This past Sunday I came across this article in the Business Insider – The Most Successful Creative People Constantly Say “No”.   The paragraph that jumped out at me was this one:

“Time is the raw material of creation. Wipe away the magic and myth of creating and all that remains is work: the work of becoming expert through study and practice, the work of finding solutions to problems and problems with those solutions, the work of trial and error, the work of thinking and perfecting, the work of creating.”

In many ways time is what you are paying for when you purchase a crochet (or knit) pattern from a designer.  Not just the time that the designer put into that particular design, but the hours and days of experimenting and perfecting their craft so they could create a pattern that would be clear and concise.

I crochet a lot. I have my crochet with me wherever I can take it, and if I don’t have my crochet with me, I have a notebook that I write down ideas for crochet designs in. A lot of my crochet time is experimenting with ideas in how to make an increase or decrease in a specific stitch pattern, or how to construct a garment that takes advantage of the nature of crochet fabric and stitches.

This means that I also spend a great deal of that time frogging my work or making notes on why something didn’t work. It can be quite surprising the things that work in ways that I hadn’t expected. I’m reminded of how some drug companies research for a medication to treat one condition, but then discover that it is great for treating some other condition.

One of the ideas I had a few years back was for an embellishment on a sweater. The fabric was too dense and fussy for me though. Instead it morphed into a design idea for a bag that I sold to Red Heart. Ruffled Wedding Bag, you can get the pattern for free at the Red Heart Website.

This turned out to be one of my favorite designs so far that I’ve created using Red Heart’s “Sassy Lace“. They also have a “Sassy Fabric” yarn that comes in a variety of colors and prints giving you loads of options for making this little bag. I’m thinking that a fun version could be made in the Teal Chevron “Sassy Fabric” with either Iced Aqua or White “With Love” as the bag color. Would make a great gift bag for mother’s day.

I had planned on this post being something different. But time got away from me this past week. My entire family came down with a stomach bug. I was so ill on Sunday that I couldn’t do anything but read online and sleep. Of course, that is how I came across the article I quoted above. So there is always a silver lining.

Everyone is on the mend now and I hope to have a new pattern (maybe more than one) to show you this weekend.

For some yarn crafters the world of designing seems mysterious, so I thought I’d give you a peek behind the scenes when I am designing. In particular some of the math that I use when designing a triangle-shaped top-down shawl.

Triangles are popular for shawls because they can be worked top-down either with decreases on the ends or increases at the ends and center. There are triangle-shaped shawl patterns out there that are created from the bottom point upward. I don’t like to work that way so haven’t ever designed a shawl using that method.

My “Eleonora Shawlette” is an example of a triangle shape worked top down with 3 increase points.

So is my “Mountain Whisper Shawl”.

The great thing about a triangle shape is that it is relatively easy to figure out the amount of yarn needed for the shawl (or shawlette). The same math can be used to figure out how big a shawl you could make from the yardage you have on hand.

First decide on the dimensions for the shawl you want to make. I’m using an isosceles triangle for this shawl and the center point (pink line) is half the length of the base (blue line). Now it is time to work a swatch.

Usually I make a miniature version of the shawl. This works very well as I can also use that swatch as the beginning of my shawl if I want. I want my swatch to be at least 6 inches long at the center point. I let the swatch rest for a while, at least 2 hours if not over-night. If I plan to aggressively block my finished shawl and I’m using a fiber that will change a lot with the blocking, I will block my swatch over-night instead of letting it rest.

The next morning I measure and weigh my swatch.  I take the same measurement lines that I had marked out for my shawl dimensions. The broad base (blue line) of the triangle  and the length of the center point (pink line). I’ll use these measurements to figure out the square inches of my swatch.

I have a handy digital scale that I use to weigh my swatches and projects. It can measure in ounces or grams. I prefer to use grams as they are a smaller unit of measurement and that helps me with accuracy. It also helps when using yarns from companies that do not list the weight in ounces.

Most ball bands will tell you the weight and yardage contained in the ball/skein/hank. Here’s where the math starts.  Take the number of yards and divide it by the number of grams on the ball band. This gives you the number of yards per gram.

For example, this ball of “Mochi Plus” has 95 yards in a 50 gram ball.

95 divided by 50 = 1.9 yards per gram.

If my swatch weighed 10 grams, then I know that it took 19 yards.

Now it is time to figure out the square inches in my swatch and the square inches for my planned dimensions of the shawl. This is actually not that hard. As my geometry teacher taught us in high-school, all triangles are half of a rectangle. This gives me 2 ways to find the square inches of my swatch and shawl.

Either take the measurement from the base and multiple it by the measurement from the center point, then divide that number in half.

Or my favorite way: Divide the base in half, then multiple by the measurement from the center point.

For some of you it might be easier to visualize this as changing your 1 triangle into 2 triangles.

Then moving one of the triangles to make a rectangle (or in this case a square). A square is always a rectangle but a rectangle isn’t always a square.  In this case my planned shawl will be 1,225 square inches (35 x 35).

I can use the same equations to figure out the square inches of my swatch. Let’s say in this case that my swatch was 12″ at the base and 6″ at the center point. That works out to 36 square inches for my swatch.

Now I divide the square inches for my planned shawl by the square inches of my swatch.

1,225 divided by 36 = 34.0277777778 times that my swatch will fit into my planned shawl.

Obviously I don’t want to be fighting with such a long decimal in my figures, so I will round up to the next whole number. I always round up, because I don’t want to run out of yarn when I am working on my project.

Now we have to figure out what this means for yardage needed. Remember earlier I said that my swatch weighed 10 grams and used 19 yards of yarn? It’s time to plug that number into our equation.

35 x 19 = 665 yards needed to make my shawl.

So how many balls of “Mochi Plus” do I need for this shawl?

665 divided by 95 = 7 balls.

When I purchase my yarn for a project I usually purchase 1 extra ball to be on the safe side. It’s really a bummer when you run out of yarn just short of completing your project.

Now if all this math scares you a little, the good news is that most patterns are going to have the yardage information you need. Because the designer already did all the math for you.

These equations are handy though if you aren’t meeting the gauge or are substituting a different yarn. Sometimes it is fun to see what you can come up with making a few changes.

One of the most interesting things about being a designer is working with a variety of colors in designs.

Sometimes the color of yarn chosen for a design is up to me, other times it is decided by the editor. There have been a few times when I wasn’t too sure about the color picked. It was a color or combination of colors that I don’t normally like together.

Or an editor might have decided that a design I like in a solid color would be better in a multi-colored yarn.

A prime example of that is my “Right Angle Wrap” that was in “Crochet !” magazine. I had originally envisioned that design as a single color. But the editor decided to go with a multi-color in the yarn.

In the years since I created that design I’ve actually grown very fond of the colorful version. I’m wearing it in the photo above.

The best part of crocheting though is you have the choice of making a project in any color that pleases you. Many times I’ve seen a photo of a design in the magazine and thought, “If I made that I think I would use a different color”. Often I have a yarn in my stash that I know will work up well in a design and I don’t even worry about color (most of my personal stash yarn has already been chosen for color). I’ve even re-worked some of my published designs in a different color just to see how they would look.

I made a “Winged Columns Wrap” for my mother one year in the silver grey color of that yarn. Unfortunately I didn’t take a photo of it before sending off the gift to her.

An example of some of my readers changing colors are all the gorgeous “Whirlwind Afghan Block” projects folks made for the Moogly 2015 CAL. Some folks even changed the number of colors they used in the block adding to or subtracting from the original 5 colors in the pattern. I love to see that kind of creativity.

So the next time you are looking at patterns for a project, remember the color choices are all up to you.