My Designs- Organize and Develop

I am having a good sort out and trying to organize my work for easy reference so as I can develop some earlier ideas into projects for today.
Over the years I have recorded my concepts,workings out and pattern writing in various A4 ring binder folders and notebooks of different shapes and sizes. Some have their original tension square attached to pages of notes, others have scribbles saying such things as- refer to design ref22 or "see photo" "see sketch etc.

In the last couple of years I am more in favour of project notebooks of A5 size as these are handy to have alongside me whilst knitting or weaving so as I can make notes as I work. These are very basic working notes with the title,date, measurements, details of knitting needles used or warp gauge for weaving etc and with the yarn samples/labels stapled to the page. They are backed up by photographs.



The joy of a digital camera is not only to use it to gather inspiration in photos for my designs but to use it as a tool to record my work for reference. I have literally hundreds of pictures on file, many of the same item taken from different angles. I need close up detail of stitch or pattern,colourway ref. Pictures and life style shots for customer viewing on line or for my brochure and group shots if it is in a range for example hand warmers, socks and hats. It is great to have all these!

Nowadays I write up the design on my computer and then it is ready for use and/or publication.
These notes are from one of my old folders. They are the workings for a sweater. Inspiration taken from a child's drawing of sailing boats a chart was created using- ref to photos "Cowes week regatta" - these were pre digital so are a couple of Kodak prints!

I knitted the sweater in double knit yarn, the abstract design depicting a flotilla of sail was knitted in the intarsia style.

This is one of the designs I have chosen to revamp. I want to take the intarsia chart work and play around with the layout to produce a pattern to knit into other simple items such as bags and cushions. The enjoyment of this design is experimenting with different colourways but still keeping the nautical theme.

I can see this organization and development task is going to take me quite some time as I keep finding little gems of ideas!

Back On Course for 2012

With the start of the New Year it's great to be thinking about getting back on course with my knitting, weaving and spinning. An early morning walk on the beach at Ryde at low tide where I can enjoy the vast expanse of the sands is a wonderful way to start my day. A perfect place to go when I need to get inspiration, to contemplate, be invigorated and energized.

I have set up my loom once more and have been mulling over some new ideas to get weaving.

These are a couple of commissions completed recently. These small rugs are fun to make and I particularly enjoy varying the warp colours so as to produce wide and narrow stripes through the piece, this also makes the tassels much more interesting too.

I want to develop my designs this year with this pattern trend using nautical and summer seaside colours in cotton blended yarns.



On the knitting needles at the moment are some more hand warmers to re stock my Folksy shop and my Isle of Wight stockists. I made myself a pair of long hand warmers and they are just lovely to wear out on walks to the beach.



Putting my camera and notebook to good use I come back buzzing with creative thoughts.

Dreaming of being back on course sailing again soon, as I look out across the Solent.