You know, it’s amazing how something can seem to hard and then all of a sudden it’s like flood gates open.
I wanted to design for years. YEARS.
But whenever I sat down and tried to do something it was like getting blood from a stone – nothing would come out. I had somewhat resigned myself to never designing, which annoyed the hell out of me, because I’m stubborn and don’t like to not accomplish something I set my mind to. But it just seemed like there was nothing that both worked and I liked that could come out.
Then, in March last year my sister wanted a shawl for her birthday, and after what seemed like million years, I finally had designed my first pattern.
Apparently, all I needed was to get over that initial hump, and Heather June was not an easy hump to get over. Since then I’ve learned (from the more experienced designers out there) that there are things to try and avoid designing on your first attempt – almost all of which I did (crazy math, and making stitch counts that don’t want to fit together blend, being the most frustrating). But, maybe that’s exactly what I needed (and also why it took four months to complete), because after Heather June, I feel like I’m up for anything, which is an extremely liberating.
Now the problem is, I don’t have the physical ability to knit as fast as I seem to be designing.
I have three patterns on the go right now – one on the brink of completion (Hilton’s Edge), another in the process of being tested, another one that’s 50% charted, and then I have at least three more ideas that I’m just itching to start charting and knitting.
I’m taking a bit of a scattershot approach because I’m excited, but I think I need to step back and take it more one at a time, otherwise I’ll just get nothing done.
And then I have this:
Larry and Lael of Hearthside Fibres made this insane (insane = good) colourway, appropriately titled ‘Caribbean’, in their Champagne Lace which is 80% merino and 20% silk. It is wonderful, and I’m designing something special just for it.
So there’s another thing I have goings-on for as well.
The problem that is now arising is of course, there’s only so fast my fingers can work. I love the process of knitting and creating the thing.
It’s not so much that I want to have something completed so that I can wear it (in actuality, I give a lot away), but I am absolutely hooked on the satisfaction of creating that item. The satisfaction of having it begin as only a nebulous idea, working through the construction of it, and then finally having a finished thing that I can say “yes, I really created this”.
That’s really what I’ve discovered about creating patterns, it’s not having finished project for me. It’s the satisfaction of having a tangible idea in my hands, but knowing that it all started with only a vague notion in my head.