Rate Tutorial
Warnings are messages that the generator creates automatically when there is an issue with your pattern. Warnings work like a traffic light system. There are three types of warnings: red, yellow and green.
Red Warnings (Errors)
“Due to these errors, your pattern was NOT saved, and if you leave the page now, you may lose your changes.”
If there is a red warning the pattern can't be saved at that stage and you might loose your changes if you leave the page.
If there is a red warning the pattern can't be saved at that stage and you might loose your changes if you leave the page.
Yellow Warnings (Critical warnings)
“Due to these warnings, your pattern cannot be submitted to the site.”
If there is a yellow box with warnings you can't submit your pattern. You first need to solve all the issues before you can submit the pattern.
If there is a yellow box with warnings you can't submit your pattern. You first need to solve all the issues before you can submit the pattern.
Green Warnings (Warnings)
“If you want to submit the pattern in this state, please double-check if it's okay. Thank you.”
Green warnings are less severe than yellow warnings. You can submit your pattern but it will likely be declined. There are exceptions when a pattern can be accepted despite warnings but in most cases especially if its's about colours being too dark or too similar or the strings not being in the same order at the beginning and at the end of the pattern it will need to be declined. The main exception of when a pattern with a green warning can be accepted is if it is a variation.
Green warnings are less severe than yellow warnings. You can submit your pattern but it will likely be declined. There are exceptions when a pattern can be accepted despite warnings but in most cases especially if its's about colours being too dark or too similar or the strings not being in the same order at the beginning and at the end of the pattern it will need to be declined. The main exception of when a pattern with a green warning can be accepted is if it is a variation.
You can find the warnings as colorful boxes at the top of the generator on the “normal” page of the normal pattern generator.
Before submitting a pattern you should click “save and test”. If there are any warnings you should try to solve them. When you think you have solved the warnings click “save and test” again to see if there are warnings left. Continue doing this until there are no warnings or the warnings that are there can be ignored for reasons later described.
Ignoring the warnings or not knowing how to solve them is a common reason why normal patterns get declined. For this reason here's a detailed description of some of the most common warnings and what to do about them.
If one of your patterns gets declined, read the decline message carefully. You can find the decline message on top of the pattern when you open it again in the pattern generator. Decline messages often refer to the warnings. If that is the case, try to eliminate the warnings it refers to. If you keep resubmitting a pattern without paying attention to the decline message or the warnings the pattern will eventually be considered spam and deleted and you will have to recreate it from scratch. We delete patterns that keep being resubmitted without changes to keep the amount of review work we need to do managable. You can help us by fixing your pattern according to the warnings and decline messages.
Before submitting a pattern you should click “save and test”. If there are any warnings you should try to solve them. When you think you have solved the warnings click “save and test” again to see if there are warnings left. Continue doing this until there are no warnings or the warnings that are there can be ignored for reasons later described.
Ignoring the warnings or not knowing how to solve them is a common reason why normal patterns get declined. For this reason here's a detailed description of some of the most common warnings and what to do about them.
If one of your patterns gets declined, read the decline message carefully. You can find the decline message on top of the pattern when you open it again in the pattern generator. Decline messages often refer to the warnings. If that is the case, try to eliminate the warnings it refers to. If you keep resubmitting a pattern without paying attention to the decline message or the warnings the pattern will eventually be considered spam and deleted and you will have to recreate it from scratch. We delete patterns that keep being resubmitted without changes to keep the amount of review work we need to do managable. You can help us by fixing your pattern according to the warnings and decline messages.
Disclaimer
This tutorial only describes how to solve issues on the “normal” page of the normal generator. Some of these issues can potentionally also be fixed in the interactive normal generator but the “normal” page of the normal generator seems to be overall more useful to do so especially since warnings are only visible there.
Red Warnings
“Due to these errors, your pattern was NOT saved, and if you leave the page now, you may lose your changes.”
If there is a red warning the pattern can't be saved at that stage and you might loose your changes if you leave the page.
“The number of rows has to be even.”
The total amount of rows in your pattern needs to be even. To achieve this you can either delete the last row you have written or add another row.
“The knot structure of your pattern is incorrect (line 2).”
This warning tells you if there's something wrong with your knot structure. It only tells you the first line where there's a mistake. In this case the mistake is in the second row but there might be more mistakes in following rows.
If the amount of strings is even you need half that amount of knots in the first row and half that amount minus one in the second row. If you had eight strings that would mean you would need four knots in the first row and three in the second.
If the amount of strings is uneven you need the amount minus one divided by two in each row. That means if your patter had seven strings you'd need three knots in each row.
“You have used one or more invalid knot names (ff). The only accepted are: f, b, fb, bf, 0.”
This means that you entered a combination of letters or numbers into the pattern generator that isn't an actual knot. Knots need to be divided by commas. To find the knot that is misspelled you need to look through your written knotting structure row by row until you find the wrong knot.
There are four different knots that can be used in a normal pattern:
- The forwards knot (f) moves a string from the left to the right.
- The backwards knot (b) moves a string from the right to the left.
- The forwards backwards knot (fb) moves a string from the left first to the right and then back to the left.
- The backwards forwards knot (bf) moves a string from the right first to the left and then back to the right.
- 0 isn't really a knot. It means that you are leaving a knot out. Even though you leave a knot out 0 is still counted like a normal knot.
If there is a red warning the pattern can't be saved at that stage and you might loose your changes if you leave the page.
“The number of rows has to be even.”
The total amount of rows in your pattern needs to be even. To achieve this you can either delete the last row you have written or add another row.
“The knot structure of your pattern is incorrect (line 2).”
This warning tells you if there's something wrong with your knot structure. It only tells you the first line where there's a mistake. In this case the mistake is in the second row but there might be more mistakes in following rows.
If the amount of strings is even you need half that amount of knots in the first row and half that amount minus one in the second row. If you had eight strings that would mean you would need four knots in the first row and three in the second.
If the amount of strings is uneven you need the amount minus one divided by two in each row. That means if your patter had seven strings you'd need three knots in each row.
“You have used one or more invalid knot names (ff). The only accepted are: f, b, fb, bf, 0.”
This means that you entered a combination of letters or numbers into the pattern generator that isn't an actual knot. Knots need to be divided by commas. To find the knot that is misspelled you need to look through your written knotting structure row by row until you find the wrong knot.
There are four different knots that can be used in a normal pattern:
- The forwards knot (f) moves a string from the left to the right.
- The backwards knot (b) moves a string from the right to the left.
- The forwards backwards knot (fb) moves a string from the left first to the right and then back to the left.
- The backwards forwards knot (bf) moves a string from the right first to the left and then back to the right.
- 0 isn't really a knot. It means that you are leaving a knot out. Even though you leave a knot out 0 is still counted like a normal knot.
Yellow Warnings
“Due to these warnings, your pattern cannot be submitted to the site.”
If there is a yellow box with warnings you can't submit your pattern. You first need to solve all the issues before you can submit the pattern.
“You did NOT agree with our terms and conditions. You'll have to tick the checkbox down on this page to continue.”
Above the buttons “Save & Test” and “Submit to the site” there's a little box next to the sentence “This pattern is not copyrighted, or I have permissions to publish it from the original author.” You need to tick this box before you can submit a pattern.
“You have to fill in the 'keywords' field in order to submit a pattern.”
In order for a pattern to be accepted you have to add at least four keywords that describe the pattern. Think about what keywords you would search for if you wanted to search for a pattern like this. You write the keywords divided by spaces into the bar titled keywords.
Not all words can be keywords. Some words like the names of colors are blocked to be keywords and will disappear as soon as you click “Save & Test”. Other keywords like „colour“ or „cool“ are often not useful because they don't really describe the pattern. Before submitting your pattern make sure your keywords are useful. Do they describe the pattern? Would people use them to search for a pattern like this?
“This pattern already exists as #1 and has a variation with the same colors, but you can tweak them and add it as another variation.”
The pattern generator recognizes if a pattern with the exact same knotting structure already exists. The reason for that is to avoid doubled patterns. The same goes for avoiding doubled variations. The generator also recognizes if there already is a variation with the exact same colors. A variation is a version of a pattern that uses colors that are different from its original colors.
“Don't use black color in your patterns, please (a).”
The color black (hex code 000000) isn't allowed in a pattern because it makes the pattern hard to read. In this case the color that is too dark is the color a. The darkest color that is allowed is 333333.
Under the words “Colors used” there are boxes in which you can write the hex color codes of the colors you want to use in your pattern. You can also use the color slider that will appear when you click on these boxes. Each of these boxes has a letter. If you hover over them (computer) or click on them (phone) you can see the letters.
If there is a yellow box with warnings you can't submit your pattern. You first need to solve all the issues before you can submit the pattern.
“You did NOT agree with our terms and conditions. You'll have to tick the checkbox down on this page to continue.”
Above the buttons “Save & Test” and “Submit to the site” there's a little box next to the sentence “This pattern is not copyrighted, or I have permissions to publish it from the original author.” You need to tick this box before you can submit a pattern.
“You have to fill in the 'keywords' field in order to submit a pattern.”
In order for a pattern to be accepted you have to add at least four keywords that describe the pattern. Think about what keywords you would search for if you wanted to search for a pattern like this. You write the keywords divided by spaces into the bar titled keywords.
Not all words can be keywords. Some words like the names of colors are blocked to be keywords and will disappear as soon as you click “Save & Test”. Other keywords like „colour“ or „cool“ are often not useful because they don't really describe the pattern. Before submitting your pattern make sure your keywords are useful. Do they describe the pattern? Would people use them to search for a pattern like this?
“This pattern already exists as #1 and has a variation with the same colors, but you can tweak them and add it as another variation.”
The pattern generator recognizes if a pattern with the exact same knotting structure already exists. The reason for that is to avoid doubled patterns. The same goes for avoiding doubled variations. The generator also recognizes if there already is a variation with the exact same colors. A variation is a version of a pattern that uses colors that are different from its original colors.
“Don't use black color in your patterns, please (a).”
The color black (hex code 000000) isn't allowed in a pattern because it makes the pattern hard to read. In this case the color that is too dark is the color a. The darkest color that is allowed is 333333.
Under the words “Colors used” there are boxes in which you can write the hex color codes of the colors you want to use in your pattern. You can also use the color slider that will appear when you click on these boxes. Each of these boxes has a letter. If you hover over them (computer) or click on them (phone) you can see the letters.
Green Warnings
“If you want to submit the pattern in this state, please double-check if it's okay. Thank you.”
Green warnings are less severe than yellow warnings. You can submit your pattern but it will likely be declined. There are exceptions when a pattern can be accepted despite warnings but in most cases especially if its's about colours being too dark or too similar or the strings not being in the same order at the beginning and at the end of the pattern it will need to be declined.
“Try to avoid using similar colors in your patterns if possible, please (a=b).”
This means two colors (in this case color a and b) are too similar. You can solve this by adding more black or white to a color, making it more or less saturated or changing it's hue. You can also merge two colors. In this case you would only use a instead of a and b.
Colours being too similar is one of the main reasons patterns get declined. The automated warning about colours being too similar isn't always 100% accurate but you should still look at the two colours that the generator tells you are too similar and see for yourself if you can easily tell them apart. If not you need to make them more different. If you can tell them apart easily I recommend stating this in the review notes especially if there are many warnings.
“Use lighter colors if possible to make the pattern grid clearly visible, please (a).”
Colors that are too dark are not allowed to be used in a pattern because they make the pattern hard to read. In this case the color that is too dark is the color a. The darkest color that is allowed is 333333.
Under the words “Colors used” there are boxes in which you can write the hex color codes of the colors you want to use in your pattern. You can also use the color slider that will appear when you click on these boxes. Each of these boxes has a letter. If you hover over them (computer) or click on them (phone) you can see the letters.
“Top string colors don't match the bottom ones (8 strings).”
This means that the strings at the beginning of a pattern don't have the same order as the strings at the end of your pattern. In this case 8 strings are in the wrong position.
Especially for beginners patterns like this can be very confusing. For this reason patterns like this are no longer allowed. The only exception are patterns where you don't get the strings to match within 200 rows, the maximum of rows the generator allows.
To make the strings match, you just need to repeat your current knotting structure until the strings are in the original order again. You can do this by copying the knotting structure and pasting it under the knotting structure.
“This pattern already exists as #1, but can be added as its variation.”
This warning tells you if a pattern already exists with different colors. If this warning appears you can upload the pattern but it will appear as a variation of another pattern, not as an original new pattern.
Please make sure that the variation you are submitting has different colours from the already existing variations of the pattern.
Please only submit each variation once. Just like patterns they first need to be reviewed by a moderator before they appear on the website. So don't worry. Your variation didn't get lost.
Green warnings are less severe than yellow warnings. You can submit your pattern but it will likely be declined. There are exceptions when a pattern can be accepted despite warnings but in most cases especially if its's about colours being too dark or too similar or the strings not being in the same order at the beginning and at the end of the pattern it will need to be declined.
“Try to avoid using similar colors in your patterns if possible, please (a=b).”
This means two colors (in this case color a and b) are too similar. You can solve this by adding more black or white to a color, making it more or less saturated or changing it's hue. You can also merge two colors. In this case you would only use a instead of a and b.
Colours being too similar is one of the main reasons patterns get declined. The automated warning about colours being too similar isn't always 100% accurate but you should still look at the two colours that the generator tells you are too similar and see for yourself if you can easily tell them apart. If not you need to make them more different. If you can tell them apart easily I recommend stating this in the review notes especially if there are many warnings.
“Use lighter colors if possible to make the pattern grid clearly visible, please (a).”
Colors that are too dark are not allowed to be used in a pattern because they make the pattern hard to read. In this case the color that is too dark is the color a. The darkest color that is allowed is 333333.
Under the words “Colors used” there are boxes in which you can write the hex color codes of the colors you want to use in your pattern. You can also use the color slider that will appear when you click on these boxes. Each of these boxes has a letter. If you hover over them (computer) or click on them (phone) you can see the letters.
“Top string colors don't match the bottom ones (8 strings).”
This means that the strings at the beginning of a pattern don't have the same order as the strings at the end of your pattern. In this case 8 strings are in the wrong position.
Especially for beginners patterns like this can be very confusing. For this reason patterns like this are no longer allowed. The only exception are patterns where you don't get the strings to match within 200 rows, the maximum of rows the generator allows.
To make the strings match, you just need to repeat your current knotting structure until the strings are in the original order again. You can do this by copying the knotting structure and pasting it under the knotting structure.
“This pattern already exists as #1, but can be added as its variation.”
This warning tells you if a pattern already exists with different colors. If this warning appears you can upload the pattern but it will appear as a variation of another pattern, not as an original new pattern.
Please make sure that the variation you are submitting has different colours from the already existing variations of the pattern.
Please only submit each variation once. Just like patterns they first need to be reviewed by a moderator before they appear on the website. So don't worry. Your variation didn't get lost.
How to make normal patterns
This video explains how the normal pattern generator works. It was made before the interactive normal generator was implemented but this information is still useful when using the normal part of the normal pattern generator.
Tips for getting normal patterns accepted
This video talks about the most common reasons your pattern might be declined. It gives you some information on the warnings but also on other reasons your pattern might get declined.
If you want to understand the review process better and which kinds of patterns get accepted you can also watch MashaKnots' video on reviewing patterns. In general I recommend watching review videos or live streams because they are one of the easiest ways to understand the review process.
If you have any questions about how to solve any of these warnings feel free to leave them in the comments or message me if it is a more complex issue.
