We’ve recently, with the help of our very generous neighbour, been doing this …
You might think it looks relatively simple, but in erecting this shed frame, we made about four blunders, one of which had to be fixed up in the air, with our neighbour climbing about like a monkey.
The reason it was so hard was the instructions were, to put it bluntly, pathetic. The shed arrived, with most of its pieces cut to the right length, but without any instructions. We had a pdf the company sent us, which was 75 pages long and not set out logically step by step. We had a YouTube video from the company, which kept instructing us to consult the engineering plans. We had the engineering plans, which even printed on A3 paper were virtually unreadable and hardly comprehensive. And we had the list of parts, within which one of the most important instructions was buried. Whenever we wanted to know where to put something or how many girts or purlins (word I’ve just learnt) we needed, we had to consult all four of these sources, often unsuccessfully. But luckily we have a patient and resourceful neighbour, and we got there in the end …
As the owner of kitchen appliances, a sewing machine and power tools, I’m constantly struck by how ‘women’s tools’ come with comprehensive instructions while with ‘men’s tools’ you’re lucky if the instruction manual tells you what the tool even does. I don’t know if this difference is a consequence of historical sexism (women are too stupid to work a tool out for themselves and might stick it up their nose if we don’t tell them exactly what to do), but it always amazes me.
Anyway, the reason I mention all this is that it brought to mind how lucky we are that knitting designers are so careful about writing their patterns. Sure, there are mistakes now and then, but at no point are you left wondering how many stitches to cast on or when to decrease or increase or what size needles you should be using. Nor do you have to consult multiple sources just to work out where to begin. Perhaps I should send the shed manufacturers my favourite knitting pattern, just to show them how it’s done …
Loopenzeloop 