09/09/2026
WIP WEDNESDAY
End of the year burnout...
Well, I've been doing what I set out to do since June, having a test knitter call out at least once a week and releasing at least two knitting patterns per month. I'm exhausted... But I promised myself that I would have all my older patterns updated by the end of this year, and I'm close to reaching that goal.
In some cases, I've had to rewrite the whole pattern; in others, I've only made minor tweaks, but all of them have been test-knitted and updated to be as close to universal knitting pattern standards as I can get. The Craft Yarn Council website has been quite helpful in that regard.
Why all the fuss? Honestly, I just wanted a piece of art I could be proud of. Most people don't think of knitting as art, but I think it takes more talent to make a garment than to paint a picture. Yes, they both require certain skill sets, but as a former landscape artist, I can honestly say knitting is much harder and more labour-intensive than sketching ever was. There's so much math and forethought that has to go into creating a knitting pattern even before you get to the knitting.
1. Planning and sketching out the garment (I usually skip this step, but shouldn't)
2. Choosing the yarn (yarn weight and yarn colours) that will work best with the design - there is cotton and wool and blends of all kinds that all behave and drape a certain way depending on how loose or tight you knit your fabric... It's really hard to choose sometimes
3. Gauge swatching/ figuring out stitch patterns and how they will work with the potential measurements of the design
4. Rinse and repeat if the math isn't mathing!
And this is all before you even cast on your first stitch. Then you have to knit the garment, usually more than once, to get the perfect outcome you see in your mind's eye. Hundreds and hundreds of hours of work for a sweater, a little less for a hat or a pair of mittens, but still work all the same. And I have been doing this all summer with the patterns I wrote when I was a newbie knitter and didn't know what the heck I was doing.
Then, of course, there's more work once the piece is knitted and the pattern is written... photoshoots for the garment, test knitting, and usually rewriting sections of the pattern for clarity, plus advertising for the pattern launch.
And somehow, knitting isn't art...??? Anyone can knit. That is true, but the same goes for drawing. It's whether you can do either well enough to make it art. And knitwear design is one of the most demanding, skill-requiring forms of art I've ever had the privilege of learning. If you have ever thought a knitting pattern isn't up to s***f, just think of everything that has had to go into it to even get it to that point. It's not as easy as you think.
Check out my Ravelry store:
www.ravelry.com/designers/gabrielle-vansteelandt
to see my remaining WIP's. Not many more pattern updates to go before I can focus solely on my new designs.
Gabrielle Smith - Times Lost Art
