Patterns, where to begin?

The deep pattern dive has been delayed. As if there weren't enough travails with my health, one of my dogs (the yellow one, Morgaine) has been diagnosed with cancer. She's need a lot of care if she's to actuate her slim chance of survival. Morgaine and her sister (Pachamama) have been with our family since they were 8 weeks old. They're 10 years old now. They've been together since the womb. I can't imagine what it will be like for Pacha if she loses her sister. My daughter has already lost a cat and a very dear great Uncle. This is lot for her. It's always something, this life business. Sheez.

It hasn't stopped me completely. I have begun. I've been gathering notes and making a list of projects to convert:

1. Circles Ring Round
2. Siberian Collared Cardi
3. Lyssa's Double Knit Chevron Scarf
4. Leanne's wrist warmers
5. Asa's skirt
6. Francesca's skirt
7. Margaret's headband
8. Marv Mohair Cable Front Sweater
9. Girly Girl
10. Striped Ballet Sweater
11. Happy Halter
12. Twinkle re-design
13. new Babette's Hooded scarf
14. Fair Isle corded hat/wrist warmers - Turkish motifs
15. socks: swirling dervish
16. socks: simple twist for Kaleidoscope
17. proto-sleeve shawl
18. flirty skirt
19. Myrna's coat
20. German cardigan
21. short-row gloves
22. while alpaca two-piece set

So, that's a few things. And there are more in sketches and notes. Where do I even begin? There's the excitement of the most recently completed proto-type - the Siberian Collared Cardi - and then there are the simpler patterns to publish, such as the Flirty Skirt or a hat pattern. Of course, I want to work on patterns by others, too, so I'll have to get going on a couple of those...

And then, there are the patterns I owe to the Sock Hop club. They may think I've forgotten since that club fell apart last year. I had hoped to rely on a staff member who had a lot of sock designing experience to produce the patterns, but that didn't work out. With me getting more and more ill, I wasn't able to meet this obligation. That doesn't mean I've forgotten it, though. Things owed weigh on me and part of getting my life more functional is getting these weights off my shoulders.

So, I'll begin with the Swirling Dervish sock. It's a fun one. Done with a lot of Turkish techniques: a swirl toe with shaping for the littlest piggy; a border pattern at the top of the foot before the instep; Eastern and Western twisted traveling stitches for the main swirl patterning; an inserted heel; and a cuff finished with a Bosnian single crochet. (The Sock Hop club members will get a discount on the yarn.)

I had begun this pattern last year. Shelley was test knitting it for me. I had knit my proto-type on a skein of Blackberry Ridge Kaleidoscope. This is lovely yarn and feels great for a warm, cushy sock. In the colorway I worked, you could see the patterning. I wasn't sure, though, if it got a little too lost. So, Shelley worked it up in a much busier colorway. Then it was completely lost. A lot of work for no visual effect. So, we put it on hold for a more solid colored yarn.

Easy enough, right? Write something else for the Kaleidoscope - which had already been purchased for the sock club - and then use this pattern once you find a yarn that suits it. Well, easy enough until your hard drive crashes when you haven't done a back up in a while. (Bang head on computer to see if latent memory can be transferred from brain back into computer via violent osmosis. What? No luck?) Yes, that's what happened. I lost all the work. Or so I thought.

Recently, I was going through the hundreds of "stickies" I have in my Mac Stickies program. I have so much random information there and it had no organization. So, in a moment of needing to do something rather mindless but cathartic, I decided to try arranging them in some useful order. And, what do I find? Notes for the Swirling Dervish! All is not lost. The very specific toe shaping and the traveling stitch charts are there. These were the most detailed piece. I can easily recreate the rest. So, we're off.

I thought I had a bit of this sock on the needles so you could get a taste of the look of it. That photo at the top is what I found. Hmmm, that's not a toe. And those aren't traveling stitches. That is definitely the yarn I was making the proto-type from. I must have pulled it out to begin working on another pattern. We'll see where that goes. The new and improved Swirling Dervish will be done in the Cestari Sock yarn. The rustic simplicity of that yarn will suit the traditional Turkish styling well. I'll keep you posted.