When I started designing my own sweaters or scarves or other garments, it wasn’t an easy process to put together a comprehensive method for creating a successful design.

Components of Design

What are the critical components of design?
Gauge
Fiber Content
Color
Architecture/Shaping
Sizing
Fabric Characteristics

Most of these concepts came through trial and error.  I’d knit a sweater that was fantastic in every way except the drape of the fabric would be too clingy and would show off ever bad body characteristic and ignore any good characteristics.  Or I’d design a cardigan using two beautiful yarns in red and blue and come out with a color patterning that would cause grand-mal seizures.

One of the best books I’ve seen in a while that takes a new designer through most of the basics of knitwear design is The Mitten Handbook by Mary Scott Huff.

The author goes through a very detailed and extensive process of fleshing out all the decisions that need to be made to design a garment.

What a brilliant idea to use a relatively simple and small garment as the prototype for understanding the design process!

I truly wish I had had this book years ago…not because I am lacking mittens in my life, but because the clarity with which she details the design process is fantastic.

Current Knitting

Being so easily distracted, I decided I needed to start a new scarf and neglect all that I was previously working on.

I\’m calling this scarf The Full Fibonaci Scarf since all of the numbers associated with the scarf are in the Fibonacci sequence (3 colors, 34 sts across, 13 color blocks, 34 or 21 rows in each color block.

This scarf is also being done in bulky yarn (which enabled me to get the Fibonacci numbers into the design), and I have to say I\’m loving how rustic and rich this simple 1×1 rib scarf is looking.