On Becoming a First-Time (One-Time?) Pattern Designer
Okay so first things first, a confession: I’ve never had a blog before. Fandom and aesthetic Tumblr pages back in the day? Sure. Twitter? I’m on there and I tweet sometimes, but mostly that’s the place I go to do most of my mindless, most time-wastey, most anxiety-inducing scrolling. I have never had one focused-enough subject matter, or really the follow-through, to make starting a blog seem worth the time and effort. See also: All the journals I’ve purchased and never written a word in because no words seem worth putting ink to that first clean page. Tell me I’m not alone in this?
Anyway. When I moved my yarn over to its own website, it came with a blog, and I thought maybe that was the time I would start putting my (yarn-related, naturally) thoughts out into the ether. But it’s been a year and a half, and here I am, just now typing up its inaugural entry. The occasion is, of all things, that about two months ago I decided to knit my mom something for Christmas and before I knew it I was designing it myself.
Until two months ago, I had no plans or aspirations to be a pattern designer. With thousands of patterns out there and only so much time, I figured there would never be something I wanted to knit that I couldn’t find an existing pattern for. But suddenly I had a particular collection of design elements in mind (pointed ends; even, not-too-bulky width; brioche as a means to fade from one color to another; eyelets for a bit of open, not-too-heavy texture) that I couldn’t find in one pattern, and then suddenly my brain wouldn’t let it go, and then suddenly my hands were making it happen as I knit the first prototype.
It’s not very often these days that I get so excited about something I start waking up early and staying up late and using every waking, non-working moment to noodle and play and puzzle it out until it’s just right. But that was the experience of designing this pattern for me. And for the first few weeks, it was also going to be a gift, so I was keeping it secret from most of the world. On one hand, all I wanted to do was share and show it to everyone. On the other hand, as long as I kept it to myself, it and I were in a little new-thing bubble where there was no way we could fail or disappoint.
Now, I have knit the pattern three times, and oh boy am I happy to have started working on other projects again. But also the last couple months working on this thing have been the most creatively engaged I have felt in awhile. And that is not nothing. Part of me will miss it.
On the other hand, I can’t say whether or not I’ll ever design and release another pattern! There are no more ideas rolling around in my head; I’m back to thinking anything I could ever want to knit is probably already out there. But who knows. This one struck like lightning. Maybe another one will too.
Fractured Wake (along with yarn kits) will be released Friday, February 12 at 7 a.m. central here on the website and on Ravelry!
♡ Erika
Original prototype (gifted to my mom for Christmas) knit in Bibliophile, Love’s Labor, Nauseously Optimistic, and Pluviophile
First sample of the finalized design knit in Orange You Glad, Framboise, These Violet Delights, and Diving Deep on Triple Twist
Second sample of the finalized design knit in Printemps, Nymphéas, You’re Turning Violet, Violet!, and In the Gloaming on Hardy Sock
