Well, thanks to Ali’s hubby, my computer is back in action (well, it has been in action for about two weeks now but for various reasons, I haven’t felt up to blogging). Of course, that means there have been a few FOs that need to be mentioned, but that can wait for another blog. The reason? Well, I have a bit of a bee in my bonnet about something.
What is bugging me is the lack of standards in some knitting abbreviations used by designers. Now, we all know k means knit and p means purl, but sometimes I come up against a new abbreviation which throws me completely until I realise it’s exactly the same as another one I know. This particularly struck me when, working on a lace pattern, I realised a completely new abbreviation was used for a stitch I already knew. I couldn’t help but be somewhat annoyed by this.
I realise said annoyance probably stems from what I do as part of my job. In many areas of documentation, it is becoming increasingly apparent that the formulation and adherence to Standards are very important. At the moment in GIS, there’s a huge drive to conform to national and international standards so that data is easily accessible by all. In website coding, something I do for ‘fun’ in my free time, there are standards set by the W3C to ensure everyone is using the same syntax so that it can be understood by everyone who can write website code. It is recognised, in so many fields, that standardisation of documentation is important to ensure that information can be communicated effectively and that people in the future will know as much as possible about what is being imparted to them.
Why then, I wonder, should knitting patterns be any different.
I do realise that designers, when they are designing, will have their own way of documenting their patterns, but it would be so much easier for the people who then use their patterns to understand what is going on if a standardised set of abbreviations were to be used.
Perhaps some standards have been set, but I’m not exactly aware of them myself, which would in turn mean that many designers wouldn’t be aware of them either. Either way, I strongly feel that standards need to be agreed upon and publicised to make pattern instructions easier to follow, not just now but in future as well.
Ok, my brain is cutting out seeing as it’s the small hours of the morning so I’m going to stop here before I start babbling about random things. I’d be interested to hear the opinions of others on these thoughts - a fresh perspective (seeing as I know work matters are permeating my brain right now) would be most welcome!
