After knitting for nearly a decade, I wanted to stretch my skills a little further. I’d been saying for years that I had no interest in designing, in large part because I thought it was beyond me. After all, just following a pattern can be complicated! But the longer I knit, the more I realized that I already was going rogue on patterns. I’d ignore the instructions for when to bind off, how long to make the increase section, how to set in the sleeves, what cable pattern to use. I was able to replace sections of patterns that I thought were poorly written with my own styles and methods. Plus, I kept having these images in my mind, these Finished Objects that I desperately wanted to create that just hadn’t been designed by anyone yet.

So I tried - and so far, this is what I’ve come up with. There are many more things rattling around in my head. For me, the hardest parts are experimenting to get the stitches looking “just right” and putting the instructions down clearly on paper. It might be a slow process, and it might take me ages to come up with more original designs. No matter how long, I’ll always be proud that I was even able to try knitting outside of my comfort zone. After all, if you can’t take risks with your knitting, when can you take risks?