#133 The Creative Process of Turning Inspiration into a Pattern

You don't have to be a designer to use your surroundings to inspire projects.

Truth is, you can inject little aspects of you, your likes and your world into anything you make. This episode and my chat with Vincent from Visuvios Crafts opened up my eyes to unique ways to find inspiration for projects and I'm even more energized to start something new.

So whether you publish your designs or you just like to free style projects for your self or others, we can all benefit from Vincent's unique perspective on finding inspiration from the world around you.

About The BHooked Podcast
Brittany's primary goal is to inspire you and help you grow in your craft with The BHooked Podcast. Through her own stories and the stories of each special guest, you'll discover tips and tricks to improve your crochet and knitting skills and find inspiration to achieve your hobby goals. When you want to kick back and learn from yarn industry experts, grab some yarn and turn on The BHooked Podcast. There's never a shortage of all things crochet, knitting or yarn.

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Transcript

Brittany 0:00

You're listening to the Be Oaked Podcast, episode 133, with Brittany. Well, hello there and welcome to episode 133 of the Be Hooked podcast. You know, the place where we just love yarn, we love to learn, and we truly believe yarn can do more for us than just make pretty things. And we're sort of talking along those lines again today, specifically addressing designing and where you draw inspiration from. And I have a really special guest who can share that with us in such a different perspective. Now, we talk a lot about designing here. We talk a lot about inspiration. I find it really interesting to see where designers get their inspiration from. So even if an episode isn't about designing, I like to add that in there just to see where they get their inspiration because I know it can help you not just as a designer, but even as a creator. Well, I was just completely surprised by Vincent's responses to where he gets his inspiration from. It's completely innovative. It's different and it's actionable. He knows I'm a steps kind of gal. I love to break things down step by step. He was able to do that perfectly. So this is one of those episodes where if you are a designer, you're trying to find your place in the creative community, you probably want to take notes. Now, before we get to all things inspiration and how to translate that into a design with Vincent from Vesuvius Crafts, I want to let you know that the show notes can be found at behooked.com slash 133. I'll have the links to Vincent's website. And his Instagram handles, you can connect with him there. But it's also a really great place for you to leave your comments and your questions. Down at the bottom of that page, there's a comment section, and that's where we can continue the conversation after this episode happens. We can talk about our inspiration for where we get our designs, and you'll hear me add some of my design inspiration little tidbits in there as well. But I'm really more interested in where you get your inspiration from. So after listening to the show, if you want to head over to the show notes, behooked.com slash 133, scroll down to the show notes page. Tell me where you get your inspiration from as a designer or just as somebody who's creating something from nothing. You don't have to be a designer and publish them to really utilize these tips for where to find inspiration from. All right, now this is a good one. I'm super excited about it. Here's my chat with Vincent. Vincent, hi, welcome to the show. I have been waiting for this one for so long. I'm excited you're here.

Vincent 3:06

I'm so glad to be here as well, Brittany. Thank you for having me.

Brittany 3:11

Yes, it's been a long time coming. You and I met in Chicago last year at the Our Maker Life event. And I think we talked at that point about having you on the show and, you know, how life just gets a little bit crazy. And here we are, like, actually over a year later, and we finally have you here. So I'm excited about it.

Vincent 3:31

Yeah, me too. I'm very excited. I was like, A little starstruck. I was like, oh my gosh, it's Brittany. Like she's here at Our Maker Life and I'm getting to meet her in person. So yeah, it was a lovely experience for me as well.

Brittany 3:45

Oh my gosh. And that's so funny. That's so funny to hear because I'm just me, you know, just little old me. I don't really feel like special or anything like that. But it's really interesting when you're in people's feeds, you know, on Instagram and when you're on YouTube and that sort of thing. You do sort of develop that feeling or that sense for people. I know I have that as well. There's a couple of YouTube channels that I really watch. There's a couple of entrepreneurs that I really admire. And I think if I ever saw any of them in person, I would be so geeky and would probably make a fool of myself. So I get it. Yes.

Vincent 4:29

Yes.

Brittany 4:30

Well, what have you been up to in a year? It's been a long time. I know you're designing a lot of things. So what have you done since Our Maker Life?

Vincent 4:39

Oh, gosh. So within this past year, I've pretty much designed and released about 10 different patterns between like that Our Maker Life and this year's Our Maker Life. Sadly, I was not able to get a ticket, but that's okay. That brought about my one of my like most recent designs that was inspired by the speakers who were there so that's what i've been doing and it's been a real joy to like create and collaborate with all the other makers and big businesses within the fiber industry so i mean like when i say big businesses i mean like line brand or um lovecraft's people like that as well as like jessica of the hook nook i um Did a design for her blog that was really fun. It was like 50% knitting and 50% crochet all in one design. So it was really cool to be able to like teeter totter between the two crafts in one piece of fabric. And then I collaborated with like Claire of Ottoman Indigo, whose yarns I had loved for many, many moons. And then Jake of Is That Ken Yarn?

Brittany 5:50

Oh, cool. Okay. That's really interesting. You know, for the first time I started knitting and crocheting in the same project, that was so much fun. It was a challenge because when you're knitting stitches, it's so much thinner and like the drape is a lot better than it is with crochet. So I found it really challenging, but it was a fun challenge.

Vincent 6:14

Yeah. I'm glad to hear that other people are starting to do that because I hadn't seen it in any other designs. And I was like, I wonder how this will work out if you place them together in one object and it's not just like you have a crochet edging on like a whole entire knit garment. So I agree.

Brittany 6:37

I have been challenged by my YouTube community to create a garment or some kind of wearable that blends knitting and crochet. And I'm like, oh gosh, you guys would suggest that. I'm really happy. But at the same time, I'm like, wow, that is going to be really challenging for me as a designer and as a creator, just because there's so much that goes into garments and making them fit properly for different body types and different sizes. And then you've got different gauge to work with. I don't know if it will be anytime soon, but I'm certainly accepting the challenge from them. So I do plan to do more knitting and crochet projects in one. I feel like for me, it's a really good way to blend those two things. Like I've been crocheting for a long time and doing the patterns for a long time. And I really added the knitting part Yeah. Wow. I was like, oh my gosh, I have to share this with other people because I can't possibly be the only one who totally gets crochet, but does not get knitting. And when it clicked, I'm like, man, I got to share that. But it's a little bit tricky because they're two very different things. And it can be a little bit confusing for people coming in. They're like, oh, you're the crochet person. You do a lot of that stuff, but here you are knitting and that's kind of confusing. So I think putting the two into one project is a good way to Yes. Yeah.

Vincent 8:39

Yes, I completely agree.

Brittany 8:42

Yeah. So I don't want to get too off track with that. I know we're going to talk a lot about designing and your inspiration. You've done a lot of, well, you said you've done 10 designs in a year. That's a lot. That's a ton of work. I know so much goes into that. So you have done this sort of creative process over and over and we'll get there. But I really want to know a little bit about your backstory. Yeah. How long you've been crocheting and how did you learn?

Vincent 9:11

So I've been crocheting for about nine, almost 10 years now. Granted, I was making like little swatches on and off for the first few years. So it wasn't like a super big completed garments in the first few years, but nine to 10 years. And I originally got started because my grandma taught me the chain when I was really a really little kid, but I didn't really take it any further than that. It was just like the initial crochet chain and then I was like, okay, I'm going to go outside now and then years later I learned like the bare bones basics from some old books and they had like these kind of crappy black and white photos that didn't really help me get from photo A to photo B but I somehow pieced it together and like learned what yarn over and like pull through and you have like three live loops on your hook now like I learned all of that eventually And it really was tricky learning from a book because having a person there to tell you, like, no, that's wrong in the middle of those steps is, like, so, so helpful. And then eventually, like, I learned from YouTube, which was so much more helpful than books. So I had been, like, scouring all of the Internet and... I eventually came across your YouTube channel. Oh, hey. Yeah, and so I had watched a lot of YouTubes before that, but in that, like, stumble down, like, the YouTube black hole, I had stumbled across your beginner crochet series, I want to say, like, maybe four or five years ago, and that really helped solidify all the little skills that I thought I knew, but it really helped, like, Yeah, I think

Brittany 11:19

that's the best of both worlds. I was never one to really learn through books and still am not today. I would really love to try like macrame and that sort of thing. And my mom did that many, many years ago. And I think that's the best of both worlds. She let me borrow some of her books and she was like, this is how I learned. You can make some really cool things. And I had the books for a while and man, I just couldn't connect the dots. My brain just doesn't work that way. So thank God for you too. But I think that's cool that you were able to sort of do the hardest part first. Like the learning through the books is definitely more difficult. And then you were able to just have confidence in what you taught yourself that you were doing it right through the videos.

Vincent 12:00

Yes.

Brittany 12:02

Nowadays, well, actually, I want to go to knitting, too, because you also knit. Now, did you knit first or did you crochet first?

Vincent 12:12

So I crocheted first and I would see like these gorgeous patterns and I'm like, oh, I want to make that. And then I would. click it and eventually, these are free patterns at this point. As a college student, didn't have the budget for that, but I would see these free patterns and I would click on them and then start to read it. And I'm like, oh, this says that this pattern is knit. I don't know how to knit. I know how to crochet. So after like hitting the wall a couple of times with patterns that I was so set on making, I was like, well, time to go ahead and teach myself how to knit because I saw this heavily cabled wrap and I was like, that's a me-sized scarf. So I want to be able to go outside in the morning with the horses because I was studying animal science in school. And in the morning here in Georgia, it's pretty icy. It's not like snow, but it's icy. So when I saw that, I was like, ooh, that cable knit wrap would be perfect. So off to the races I went and I started to learn how to knit. So it was definitely tricky coming from one hook to having two needles because, like, the mechanics, I just... really, really different when you compare them, even though they're similar in the fact that we use yarn. It was just really, really different. And I learned continental easy, like the continental style where you have the yarn tensioned in your left hand. Because all the videos originally had English, and I didn't know that there was a difference. I just saw people holding it in their right hand and wrapping the yarn. And I was like, what is this sorcery? I don't understand. Yeah.

Brittany 13:51

That's funny. So did you learn through YouTube or did you go to books for that?

Vincent 13:55

YouTube. Immediately YouTube. As soon as I started learning from YouTube, I never went back to books. I think the only thing that I would consider like book-ish or like written word would be maybe like going to websites that have like patterns or techniques. So sort of like written word but not like – a book. It's more informative than just the books.

Brittany 14:25

Yeah, yeah. I did the same thing. I gravitated towards continental knitting first because coming from crochet, that's what I knew. I knew how to tension the yarn in my left hand or my non-dominant hand.

Vincent 14:37

Yes.

Brittany 14:38

And I don't know. I don't know when the shift happened. It was pretty early on. I was watching – there's another YouTube channel. I think it's wonderful. Her name is Stacey with Very Pink Knits. I'm sure so many people have heard of her. But I watched a lot of her videos and she is a flick knitter. And I was like, ooh, that looks really cool. I want to try that. So I did an entire project with that style and I haven't went back. So I don't know. It looks – Pretty weird probably to see me tension the yarn in my left hand with crochet and then you watch my knitting videos and you're like, what are you doing? Why are you holding it with your right hand? But for me, it just feels a lot more natural. But I do try to go back and forth because I know a lot of my audience are crocheters. I'm just so much more clunky and slow with continental knitting now. Especially the purl stitch. That one gets me. I'm super slow at purling continental.

Vincent 15:34

Oh, wow.

Brittany 15:37

Yeah. Also, I heard that you have horses and that you love horses. I have to geek out about that because my childhood was – completely involved with horses. I started riding. I took riding lessons when, gosh, I think I was like six or seven when I first started. And I stuck with it all the way until I was about 23, I think, basically when I went to college a little bit later than most people. So that was about the time that I had already started college. But I just really couldn't keep up with it anymore. And I sold my horse at the time and I am... gosh, I would do anything to have him back. Right now, as we're recording this, he would be 22 if he's still alive. He's just the sweetest, most beautiful boy ever.

Vincent 16:34

That's so cool. It's really awesome when you can connect with makers on, yes, the yarn level, but then once you have connections outside of that, it's even more exciting. It's so cool to know that you're a horse person, too. I went Oh, yeah. Because I feel like that would just fit me so well. They're

Brittany 17:15

so majestic and just beautiful. So if you're listening and you're like, what on earth are you talking about? If you've ever seen any knight-style movies, you know, the big, black, beautiful horses with kind of like longer fur, like longer hair around their feet and like a really long mane and a really long tail, that's a Frisian. They're just gorgeous.

Vincent 17:39

Yes. Perfect description.

Brittany 17:41

yes so i had my horse was an appaloosa and he had one blue eye and one brown eye and it was so cool i bought him as a two-year-old he was a horse that came through the barn that i worked at i worked at this barn in the summer and bought him as a two-year-old And let's see, that would have been in 2000. I'm aging myself a little bit here. And I kept him until I, gosh, I don't remember how old he was when I sold him, but I sold him. I had him for several years. So we showed together. I trained him. I was the one who broke him. He was like the only horse that didn't throw me off and like step on me.

Vincent 18:25

Yeah.

Brittany 18:27

Which I think is why it was a match made in heaven. Yes. Brother Dunn is his name. Oh,

Vincent 18:33

cool.

Brittany 18:34

I wouldn't have done anything to have Bubba back.

Vincent 18:36

yeah that's awesome

Brittany 18:38

anyhow I'm going down a rabbit trail again here so at some point your crocheting and your knitting turned into more than just something to occupy your hands because nowadays you're designing and you're publishing your own patterns so when did you start doing that like what did that journey kind of look like we're setting us up here to transition now into your like designing journey like how you go from nothing to something

Vincent 19:05

Yeah, so... Like you said, originally I started out with turning to knitting and crochet as a way to sort of escape from my college studies and just like decompress and relax because like chemistry and things like that were really heavy and a lot of mind work focusing on the classwork. And so it was really great to turn to knitting and crochet to just relax and make little squares of things But then once I got the hang of it, I started making the physical products like many people do make physical products over and over and over for maybe like a market. I didn't do too many of those. I just kind of sold on my own website. But now I've started to design and I published my first pattern in 2017. So that was really exciting for me. I was actually very nervous to do that. even though I love being able to share my creations with other makers in that way, in addition to selling physical items, it's just something that's nerve-wracking about, like, will people like this pattern? Will they give it good reviews? Or will nobody actually purchase it who's actually not related to me? Like... Will random people buy this, or will it just be like, my mom bought my pattern? And I'm thankful. I'm thankful that my mom would buy my pattern, even though she doesn't knit or crochet, even though... Um, she's not in the maker world per se yet, cause I'm going to teach her how to knit. Um, yeah. And I think she's going to get it. I think she's going to get the hang of it really quickly. Um, but it's cool when other, you feel, uh, that other people resonate with your work. So that was my first pattern in 2017 and it was a cable knit scarf. So I didn't have to worry about like all the tricky stuff, like garments and waist shaping and bust and things like that. But that was my first pattern and it's it's really cool because it connects you with other makers and at that point in time I didn't have like a group of people that I knew who also crocheted or knit so it was just sort of like me and then I found the like Instagram community of makers and then I was like oh there's more than just me there's not like yeah Just me here.

Brittany 21:38

Yeah. That's really cool. I like the – well, that's a really good tip there in itself to start with something really simple when you're getting into designing. Gosh, my first – the first crochet pattern I ever published, I'm not practicing what I preach here. So it was a flower. So it was worked with popcorn stitches in the round. And for me, it was pretty simple because I had made so many of them. But – I would say something like a scarf or a wrap or even a shawl to some extent can be really easy as your first design because you're not working with, like you said, garments, shaping, different sizes, and that sort of thing. Now, the maker and the designer community is really unique because... All of our individual styles tend to shape like what we design and what we create. And so that's why there's such a big variety of things for people to enjoy when they're using our free patterns, when they're buying our patterns that we've put out there.

Vincent 22:41

Yes.

Brittany 22:43

When you started with scarves, you did that because – or with a scarf because it was so – simple it was really easy it was probably something that you wanted for yourself did you stick with accessories or um did you did you shift your focus a little bit so what type of designs do you like to focus on nowadays

Vincent 23:04

yeah i agree um it is so cool being able to see all the unique people um And like people's individual styles. And that's sort of like what I do now with the designs that I focus on. I try to relay my style, but also give things that I feel other people will connect to. So I've been doing a lot of bags as of late. I really like that because... You can wear them year-round, even when it's hot, and they're very useful, they're very functional, but you can also make them very beautiful in design. I think my design aesthetic would probably include, like, texture... cable knit deliciousness and tapestry crochet wrapped up in like a beautiful earth tones palette. I feel like that's sort of like my wheelhouse. So I've been designing shawls and I'm working on some sweaters, sneak peek, working on some sweaters and I think bags. So yeah, that's sort of like my wheelhouse my bread and butter as of late

Brittany 24:16

yeah and you know i have to ask this question because my episode with ron he he brought something to the table that i had never even thought about before he was saying that his designs are very bright and very colorful and that's what he was really known for but he said in all reality like you'll probably find me wearing like a green shirt Yes. Like pretty much every day. So it's like his personal style, how he likes to dress and probably the way he decorates his home and that sort of thing is different than the stuff he creates. Do you find that you're like that or does your design sense sort of match your personal style?

Vincent 25:01

I would say it's like a mix of both for me. Like I really love and – In my heart of hearts, I love a neutral palette. I love the grays and things that you can wear every day, and having those basics set out first, and then you can add on your pops of color so you can have a fun, funky shirt, but then... not have people like realize that you wear this shirt maybe like once a week once more than once a week and it's like oh you love that tie-dye shirt so i love to like translate that into my designs as well something that you can utilize as often as you like but i also realize as a designer um it's fun to switch things up with your color color palettes so that you can market to different people um there are some people who stay with like that neutral i only work with gray taupe black and white and then there's some people who like work with crazy colors and i think i'm a little bit in between the both of those worlds because i really love both but i realize i don't wear just one color all the time even though my favorite color too is green um i've been working i've i For my Twilight at Calgary bag, I think you may have seen it. It's like a really big tote bag that I made, and it was in this purple-y colorway, inspired by Chantal of Nittitude, inspired by her hair.

Brittany 26:36

Oh, yeah.

Vincent 26:37

And then the blue was inspired by her husband, Todd, one of his shirts that he was wearing. And so for me, that purple-y colorway, my eyes would skip right over that color. But... As a designer, it was really cool to push myself outside of my comfort zone of green, mustard, rust, and maybe charcoal or black, and work with that because it was really fun. So yeah, hopefully I didn't just give a long tangent, but... I think that answered your question of my style of color and things like that.

Brittany 27:13

Yeah, it was super useful. Now, I would have to say I tend to agree with that. I feel like I'm pretty similar. I am in this sort of transitionary phase where I feel like I'm really figuring out what I like. I don't know if that's just something you figure out when you're in your 30s, like all of a sudden you know who you are. But I feel like I'm going through that right now. And I – love like the the color of my office for example is like a powdery blue it's more of like a powdery silver blue and i just look at it and i just love it and pair that with like a blush color or sort of like a coppery orange like a real tone down like a mute that's sort of like the color palette that's in here and i think because i'm surrounded by it every day um I just am really, really drawn to these colors. So I'm tending to shift my yarn choices in that direction. But I still really love a bright color. I really appreciate a variegated yarn that has long sweeping color changes and it's super bright. So every now and then I throw one of those in there. But I do tend to like really neutrals now. And that's sort of where I get my inspiration from. I think you get your inspiration from a really unique place, though. And I want to kind of turn in that direction now and start talking about where you start when you want to create something new and what your source of inspiration is. Maybe you can repeat that, like how you're using the makers. And then if there's another source of inspiration, too.

Vincent 28:50

Yeah. Okay. So in terms of my designing, I normally pull inspiration from a little bit of everywhere. I normally start with what type of design I want to create. So like, is this going to be a shawl or is this going to be a bag or is it going to be, I'm not really like a hat person. Like I realized I like making hats for myself because I realized I have a big head and lots of hair. So it's It was really good to help me understand how to make a hat for my head. But I realized everybody likes to wear hats differently. Some people like them snug. Some people like them loose. Some people like them slouchy. So for me, I used to like avoid hats like the plague, but now I'm a little bit more open to it. So it's sort of like what does I start off with? What type of design I want to create? Doesn't matter what it is. And then I pull inspiration from like a number of places. For the most part, you'll realize that I am a big nature kid. I like a lot of the colors that we see in nature and flowers and trees and like the water, different landscapes. But I also like the motifs of architecture so, so much. It's I love researching the little details that are in architecture from around the world. into my design. I really like that. maybe even like sounds. So for me, I'm very much a music person. If you see me without my headphones on, you're in for a treat because I normally listen to music very often. So sometimes I get inspired by like even a mood, like that feeling you get when you're on vacation and you wake up to see the sunrise as the birds are chirping and you're just like sitting in the peace of that experience. Like that can just inspire a design for me out like so often. It's wonderful. So I think I pull inspiration from a lot of different places. I know some people go to the store, the mall, and see what's on the shelves. But for me, I pull inspiration from the things I feel and see and listen to around me and in the world.

Brittany 31:31

Yeah, those are some really unique answers, too. I have never really heard of somebody... Drawing an inspiration from music and like a feeling. That's really cool that you're able to translate that feeling into a project. Do you have any advice on how to do that? Do you think that's something that anybody can do or do you think that's just more of like your personality? I

Vincent 31:57

think... It depends on the person. I know some people are just not designers and they want you to hand me the pattern. I'll try to follow it to the best of my ability. But then I believe that in my heart of hearts, everybody can design and pull from inspiration like that. It's not too tricky. I feel like... Let's say music. Just looking at a piano, you can pull inspiration from the keys itself. Like some of the keys are white and are longer than the black keys, which are shorter in terms of like distance coming from the body of the piano. So you could... Turn that motif of having a short black line and then a long white line and then a short black line, a long white line into like the bottom of a blanket. And it can be like this almost, you know how they represent like music waves or sound waves? where it's sort of like those lines coming up from the bottom of your screen. You can translate that visually just directly to a blanket, and that can be the bottom in whatever color you want it to be. It doesn't have to be black and white. It could be your favorite color combination, and that could be at the bottom of your blanket, and you can put that at the top of the blanket. And so you'll have a long rectangle with these sort of... lines coming up towards the middle and then you'll have that on the bottom and top like you can you can translate that to a design literally it doesn't have to be like an emotional metaphoric translation it can be like a literal translation of like what you see and that's really easy and really fun and it's something that's super simple and you can put that in your home like it's not something that that may be just like seasonal like it's not like a santa hat and you can only use that during like the christmas time or it's not like um a hanukkah like motif that you can only use at a specific time it's like something that's timeless and that's just really cool in terms of like color so that's how like anyone can pull inspiration from anywhere. Hopefully that's helpful.

Brittany 34:17

I think it is. It sounds like it's more of a perspective shift. It's not that you can't open your eyes or maybe you just don't realize these things, but you're just maybe not trained to think that way. So I think if there's anybody who's struggling with pulling inspiration from around them, that just open your eyes a little bit more and realize that Literally anything that you see, you could potentially turn, you know, turn that into something. You could, like you said, seeing the, like the waveforms. I feel like I totally missed it on that one because as a podcaster, I see those waveforms every single week. But I never thought to put that into a project. So it's just, I think someone needed to hear that in order for them to say, oh, yeah, I could totally do that.

Vincent 35:11

Yeah. Good.

Brittany 35:13

I'm excited. Yes, I think it was very helpful. So from there, what does your design process look like? Like from start to finish, you've got the inspiration. What do you do next?

Vincent 35:26

Okay, so I've got my inspiration and we're going to go with this like piano blanket idea. So I've got the inspiration. I saw the piano and I want to create something from that motif. I'll start brainstorming the idea next. So I'll write down as much information as I can immediately in my little design journal so that I don't forget any parts of my example. So I'll just draw out the rectangle really quickly and that will work. represent my blanket I don't have to write dimensions right now I'll just draw that out then I'll draw lines representing the waveform waveforms on like the bottom and the top of the blanket and then now I have like a rough sketch of the blanket then I'll write down what kind of yarn do I want to use do I want to use like an acrylic for a baby blanket because you want like a new mom to not have to worry about like spit up and like other kinds of things that end up on blankets so you can choose that or if you want to make this like a super luxe blanket that's like cashmere or just like a super superwash merino that you want to like last generations as like something for someone who's not a baby then you can write that down um then after what type of yarn i would think about like what hook size is or if you're knitting it what needle size is because that will also impact your fabric so think of like like your yarn weights and then the combination of what hook size or needle size you're using with that yarn weight So if you have a larger than what is recommended hook size with hooks, that yarn weight, let's say worsted weight, and you go up a hook size or two, that'll give you a nice squishy fabric that has a little bit more air in between the stitches. And then that way you can envision like, do I want this a really dense fabric or do I want it like a very squishy fabric that'll keep me warm, but it's still like really soft next to the skin. That's what I write down with like the hook size, the yarn, my inspiration. then I would start to focus on the color palette and the The dimensions. There we go. The hook size. And then I would focus on the color palette and your dimensions. So if you want the blanket to be like a twin size blanket or you want it to be a throw or Afghan, or if you want it to be like a me size blanket as a six foot two man, like if you want to be able to wrap yourself up in a burrito and that sort of size blanket, you can write those sorts of things down. So those are like all of the things that I do in terms of brainstorming. then I'll take this like rough pencil sketch and then I'll sketch it out digitally so that I can draw my color combinations on the actual sketch. If you've seen any of the things that I've done before, like maybe my green whack-a-mole bag, it's a color work bag. So I really want it to be able to draw out my colors on the bag so that I can see, no, actually I don't like this as much as I thought I would like it in my head. So I would do that for the piano blanket, sketch it out with the colors. And that way you don't like buy all of this yarn and then you don't like the colors together. So That's inspiration, then brainstorming, and then the sketch. I would draw my sketches on paper and digitally, but you can just draw them out on paper with colored pencils. That's A-OK, too. I think either way, just sketching it out and planning before really helps your wallet thank you instead of wanting to fight you because you've bought all this yarn and now you don't like the colors together. But then what you actually do by the yarn, I'd swatch it because if you want your hook If you envisioned a hook size and you start working with it and you don't like that fabric, then you can adjust it with your swatch. And then you're off to the races. Then you're done. That's what I would consider my design process from inspiration to actually starting the sample.

Brittany 39:45

Yeah. I like that you put so much preparation into it because – Yeah. And then you realize these things and you're like, huh. Okay, so if I would have spent like an hour every day or so for a few days to plan this out beforehand, I now wouldn't have to frog 10 hours worth of work because you're talking about a blanket year. So that's a lot of work that you're investing, a lot of time that you're investing. I think that's a really good tip too as a designer because especially if you're a maker, if you're selling your patterns online, And you're depending on that income. You know, time is money. Yes. So a business is there to make money. Yes. As dirty as that might sound, you know, that's – That's the reality of it. People need to make money to earn a living, and some of us do that with creating our designs, whether it's a full-time income or a part-time income or something like that. So you really do have to think about the time that you're investing into it to make sure that you are profitable because you need to be profitable.

Vincent 41:13

Yes, very important. At the end of the day, we are all – yes, we are all makers, but we are also all – business people and we need to take that side of our business into account as well. So I agree, it's very important.

Brittany 41:29

Yes. Well, I like that you used the example of a blanket here too because that leads me perfectly into a question that somebody had for you on Instagram. And that's how do you not lose steam when you're working on a big project? Like do you think it's enjoyable the entire time or is it more realistic to say that you have to push yourself and kick yourself through that a little bit?

Vincent 41:56

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's a good question. So I've made like a couple of huge blankets, just like the one we're envisioning now. Like I did a Harry Potter blanket that was like crochet color work for my brother who is like almost as tall as me. So it definitely took a long time to make that. Or my like Black Panther blanket that was like little intricate details of like crosses and triangles and things like that, where it's like repeating and it's so small and it slows you But I really try to make it an enjoyable experience, especially when you're designing, when you are designing something, you have to make it enjoyable for you so that the people who work your pattern can also enjoy the make it an enjoyable experience. So I try to design things that have. interesting milestones to reach um whether it's a motif or a colored way difference um or like a difference in techniques like i try to make it interesting so like our piano blanket you'll start off with maybe just like a little wedge at the bottom a little wedge of maybe all black so this is just mindless double crochets and this is just to get the blanket started and you can see how wide it is and you're just working up like a wedge of black then you'll be excited to reach the point where you're actually doing like the thinking section of the blanket when you're doing like a background of white and then a line of black that's gonna be eventually turning into your piano key. But right now, as we're working in like a printer fashion, so row by row, it's just like a little bit of white, a little bit of black, a little bit of white, a little bit of black, a little bit of white, and so on and so forth. So now you've gone from just having a double crochet background of black to now doing some fun math of just making sure you have the picture working up properly. And that's where the fun really comes in for me. I get to see the picture come to life or the motif print up like a printer and it's cool to just watch that and experience that part. So I really enjoyed that milestone. And then after that little wedge of the piano keys is done, maybe in the center, you'll switch back to just solid white for the big chunk of the blanket, but we'll do some fun texture stitches there. And that'll keep, keep it fresh and you won't think okay I've been working on this piano key section for two three weeks and I don't know I don't think I can finish this blanket but then you get excited about the next section and then from the center I would just do everything in reverse so you have your texture stitches in the middle then you have your piano key focus on the math section and then you finish off the blanket coasting downhill with a black double crochet wedge at the end so So that's how I like to keep it interesting. Switch things up, keep milestones, keep it fun, make it interesting with color. Even when you work with variegated yarn or hand-dyed yarn, just seeing the color stitch for stitch, seeing colors fly through your fingers is such a special experience. So I would not even discount looking at the difference in each of your stitches, not focusing on the overall picture at first, but... It can be like a stitch by stitch experience.

Brittany 45:39

I love this tip. I think it is so great for somebody to think that way when they're designing to have different milestones. I always sort of joke about this, but there's so much truth to it that when you're working on something and you start to get bored, change colors because it feels like a completely different project at that point. And those milestones are powering you through those bigger projects.

Vincent 46:05

Yep, for sure.

Brittany 46:06

Now, I also know that it's really important for you personally to highlight the beauty of being yourself through your designs. And I think that is one way that we can really set ourselves apart as designers and really find what we have to offer this community. So how are you able to accomplish this? And how would you suggest somebody accomplish this for themselves in their own designs?

Vincent 46:33

Okay, awesome. So yes, I love telling people to like appreciate who you are, highlight who you are through your designs. And for me, I think the best example of highlighting my personal style or just my personality would be maybe my, one of my yoga mat bags that I did last year. There's this, there's, like a gold and black bag that I've done that has like a lotus flower on it. And I love the colors. The colors are very me. And I feel like that's one way to translate your personal style into your work. It's work with colors that you enjoy because without even talking to you, someone just passing by can sort of create their own story Yes, stereotypes. We don't want to fall into stereotypes, but they can create their own story of who you might be based on the colors that you're wearing in a sweater that you've made or the colors that you're wearing in a bag that you've made. Someone can... Just get a story from just the colors. So that's one way you can translate who you are into your work. Another way that I translated myself into that specific bag was the motifs that I used. So as a little kid, I used to really, really enjoy X-Men, like the cartoon X-Men. version of x-men yeah uh and then i also really enjoyed my parents took me to like disney when i was small and we got to see lion king like the play

Brittany 48:18

oh yeah that was my favorite movie

Vincent 48:20

powerful. Oh Yay!

Brittany 48:21

I love lion king . I still know every single word

Vincent 48:25

yes

Brittany 48:27

but i haven't seen the play.

Vincent 48:28

Be Prepared was my favorite.

Brittany 48:29

Yes.

Vincent 48:31

I don't know. I think the villains, like the Disney villains, had so much soul. They were just so misunderstood. But yes, that was a really powerful moment for me, seeing the play and the actors actually coming out into the audience and interacting with me. That was very powerful for me. So I combined both of those things that I enjoyed into my design by... Combining like this X motif on the bottom to like translate X-Men and then also have like an African mud cloth motif sort of in the body of the bag to translate sort of my connection to being an African American as well as... the love of Lion King and just the things that I saw, the, the fabrics, the textures, all of the colors, I translated all of that and tried to combine that into one project. And that's how I just highlighted me as a person. Like I love the African mud cloth vibe, but it's a yoga mat bag because we're focusing on like hell and just trying to, you know, do self self care. Um, and then X-Men just having fun with enjoying, enjoying yourself on a Saturday morning. So that's how I highlighted myself. Um, and that's how I like to encourage other people to highlight themselves, like put, put things that are special to you and your design, um, be it like a motif or just like a texture or colors. Like you can get those things to translate and create a story without even having to speak to someone. Um,

Brittany 50:11

Yeah. Yeah. Now, I'm also curious about your experience as a man in the maker community. That's something I don't really get to talk about a whole lot because there seems to be a lot more women who crochet than knit, or at least that's how it looks on the surface. I would love to have more men on the show and just hear their experience and that sort of thing. Do you think that has any influence on your designs, your inspiration and that sort of thing?

Vincent 51:00

I would say yes, yes and no sometimes. So being a man in the maker industry is very interesting because from the outside perspective, it does look like a heavily woman-predominated industry. Wow, is that the word? Using a heavily female-dominated industry. Yes, that was correct. It looks like a heavily female-dominated industry, but it's not that men aren't here. So it was, for me, when I first started knitting and crocheting, I too thought men didn't just make their own things when really, in reality... If you needed to make something out of necessity, you were going to learn how to knit or learn how to crochet. So there's always been men making things for themselves if you needed to make something. You just don't see that as heavily promoted nowadays. And I don't know why that is. Maybe going back to gender stereotypes and things like that. But I feel like it's... not only is it creative, but it can also be very functional and utilitarian to be able to make something for yourself. So I don't look at it as something that's like girly. It's like, this is cool. I get to express myself. I get to share my creativity with other people. And so as a man, it's very interesting to be able to, like I explained with my, the yoga mat bag, it's, It's cool to be able to put the things that I relate to as a six foot two black man with long locks, like put that into my creations and the creation be able to still resonate with somebody who doesn't look like me, who doesn't live in the same area as me, or who doesn't have the same background as me. It's... Things that I would have to worry about in terms of making sure a lady feels comfortable with my presence. All of that discomfort or nervousness automatically goes out of the window because we can connect with yarn. So my experience as a man has been interesting because I have to... I have to honestly always think about making sure someone feels comfortable with my presence, not necessarily my crafts or my creativity, but just my being is something that I've learned to navigate so that not only I feel welcome and comfortable and excited about being in the crafting space, but that you learn how to connect with other people and make them feel comfortable. So I think as a man, I felt welcome to begin with. I didn't feel shameful about crocheting or embarrassed that I crocheted or knit, but it was more so understanding how to navigate and make other people feel safe and comfortable in your space so that you can connect on a deeper level. And it's not anything like... I am trying to go on a date with you or like I'm trying to get your phone number it's it's literally like we're here all here to talk about yarn and have fun with that so that's my experience as a man in the making industry and it's been very interesting

Brittany 54:44

yeah I appreciate the perspective I think it's it's really interesting to hear but you know at the at the end of the day crocheting and knitting, it's an art form. And we're all artists. We all share that. We all share our love of yarn. And I don't think it matters if you're male or female. If you dig yarn and that's how you like to express yourself, the more the merrier. I really want there to be more male designers because... we need more patterns for things for men. I know for me, it's difficult for me to design men's things because although I can use my husband as sort of like my dress form to take measurements and that sort of thing, that's one body type. So I feel less qualified, I guess, or less able to design practical, fitting clothes male things and i i really do feel like there's a shortage of male hat patterns male sweater patterns and that sort of thing and i think we could really use that because i know that if there were more of those resources available to me i would be more likely to make those things so i love it when we have a male designer in the community

Vincent 56:01

yeah me too i i also noticed that um there was slash still sort of is a shortage of men's patterns. So I'm very excited to try to offer those things to the maker community because in the past, I realized I actually used to modify women's sweater patterns so that I could wear them. Yes, because I couldn't find men's sweater patterns that I liked. So of course there were designers that I love, like I love Jared Flood I love Michelle Wang, but I didn't feel like there were the same number of various offerings as there are for women's patterns. So I would take a women's sweater pattern and I would pull the motif from the sweater pattern. And then I would put it on a silhouette that is flattering to me. Like I don't necessarily need any waist shaping or I don't need any like shaping for darts or like bust or anything like that. Like I don't need that. Like it's kind of a boring tube sometimes, but like you can still create things that flatter the silhouette because I know nowadays people like that broad shoulders look and then like sort of a tapered, taper from the chest to the waistline. That's the general silhouette that you would see on most male garments. And so I would knit that shape for myself, but then pop in the motif so that I could still have my little piece of fun and join in on the excitement of the pattern, but still wear something that does not actually look like I just... bought like a lady's sweater and put it on and they're like oh okay that that waist shaping looks real lovely on yes sir

Brittany 58:03

yeah and that's another just creative representation of how you find inspiration and turn that into something that's useful for you

Vincent 58:12

yeah

Brittany 58:14

well Bringing it all together, you have given us so many good tips about where to find inspiration, how to turn that into a design in like a step-by-step fashion. I love that because I am a steps kind of gal, so you're really speaking to my heart with that one. But out of all of the good stuff that we've talked about and all the tips that you've given, what's your number one tip for a listener to turn an inspiration into a design?

Vincent 58:41

Okay, that's a great question. My number one tip for all of you listeners to turn your inspiration into a design at the end of the day is to live your life and soak in the magic of everything around you, be it the minute moments of the mundane or the soul-shaking moments that will live as cherished memories for lifetimes or generations. You can have inspiration in a puppy a happy puppy greeting you as you come home from work or like when you wake up the sun shining through the leaves or like being proposed to in like a special way where you're like in the forest and on a hike and you get proposed to and you'll remember that forever like you can find the magic in all of those moments and turn that into a design so live your life and soak in the magic of everything around you

Brittany 59:38

I love it I love it that was so eloquent and I think that will really stick with us so thank you for that and Vincent this has been so amazing I really don't want this conversation to end but I do want to give people a chance to connect with you because obviously you have a lot of really great advice to give you've got a lot of good designs to share so where is the best place for a listener to go right now to just connect with you after hearing the show

Vincent 1:00:06

okay so um I'm, always available to connect with and speak with via my Instagram of Vesuvio's Crafts. My business is Vesuvio's Crafts, even though my name is Vincent, and you can connect with me on Instagram and my website. I'll be having, at this point, you should see sneak peeks and teasers for my upcoming fall and winter collection of pattern designs. So that's where you can connect and join in, in my little crafty corner of the I

Brittany 1:00:40

love it. Your crafty corner of the internet. I will have those linked in the show notes so you don't have to remember those or try to figure out how to spell that. I'll have it linked in the show notes so it's right there and ready for you. And Vincent, thank you seriously on behalf of all of my listeners. This has been so wonderful. I'm so glad we were finally able to get this worked out. Thank you.

Vincent 1:01:02

Yes. Thank you, too. I really appreciate it. And I feel very honored and humbled to be here with you and your audience.

Brittany 1:01:10

All right. Once again, that was Vincent from Vesuvius Crafts. I encourage you to check him out on Instagram so you can see what he has going on and bring what he just said to life. It's really cool to see his designs now after hearing where he gets his inspiration from. It's like a completely different perspective for me. So again, you can find his Instagram handle. It's Vesuvius Crafts, but I'll have that in the show notes as well. So you don't have to worry about remembering that or spelling it if you're on the go or if you're dry I'll have that there for you. The show notes are at BeHooked.com slash 133. Also, don't forget to share where you get your inspiration from in the comment section of that page. Or because I'm really trying to show this community the value in Twitter and how great it is for conversations, tweet me about it. My handle is at BeHookedCrochet. That's just the letter B. And tell me where you get your design inspiration from. I can't wait for that. I'm challenging you to do that so that we can continue the conversation on Twitter. But of course, if you'd rather leave the comment on the show notes page, that is available to you as well. One last thing I want to mention before I go is that this episode was brought to you by my blueprint course, Tunisian Crochet for Beginners. Tunisian crochet is one of those skills that I learned as a result of having a lot of hand and wrist fatigue, but still needing to craft and create. I didn't want to let go of my hooks or yarn. And as you heard at the beginning of this episode, me and knitting were not friends for quite a while. So I found Tunisian crochet... after I started doing the standard crochet, but before I started knitting. And it was so much fun. It opens up a whole new world of different stitches, but it also can recreate stitches from both crochet and knitting. Did you know that? You can create crochet stitches with your Tunisian hook. You can create knit-like stitches with your Tunisian hook. And you can create something completely different. So it's like this hybrid that takes it up a notch. It can be totally unique, but it can also do other things. So I teamed up with Blueprint, which is formerly known as Craftsy, to bring you a completely beginner course on Tunisian crochet. So I'll run you through everything from... what hook you need to get because they are a little bit different. And I'll walk you through your first three projects because there's really no better way to learn than to create something as you're learning. You're getting that instant gratification or nearly instant gratification and you're learning something in the process so you'll be more likely to stick to it. So to find out more information on Tunisian crochet for beginners, just head over to behooked.com slash TCFB. That's behooked.com slash TCFB for Tunisian crochet for beginners. And I can't wait to be a part of your learning journey and help you with Tunisian crochet. All right, now that'll do for this week's episode of the Be Hooked podcast. Thank you so much for joining me today. It's been so, so much fun. I really, really enjoyed this conversation and bringing you those interesting and different perspectives for where to find inspiration and how to translate that into your designs. Or again, if you're not a designer, into the things that you're already making. So let's not forget to thank Vincent over on Instagram for his time and his wonderful wisdom here on the show. And I will see you next week, my friend. Have a wonderful weekend. Bye for now.