are we there yet?

When I set out to do the 10 Tiny Knits collection I thought (guessed!) it would probably take a year. I’m not even going to tell you what year that was. Life certainly got in the way and there were many months where I didn’t have the emotional bandwidth to concentrate on anything but family. I could knit, but I just could not clear my head enough to get to the math.

As much as designing knitwear is about coming up with shapes and colors and cables and texture - patterns are brought into the world with math. When I was in middle and high school - soooo long ago - I really liked math. I loved getting to the right answer and the variety of ways you could arrive at the same place. Algebra was my jam. All of these years later I’m still pretty entertained by solving problems - but it does take clarity of mind - and silence. So while I was able to occasionally fart out a design, I couldn’t force myself to grade it (turning a pattern for a basic size into multiple sizes) . I would also, shamefully, wake up from a dream with an idea for a new design and do THAT before i completely finished the pattern I was working on. A finished garment is one thing, but a finished pattern is another. Every single move must be documented. Instructions must be written simply and clearly, no matter how complicated it was for me to construct. The pattern must be graded - with measurements calculated for every. little. thing. in every. little. size. Schematics drawn up (and software learned to create said schematics). Photos taken. Good ones. The pattern has to be laid out…. Then tested! Jumping back to 2 years ago - I had a small pile of cute knits, patterns that were written (ish), not graded, not laid out and badly photographed. Fantastic.

When life settled I strapped myself in and went back to the patterns one by one. Several of my initial designs were knit in yarns that were discontinued. Sigh. They had to be reworked in current yarns so that when the patterns are released knitters would have the choice to work the designs in the same yarns and colors as the samples. It’s definitely a gamble no matter what yarns an independent designer chooses, but let’s just say I’ve noticed some yarn companies are more committed to the longevity of their yarn lines than others. The second time around I stuck with some classics and so far so good. But changing yarns meant re-knitting and re-grading. Tick tock.

Let’s not talk about all of the designs I did that are sitting in a bucket. Shhh!

Along the way, I have noticed that being a monogamous knitter and designer is definitely a plus. To design, write, grade, photograph, lay out and test a design from start to finish is definitely ideal. And for #10 of 10 Tiny Knits - I did just that.

This little baby was conceived of after an owner of my LYS asked me if I wanted to teach a knit-your-first-sweater class using a baby sweater. A lightbulb went off and I thought I’m going to kill 2 birds with one stone! I have one slot left and could fill it with a simple top-down in the round pattern. It took a couple of tries to work out the neckline - and I almost gave up out of frustration. But I decided to give it one more go and voila - Tootsiepie was born! I stuck with this design from conception all the way through test launch, and I actually managed to get it out in a week. That’s a lifetime personal record at the moment. It turns out if you stick to the one thing, you can move a mountain - or at least a knitting design out of your brain and into the knitterverse.