Have you ever tried to design a pattern for anything? I never gave the patterns I used much thought. I found one I liked, bought the yarn (or a close substitute), the needles, swatched (or not), and started following the directions.
Sometimes the directions are clear and easy to follow. Other times, the wording is convoluted and confusing. Sometimes it's obvious that the designer is a novice as evidenced by poor terminology or incorrect punctuation. A misplaced set of brackets or the omission of a * can make a world of difference by the time you get to the end of the row! The error might not even be the designer's - it could be the type-setter, the proof reader, or the editor. None of us are perfect. We all make mistakes.
About two years ago, I began working on some beaded Christmas ornaments. They were all original, one-of-a-kind designs and I thought I might try my hand at writing out the patterns as I went along. It was my first foray into free-form crochet and I was enthralled with the freedom of "just doing it." But I soon found that freedom to be a two-edged sword. It was very hard to take advantage of striking out with creative abandon when I had to stop every so often to write down what I had just done. Have you ever noticed that the word "every" is just "very" with an "e" stuck on the front of it? I had to stop VERY often! It took away from the spontaneity of the thing somehow. 
On the other hand, if I didn't take the time to stop and write everything down, the combination of beads, the extreme free-form-ed-ness of the design, and my total lack of experience in this genre of crochet left me at a complete loss unable to back-track and record the stitches I had only just performed. What I thought would be a fun project that might give me some extra Christmas income if I sold the patterns, turned out to be just one colossal headache. It wasn't long before I abandoned the idea of becoming a "designer" and just plowed ahead with the crocheting. Consequently, although I can look at the ornaments. and get a basic idea of what I did at which juncture, the random details which serve to distinguish between one ornament and another are truly lost forever!Considering that it was Christmas, my mind, and my beaten-down spirit turned to God -- the One who created us all and gave us us each our individual personalities and looks. The One who makes sure that even with twins that no two are an exact duplicate of one another. We are all created in His image but each of us is an individual. Now think of that in terms of design skills!! Boggles my mind! Over the centuries, how many people...? How many patterns...? How much thinking ahead, planning...?
And God even tells us how He does it! No magic involved here. In Psalm 139, verses 13 through 16, He has the Pslamist write, "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."
"...you knit me together in my mother's womb." What an image those words form in my mind. We all know the attention to detail it takes to knit a garment together and here, metaphorically speaking, are the hands of God, gently wielding a pair of shining knitting needles through which run the diaphanous threads of our lives, placing each stitch just exactly so, until we are "fearfully and wonderfully made" and "woven together" very precisely, not haphazardly or without forethought. No! There was not only a pattern for each and every one of us, but each pattern fits into a plan which had been written out. And for each of us. Not one of us was a surprise. Not one a project picked up just to kill time, rather, "All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."
My studio is such a mess right now. Stuff everywhere. Sock yarn mixed in with roving. Patterns out of their binders. It's a wonder I can find anything. Since getting home from the hospital, I've created chaos and then done little to set things back in order.
The majority of my knitting and crochet consists of frogging and tinking and the closets contain more UFOs (UnFinished Objects) than FOs (Finished Objects). Maybe I need to follow God's example more closely and get a plan in mind, write it down in a book, and follow it. My results certainly won't be as fearfully and wonderfully made as His were, but certainly following His example can only result in improvement, right?
Until next time when things will be less chaotic...
Warmly with Wool and Cool as Cotton,
Maddy
