Many of my designs start with the yarn. I find some beautiful yarn, and then try to associate it with something that will become part of the theme of the shawl. For Verðandi I was looking at this skein of Fame Trend. The shades of green and gold and ash gray made me think of the giant ash Yggdrasil which the Norns tend to daily. It holds the nine worlds in its branches, and without it the worlds would collapse. And since Verðandi is the Norn representing the present, and Yggdrasil needs to be tended to in the present, I thought it was a good fit for the second shawl in the Norn series. So look for the leaves of Yggdrasil spreading out over the Verðandi shawl.
Mystic Desire also started with a skein of yarn. I received a beautiful shawl of black lace from Blue Moon Fiber Arts overdyed in shades of green. I immediately started associating with sexy black lace, and romantic evenings by the fire. I knew I wanted to incorporate this somehow in the shawl, and ended up with a delicate heart motif as the main motif of the shawl. I also wanted to have very pronounced peaks along a very lacy edging, because I was hoping to “pique your interest” in the sexy black lace.
All this is not to discourage you from choosing a different colour when knitting my patterns. One of my favourite parts of Ravelry is how easy it is to see the same shawl knit in many different colours and yarn, and how it changes the shawl. As I mentioned the other day, Skuld can be seen on Ravelry in MANY different colours, and each knitter has somehow tied it to their interpretation of the future, and they are all wonderful.
It usually takes a while to go from the yarn musings to the actual design and knitting of the shawl. The current colours swirling around in my head looking for firm associations are among others this beautiful skein of Sundara Silk Lace in Ruby Port.
Another one that has been simmering for a while is Turtlepurl’s Satin Toes, although my mind has almost certainly locked this to granite. Luckily for me, I grew up in a landscape filled with granite – so there is lots to draw from.
