Do 'simple' patterns need to be tech edited?

Accessories, home goods, toys. All patterns should be edited to ensure they are error free and consistent in style. Whether it's a dishcloth or vanilla socks, they could always use a fresh set of eyes!

You never know what kind of silly things you can miss, even in the simplest of patterns. Just because a pattern may be "easy" doesn't mean you won't make mistakes. These patterns may be full of errors because well, it's a simple pattern right? What could go wrong?

PROOFREAD VS TECH EDIT

There are really so many different ways a pattern could go wrong, so it's important that every pattern gets tech edited. Maybe you are absolutely positive your numbers are good, and don't want to spend money on a full tech edit. There are plenty of tech editors, including myself, who offer proofreading as a standalone service. With a proofread edit, we only check your style consistency, grammar, formatting, and spelling. Numbers are left out of the equation, which makes for a faster (and cheaper) service.

But I highly encourage you do a full tech edit every time. You wouldn't want to send out a simple dishcloth pattern and have your testers tell you that your stitch counts are slightly off and you are missing your chart symbols, even though you could have sworn the pattern was perfect. Invest in your pattern, and get it tech edited!

PROOF OF ERROR

I've received 'simple' patterns before to tech edit. One was a simple accessory in one size. The numbers were perfect and there was really nothing that was blatantly wrong. But the abbreviations list was missing two things, the finishing instructions were missing, and the conversions were incorrect. Sometimes when we write patterns we might be tired or distracted, so you You never know what things you might miss!

WHERE TO FIND A TECH EDITOR

There are a number of resources where you can find an editor that fits your needs. You can check out all the different places to look on this page.

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