Mystery Knits as Test Knits

My love of mystery knits is no surprise. I have a very hard time passing them up (just finished one, in the middle of one, and three to come in the next month and a half...). However, the more I do the more I learn and sometimes it's not the fun kind of learning.

It is becoming obvious that some designers use a KAL or MKAL as a test knit. While I don't have a problem with that, I wish they would be a bit more straight forward about it. It can be extremely frustrating to receive a clue for your mystery knit only to be held up because there's an error in the first row. I've had a couple of MKALs that went extremely smoothly or had one or two minor things. Usually there was a mistake from the charted to written instructions which doesn't impact me too much as I use the charts. I've had one that had a few major math issued at the very beginning of clues that cause a lot of frustration. It really sucks to excitedly open a clue in the morning and instead of going at it, having to do some math and not getting the number the pattern says you should.

Another thing that has popped up a couple of times is consistency across clues. If there are three stitches of garter on both edges of your shawl and it is shown on the charts for the first two clues and then dropped without any mention in the third clue my poor tired brain can't figure that out at seven in the morning. I think some of this has to do with some designers not having the entire pattern written, tested and edited before the start of the project. It's hard to keep to a format when you're doing it piecemeal and not looking at something as a whole.

I've lucked out so far. There have been no major issues in things that I've paid to be a part of. I would be significantly more irritated if that had been the case. I have three coming up that I've actually paid to do so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for smooth sailing.

Every KAL or MKAL that I've done, however, has had a fantastic forum group that is extremely helpful in confirming my problems or helping to explain where I've mucked it up. Especially groups run by the designers themselves. They have all been very prompt and helpful. And that is where my love for these types of things comes in. No matter what problem I run into there is a group of fabulous people that are doing the same thing and can pretty quickly help figure it out.