Behind the Scenes: The process of designing, Yarn Selection and Knitting the Sample

Most of the time, I have picked out the yarn I want to use before I get too far into the process. For example, with the Astolat Shawl, I knew before I even started looking into stitch patterns that I wanted to use the madtosh sock in the brown color. Other times I might have a general idea that I want to use a certain weight of yarn or fiber content and then pick out the actual yarn (and color) once I have everything planned out.

I always think about the finished effect I want the object to have when I'm picking out the yarn. I knew, for example, that I wanted The Wife of Bath's Cowl to be a little more on the "sturdy" side since I envisioned large buttons on it and didn't want a super drapey yarn which wouldn't be able to hold up the buttons. So I picked Spud & Chloë Fine because it had a tighter twist and seemed to be able to hold up nicely. But with the Dorigen Cowl, I knew that I wanted drape and maybe a little bit of a fuzzy halo effect, so the Classic Elite Fresco, which contains alpaca and angora, really helped to create both the drape and halo I had envisioned.

Once I have the basic outline of the pattern and the yarn, I start my sample. These days, I knit using the knitCompanion app on my iPad rather than a paper pattern. So I convert my sample pattern to PDF format and set it up in knitCompanion. I'm able to add notes as I go in case I want to make any changes or find something that doesn't work as I'm working on the sample (and I usually have at least one change from the original).

I do try to make sure I keep notes while I'm knitting the sample, but there have been a couple of times when my notes are either pretty cryptic or I think "oh, I'll remember that" and don't make a note--and then I don't remember it after all! That can be pretty frustrating because I usually have to go back to the sample and either redo something (usually in a swatch) or try to figure out from the sample what I did. I have gotten a lot better about this so I'm experiencing much less frustration these days!

Once I finish knitting the sample, I block it and the gauge swatch (if I hadn't done that already), and take the measurements to add into the pattern. I flesh out the pattern, putting it into my pattern template, and make it as close to the finished product as possible. I take a couple of quick pictures, and then I send out a call for test knitters, which is one of the topics I'll discuss in an upcoming blog post.

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The content in this post was first featured in my newsletter (June 20, 2015). If you'd like to keep up to date on my designs and yarn and receive content like this right in your email inbox, make sure to subscribe to my newsletter.