Riva goes live

Riva is up on Ravelry and I also set up a pattern support page with: notes, photos, links to tutorials for techniques employed in the pattern, a link to download an excerpt of the PDF (cover + overview), and a button link to buy the pattern.

At some point I will design and build a proper website at SlowKnits.com, but until then the pattern support page will provide background information and links to resources. It may not be pretty, but the important stuff is there.

This was a learning experience that took longer than I had anticipated because everything I did was new to me: document every little action, write down instructions so that they would make sense to other knitters, refine them so they would be as concise and clear as possible, design the document, get my software to do what I wanted (I am still fighting with Illustrator and InDesign), learn the ropes of testing on a public forum, consider all the feedback and decide what to incorporate and what not, set up a store on Ravelry, and the list goes on.

Along the way I got an enormous amount of help, first from my friends who gave me thoughtful feedback on the logic and structure part of the document, then from my testers on Ravelry who spent about 20 hours each knitting the scarf and providing detailed feedback on the instructions. Not to mention some cheering up when I was getting discouraged. :)
Thank you girls! (Bethany, Carolyn, Priscilla, Betta, Loredana, Annie, Alyssa, Maria, Concetta) I am a little sleepy and hope I haven’t forgotten to include any of you when I sent out the final PDF in my pre-caffeine daze.

Off to make a big batch of ragù.