THE IDEA AND THE DESIGN

It's been a while since I have had a post up and it is mostly due to the fact that I was in the process of migrating my website from one host to another. A lot to learn and work on. It will take a little longer to get the rest of the pages up on the website but I just had to get the Blog page out in time for another pattern hop.

With that out of the way let me focus on the reason for this post- another new pattern written up and going out into the world. This is a first for many reasons- the first wearable I have designed, the first time I graded a pattern for many sizes and the first time I had a such a large and diverse group of testers.

Designing a wearable has been on my list of things to do but without much knowledge of dress designing it was daunting. How to shape shoulders to fit, how to make sure the armholes were just right, how to make sure the entire piece would fit perfectly? These and many other questions needed to be answered. All the while I continued to design more familiar pattern styles like coasters, scarves, beanies etc. One day while meddling with some yarn in my stash, which seemed to be more like lace weight, I worked on a nice lacy design with a simple repeat and was all set to write up the pattern for a scarf. I had all my notes in place but just never got around to it.

Cut to a couple of months later and I saw the call for the Summertime Fun Hop. And like many things in life, an idea popped into my head to use the pattern I had and expand it to some kind of a wearable for the summer. It would work perfectly to pop over your swimsuit while at the beach or the poolside. So back to the drawing board and I started working on a sample. I also wanted to try to make a size inclusive piece - not an easy task! Since this is a cover up, it had to be loose enough to slip on easily - in designing jargon that is referred to as positive ease. So finally my pattern seemed to be progressing in the right direction, and I had it all down along with the math of it all - who said high school math wouldn't come in use later?

The sample cover up is made with some beautiful combed cotton yarn that I had bought from a local indie dyer, Supraja a while ago, and was saving it for a special occasion (unfortunately she has stopped her yarn business for a while). The yarn gives the perfect drape to the cover up. The cover up has a simple construct of two rectangles with some shaping for the neckline.

The pattern allows for customisation of the length and some of my testers decided to make it shorter like a t-shirt length and some made it longer almost like a dress length. I am amazed as how good they all look. That is the beauty of designing and testing- the designer has something in mind and the testers show how many more versions are possible. Each one stunning in its own way. Scroll down to see all the variations by my testers - Ginger, Dianna, Hamsila, Heather, Nailah, Jayashree, Shari, Ruman and Vimala.

The Beach Breeze Cover Up is part of the Facebook hop hosted by the Crochet Designer Community from the 1st to the 14th of June. This pattern will be featured on the 4th of June so go grab your code and get the pattern for 50% off on Ravelry. The hop has 14 wonderful designs from extremely talented global designers.