Hi there,
I didn’t want to imply that you don’t read my newsletters (because I can see the opening rates ;-)). Rather, this is what I remember most from all bigger meetings I went to: A guy standing awkwardly in front of a microphone and having to talk to test it but nothing to say except: test, test….
During my time working at a university, the department I worked in organised a conference. The man in charge was very perfectionistic, especially about the technical side of things. There was a screensaver with the program or the location of the coffee during break on for between sessions. There were two screens for the technical staff to line up the following talk during the one before so you wouldn’t see how the next speaker was desperately looking for their presentation. Things like that.
They seem like small things and they are - if you look at them one by one. But together they made the procedure much smoother than anything I experienced before.
Attention to detail pays off. It is a mark for good quality.
When you first start out as a knitting designer, you are in an awkward position - not like the guy at the microphone because you don’t have to stand in front of an already assembled audience but you
* don’t know if anyone will like your design and buy the pattern;
* don’t want to spend money on your pattern;
* maybe don’t even know how it all works but listened to your friends to “just write the pattern”
to name a few descriptors. Maybe you’re in a better position because you are/were a pattern tester for other designers and know about the process of testing.
You can imagine that I as a tech editor say that you need to have your pattern edited and tested.
But to get you started and motivated to invest in the quality of your pattern, I’d say to start out with only pattern testers is okay for the first few patterns.
Please remember this though:
Testers are more or less experienced knitters. They may even be experienced testers. But they don’t do the work of a tech editor (If you need a refresher what they do: have a look at my website :-))
You need to make sure you agree with your testers about the following:
- how you communicate with each other
- deadlines
- who provides the yarn - compensation (or not)
- ownership of sample
Testers make sure that your instructions work. They knit following your instructions and the goal is that their results match your photos :-)
They should find unclear instructions, identify problems with the pattern and communicate their experience with the knitting process.
How to find suitable and willing testers?
If you’re lucky and have a large following on social media, you could even get “applications”. (Actually, I had one and I have less than 200 followers on Instagram and 3 published patterns - I guess they were a bit confused about what a tech editor does.)
* You can post on social media. I see that quite often and I’m not quite sure how well that works if you’re a new designer.
* There are dedicated Ravelry groups where test knitters look for new “jobs”.
https://www.ravelry.com/groups/the-testing-pool
https://www.ravelry.com/groups/2017-18-pattern-testers
* You can establish a test knitting pool yourself and only ask members when there is a new pattern to test.
* A quite new alternative is Yarnpond. This is a platform to bring designers and testers together. As of this writing, they have 5039 testers and 476 designers. It’s not free to use for designers. For more information see here: https://www.yarnpond.com/
Organisation and communication of your testers go hand in hand:
* You can establish a group (Google, Ravelry etc) with the advantage that everyone sees all the questions and answers which therefore could mean less work for you.
* You can have a Dropbox folder for everything: Each tester has a folder but has access to the other folders as well. You need to let the testers know what you need them to write down for you.
* You can develop a questionnaire and send that out to your testers via email. Communication would take place on a one-to-one basis via email.
* On yarnpond, there are forums to keep in touch.
And a word about compensation:
I think to have testers who take their job seriously (there are a few who just want to knit the pattern first and don’t really give feedback) you need to compensate them. It is a given to send them the final version of the pattern.
But you should think about what you can “pay” them on top of that. I tested for some well known designers: Some paid in cash, some provided the yarn and some just sent the final pattern. I myself decided to have giveaways among my testers four times a year until I can pay them. Some designers send little presents each time. Think about what you can afford and what you are comfortable with.
Keep in mind that you can expect better quality of feedback the more you pay them.
Frauke x
P.S.: Test knitters test your pattern. They are not the designer! You decide about design questions, even if they think a stocking stitch background would be preferable to a garter stitch one.