Technical editing explained...

Designers design. Editors edit. They complement each other to produce user-friendly, error-free, reproducible patterns.

Designers have the ideas. They turn that vision into a written pattern to allow others to reproduce their idea. That sounds incredibly simple, but it’s a LOT of work.

Technical editors have undertaken specialist training. They work with a designer to ensure the pattern is error free, without which a pattern might be difficult, frustrating, or even impossible to reproduce. In a similar way proofreaders and copyeditors work with authors to make sure a reader’s experience is the best it can be, technical editors work line by line, word by word, number by number, symbol by symbol to ensure:

• yarn, needles, gauge and notions are present and correct

• the product photo(s) is clear and appropriate

• ALL the numbers add up (stitch counts, decreases, increases, and that the numbers work across all sizes)

• symbols used are correct

• the wording makes sense

• there are no spelling errors

• abbreviations are correct, consistent and used correctly

• charts of colour work or intricate stitch patterns match the finished product and the written instructions

• the language used is appropriate for the desired market (aran, worsted and 10 ply anyone?)

All this (and more) is completed with spreadsheets, calculators, formulae, and some fingers and toes!

Technical editors do not knit (or crochet) the pattern - that's what pattern testers do.

If you have ever tried to knit a pattern and struggled as it's unclear, confusing or just plain doesn't work, it's highly likely it has not been through a technical editor’s hands.