Botanika Shawl Design Story
Coming up with a design spine can be hard and frustrating. For me it's an equally important part of the working process as, for example, swatching. As far as I cannot skip swatching before starting a new design, I now also force myself to not skip design spine research. Every single time I start a design project, I first find its spine. In this post I will share my step-by-step process on how I look for (discover?) a spine for a particular project.
Despite the fact this step-by-step process is very specific and dedicated entirely to designing, the same principle can be applied to any project and only depends on your starting point: it could be the yarn you prefer to use, colorway, stitch pattern, an exact design idea, or even an already completed project which lacks harmony. Discovering the true spine for this troublesome project may fix its flaws by “filling in the gaps” and reshaping the decisions originally made along the way until it all comes together as a unified, complete, harmonious project.
The Botanika shawl design started with three skeins of yarn, which should be enough for a shawl and... nothing else! My mind was completely clear and I had no ideas at all. When I need to find a starting point on which to base my research, I look at the yarn's colorway and find a word to describe it. It was a peacock. It didn't mean anything to me, but that's enough for the beginning.
Collect Ideas/Find The Key Word
I begin by creating a secret mood board on Pinterest. To do this, I dig through Pinterest and find&pin anything that resonates with my key word, a peacock. At first, these were simply photos of birds, but Pinterest is an awesome tool, because it starts showing you plenty of photos in the same colors and aesthetic and all you need to do is pin those you like and dig deeper and deeper.
At this stage I don't think about the design itself, I simply collect the pictures. Once I have a board full of images (20-50 pins), I start to analyze them. It's fascinating where the starting word can bring you after some time spent! The photos of birds were replaced with photos of stones, mushrooms, and plants. “A mystery forest” clicked in my mind and I loved it!
Visualize/Check/Find The Modeled Mood
With this “mystery forest” mood in mind, I continued searching on Pinterest, but this time I was looking at only modeled shots in the same aesthetic. At this stage, I need them to highlight the chosen mood and give me a better idea if I like where this path is taking me. And I still liked it! I felt the connection.
Find Trends
Once I found the spine I liked, I went back to Pinterest and started looking for references in crafts, and shawls in particular, by pinning those which might resonate well with the chosen mood. I looked for a shawl which my “mystery forest girl” from the previous research would wear. Crescent shawl? Lace shawl? Colorful shawl? Cables or lace? Pin, pin! While pinning at this stage, keep these questions in the forefront of your mind and pin any images that resonate. Note that pinning someone's designs does NOT mean copying them. At this stage you will finally be able to notice some trends which will help you to visualize your OWN design.
Once you have enough examples, it's time to hone in on your ideas with some brainstorming. You probably will have begun to notice some trends among them (if not, keep pinning!). I noticed that almost all the shawls I pinned featured a classic triangular shape (no fun irregular shapes or feminine delicate round shawls). Almost all of them had a solid fabric with textured stitch patterns and rows of tiny eyelets and/or textured dividing lines between the stitch pattern sections. A very casual, calm, unisex shawl. That's what I usually call “an introvert” design, which is just for you and not for drawing someone's attention, or cheering up with vibrant color combos, or showing bare shoulders underneath, or expressing your creativity with an unusual construction.
Looking back at the previous boards that feature the general “mystery forest” mood and my spherical “mystery forest” girl, I keep seeing so many connections between all the photos: tiny rain drops and leaf holes that the sun shines through in a way that mimics eyelets, mushroom legs and tree trunks as the textured vertical lines, a bit of delicate texture here and there.
This research took me quite a long time, and during that time I was swatching multiple stitch patterns and even started a sample. But when the research was complete, I was able to see what was going wrong there and how it could be fixed. I removed wide lace sections, pared down the number of the stitch patterns I was using, and stuck only with those which resonated with the design's spine. I wouldn't waste so much time if I just did the research first!
Sometimes the spine just pops into your mind. We all find ourselves serendipitously naming a folder on the laptop for a new design in a quick and fun manner: orange sweater, sailing shawl, crystal clear top. That's it, dig deeper! Expand and refine it to find its spine. But sometimes we end up with simpler folder names such as: another shawl, red blue sweater, smth green. If you want to sail through your design process smoothly and make things easier from beginning to end, don't leave it like this, find the spine which will light your way down the path of design inspiration!
