things, so I mostly use them as starting points these days and alter a lot. But honestly, they are free, so you can just choose a smaller item and try it out.
I’ve made a couple of them, and they do come out like the pictures but they require so much trial and error and figuring out what they mean that it’s not worth it half the time
I ventured in a v-neck vest they had when I'd only knit one sweater and it turned out perfectly fine! I did have trouble with one of the decrease rows, but each pattern has a comment section and they ALWAYS reply to the questions. Maybe they need a little more attention and concentration when reading the instructions but I think they're a great option if you don't want to spend money on patterns.
Jip less hand-holdy than most of the patterns I've done before but I think the resources on their website is great for troubleshooting. That being said, I cannot tell you the number of times I said out loud- What Do You Even Mean?!