Last Friday was a big day for me. Another That Yarn Girl pattern was released. Why was that a big deal you ask? Pattern writing is not something I have had much interest in. In fact I have had every intention of staying well clear of pattern writing. What happened? For those who follow the blog, you know I have released one pattern already, so why would releasing another be such a big thing? This one took quite a bit more to write and create! Here is how it all began - I have been working through several free patterns for Crop Tops (see post
here) and have been posting them to my social media pages. They have had great response and I have one friend who tagged me in a photo of a super cute crochet top from Forever 21. She indicated the top is what she is looking for and I set out on a Google search to find the pattern for this top. I came up with nothing! I was kind of surprised as this top is made of Granny Squares and would not be that hard to make. With that in mind, I decided it was time to write another pattern.
I studied that photo and all of the other photos of that top and came up with the Granny Squares very quickly. But then I started to overthink. There are several partial squares on the photos and I did my best to recreate the partial squares. It was a little harder than I thought it would be. In fact it became so difficult I took a break for about a week from pattern writing. After the week break my mind was much more clear and inspiration struck!! I was able to see how much I had been overthinking and used simple half squares (triangles) to create the needed look. What a great moment of clarity and I was finally able to complete the written pattern, at least that portion.
Something else I have found helpful in pattern writing is making the item as I write. By making as I am writing, I have found the pattern will make more sense. As the squares and triangles came together, I was able to write the assembly portion with photos to add to the pattern (another good reason to make as you write).
At last the pattern was complete! The formatting and photos were added and the pattern was released in my Etsy Shop and Ravelry Shop.
How do you find your best creative process? What are your steps?
