Adventures in Test Knitting
I have always loved spending my free time making things. Everyone says that the best job you can ever have is doing what you love. I have been trying to think of ways to make my crafting pay for years. Unfortunately, everything I love to do is so time intensive, that even at bargain labor rates I would be hard pressed to find someone who could afford the finished products when you figure in time and materials. The internet knitting community has shown me some opportunities I had never before considered. I don’t think that I will be paying the bills by test knitting any time soon, but for now it is an interesting pursuit which may lead to some more lucrative things.
So far I have test knit twice. Once for CookieA’s Ornette Socks (Ravelry link), and once just recently for VeryBusyMonkey’s Sneak Peek Socks (Ravelry too).
- Ornette
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Sneak Peak
Both were very enjoyable learning experiences. CookieA did hers in the style of a knit along. She formed a yahoo group for the test knitters and we were able to share experiences. Ornette is a very complicated sock with many charts and different styles of cables. CookieA released the pattern to us in stages, revising and perfecting it as we went along. It was nice to share in the feed back of the other knitters and know whether you were on the right track. VeryBusyMonkey’s socks, have a beautiful, simple to execute lace pattern. I got this as a nearly ready to publish pattern that only needed a few tweaks. Each of her test knitters worked independently on this and VeryBusyMonkey was wonderfully quick with her response to my feedback and questions throughout the whole process.
I am looking forward to doing more test knitting in the future. Both these “jobs” paid in copies of the test knit pattern and a copy of another pattern from the designer. I am always on the lookout for more test knitting opportunities. Hopefully this is one step on the journey to making my hobby at least self supporting and becoming a professional at what I love.