How we make these

We use software to write our patterns. We think you should know exactly what that does and doesn't mean, so here it is in full.

What the software actually does

Every pattern is built from a structured description of the piece rather than typed out as prose. That means the instructions, the stitch chart, the schematic and the PDF all come from one source, and none of them can drift out of step with the others.

Before a pattern can be published, it has to pass a set of automated checks. If any of them fails, the pattern doesn't build at all — there is no way to publish around it.

• Stitch counts. Every row declares how its count follows from the row before it. A row that says "2 sc in each st around" must exactly double the previous count, or the build stops.
• Every size, independently. On graded patterns the same check runs across all sizes at once. An error in the 2XL column fails just as loudly as one in the XS.
• Geometry. The stated finished measurements have to follow from the stitch count at the stated gauge. This one has already caught a bag we'd described as 24 cm wide when the maths said 30.
• Increase rates. A flat circle needs a specific number of increases per round depending on the stitch height — six for single crochet, eight for half double, twelve for double. Get it wrong and the piece ruffles or cups, and no amount of blocking fixes it. The checker knows the right answer.
• Abbreviations. Any abbreviation used anywhere in the instructions must appear in that pattern's abbreviation table.
• Ambiguity. "Work until desired length" is rejected unless a recommended length is given.

What it doesn't do

Software can prove the arithmetic. It cannot tell you whether the fabric behaves — whether a sleeve is too tight at the bicep, whether a cable sits up properly, whether a garment drapes the way the schematic suggests. That only comes from someone physically making the thing.

So we distinguish carefully between two claims, and we use them precisely:

Every pattern page says which of those two it is. We'd rather tell you plainly than let you find out.

About the photographs

Where a pattern hasn't been made yet, the cover image is a generated illustration, and it's captioned as one every single time it appears. It shows the design; it isn't a photograph of a finished object, and we won't present it as one. As each pattern gets made, the illustration is replaced with a real photograph of the real thing.

Why we're telling you this

Because the alternative is worse. Plenty of pattern sellers have started using software and stayed quiet about it, and the patterns that result are often untested, unchecked and full of counts that don't add up. That's done real damage to people's trust, and fairly.

We'd rather be judged on whether our patterns work. The checks above are the reason we think ours do.