Rip-it, Rip-it; the song of frogs and crochet designers!

Some people are born with a nack for designing. They just intuitively know what to do to get a design to turn out the way they want it to. Their designs flow smoothly, and turn out beautifully. Ahh, yes, how talented, how gifted they are!

But I will let you in on a secret; even designers who have been at it for years sometimes struggle with designs. And for some reason, the smaller the item, the harder it is to get it right (at least for me!) David still laughs about the weekend I was obsessed with designing the perfect tiny rolled rose. I needed a realistic little rose to put in the basket of a doll I was working on.  I must have made dozens (dare I say hundreds?) before I finally  came up with one that looked the way I wanted it to. My workroom and the coffee table in the living room were littered with tiny roses. On small items like this, I usually don't  rip the work out, I just toss the finished item aside and start all over. I didn't even want to stop to eat or sleep until I finally got it right. 

And I can't even guess at how many cats I made for the Harvest Moon doily before I finally came up with one that I liked!
I guess what I am saying here is don't get discouraged if your design doesn't turn out right the first time. Rip it out, and start again. I have a rule that I make myself follow:  if I notice that I have made a mistake in a design or it just isn't going the way I want it to, I rip it out right away instead of fretting and fuming about it. It is easier for me just to get it over with and move on. Because if the designer is not happy with the way a design looks, you can bet no one else will be!

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.