What I'm Doing Wrong in my Life (aka How Not to Design a Knit Toy)

I'm having one of those days where I'm thinking - WTF. Why am I doing what I'm doing? Why do I keep doing what I'm doing? It works, but it's stressful. Not fun.

Classes are starting soon, and I'm having a lot of fun cooking delicious things for anyone that shows up at my apartment ;) I have all the textbooks I need, know where my classrooms are, and all-in-all don't need to worry about anything in my life.

Except knitting.

**Here are a few lessons for those of you who may ever decide to design a knit toy. These tips will absolutely, positively maximize your stress during the design process.

1.  When writing a pattern, be sure to write as much as you can in completely different places.  Make sure that you use different colored pens, different sized papers, and do NOT number your sheets.  That way, when you drop them on the floor, you will get to put your notes together like a puzzle! This will be a welcome break from knitting.

Find above: Notebook A, Notebook B, Field Sketchbook, and the back of a Vogue Magazine.

2.  When you need to pick up multiple sets of stitches (for arms or legs) make sure NOT to look ahead to see if you have enough room for that last pair of legs.  One side will work out perfectly the same as the other, of course, always.

If you can guess what I'm making... I'll be seriously impressed, then a little annoyed.

(2.1  When in the early stages of the design process, make sure you add as many repeat parts as possible.  Tentacles, legs, arms, antennae, wings, leaves, and flowers are good examples.)

3.  Make sure that you design this toy on a deadline, as part of a swap.  If you stress out about deadlines, you will stress out 100 times more at the thought of some person awaiting for your package to arrive, in vain, since you aren't done yet.

4. Also, make sure that person lives as far away as possible to you.  Like, maybe, Alaska.

5. Then make that person really, really nice and understanding. Guilt multiplier!

6. Then, decide that you really need to knit a hat.

But it's so mindless! And someone asked me to make it! And I was supposed to make it weeks ago!

... So, if you take everything from the double asterisk (**) to here, you have how to design, the Alyssa way! Now I need to get back to work... =_=

Have a good weekend though, really, seriously, do!