Ever have one of those days where you walk into a room for one thing, notice something that needs doing, do that, notice something else, do that, and two hours later go back into the same room for the first thing? No, neither do I.
Not only do I do that all the time, but it mirrors my design process. I'll look at a design, maybe on a person in front of me in line in the bank. Either I'll admire it and try to learn from it, or I'll dislike it, and start correcting it in my head.
If I "need" to redesign it, I start with a gauge swatch. The swatch will lead me to think about the best use for the resulting fabric. The original design may be an overcoat, but the fabric I made wants to be a Saturday Sweater. I'll get into designing a Saturday Sweater, and then decide that the pattern repeat that I want needs a slightly smaller gauge. After achieving the smaller gauge, I'll realize that part of this pattern would make fantastic socks. While searching through sock yarn to find the ideal fiber for the socks in my head, I realize that I'd love to use this cashmere blend sock yarn as a run-along with a silk/tencel blend to make a texture-y hat. I grab the two yarns, and make a new gauge swatch. I discover that this is a very soft and strong combination, and I'd love to try it as mittens. I start drawing mitten after mitten.
6 mitten patterns later, I decide this is a silly idea, and that what I really want to do is design an overcoat. What would it look like? .....
Not only do I do that all the time, but it mirrors my design process. I'll look at a design, maybe on a person in front of me in line in the bank. Either I'll admire it and try to learn from it, or I'll dislike it, and start correcting it in my head.
If I "need" to redesign it, I start with a gauge swatch. The swatch will lead me to think about the best use for the resulting fabric. The original design may be an overcoat, but the fabric I made wants to be a Saturday Sweater. I'll get into designing a Saturday Sweater, and then decide that the pattern repeat that I want needs a slightly smaller gauge. After achieving the smaller gauge, I'll realize that part of this pattern would make fantastic socks. While searching through sock yarn to find the ideal fiber for the socks in my head, I realize that I'd love to use this cashmere blend sock yarn as a run-along with a silk/tencel blend to make a texture-y hat. I grab the two yarns, and make a new gauge swatch. I discover that this is a very soft and strong combination, and I'd love to try it as mittens. I start drawing mitten after mitten.
6 mitten patterns later, I decide this is a silly idea, and that what I really want to do is design an overcoat. What would it look like? .....
2 comments:
...it'll want a glass of milk.
Yeah, I'm with ya, sweetie. I've drawn more than my fair share of weird looks because I was staring at the pattern of someone's sweater.
Don't stress too much about all the patterns running through your head, though. It's actually a sign of genius. When you start leaving your jug of milk under the sink and your Windex in the fridge, THEN you worry!
wow - I am a bit dizzy from chasing you from place to place, room to room, project/design to project/design - you have so summed up my whole life!!
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