Designing is Fun

I haven't been designing patterns for that long, really I consider myself a newbie in the design department even if I consider myself a fairly advanced knitter (at least when it comes to lace).  I started a few months ago trying to design a crescent shaped shawl with the fan and feather along the bottom edge.  Yes, I know, I think everyone has a pattern out for something like this.  I just couldn't figure out how to get the center point fan to not pucker the surrounding shawl.  So I put it down for a while hoping inspiration would come to me as I worked on something else.

Well, inspiration did come to me.  Unfortunately it didn't resolve the puckering issue.  Instead it came in the form of another idea for a shawl.  A better form for the crescent and a nice apple leaf detail along the bottom (check out the Apple Leaf pattern on Ravelry).  So I sketched out the idea, whipped up a sample and it looked great along the edge, but turned out way too long.   This was a scarf not a shawl!  So back to the drawing board and not only did I resolve the scarf versus shawl issue but along came another idea.

Cables! I haven't really done cables before.  I have done mock cables and while they are easy and look nice I wasn't a huge fan of them.  So what on earth possessed me to design a shawl with not one cable but two cables, one along the neck edge and one in the border detail.  Well, cables really are not that hard and the shawl knit up pretty quickly.  Mostly I think this was because I had learned from the first two shawls.  Plan more in advance.  I just posted the Cabled Lace pattern on Ravelry and already people have it in their queues with over 20+ likes on it.  Check it out and give it a like if you think it is nice.

It doesn't stop there either.  Suddenly I had not one, not two, but three more ideas pop into my head for more shawls and even a little shrug/bolero.  I sketched them all out so I wouldn't forget and even started test knitting them.  The shrug is really cute and works well in bulky, and fingering.  I am working on making it both a long sleeve and short sleeve.  I will have to play around with adding more details to it so people have options while knitting it.

I didn't realize that design work could beget more ideas.  It is like I have opened up a door and everything is rushing to push itself inside.