Thursday, January 06, 2011

Thoughts on Designing and a Sneek Peek at the Snow Queen

I get lots of questions about how to become a crochet designer. While I cannot speak for all designers, I can tell you a little about the process I use to come up with my own designs.
Every design starts with an idea, and that  idea can come from anywhere, from a old movie to a children's coloring book to an interesting stitch pattern I want to try. When I get an idea, I write it down in my design notebook (I have  4 notebooks  full of ideas right now, and I need to pick up a new one!)
For a while it was a trendy thing for designers to say a design "just fell off my hook." Meaning that they just sat down and started playing around with their hook and thread and a wonderful design developed.
That has never been the case with me. I have to first 'see' a design clearly in my mind. Only then will I know where to begin and how to proceed. And the best way I have found to help me visualize a design  is to draw a sketch of it.
Here are a few of the sketches I did for some of my doilies, and I am sure you will agree that I am lucky that I can crochet better than I draw:
A sketch for Harvest Moon (look at that poor cat's ears!)

The finished Harvest Moon Doily
Sketch for Woodland Fairy

Finished Woodland Fairy; as you can see I made some changes from the sketch
Sketch for  my new doily, the Snow Queen

Finished Snow Queen. The pattern will be available in the middle of January 2011.
Every designer has a different process for developing their designs. But this is where all of  mine start, with a simple sketch.

5 comments:

  1. Beautiful eye... a true yarn artisan!

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  2. thank you so much for posting this. your very creative. I am thinking about doing a week on designing on my blog with tips, how to's and other stuff. I have not set a date yet however I would love it if you would be a guest blogger for me, where you can talk about your designing and give tips to future designers. please contact me at mariecozycorner.blogspot.com
    I am also a new follower. :)

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  3. That Snow Queen is gorgeous.

    I am one of those who have an idea then pick up my hook and see if I can make what I am thinking. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

    I wish I were one who could right stuff down . . most of the time I even forget to write the patterns out as I go, then I never get them done.

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  4. Very interesting to see how others design, you're very talented! Thanks for sharing. :)

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