I've heard so many people say that they "aren't creative enough" to design things, or that they "don't have ideas".
Bullshit.
-Dictionary.com
If you've ever had a thought, if you're aware of your surroundings, and if your brain works even in the slightest you have ideas. They might not be good ideas, but they're ideas.
How do you come up with good ideas? You practice by coming up with bad ones! When I was a kid I read that we all have a million bad ideas inside of us, and the sooner we can get them all out the better. So even if something seems stupid, go for it. We learn by doing, and you'll soon find that working with one idea will cause you to come up with another.
For some reason, knitters suffer from the delusion that you have to be a capital-D Designer to come up with an idea or make an original garment.
Again, bullshit.
Designers (even the famous ones) are human just like the rest of us. They sketch, they write, they knit, and I'm sure they occasionally forget to put in a lifeline and have to rip back a lot farther than they should have. What seperates a designer from a garden-variety knitter is a willingness to try new things, to experiment, and even to fail. A designer looks at a simple idea and sees potential.
I'm going to help you learn to see potentail, starting with a simple concept.
This is my sketch, just a series of rectangles I doodled. As they get bigger, the space between them gets smaller.
You could have come up with that, right? Exactly! Ideas are everywhere, and sometimes the simple ones are the most effective.
When you look at your concept, think about what it could be. I could take this as it is and make a Modernist painting. I could line up appropriately-sized objects and create a still life composition to draw, paint, or photograph.
I started out with a simple, literal interpretation: I made it into a three-dimensional form, it could be an entranceway into a building. The empty spaces gradually get smaller, transitioning a person from "outside" to "inside".
As I was drawing that, the angles made me wonder what it would look like if I took two of my concept sketch and rotated one 90 degrees. I sketched it out quickly and got a pattern that reminded me of tartan.
To refine it a little more, I made a more finalized drawing in Photoshop. I could print this out as digital art, paint it (which might be interesting with some really texturized paint), turn it into a woven or knitted fabric, or use it as a layout grid for a graphic design.
As I was thinking about how I could knit that (I know nothing near enough about colorwork to puzzle that one out, but maybe something reminiscent of the
Ball Band Dishcloth), I had another brainstorm: Lace!
This is just a quick, sketched chart I drew that alternates solid stockinette rectangles with rectangles of yarn-overs, the simplest type of lace. The rectangles change in size and frequency, just like the original concept sketch. The next step here would be to swatch this and see if the proportions work out, and to alter it if they don't.
Ideas are everywhere. And design is just a methodical approach to "playing" with ideas, moving them around and changing the color and seeing what concrete things you can make of an abstract concept.
A great way to get visual ideas into a workable format is to take a photo of something (a line of trees, spokes in a wheel, the shape of a building) and trace the important lines and forms. Then you can work with that and see what comes of it. It takes practice, but you'll find that the more you do, the easier things get.
For those of you who don't know, there's a program out there called Master Knitting. It's supposed to teach you many different techniques, and your work is evaluated by a committee to see if you "pass" each level.
I like the idea of the program, but have a few issues with it.
One, it's expensive. There's a program fee ($285 for all three levels, and you must be a member of TKGA, which costs $29/year), you have to pay to mail in your sample swatches and homework notebook, and there are yarn requirements for the swatches, so you may not be able to use leftover yarn you have on hand.
Two, the requirements are rigid. I know how to do stockinette stitch/ribbing/etc and don't really want to waste my time and money proving it. I also don't have much of a desire to design and make an Aran or Fair Isle sweater... it's HOT where I live and neither would be worn much.
I put it out of my mind for a long time and decided I'd just play on my own.
A lovely bitch by the name of Nellum came up with the idea for a "Mistress of Knitting" group. It's free to join (though you do have to buy your own yarn... not that any of you probably need an excuse to do that). You're allowed to demonstrate a technique in a project you're working on instead of making zillions of individual swatches. And since the challenges are more vague ("Knit a felted project" rather than "knit argyle socks"), you get more creative liberty to make things that you'll actually use.
Here's the
list of challenges. There's a suggested timetable of one challenge per month, but the deadlines aren't absolute, it's OK to finish late. If you do 10 out of the 12 challenges, you'll get a certificate at the end.
Last week I was spending some time in Atlanta and decided to get together with some of my Ravelry friends for knitting night. We went to Knitch in the Virginia Highlands neighborhood for their Friday night get-together. The shop does free knitting nights at 6:30PM every Thursday and Friday.
Parking was a bit of an issue. There's a small lot behind the shop, but it and the nearby on-street parking were totally full. My ride ended up dropping me off and leaving, as he didn't really want to hang out in a yarn shop anyway. Quick note: Don't park across St. Charles (in front of the bar) if you plan on staying later than 8PM: you will get towed, as we found out.
The shop is HUGE. The downstairs area has yarn everywhere, plus some seating. Up a spiral staircase is more yarn, spinning supplies, a big table, and couches. Most people at knit night were hanging out upstairs. There were a lot of us, and I was made to feel more than welcome.
The yarn selection is awesome. They had everything you would expect to find (Noro, Cascade, Rowan), plus some more exotic stuff (Artyarns, Habu), and even a few locally-made yarns and original patterns. I didn't buy anything (right now, money is short and yarn is long), but was sorely tempted to skip going back to college and buy the place out.
In short:
Go to Knitch. It is awesome.
Have you seen Twist Collective yet? It's an awesome new online magazine. I haven't read through the entire thing yet, but a quick skim reveals technical articles and patterns. Looks like a great resource!
First of all, I posted some of my work and my original designs on Ravelry!
Here's my Profile Page
And here's my Designer Page.
Most of the patterns link back here for the actual instructions, but it's nice to have one portfolio page instead of the patterns all scattered through random blog posts. It's sort of like having a Table of Contents!
Secondly, I've decided to license my original designs thorough Creative Commons, under the Attribution license. That means you're free to use them for whatever you like-- modify them, sell the items you make, print them out and give them to all your friends/knitting circle/art class/fourth-cousins-twice-removed.
Under one simple condition: you have to give me credit. Here's an easy guide to giving credit:
If you re-publish my pattern on your website, provide my name and a link back to http://www.saltwaterpurls.blogspot.com.
If you print the pattern out, please include my name and my URL on the paper.
If you post an item you made using my patterns on another website/forum/Ravelry, provide a link (Ravelry will do this for you if you type in "Saltwater Purls" and the name of the pattern when you post!).
If you sell items you've made using my patterns on Etsy or another website, say the item was "designed by" me and link!
Creative Commons isn't a free pass to do whatever you want- it's definitely not as restrictive as copyrighting, but you do have to follow the credit rules. If I find out that you abuse the privileges of free patterns and try to pass my work off as your own, I can send you a cease and desist letter, and if you do not remove the offending items I can pursue legal action.
I believe these terms are very generous and fair, and hope more knitwear designers will start using Creative Commons instead of copyrighting their work. Did you know that if you purchase a copyrighted pattern, you're only allowed to make one copy to write notes on, and when you finish knitting you legally have to throw it away? Some designers even demand that you not make a copy at all, you must write on the original and buy a new one if you want to knit it a second time. How crazy is that?
Saltwater Purls... bringing you sane knitting since 1894 (OK, not really).
