As the week closes...

I've been attempting to document some of my productivity strategies this week only because they have felt so obvious this week. Unfortunately, I am still working toward yesterday's priorities. I got much of it done: submitted two final patterns and worked out a stripe sequence. Some of the non-design related ones got pushed aside (though its still a weekday, so I can finish those up later today).


Two projects are still not settled in my mind yet. Firstly, I am wanting to create a digital portfolio of my design work. It will, of course, be a working document as my designs grow and my perspectives develop. But I want a nice clean place that features my designs. Unfortunately, since replacing my hard drive about a year ago had resulted in some storage and organization issues on my laptop. So much of my time and mental energy has been spent trying to figure out a better way to handle all my data and storage settings. I think I have it about figured out, but there is still a lot of fine organizing details to deal with. Sadly, that does not result in any progress toward my portfolio, as I would rather not work on a new document while moving various files and backing up my hard drive.

The second project that is still irking me is a striped purse I am working on. I like the stitch pattern, I like the yarn, I like the general structure and idea that I am executing. However, while working on where my photos will live on my computer, I found the photograph I snapped of the bag that inspired me initially. The bag that is in my knitting basket is nothing like the bag I was inspired by.

So what do I do with it?

Luckily, the yarn that I am working with right now won't quite work for the bag I keep dreaming of (I literally have 3 different pages where I have jotted/sketched this purse out on). This means that pulling this current work in progress out is not worth it. I have used this piece as an exercise in some of the mathematics one can use to determine all kinds of things about the finished bag just from my "swatch" (which really was just the base of my bag that I knit, then measured it before starting on the next step of the piece).

I used this swatch to determine:

• how many stitches and rows it took to equal 1 inch of fabric (duh!)
• how many yards of yarn was used to create the swatch
• how many yards of yarn will it take to knit the remainder of the bag
• how many yards of each color of yarn do I have and how those yarns will work up into stripes to use as much of each color that I have
• when I need to begin shaping the top of the bag to create my desired opening (this decision is still in progress, but I have some time to think about it)

In the end, this bag is teaching me a ton (and will work up cutely), but the other bag is still dancing around in my head. I guess that's the challenge with being inspired by woven or leather bags I see in shops (or in this case on my friends arm).