I've been thinking about inspiration a lot recently and how it strikes.
It is difficult to explain how a piece of washed up rope or the beach you played on as a child turns into a shawl in your mind. And I'm still working on how to express the process.
But while I'm thinking I though I'd share a few examples of inspirations and the knitted object that emerged.
The Knitting and Crochet Guild holds a bigger archive of knitting and crochet patterns, items and hooks and needles than the Victoria and Albert Museum, with items dating back to 1836.
Such a valuable resource needs protecting and maintaining, so a few weeks ago I was delighted to come across a competition run by Yarn Stories to create a blanket pattern that would raise money to support the archive.
The first stage of the competition was to create a 15cm square in DK yarn inspired of images of items in the archive.
I'd recently be working on a design for a vintage-style hat and mittens with a diamond cable and eyelet pattern.
The pattern was a single cable column but looking at the archive pictures I thought of it again and realised that a double version would make an interesting square which in turn could act as a swatch for a scarf that could in the future be added to the Birdie pattern set.
Then I look for some colourful yarn to make the square - the Yarn Stories range uses some vibrant colours, so I choose this orange and created by square.
The square before posting off
In the last few days I heard that my square will be one of 10 designs that make up the final blanket. It is great that it will help support this valuable archive and I'm really looking forward to seeing it in the chosen yarn alongside the other squares.
It is also exciting that there will be a public vote to choose a winner from the 10 squares - as soon as I know more I'll share it here and lots of other places.