Spirit of Flora- The Design Process

Next week’s pattern release for the Spirit of Flora crochet along project, which has been running in Inside Crochet Magazine, will be the penultimate one and we simply can’t believe just how quickly the CAL has flown past over the course of 2023. I am incredibly proud of the design and could not have envisaged at the start of the year just how amazingly well the crochet community would embrace it.

Last week, I gave a presentation at a fundraising event and the audience was surprised to hear about how many jobs are involved in the process of taking a design from conception through to completion. With lots of designs on the go at the same time this is something that myself and the team here at Janie Crow are constantly working on, so I guess we have taken it for granted that you all know what goes into a design from start to finish. 

Finding an inspiration source for a design can take ages, or it can come quickly. Sometimes it is as simple as seeing an image as a I flick through a magazine, but other times it can be something that formulates over the course of many months. Once I’ve got the idea for a design, I start by creating mood boards and then begin to try out a large colour palette. I start by 'doodling' with my crochet and the more crochet I do the more I can whittle down the colour palette - usually choosing somewhere between 8 and 11 shades for my final design.

Usually I draw a design out on graph paper to scale using a pencil and then I start to crochet my motif to fit, adjusting and rethinking along the way. Some motifs won’t make it to the final design (The Blue House blanket for example came about after a block didn’t make it into the Frida’s Flowers crochet along project) and lots of crochet doodles get put to the side along the way.

The design process for the Spirit of Flora CAL was a long one. There are 13 individual block designs, 3 blanket layouts, a bag and shawl pattern, as well as 2 cushion design options and 3 borders - this was never going to be a small undertaking with many people involved along the way! 

Once the crochet motifs start to look like something viable I remake and refine them and then start the pattern writing process. As a rule I write my patterns by hand first and then transfer them onto a word document, finally putting them into our house style. After that, I send them to my test crocheters to make and we refine them again. (Shout out to the people who pack and send the yarn to them to make this happen!) The test crocheters feedback any issues and then the pattern goes to a technical editor - who often finds things that the crocheters haven't - usually incorrect stitch counts and grammar errors. 

Once we have a definitive pattern we photograph the steps and make more adjustments if needed. Finally the pattern is checked through once more by myself and Emma and (if time allows) another crocheter. 

As this project was for Inside Crochet magazine, there were extra steps to consider: researching the shoot location, the styling and the photography - the image above was taken by the fabulous Leanne who managed to capture my joy at discovering a May Morris embroidered bed cover under the dust sheet at the Emery Walker House - what a total joy!

​Eventually the pattern and photos make it to magazine layout stage where it is worked on by a graphic designer with additional text added by the editorial team. At this stage, everything is checked again before heading out into the world! For the motifs in Spirit of Flora I have calculated that the blocks were looked over by at least 5 crocheters, myself and Emma, the magazine layout team and the editor, so maybe 9 people before it went off to print! 

Of course there are other things happening too: the team packing and sending out yarn kits, Sarah dealing with pattern queries and Andy heading up all other email related enquiries as well as Emma and Gemma, my ace social media team, monitoring and posting on our platforms and responding to queries of all sorts. 

In short, it is a BIG job, a mini-industry, with lots of people involved along the way. I am indebted to everyone involved in Spirit of Flora – and especially to you for being so welcoming of it and making it – what an amazing team effort to make this project such a success.

Thank you all so much!