As I looked through the GAL designers, I thought I’d like to get to know Anjali M, affiknity, better.
You as a designer questions:
What is your design process?
Inspiration can strike anywhere and anytime. Once I have a fair idea of what I want to make, I start playing with yarn and gauge. I start knitting right away while making rough notes (sometimes illegible) about numbers, techniques and so on. This step may involve a lot of tweaking and frogging. Once I have a FO to my liking, I work on sizing, if applicable. After this comes the formal pattern writing and proofreading, testing and the actual pattern release on Ravelry.
What influences your style?
I tend to lean towards simple, practical things but with a twist. The typical raglan sweater gets a cabled pouch as a twist and becomes Texo pullover. A classic raglan cardigan is given a different touch with beads on the collar and sleeves. It is these simple touches which take these simple designs to a new level.
What about designing and producing patterns are you most adept at, what parts are you most fond of, and what parts are challenging? (Pattern Grading, the last week of editing, coming up with a name for a project, self promotion?)
The part which I am good at and enjoy doing is the pattern grading. I love math and spreadsheets, so I look forward to this phase. I love the initial phase too in which I play around with different yarns and stitches to see what catches my fancy and what it may end up as. I find requesting for yarn support a very challenging task.
You as a Giftalong designer:
Where you surprised at how big the giftalong became?
Not really. Considering how many accomplished indie designers we have and how committed and smart they are, GAL had to become as big an event as it is now.
Where you skeptical of the “abundance” ideas, or did they seem just right?I was initially skeptical when I I read about the idea for the first time. But considering how well GAL has been doing (for both designers and knitters), I am convinced that the idea is right.
You as someone who likes to make things questions:
What is your usual process on a fiber project, for instance, do you
start with a yarn, a cute pattern, a need you’ve noticed, something
exciting you saw in a movie you want to copy, or a technique you want to
learn – then what do you do next and then what?
All of these. I have knit sweaters because my son needed them. I have knit shawls because the lace caught my fancy. I have made hats to learn cables and fair isle.
Does anything intimidate you in knitting or crochet?
I was terrified of intarsia, but only until I tried it. I wouldn’t say it is intimidating, but I feel my finishing needs to be much better.
When you want to learn something, do you look it up in a book, on
U-tube, or seek a real person to teach you?
I rely on books for simple techniques, but anything more complicated, I rely on youtube videos.
Any repetitive motion disorders due to knitting or crochet? How do you
deal with them?
Knock on wood, nothing so far.
Do you frequent a particular yarn store?
I don’t have any physical yarn store, so I buy online – more often from KnitPicks.
Do you usually finish things? If not, does it bother you?
I don’t finish everything I start. It used to bother me, but life is too short to look at UFOs.
Do you get to do any “selfish knitting?”
Yes, I do knit for myself.
Is knitting a seasonal activity for you?
Though knitting picks up speed when winter is around the corner, knitting is something I do all year round.
What makes you buy a pattern (lovely photo, the story of the project, it
looks do-able, it looks slightly challenging…)
Eye-catching photo, interesting construction, new (to me) technique, pretty lace – I don’t need a reason to buy patterns 🙂
What gives you the feeling that you got your money’s worth out of a pattern?
Not every bought pattern turns into a FO. If I make something, of course then I have got my money’s worth. Even otherwise, if I pick up a new technique or learnt anything new, however minor, I would say it was well spent money.