I just launched my 15th self-published knitting pattern. I do like to knit and design socks. These are called Knight's Move, because the chart looks like a series of L-shapes, like the path the knight takes across the chess board. I originally designed these for my Dad. There are so many pretty sock patterns aimed at women, and all the men's socks seem to be either plain stocking stitch or plain ribbing. I know men wouldn't want to wear lacy socks, but as a knitter there are only so many plain vanilla socks I want to make in neutral colours. These are fun to knit and suitably masculine for Dad to wear.

So far I have 14 self-published patterns out, with 6 more at various stages of development. (One is almost finished being tested, two more are mid-test, yet another is at the sample-knitting stage. I have one which is a finished sample and three sheets of graph paper which need translating into a useable pattern and the sixth is at the notes-that-only-I-could-understand plus a ball of wool and some needles stage.)
 I keep a notebook in which I note down design ideas as I have them. Sometimes that's a detailed description, other times it might be just a colour or a stitch pattern. But I want to have another source of ideas, and that is what this list is for. 
Over the next two years, I want to design:
* A men's sweater
* A women's sweater
* A child's sweater
 * Something in chunky weight yarn
* Something in lace weight that isn't a shawl
 * Socks suitable for multicoloured yarn
* A circular shawl
* Something using a drop-stitch pattern
* Something to match one of my existing designs


Let's see how many of those I manage to get done!

Today has been one of those days when I'm glad I'm a knitter. By that I mean, it's been cold! Really cold! By British standards anyway. It was -4 degrees C when we set out this morning so I was very glad of my hand-knitted gloves, ear warmer headband and socks, and that I had hats and mittens for both children easily to hand. And the slippery walk from the car park into work was made better by knowing there was a lovely warm woollen scarf waiting for me in my locker at work, ready to wrap around my neck and keep me warm all day. It even snowed. For all of about five minutes, but it was still snow! I much prefer the summer but on the chilly days I'm glad I can knit!

Writing your first blog post is a bit like writing the first page in a new diary. You want to make it something worth writing, something proud and meaningful, and you certainly don't want any crossings-out or spelling mistakes. Thank goodness for the delete key and auto correct, I don't need to worry about those last two!

Well, here it is, my knitting blog. I've been knitting since I was a child but only started designing patterns in the summer of 2014. It wasn't anything I'd even considered before, and then one weekend morning I woke up with an idea for a shawlette that I just had to knit, and I know I didn't want to find a pattern for it. I wanted to knit it myself. Before I was even dressed I found some yarn and some needles and made a start, ripping and reknitting until what was on my needles was what I had pictured in my head. That first pattern became my Yarnshine shawlette and from that moment I had caught the designing bug!

14 self-published patterns later and I find myself starting a blog as well. In it I intend to talk about my designs, the design process as I see it, and the learning curve I find myself following as I explore the exciting world of knitting pattern design.