Bex Knitty Design

  I wish there were just the fun parts... This week has been all about pattern writing which is not my favourite part of the design process but is obviously very important, so if I am to keep on track with the 2021 schedule I have set myself, I needed to get this patterns written up by the end of this week … that is that box ticked.  I do tend to wish designing could be all about sourcing lovely yarns and just being immersed in the stitches but there is the more colder side like writing up patterns. I used to write each row as I knit it with a pencil and large foolscap worth of paper, but now I tend to type those rows down instead on a rough Word doc draft so at least I don't have to start, like I used to, with having to type up every faintly scrawled in pencil word, which was definitely worse than the new system. Now it's mainly copying everything over, lots of just fixing any quick typing errors, making sure everything that should be in lower / upper case is, putting everyth...

  The instant gratification of hats... This week all my design knitting time has been spent on hats, hats based on and therefore to match some of y previously released shawl designs. I have done this before as it's my favourite way to use up leftovers from the shawls that I have made. I love to use leftovers in a practical useful manner, so they tend to all go into boxes, labeled with the various yarn weights I tend to use (I'm not much of a lace weight knitter!  😂 ) and the intent is to use them as small quantities to make up colourwork sweaters for myself...that rarely tends to become a reality soon after being put in the boxes...So they more often than not, pop into my mind screaming to become a new design instead, and because they are a leftover from a design that means for me, a complimentary piece. This spark of inspiration is then followed practically instantly by working out how to take the main elements of the shawl design in question and try to break those elements ...

Ancient Spirals Shawl I wasn't sure first of all whether I should be releasing my next pattern - and the talking about it that goes with that - during the current time the world is passing through, it just felt frivolous and meaningless against the backdrop of so much uncertainty and suffering happening to us all either directly or indirectly by Covid-19. But after discussing it with those involved in this design, I decided maybe a bit of frivolous is just whats needed and that this release could play its own little part in adding some lightness wherever possible. However, I wanted to continue to share the knitty love and accessibility for those of us in need of patterns to stock up on to get us through self isolation / lock down, as that has felt really good and heartwarming to be able to do that, there's enough pressure on our strained finances to spend on the stuff we need to at the moment, if I can offer some of our beloved knitty pleasure for fr...