Dawn Brocco's Life and Design Blog

You'd think that with the 2 patterns I'm working on and the shawlette I've begun, that would be enough. But no. I get nervous, thinking about what to design after the shawlette. I don't like not having enough designs in the queue.

Lately, I have 2 ways of coming up with new designs.

The first is to CO some CIC socks, and whilst my hands are knitting away on the simple knitting, my brain wanders and begins its search.

The other is simply to stare into space (yes, honey, I'm thinking!).

What yarns do I have, what yarns can I get, what genre do I want do next - more tea cozies? more baby blankets? a sweater - what style? a tote bag? an afghan - it's been awhile since I've designed an afghan. And it goes on, until an idea matches up with either yarn I have or yarn I can get.

Some ideas need to wait, as I'm not sure which yarn I want to do them in. But one or 2 will come to the fore - like this 100 gram skein of bulky alpaca I have. It's purpose has been eluding me, until I did the stare-into-space rundown last night.

Then something popped up - it may or may not work, but at least it's an idea to play with.

A designer doesn't need a room full of yarn in order to design (though the idea of such wealth is tantalizing!). Other designers would surely be aghast at how little yarn I have in my studio. I do have a daydream, though. Every time the UPS truck drives by, my heart jumps, as I can imagine it filled with yarn, and it's coming to my house! And I bet I'm not the only designer or knitter who's dreamt the same thing!

Hubby's renting the wallpaper steamer tomorrow - so we can take shifts at those bedroom walls over the weekend.

I have another dream - a new vacuum with a HEPA filter. Our nearing 30 year old one is still going, sort of, but it's really time it got relegated to the basement and for hubby to vacuum out the car. Like me, it's sputtering on its last legs! So, he's gotta go find a Consumer Reports (at the library) that compares upright vacuums - it's too expensive a purchase not to research about first.