Category Archives: The Designing Day

The Designing Day

What will it become? designing with Crystal Palace Sausalito

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The days on the calendar are ticking by faster than ever, and I have lots to do in preparation for the June TNNA Show. That means that I really should be designing and knitting rather than blogging, but it’s important to share what’s happening here at the HeartStrings studio. So I am starting a blog mini-series around the theme of “New Yarns — New Designs to Come“.

The first round of posts will introduce the yarns I will be working with for soon-to-be new designs and sample models. I won’t be following any set order of yarn introductions … it mostly will come about in the order that I have photos ready and have gotten around to writing up the post. After the introductory posts, then I will continue with follow-up posts as I progress through the process of designing and knitting each of the yarns … or at least that is my plan. Throughout the series, I hope you enjoy taking a peek into what goes on during the designing day.

So come on in to the studio to see the yarns with me and let’s talk about what they might become. I have some design concepts and goals I’ve already talked over with each of the company owners of these yarns, but of course I’d love to get feedback on your ideas and what you like, too.

First up is Crystal Palaces’s new yarn called Sausalito. It is a machine washable 80% Merino wool / 20% nylon fingering weight yarn. Each 50 gram ball is 198 yards / 181 meters. Here it is in the Monet color. I really like the melding of the colors in this 2-ply yarn. Oh, and did I mention that it is luscious feeling — I wish you were actually here to pet it.

 

Crystal Palace Sausalito in color Monet
Crystal Palace Sausalito in color Monet

With the 2 balls of yarn, I plan a beaded scarf. So the next on the list to do is to decide on the beads I will use. This picture shows the colors that I have narrowed down to consider.

 

Beads: the semi-finalists
Beads: the semi-finalists

Since the yarn is already variegated in color, I’ve ruled out using more than one bead color (there is a coming design in another yarn that will use two bead colors, though, so watch for that coming up soon).

locksmiths locator 

 

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The Designing Day

Writing clear, concise instructions

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Behind the scenes of The Designing Day, there is much more that goes on than just playing with yummy yarns and knitting all day. A large part of the non-glamorous work is that of writing instructions for patterns that will be published. When mentoring a new designer a while back, she put this so well: “It is much more complicated to get everything down in writing than I thought.”

Writing clear, concise, yet complete pattern instructions is an art and science in itself. It’s a balance of getting down all the technical details, anticipating the next question, and laying out information so that the instructions seem “effortless”.

Interestingly, I have found that writing for the experienced knitter can actually be a greater challenge than the less-experienced. Beginner knitters tend to take written instructions more literally (i.e. they don’t twist things around to conform to what they think the instructions should say). Experienced knitters read the instructions, but somewhere on the way from the page to the brain, the information gets filtered and is transformed into something else because of their “experience”.

The more experienced a knitter is, chances are the firmer their mindset of one way of “looking at things”. If there isn’t an obvious cue in the pattern to jog them into paying attention, they can overlook or misinterpret an important technical detail they are not familiar with despite their many years of knitting the same thing. Or even to overcomplicate an otherwise straight-forward process (that a relative beginner just breezes through).

This is one reason that I usually am hesitant to tag a pattern with a “skill level”. Sometimes I wonder if there should instead be something like a “mental alertness level”?

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Musings, The Designing Day

The designing of … by Catherine Wingate

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I am pleased that Catherine Wingate, author designer of The Sock Calendar and The Sock Journal, is here to give us a peek into “The Designing of …”  process behind her sock designs. I think you will enjoy, as did I, hearing the what and why of inspirations for a few of her favorite designs. And now turning this over to Catherine —

Catherine Wingate
Catherine Wingate

As a designer, I’ve been queried about the design process itself.  “Does the yarn inspire you first and initiate the creative process?” “Do you start with a design in mind and then search for a suitable yarn?”  “Do certain knitting stitches themselves come first and lead to a design?”

Yes to all, at least in my case.  I’ve experienced all of the above along with some other inspirational triggers that I’m forgetting at the moment.

Yarn can always be a primary source of inspiration.  Every fiber-player has picked up a skein of something lovely and instantly slipped into daydreaming about what it could become.  The variables relative to the yarn play out in the mind almost unconsciously as one ponders the quality, fragility, twist, structure, wear-ability and other facets while mentally seeing possible finished projects.  Some yarns are designed with a specific purpose, e.g., sock yarns, so the daydreaming starts further along in the design process…

Ahoy! Socks
Ahoy! Socks

Sometimes I begin with a finished design in mind and reverse engineer the process to decide which yarn(s) would work out best.

For example, I designed  Ahoy! Socks after sailing on the tall-ship Gazela Primera and wanted to mimic a fat, thick, traditional hawser cable that we saw during a stopover at Mystic Seaport.  I used a combination cabled stitch for the motif and a springy, twist-retentive yarn to maintain the integrity of the resulting texture.  [A pet peeve of mine is the wrong yarn for a project with the inevitable poor result and lack of wear-ability.]

Sock Therapy
Sock Therapy Socks

There are certain knitting stitches that I am strongly drawn to and want to use in designs.  Usually they’re stitches that have textural value and that I’ve not seen used in other designers’ recent work.  The stream stitch, used and well-received in Sock Therapy, exemplifies what I most value in a stitch; that it be easy, and fun, to knit — with  both the easy and fun requirements filled by  a stitch pattern that has a short and simple multiple-and-repeat structure so that a knitter can easily master it.  I am partial to stitches that provide what Mary Thomas’ book would call a textured fabric for both their importance in the history of hand-knitting and their beauty.

Sweet Valentine
Sweet Valentine Socks

And then, sometimes, there’s a design that continues to please the creator and originated from all three of the inspirations.  I am immodestly happy that knitters have enjoyed Sweet Valentine because the stitch and the yarn and desired end result worked exactly the way I’d hoped…and that does not always happen, yet alone so easily!

Thanks so much Catherine for stopping by. I enjoyed working with you on The Sock Calendar and The Sock Journal.

And readers, thank you also for visiting with us today. If you enjoyed seeing these designs and would like to see more of Catherine’s designs in her two books, hop on over to these gallery pages at Ravelry for The Sock Calendar and The Sock Journal

p.s. Although the mini-monthly calendars are out of date in the books, Catherine’s classic sock patterns are still a popular knit anytime of the year.

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Musings, The Designing Day

Have our eyes fooled us?

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Do you sometimes think you are following instructions, then find out later your eyes fooled you? Maybe your first clue is that things are not working out. Or maybe something is just not making sense.

Here’s a quick tip that has often helped me, and it might save you time and frustration if you are having trouble in the future …

Read instructions out loud! Well, maybe you don’t have to recite to everyone nearby, but definitely read at least in a whisper so that you form each word with your mouth. Even say the punctuation!

You’d be amazed at how many times our eyes can fool us and go right past important ‘signals’ in the instructions, like punctuation. Or even words that our eyes glide right past or think they are seeing some other word. Reading out loud (even at a whisper) can slow you and me down a bit and force us to pay attention to the signals better.

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The Designing Day

What was your first [knitting] project?

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Occasionally it is fun to reflect on where I came from and how I arrived where I am today. Since knitting is such a big part of my life now, the question of what was my first knitting project seems to be a natural place to start.

I’d love to hear what your first project was, too. Please feel free to use the comment area below. Even if you are not a knitter, I welcome you to share the first of whatever main hobby interest you enjoy.

My answer —

Mommy knitting in 1949
Vintage photo of my Mommy knitting

First knitting: I am 5 years old or so — always seeing my Mommy knitting socks for Daddy (intricate cabled and pattern stitch stuff with itty-bitty yarn on fine knitting pins (i.e. double point needles). I want to knit, but Mommy says “no”. I am required to take naps in afternoon on my Mommy’s bed. I hate naps. And so it happens on afternoon, there is a sock in-progress lying on the bed and I start knitting instead of sleeping. Needless to say, I make a mess, try to fix it, and finally lay it aside as though nothing happened. I am found out and knitting continues to elude me.

Little blue ball of yarn and aluminum needles
Little blue ball of yarn - do you remember old aluminum needles like these?

First (real, sort of) project: I am 8 years old or so and have the opportunity to learn basic knitting in Brownies (i.e. little people Girl Scouts). I get one ball of donated blue yarn and needles, and knit 2-needle mittens. Never finished though, because there was not enough yarn. But I unraveled that yarn many times over and re-knitted while learning new things about knitting. Just none of them turned into projects because I still only had that one small ball of yarn. Eventually things got better as I got older and Mommy now asked ME to knit for her and her friends. So now I was supplied with enough yarn and needles to complete real projects.

Emily Ocker lace shawl
Emily Ocker lace shawl

As to first (overall) lace project — I would attribute that to Emily Ocker’s “Lace Garland” in Knitter’s Issue 9, 1987.  Although I’d done small lace-type panels on sweaters before, little did I know that knitting lace was to be a turning point in my life. I was captivated by the idea of taking a doily pattern and scaling up to shawl size. I’d always been intrigued by the shaping and structure of knitting stitches, and lace design is very satisfying in this regard. (Too bad … this is the piece that I wrote about earlier this week that had been damaged).

So that’s my ramblings … Your turn!

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