So I lied when I said the blog would be quiet this week– I didn’t realize that the preview of Interweave Crochet’s Spring issue would finally be posted, and I’m too excited about my patterns to wait to blog about this issue!  I have 2 patterns in the magazine, the Flower Power Pillow (ravelry link) and the Kaleidoscope Eyes Mat (ravelry link). I’m going to share the story of the mat today and the pillow later this week, so as not to overwhelm you with blabbering.

Here is a photo of the original mat I made (ravelry link).  We used to live in a basement in Bozeman and the floors were COLD, so put this together in order to keep my feet warm in the bathroom. Keep in mind that I’ve washed it a few times and we’ve been stepping on it for over a year. It’s really held up quite well. The yarn (Brown Sheep Cotton Fleece) does have a small amount of wool mixed in, which makes the rug shrink up a little when  you wash it. I actually think that’s a good thing, it makes the rug nice and tight.

Here’s a photo I took of the finished mat before sending it off to Interweave. It’s larger than the original, and the colors are more subdued, but I actually got to use the same yarn I pitched. I love how it turned out.

The cool thing about both of the projects in this issue is that I designed them well before submitting them, so I had the opportunity to make each one twice. That means that I could incorporate all of the ideas I had while I was crocheting the prototypes into a better, second version of the pattern. The cold hard truth is, depending on the scale of the project, there often isn’t as much time for that kind of thing when you are designing something with a 2 or 3 week turnaround.

For the first version of the mat , I  joined all of the hexagons at the end with a slip stitch seam. It made a slightly raised seam, which I liked, but it was a little tricky to work around all of the corners. When I started crocheting the second version I realized that re-designing the motifs so that they could be joined as-you-go would make the pattern  much easier to complete, eliminate the corner weirdness, and leave fewer ends to weave in, so I changed the design. An  important part of designing for publication is being able to make things in an explainable way, so I also paid more attention to the color layout. The final version has nearly twice as m any motifs as the original, and 2 more colors in play, so I stuck to 14 color variations to make it all work together. I think using either the black or the white yarn in each motif helped the whole thing come together.

If you like to play with color or have a lot of scraps to incorporate– this is the project for you! As long as you repeat all of the colors throughout the mat, most color combinations will produce  beautiful results. Looking at this again makes me itch to make another one! I do have quite a stash of Brown Sheep yarns in my house!