Usually, a design comes from a situation. I'm going somewhere special and I want something special to wear to the event, or I bought some clothes and want something to go with it.
This kind of situation means I already have been inspired about what I'd like to wear. It also includes a lot of personal biases. For instance, I love pockets! I try to put pockets in everything except mitts, mittens, hats, and cowls. And even then I think about doing it. A pocket that's the right size for a bus pass that's a tap card is perfect for the back of a mitten if you commute by bus.
But it also to extends to styles. For instance, I love cables and Celtic Knots.
And a Celtic Knot is a great thing to put in a spot where there is shaping:
And then, I thought, why can't cables and knots be combined and go in different directions?
I thought some more about what else I could do with them, and realized that they could come off the surface of the knitting and do something.
I don't know if you can see it, but there is a Celtic knot (a Saint John's cross, which is a symbol for happiness), but the bottom of it comes off the surface and threads through some picot holes to form a drawstring at the bottom of the sleeve. The end of the drawstring can be tied into a bow without pulling it tight to form a bell sleeve, or it can be pulled tighter to form a ruffled bottom and a bloused sleeve. You can see the way it works better here:
And it can perform other functions, like coming off the surface to form button loops on the front of a sweater.
These photos are all shown before blocking, so they look a little rough.
If I'm fresh out of ideas for myself, I think about a friend and wonder what they'd like to wear. And what colors they'd like, although color is such a big topic that it will have to go in its own post.
Or, I'll see a sweater in a magazine, and think about changing something about it to make it a completely different sweater. But more often, I'll see a sweater and think that a motif on it would be great on a shawl.
Then again, you can think about different knitting or crochet techniques, which is sort of what I did with the cables and Celtic knots. But this can work for anything, like entrelac. Or a trim, like fringe, which I'm beginning to find out can be done a lot of different ways. The more I look at it, the more I think about writing a whole book about fringe and different ways to do it.
Or Mobius. Here's a simple mobius cowl:
Which lead me to think about making a hat with a mobius cuff:
A lot of the knitting I do is inspired by the designing I have done for sewing fabrics, so it's very plain and relies on shape for the design. So they're very simple knitting, but sometimes can look very intricate.
Have you ever wanted to get a tattoo? You can knit whatever tattoo you'd like to get into a sweater! Then you can have it just when you want to wear it, and just take it off to remove it. You can think of it as a "try-out" tattoo, or something that you don't have to commit completely to.
Another thing I've been wanting to do for myself is a lifetime sweater. This would be a plain sweater that has symbols on it of achievements you've had during your lifetime, or things you're interested in, or things you've learned. For me, it could have an entire Viking rune futhark around the bottom, because I'm interested in Viking runes. It might have a spider on the back because I spin. I was thinking of a winged heart on the sleeve because I flew when I was in the Air Force. But that would also look great as wings across the back, and could extend into batwing sleeves. Maybe some other symbol from a movie I worked on. And so forth. Your accomplishments would be different from mine. It could be done either in a single color with raised designs, or in colorwork, whichever you prefer, or fits what you'll be knitting.
Let your mind go, and think "What if?" There are endless ideas out there for you, too! Have fun with it!
