Why I started designing my own patterns

(Originally posted Friday, September 18, 2009)

I love looking at knitting magazines, pattern books, and browsing though yarn shops!! I get so inspired.

For years, though, I would start projects and knit them for a while, but most would end up frogged or at least hibernating. I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t want to finish what I started. I chalked it up to laziness, or a busy schedule, or skill level.

I never considered that I just didn’t actually like the patterns I chose. I figured that since I had chosen them (purchased the pattern and the yarn and the needles or notions), that I must like the designs. In reality, I think I was just choosing the best of what I saw, not fantastic stuff that really jazzed me.

That’s not to say that I never see a pattern I like. I love many of the patterns in Rowan Magazine and Interweave Knits. But many of the knitting patterns offered out there are just too boxy for my taste. A big sweater is great for a cold evening, but not as a fashion accessory or statement. Knitting is a traditional art, but the art of knitting need not be only traditional.

So..... in 2008 I made the leap. I said to myself, if I don’t like what I find, then I need to make what I like.

I love the knitwear of yesteryear - Bear Brand Bucilla, Minerva, and other pattern books from the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s. I love beads, ribbons, and pearls. And I love small gauge. I love what knitting does, what it creates just by being itself - short-rows, box pleats, yarn-overs, M1, k2tog, and knitting-in-the-round. I know how to sew, but I don’t want to make knit garments in the same fashion as I make sewn ones, i.e., shaping so much that I get pattern pieces. I like my knitting to flow from cast on to bind off.

Now in 2009, I am so happy that I put my mind to knitting and pattern making. It is such a joy. And rather than putting projects down, I want to pick them up constantly. I have so many great ideas in my head and my hands cannot keep up. But that’s ok; knitting has become something to strive for, to succeed at, and to bring me a smile.