Designs come to me in middle of night dreams where I’ve traveled places who knew existed. I lumber out of bed and flick on the light as I stumble for the pen. I draw the designs then let them be to flutter around on their own. I study them when they surface, wondering what to add-on, sometimes I wonder where I had been going, and nudge in another direction. I have a folder where most of the ideas eventually wind up while awaiting their turn.

Right now I’m working on “modular” sweater designs. Get the design basics going. Where else can the idea go? Want slim sleeves with lace-up cuffs? Want wide sleeves with frilly cuffs? Yes, and yes! How about knit the sweater sideways! Or knit it on the diagonal. Knit a sweater with a short colorful skirt. A long, asymmetrical skirt. Knit it cropped. Knit just the skirt. Make the ideas generic so this lace could go on that sweater pattern where you hate the collar but love everything else. Possibly the skirt on this XLarge sweater would make a hellova shawl for the 10 year-old-sister going-on-25, just drop off this part and add on trim from the jacket pattern from last year. This is the fun stuff.

I’ve come up with a couple of sweater technicals too. I’ve noticed women don’t necessarily have sloped shoulders like men do. My patterns reflect this. And set-in sleeves, I use them all the time, but they don’t have to be formal unless you want the formal effect. They can be seamless with a fabulous fit. They can be dropped at the shoulder with a fabulous fit. Really. And underarm bulk, get rid of that by putting in the necessary girth and knitting it out asap.

I’ve come up with a couple of pattern technicals too. I do the written instructions. I add notes that quite a few people actually read. I give graphs that I know many knitters don’t really see for what they are — a visual aid. I knit from the graphs. So I add text next to all parts of the graph where important stuff happens. Sometimes telling makes seeing happen. Finally, how about laying out the instructions on a 3 sheet-spread, with all sizes right there side-by-side. No extra verbiage to wade through. Well sometimes you’ll need to refer to the How-to-do-sheet, when extra verbiage is required but there wasn’t room to put it on a lean mean 3-sheet spread.

Here’s a little bio…
I have been designing, producing, and selling knitted items (toys, clothing for women and children) since the late ’60s. I sold at the Ann Arbor MI Farmers’ Market, and in art shows in Michigan for years. My work has appeared in galleries in Petoskey MI, Harbor Springs MI, and a few other brief stints in gift stores, mainly Michigan, but one in a corner as far flung as Ghirardelli Square, San Francisco CA. The store was called Puddentane, I think, too many years ago to be sure, and the store owner was visiting her sister and found me on a well-frosted Farmers’ Market Saturday in late November.
Now I’m writing up patterns for designs that I’ve already produced and sold in art shows in the midwest, and selling now in Sheep and Wool Festivals east of the Mississippi.
My really big love is cleaning and carding and dyeing and spinning fleece raw and aromatic as all get-out, right from the sheep’s back, then hanging the new yarn where I can see it often during the day, waiting for it to offer up ideas on how to use it.