Have you ever had that feeling where you have tons of design ideas, but you just can’t get them out of your head and into a more tangible format? Whatever you try, you just feel completely blocked.

This is a feeling that lots of new (and experienced!) designers get. Quite often, I think that fear is the root cause.

We’re afraid that by physically seeing our ideas in the cold light of day, it will illuminate all of their flaws. And of course, we don’t want to show them to anyone because they might criticise or point out that they’re wrong in some way…!

Today, I want to tell you that, even if that’s the case, it’s still worth it.

Seeing the weaknesses in our design ideas is always a gift because we can build upon those ideas to see them grow into something better! Besides, not all of our ideas are great - surprise, surprise! - so this is something you will have to get used to. And who knows! You might just find a gem in those design ideas that you will be excited to pursue.

In today’s blog post, I want to help you get past the fear and break that creative block. I’ll be sharing several tips as well as practical exercises you can do to get those ideas out of your head and into a pattern.

How to Get Your Design Ideas Out of Your Head and Into a Pattern

Action Brings Clarity

Someone once told me that action brings clarity - a phrase that has stuck in my head ever since he first said it.

If your brain is anything like mine, your ideas can feel quite abstract whilst they’re still in your head. They will remain that way until you take action and lock down more of the specifics in a tangible form.

By getting the ball rolling on your design idea, perhaps through sketching, swatching and exploring your idea, you’ll figure out where you want to take it and what your next step should be. Your idea will feel less abstract and much more clear.

Do whatever feels comfortable to you in order to make your ideas more concrete. This might involve sketching, swatching, writing about them or even talking about them with a friend.

15 Minute Exercise

A good way to break through the block is to set a timer for 15 minutes. During that time, keep sketching design ideas without stopping, even for a moment. The goal here is to avoid thinking about or processing what you’ve drawn. You don’t have to be a good artist - you just need to be able to communicate your ideas in a way that you can understand, yourself.

Don’t judge your ideas as you’re getting them down - this is not the time for that. All you need to do is get as many ideas out of your head as possible, and then you can work on finessing them afterwards. Think of this as your “first draft” - you can go back later and edit multiple times before you finalise them.

Test With Swatching

Don’t let your design ideas remain in your head because you don’t know how to make them a reality. If you’re not sure how one part of a knitting pattern design will work, test it with swatching.

Swatches aren’t just for measuring gauge. They are helpful when you want to figure out how a certain part of your design will work, such as how your trim looks next to the main fabric or shaping. Physically testing and seeing how your ideas look will make them real in a way that thinking about them indefinitely won’t.

I know some of you probably groaned when I told you to knit more swatches - sorry…! But rather than seeing them as something that just delays your progress, try to see swatching as something that stops you from wasting time on designs that aren’t going to work. Besides, making more swatches means more knitting! That can’t be a bad thing.

Share your process

One of the most motivating parts of the design process is when I share sneak peeks of ideas with my Instagram community and they give me feedback. After all, they are my customers and I want to know what they think of it.

Don’t be afraid of sharing ideas with your community too. It is extremely motivating. Listen to their feedback and genuinely take it on board - remember, even negative feedback is a gift.

This is also a great way of building personal connections with your online community. When you release your knitting pattern, they will feel connected to its story because they've seen it come together from the very beginning. For that reason, they are much more likely to buy the pattern.

Make an Intuitive Decision

Don’t waste too much time trying to choose which idea you want to pursue. Now is the time to go with your gut! Pick an idea that either you’re most excited to execute or that you’ve received the most positive feedback on from your community.

Follow a Standardised Design Process

Once you’ve selected an idea you want to pursue, move on to the next step in your design process. This will allow you to focus on making steady progress on your design whilst skipping the overwhelm of figuring out what to do next.

If you want to learn more about my own standardised design process, you can read about it in this blog post.

This doesn’t mean that every design will follow the exact same process - you will inevitably have to adjust and make changes along the way - but the framework will help you to keep moving forward towards making your design idea a reality.

Be Accountable

You are the only one who can turn this amazing design idea of yours into a knitting pattern. I can cheer you on and provide you with information that will help, but you are the one who needs to take action to actually make this happen.

Hold yourself accountable. Make a commitment that you are going to see this idea through to the end, even if it takes a long time. It will feel like hard work, but it will also feel like a lot of fun. And imagine the satisfaction you will feel once you hit that publish button! So worth it.

How do you make your ideas tangible?

Will you be trying my 15-minute design exercise? Or do you have an alternative method for getting your ideas out of your head? Share your tips with The Sisterhood using the comments section below. Your ideas might help other new designers with the same problem!