When You Don't Know What You're Doing

I've been making it a project for about the last week to try and write up the pattern for Fleur, and I suppose you could say it's going alright. The thing is, I don't know what I'm doing.

I can create a pattern for myself, but usually it's just a bunch of notes and a couple of scribbled drawings. But I don't think my patterns will work well for other people. First of all, I'm of the tall-but-rather-petite variety: I knit things 35 inches around, but extra long to keep my long torso covered. On top of that, I knit things to fit (and by fit, I mean fit). So how to I translate what will fit me into what will fit other people?

So once I've got the numbers down, how do I get them written out? I don't think I could get away with being a math/chemistry/Spanish tutor if I couldn't explain things, but I don't have a clue how to make a pattern coherent.

And then, there's the whole estimation of the number of balls of yarn you'll need. And worrying that the gauge you got isn't the gauge that other people will get. And formatting the pattern so that it looks pretty.

I'd like to get the pattern written up so that I can try to get it published on MagKnits. If not, maybe I'll post it for sale here on the blog (although, to be honest, I'd be more than happy to email any of you who read and comment regularly or semi-regularly the pattern if you want it). Maybe I should have started with something less complicated than a fitted top?

Either way, I'd appreciate any feedback you can offer on writing up a pattern.