Monday, April 7, 2008

Why Didn't I Write Down The Bloody Pattern!?!

I've only been tatting for a few years now, but I'm been knitting and crocheting for decades, so I should really know better by now.

If you're new to your craft, you're probably still dutifully following patterns with very little modifications, but after a while, that will all change. You will find yourself working along and think, maybe I should change this or remove that, so you do. Then when you look at the final piece and think, wow I should write those changes down so I won't forget them. Listen to yourself!!!

I really have lost count of the times I've designed a pattern on the fly and didn't write it down only to find myself counting the teeny tiny knots in the finished piece weeks later. Even worse, selling the only piece and trying to reconstruct it from the pictures I took for the listing. I do have a little notebook, right next to me in my little crafting corner, but I seldom reach for it. I did recently start making prototype pieces in easy to see white thread, but that still leaves me counting knots over and over again.

I can't be the only one with this problem, right? There are dozens of you out there nodding along in agreement, I can hear the rattling. So, why do we do it, or rather not do it? I've decided that it's because it interrupts the creative process. We can't possibly create, if we are constantly stopping to write things down. Seriously though, take my advice and write down your patterns and those simple changes that you think you'll remember later, because you won't. It's for your own good. That is, unless you enjoy counting stitches or beads or tracing images from the pictures you took. If that's the case, then enjoy!

6 comments:

Angie said...

It may be frustrating to loose a pattern (and sell the only existing copy of it)...but just think, that's just a lot of one of a kind peices out there! And by attempting to reconstruct, I'm sure you've made a lot of other pretty pieces :)

TotusMel said...

What a positive way of looking at it!

Anonymous said...

I've been there many times unfortunately! LOL!!

Waterrose said...

You certainly heard my head rattling in agreement. Or, I'll think, "I'll remember how I did this so there is no sense in documenting it and wasting time." Well we both know how much time we waste not taking moment to do it then!

tatsuko said...

yup, I forget to write down ratios whenever I'm mixing clay colours, thinking that I'll surely remember. I used to crochet a lot of hats and would modify things as I went along, never writing anything down, only to have a neat shaped hat at the end and having to count rows of stitches to find out how I did it... I don't think I'll ever learn tho :)

thatissocute said...

oh, yes - I've done this! It's distracting to make yourself stop and write when all you want to do is (insert your craft here) paint, tat (tatt?), knit, crochet, etc. I have found though, that if something does not turn out, having it written down keeps you from making the same mistake again!