Odd Designs

I'd like to think that my designing is an ordered process, perhaps involving a pretty notebook or two and some carefully organised sketches. In an ideal world I'd drift artistically from one pattern to the next, always finishing one perfectly crafted project before starting another. 

Obviously, this is not how it works in real life. I have a big pile of scrappy notebooks (currently coming to the end of number 9) and bits of patterns are often scribbled down on a pile of post-its as I work. There's one such pile that's been waiting for weeks for me to transfer to my notebook.

Then there's the question of order. I always have lots of projects on the go at once; sometimes they get left for years before I come back to them. If I get fed up with what I'm working on, I nearly always start another blanket.

I thought you might like to see how this haphazard designing process has played out over the last month or so which has been pretty typical.

First, I knitted a pair of my Walking Socks to send to a friend for Christmas. These use the padded stitch commonly used to reinforce sock heels for the foot which makes them thicker. It occurred to me that the same stitch would be useful to knit some warm mittens. As it was pretty cold here at the time, warmer mittens seemed like a good idea.

Padded Mittens Pattern

These didn't take that long to design as I just had to adapt my basic mitten pattern to allow for the padded stitch. Then I decided that it would be good to check that three different sizes of mittens could be knitted by varying the weight of yarn used. By the time I'd finished the last pair, I was getting fed up with knitting mittens. I'm pleased with the pattern though; the middle size fits me perfectly and, if it gets really cold, I can fit the biggest size over the top of them for double warmth.

I'm trying to use up odd balls of yarn for patterns, rather than keep buying new and I thought that this yarn would make a nice matching cowl to go with my blue mittens.

It's King Cole's Shadow Chunky which I'd bought with weaving in mind but thought would work well for a cowl.

This is where all the planning started to unravel. I remembered that I wanted to use a slip stitch pattern but not that it was meant to be the same one I'd used for the mittens. So ... I spent an afternoon looking through various stitch dictionaries, followed by another session playing around with needles and ended up creating a new stitch pattern that was nothing like the padded stitch (it's not even a slip stitch).

The next thing that went wrong was that the yarn didn't work for this new stitch pattern; I decided it needed to be a solid colour. I kept rooting through my store of yarn until I came up with a couple of old balls of Patons Diploma Gold DK in bright pink.

So, I now had a different stitch pattern and a different weight and colour of yarn. I was still designing a cowl though so that was something. By this time I was starting to lose my enthusiasm for this project but I persevered. Here's the finished pink cowl which I've called Odd Stitch Cowl. The 'odd' refers to the fact that the twisted stitch used is worked on one thick and one thin needle. How exciting is that? Anybody? I take my excitement where I can get it.

While I was knitting the cowl, it occurred to me that this new stitch pattern would be ideal for flannels or washcloths. I hardly ever knit with cotton but I have a basket full of  it, bought when I couldn't resist the bright colours. This second odd stitch pattern turned out well, even if I did have to knit another two cloths just to make prettier pictures.

Odd Stitch Cloths Pattern

At this point I remembered that I'd chosen that blue chunky yarn because it would match my blue mittens. No problem, I thought, I'll just knit myself another pair of mittens with the pink yarn. Yes, yet another pair ...

Knitting the pink mittens made me finally remember that I was originally going to use the padded stitch for my cowl. so, it was back to the blue chunky yarn ...

I must have knitted and unravelled this thing at least six times before getting it right. The padded heel stitch kept  making it curl and I fiddled around with the border for ages before realising that I needed to swap the heel stitch for close stitch. This is the garter stitch version of heel stitch so it lies flat. Another advantage of close stitch is that it's vertically more dense than heel stitch so this cowl will be super warm. It's nearly finished now so I've come full circle.

Now you may have noticed someone sneaking into these photos ...

This is what often happens when I try to stick to an ordered series of designs - something else keeps nagging at me that I really want to work on instead.  In this case it was a tiny doll. I have in mind a fit-in-your-hand size doll who could come with various clothes and perhaps a bag to carry her in ...

I resisted the temptation to start work on this little doll for two reasons. First, I was determined to see the mittens and cowls thing through and, secondly, I didn't want to start on the doll and find that I couldn't do it. This happens to me a lot since being ill. It's one thing trying out an idea and not being able to make it work because it isn't possible, quite another to know that it's possible but too much for my Covid brain.

So, I ignored the call for as long as I could but, in the end, I had to give in.

Every stage of designing this little doll was hard work. There was a huge amount of knitting and re-knitting, even the arms and legs took ages. The hair was a nightmare and the face took hours to get right.

She's only about 6" tall and, despite all the difficulties, I'm pleased with her. I'd like to knit two more with different skin colours before I start on the clothes. Obviously, she had to have a pair of knickers before showing herself in public but the rest of the clothes are waiting until the need to design them becomes urgent.

After all that, I think I need some nice gentle blanket knitting before I start on something new.