skygiants

Talk about your creative process.

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Okay, so let me walk you through my creative process for the thing I’m going to make for one of my besties, I guess?

Summer top for ot_atma
• Information-overload-surfing / idea gathering: I pull up Ravelry or a web search prompt with “pattern” “knitting” “dk” “summer” and then words like top, tank, or shirt and then I start going through Ideas: “Would that look good on them?”, “Would that pull on their neck uncomfortably?”, “Would that technique be hard enough to learn from my current knowledge base that it will spur me on the whole project?”, “Is this stitch going to be too fiddly to be relaxing to knit?”, “The armscye of this pattern is too constricting but the neckline looks so cool, how could I replicate that on a different pattern?” And so forth until I have saved a small buffer of good ideas and things that either fit all my selection criteria or that I can use to make the thing look cooler or be more functional.

• I do forms of concept jamming play with fibers and knitting techniques and shapes: “What if I use this knitted pullover shirt pattern as the base, but with stretchy, shaped panels of brioche knitting across the front and back of the neckline, to make it easier to get on and off?”, and “What about this cooling, summer-weight cotton/bamboo blend will change the fit and drape of the pattern, and how will I need to account for that in what needles I use etc.?”, and “What if they want it entirely sleeveless but the pattern is written as a circular yoke? How would I account for that?” Those kinds of thought experiments are fun and like a background hum of pleased, gentle busy-ness. (It’s like my brain is a beehive of individual tasks all focusing in on one central purpose. It’s nice to feel like I have a purpose that I can fulfill at my own pace.)

• I play with the fiber and its properties by swatching and washing and drying and changing needles and repeating the process until I understand how to get the density or openness I want as well as being able to calculate the size the garment will turn out to be after the first washing, since some fibers tend to change shape/curl more/change size during the process of getting wet and then being dried.

• Then comes the part where I do the repetitive motion of knitting, which is like other kinds of stimming, except that when I’m done I have part of a sock or a sweater or a summer top. I move along the knitting pattern like one of those old school calculating machines moves along its program cards, and listen to podcasts and music and the sound of my own brain being reasonably quiet.

• And then I weave in the ends when it’s done, and wash it and pin it out to dry on blocking boards etc.. and then ot_atma will have a new summer top in a really breathable moisture-wicking fabric.

And I get to jump into the next project, and play with different concept, and learn new stitches or techniques, and make fun things to keep people comfy, and have my brain be full of happy bees, dancing maps and patterns.