Thursday, January 13, 2011

A Small Rant

Hah!  I rarely rant here but I'm pissed.  Oiks.  As you all know, I love my wine but I don't try to write a beading tute while I'm drinking it!  :(  Matter of fact, screwed up beading tutes drive me to imbibe!  :D Any excuse.  ;D

ok, You beaders will know the answer to this question.  Does anyone at magazine offices actually proof/edit the tutorials BEFORE they are published?

Obviously not, which is why I'm ranting.  But why not?  I don't get it.  Do they do it on purpose so you can't actually make the project?

Here is my current mistake.  It looks great.  But wait.  The directions said it was going to be a 7 inch bracelet.  Great.  That will be perfect.  I follow their screwed up directions and count the rows so I have the exact number the tute says I should have.  I even count 3 times to make sure.  The end result is SIX inches!  Now, I have skinny wrists but this is too small even for me.  ( shhh, I don't wanna hear about why I didn't measure it, ok?)  I was trusting the directions to be correct.  I guess I'm stupid to do that but...why?  Why make an entire tutorial that is flat out wrong?  And this can't be some typist merely making typing mistakes, it is the person who wrote the tute saying the wrong thing.  WHY?  If they don't want you to make a bracelet from their tute, why make the tute?  I have seen this over and over.  It happens in the clay world all the time, too.  Yep, I can hear all you clayers going....YEAH!!!!!  :)

Ok, I have a girlfriend who is very small boned and this will fit her perfectly.  Happy Birthday, Pat.  :)  But....

Back to directions. Not only was the length off by one full inch (add an inch to the end of your nose to see just how big one inch really is) but for many parts, the directions were so garbled as to be incomprehensible and, in some places, flat out unworkable.   Why does this happen?  This is probably the 8th time I have tried to follow directions in a magazine only to find that they have left out parts, made the photos totally backwards or completely different from the words or just had their 5 year old write the directions.  These are not just a dropped word here and there but entire paragraphs of simply wrong directions.

I ripped this bracelet apart about 6 times trying to follow the words.  When I just looked at the photos, it was ok and I just got there on my own.  You experienced beaders have run into this, right?  Or so they just put out one screwed up magazine and make sure I get it?  Oiks.  :(

Ok, my rant is done.  But, just for my peace of mind, does anyone have a good reason why this happens over and over?  Now, I better go have a glass to get me through the horror of it all.  :D

11 comments:

Sparks of Ember said...

Well, it turned out beautifully if that's any consolation? ^_^

I don't know why tutorials turn out like that - but I can definitely sympathize. My sis bought a crochet book last month and was working on a glove and hit a snag that I couldn't make heads of tails of. So I googled it and found that the first edition had a whole slew of mistakes for which you could download a correction sheet. But sis had the 2nd edition - supposedly corrected, right? Well, apparently they corrected every pattern - except one! How embarrassing for them! & frustrating for us!

Pammie said...

Ok, Ipo. I hear you... Did you use the same size beads as the pattern calls for?
There are all kinds of beaders out there and not all of them can write. On the flip side, not all editors can bead. The upside is that you figured it out on your own and got 'er done! (And next time, use your tape measure)

Gilly said...

You know why YT! Because it's you and because they know that it's good for you to have another reason to imbibe !

MoeArt said...

Ok, Kat, same thing. :( No excuse , IMO. :(

MoeArt said...

Yes, Beading Guru, I did. :) You weren't supposed to bring up the tape measure, yanno. :(

MoeArt said...

Hmm, OT, in that case, maybe it's a good thing! Heeeee.

Pammie said...

Oops! Sorry - bad case of CRS..

Mel said...

Well, Boy is nearly 5...I could have him write directions for something and see if you could follow them....

It is beautiful, though!

M

MoeArt said...

JUst think how much money Boy could make! B&B needs help. :D

Melobeau said...

I feel your pain! (and I think you already know the answer to your original question). I think the magazines just assume the the writer of the directions wasn't imbibing when they wrote them. I NEVER follow directions anymore because they never work out. I may be directionally impaired.......but them maybe it's the directions!

MoeArt said...

I am now of the opinion that the editors SHOULD drink some wine. Probably help them a lot. :D