2021 Designs

Totally forgot to make this round-up earlier, but I think it’s appropriate to look back on what I achieved in 2021 and appreciate it, especially if I feel down about any designs in progress this year! It’s never a bad idea to hype yourself up :)

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Two feet modeling hand-knit socks in lavender yarn. A lacy pattern adorns the instep, and there is a lacy ruffled cuff at the top.

Rogelio

Hilariously, this sock is so not my style. But I really wanted to keep the Jane the Virgin series going (not to worry, I do still have further plans for this, though I’ve slowed down slightly) and had to get Rogelio just right. For me, that meant the lacy ruffle cuff was a must - even though my test knitters all opted to skip it! This might have been one case of focusing too much on my artistic vision over what knitters actually wanted.

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Two hats in gray, with textured stripes in red and yellow, respectively. The texture pattern is the same, but the hats are knit in 2 different weights of yarn.

Little Bits Beanie (free size)

This is a pattern I really enjoyed from 2020, remade with a calculator customized to your yarn weight, gauge, and head size. It was basically a test drive of the Sizing With Spreadsheets method, and it worked great!

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Two feet modeling colorwork socks in red and black. The cuff fades down the leg from black to red at the heel, then back to black by the toes. There’s a spooky hand motif in black on the instep.

Fear Street

Another offering for the Scarefest! Inspired by the Netflix series of the same name (which was in turn inspired by a book series). The series was pretty gory, but somehow I managed to get through all three movies. Compared to Black Flame Candle, I feel like this particular design doesn’t take my breath away, but I still love it as a solid colorwork pattern.

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Light Breaks

My first, but not last, pattern with KnitCircus yarns. This one was rough, mostly because it took me a few tries to get the shawl math right. Then, I had to mess with the striping sequence to ensure that enough MC and CC were used up evenly and it turned out large enough. This was really a lesson in patience and perseverance. I was so frustrated during the ripping/reknitting, but ultimately I’m thrilled with the final product.

I’m holding up a large half-pi shawl worked in a peach-pink-purple gradient striped with white. Slipped stitches create colored rays on the right side.

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I’m wearing a thick, textured cowl knit in multicolored stripes. Matching fringe hangs off the bottom.

Double-up Cowl

This was a long time coming - I had been hoarding the DK weight advent kit for a year waiting for the perfect inspiration to strike. And I think it did! Obviously, it features my all-time favorite provisional cast-on + 3-needle bind-off methods, and has an easy knit/slip-stitch texture to keep you engaged while knitting. Ultimately, whether the texture is visible in the finished project, depending on the yarn used, is irrelevant - the point is to entertain me while knitting!

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Looking at how many patterns I put out last year compared to 2020 is surprising, in that it was way fewer! Ultimately, I’m not sad about it, partially because my productivity was directly related to my mental health, which was not in the best place last year thanks to the big C, and also because the neverending rat race of constant-publishing isn’t how I want my business to be!

2022 plannering

Despite my love of digital tools, I can never, ever give up my paper planner. To be perfectly honest, I often note things in my digital todo list and also in my paper planner, mostly so I can enjoy checking them off in 2 places. But I’ve settled on a more-or-less sustainable journal/planner routine and figured I’d share, since I know there are lots of planner/bujo enthusiasts out there!

My 365 journal

Last year, I got a planner assuming we would be back to normal and I’d be writing all manner of activities in it. That…completely did not happen! Instead, I ended up getting a blank 365 notebook from kikki.k and started a 5-year journal. (It looks like they don’t sell them anymore, which is incredibly sad.)

I’ve seen some 5-year journals that have daily prompts/questions so you can reflect on the same topic over a 5 year period, but inevitably some of the sample prompts seem too silly to me, so I figured a blank book would be more my style. I’m happy to say that although there were some points where I got behind and had to catch up, I successfully wrote something for EVERY SINGLE DAY, 365 days in a row! Now I’m looking forward to reflecting on where I was last year while I record where I’m at this year :)

My 2022 planner

I’m trying again with a planner this year. Except this time, I’m focusing on design todos, the very occasional event, and STICKERS. The planner is from The Happy Planner (this is not a sponsored mention, but I’m A-OK with it becoming one…), which I like because there aren’t a ton of extra pages. That said, I think I would look for something with a horizontal day layout rather than a vertical one for next time, just because I don’t like my tasks taking multiple lines.

I really enjoy collage, with a “more is more” emphasis, so here’s what I’ve done to the planner so far…

The January-in-review and February-planning pages from the Maker’s Yearbook, which I added into my Happy Planner.

First, I added a ton more pages from the Maker’s Yearbook, which has an amazing series of last-year-in-review and plans-for-this-year questions/prompts. There are also monthly planning pages and month-end review pages that I will use to be a bit more proactive about, uhhh, this business I’m trying to build up. It actually worked out great - the Yearbook would have cost a ton in shipping, plus I would have had two planners to deal with, so I ended up getting a PDF version. Now I only have to print out the unique pages, do a not-insignificant amount of fussy cutting to put binder holes in them, and stick ’em in my planner!

For the weekly pages, I’m filling up each page, first with my actual todos, but then with stickers, coloring, and knitting ephemera. For example, I finished the Lamina Wrap in early January, and since I print out my patterns, I cut out the pic of the shawl in the pattern and pasted it into my planner. That same week, I was working on a design sample, and felt inspired to take some of my yarn leftovers and sew them onto the page.

The week of January 10, where I've added some random stickers and coloring in preparation for filling in my todos

My honest review of the Happy Planner stickers is that there are some colorful plain ones that I love, and others that are a bit too “live, laugh, love” for my sarcastic tastes. That said, I’m going for “fullness” on each page, so I’m loading this shit up with stickers, even the silly ones! I like this style of planner more than a totally blank notebook, simply because I don’t want to get hung up on creating a beautiful “spread” before I can start noting my tasks. This way, I start with a nice and neat setup and can jump right into the stickering and coloring on top!

The back cover pocket, stuffed with stickers

One last upgrade: I added a pocket at the back. There’s currently no pockets at all, but I need a place stash stickers and random papers. I cut a piece of scrapbooking paper to fit and taped it to the back cover. Now all I need to do is find my paper clip stash so I can clip in appointment cards and such.

Break even with your stash in 2022!

I’ll preface this by saying…I did not succeed at breaking even in 2021. That said, I’m keen to try again!

Here’s the overall concept: track your stash ins and outs from January 1 to December 31 and try to reach a net of zero.

I got this idea from the Knit Picks Stashdown (and more) group on Ravelry, which had a challenge in 2021 called “Even Stevens.” I didn’t think I could manage a dramatic stashdown, but at least aiming to have as much yarn going out as in appealed to me. Maybe it will appeal to you to!

What counts as “stash in”? Generally, any yarn you buy or receive as a gift would count. However, if you want to give yourself a freebie on your birthday or other special yarn-buying even, go ahead!

What counts as “stash out”? Any yarn worked into a finished object or given/sold to someone else. One thing I noticed in 2021 was that partial skeins caused some stress. For example, I bought 400g of fingering weight to knit a sweater. The finished sweater only used 360g, so even though I did good by knitting this stash, I still had a positive net of 40g. If that will frustrate you, then feel free to log finished objects as full skeins! Maybe by next year I’ll have thought up a separate challenge for scraps specifically…

Anyway, I’m planning to track my stash ins and outs again this year, and I thought you might like to try it too!

For my digital peeps, I made a spreadsheet you can save to your Google Drive. All you have to do is enter your ins as positive numbers and outs as negative numbers, and the spreadsheet will auto-calculate your progress.

For my paper planner fans, I’ve got a printable document - again you’ll track your ins as positive numbers and outs as negative numbers, but you have one extra step: calculating the running tally of stash.

Ready to start tracking your stash? Sign up for my newsletter and get both forms now! (Current subscribers - you should only get an email with the forms and not get duplicate emails of future newsletters, etc.)

Sock hacks

I’ve been designing a lot of socks lately and I sometimes have to stop myself from going off on a dissertation-length tangent about different ways you can modify your socks for better fit. There’s nothing wrong with including pro-tips here and there in patterns, but when you’re (well, I’m) adding paragraphs and paragraphs it starts to get beyond the scope of the pattern!

So instead I’ll share some noodling I’ve had here.

First is calf-shaping - depending on the stitch pattern, you can add calf-shaping to just about any sock. I won’t say ALL because I’m sure there’s something out there with an incredibly intricate pattern that would need a lot of massaging to make extra stitches and decreases work, but I think most patterns would allow this.

I regret not specifying this more clearly in earlier sock patterns I wrote with calf-shaping, but all extra stitches should be added to the back of the leg, rather than splitting the total stitch count evenly across instep/back of leg. This is more of an issue in cuff-down socks than toe-up, because it affects the stitch count coming into the heel section. (In toe-up, you will have already worked the heel by the time you’re adding increases for calf-shaping, so you only need to worry about centering any motifs on the back of the leg with additional stitches in the mix.)

Two hand-knit socks in light gray yarn, worked in reverse stockinette with a pattern in stockinette that looks like spooky fingers grabbing the leg. The sock on the right is in the middle of the heel flap

So if you’re knitting a cuff-down sock and want to cast on 78 stitches and decrease to 72 at the heel, you should split the stitches into 36 instep stitches and 42 back of leg stitches. That’s 6 extra stitches on the back, which will be decreased in pairs, so 3 decreases on the way to the heel and you’ll be ready to work the 72-st size heel across 34 sts as written. This means the patterning will be centered on the front and back of the sock, and you won’t need to rearrange stitches between the instep/back of leg sections before working the heel.

Next, heel flaps! The convention is to work as many rows in the flap as you have in the heel. So, a heel worked across 32 sts will be worked for 32 rows and create a nice little square. That…has never worked for me. Part of it is because my row gauge is really, really tight compared to most people, so I need to work way more rows to even get a square shape. Another part of it is even if I do get a nice square flap, that’s not actually enough length in the gusset to fit my foot!

I saw a tip…somewhere. Sock Madness? A Facebook sock knitting group? Recommending that you knit the heel flap as long as your thumb (from fingertip to the second/big knuckle). This will likely be somewhere between 2 and 3 inches. Since I’ve started doing that, my heel flap socks fit way better, and no longer get sucked underneath my foot!

If adding more rows, keep in mind you’ll need to pick up additional stitches for the gusset. For the most part, this just means you’ll keep knitting gusset decreases for longer than called for in pattern. In some cases, there might be special patterning on the sole like colorwork or riverbed decreases (google “riverbed gusset” to see what I mean), but in general more gusset stitches won’t impact the pattern.

Related to this, don’t forget to pick up stitches in the gap between the end of the heel flap and the beginning of the instep! Most patterns call for at least 1, but 2 is fine too. You might even find that one side needs more stitches than the other and end up with 19 gusset stitches on the right compared to 18 on the left - also fine! For this I’ll sometimes work a double decrease on the side with more stitches on the first round of decreases to even things up (and so I don’t have to remember which side needs an extra decrease at the end of the gusset).

Since feet aren’t always exactly the same size as calves, remember that you can tailor the fit of a sock foot by decreasing on the sole. This maintains whatever pattern on the instep but allows for a snugger fit! When you get to the toe, you have a few options to even things up in preparation for grafting.

If you have 4 or more stitches extra on the instep, send some around to the sole. For example, with 34 sts on the instep and 30 on the sole, send 1 st on either side of the instep around to the sole. Now they’re split evenly into 32!

If you have just 2 sts extra, start toe decreases a little early and work increases ONLY on the instep. For example, with 32 instep and 30 sole sts, work a decrease round only on the instep, evening them up to 30 sts each.

These are the kinds of things you learn after knitting a bunch of socks and seeing how various constructions and stitch counts fit on your foot, but I hope this helps at least one person jump start their journey into custom sock modifications!

Rogelio

Two feet modeling hand-knit socks in lavender yarn. A dainty lace motif repeats up the instep, and there’s a lacy ruffled cuff at the top.

Rogelio was one of the earliest Jane the Virgin-inspired socks that I had a clear concept of - given his flair for the dramatic, and the flowy shirts he wears as part of his role as Santos, it seemed only natural to give him something lacy and frilly to match his bold personality and over-the-top costumes!

For the lace pattern on the instep, I turned to my stitch dictionaries. I wanted something with a short-ish repeat, and the design I settled on is predictable enough that it’s not too hard to memorize either! The lace repeat itself is only 8 rounds, but it’s doubled by the addition of the lacy ribbing. The lacy ribbing is from one of the Japanese stitch dictionaries - I love it because it still functions like twisted rib, which is a lovely addition on its own, but adds a simple-yet-effective flair with the alternating lacy parts! During testing I realized the 16 round chart, complete with the ribbing columns for each sides, had been shrunk down a bit too much for some folks, so I added a page that just has that chart blown up as big as it will go. If you find yourself straining to see the instep chart, I hope that addition is useful to you!

The ruffle was the most challenging part for me, mostly because I’ve never knit one before! I’ll admit - my personal style is such that I just don’t wear ruffles. However, I feel like the concept really required it, so I learned a new skill! The ruffle design is an amalgamation of a few different ruffle designs I saw both on other socks and in stitch dictionaries, and is hopefully pretty straightforward to knit. That said - if you’re like me and don’t particularly want to knit a ruffle, the pattern tells you where to bind off after you’ve worked the ribbing.

Rogelio de la Vega saying “A hug from Rogelio is like a rabbit’s foot: lucky, rare, and soft to the touch.”

For the color choice, though the rest of my JTV socks will be in either blue-teal-aqua or coral-pink-red to match the strong color themes of the show, for my man Rogelio I had to use lavender. After all, he doesn’t pop in peach!

Rogelio is available on all the platforms!

Payhip | Ravelry | Etsy | Lovecrafts

You don't have to get gauge

You don’t have to get gauge!!

Thanks to the pandemic, much of my at home time is now devoted to reading about all things knitting on all the various social channels I have. One thing I’ve noticed is a slate of posts lamenting an inability to get the specified gauge on a pattern. Another related-to-this-post topic is folks getting gauge but not liking the fabric they created.

Therein lies the key! It’s better to aim for a fabric you actually like, or one you can achieve, and see if you can work a different size of the pattern to compensate.

Caveat: I realize that this could be difficult depending on your size and the sizes available in the pattern. For that, I will continue to advocate for a wide range in sizes for knitwear design in general and provide that in my own patterns!

Example one: you swatch to get a gauge of 5 stitches per inch for a fingering weight sweater. But the yarn you’re using is on the lighter side, and 5 stitches per inch is airy enough that folks might get a show of what’s under your sweater instead of admiring your hand-knit FO! You’d prefer to knit closer to 6 stitches per inch to get a denser fabric.

There’s a good chance you can use the pattern you already have, but knit a different size that will give you the perfect combo of gauge + size. You can also use this technique on individual parts of patterns like sweater sleeves.

First, you’ll need to know your bust circumference + your desired ease.

Inches:

Let’s take a 40 inch bust + 2 inches of positive ease. 42 inches multiplied by 5 stitches per inch would give me 210 stitches at the widest part of the bust in the pattern gauge.

In my preferred gauge of 6 stitches per inch, 42 * 6 would give me 252 stitches. Find the section of the pattern where you have all the body stitches on the needle (that’s front + underarm + back + underarm, so make sure you find the part AFTER the sleeve separation and underarm cast-on!). Do any of the sizes have a body stitch count close to 252? That’s the size you want to knit!

Centimeters:

Same size but slightly different math. We’ll need to adjust the gauge calculation - it will be (6/2.5), giving us 2.4 stitches per cm.

100 cm bust + 5 cm of positive ease will be 105 cm, multiplied by 2.4 stitches per cm, giving us 252 stitches! Find a size with a body stitch count close to 252 and you’re ready to go.

In this example, because you have a tighter gauge than the pattern, you’ll end up knitting a larger size, but the reverse could also be true if you want to knit a looser gauge by knitting a smaller size!

Unfortunately, this method isn’t a silver bullet for accommodating differences in gauge - if you’re already knitting one of the largest sizes available in the pattern, it will be hard to use a tighter gauge to knit a larger size as those numbers may not be available in pattern. Similarly, if you’re knitting one of the smallest sizes, you may not be able to knit a looser gauge and a smaller size. In the same vein, you probably won’t be able to reimagine a pattern written for fingering weight in bulky weight, or vice versa.

Cuff-down heel-flap sock recipe

Thanks to a random post in a sock knitting group on FB, I finally looked up the mathematical guidelines for a heel flap construction. I found that answer here (thank you very much Sara Morris Design!)

Of course, knowing the specific calculations, I couldn’t just leave it there, I had to make a spreadsheet! Having just finished the Sizing With Spreadsheets course from Swanky Emu Knits, rather than just plopping the heel calculations into a spreadsheet and calling it a day, I spent a few hours yesterday and today putting together a pattern from start to finish that incorporates the heel math. The spreadsheet is here.

Please note, in order to keep a clean base copy you can’t edit this sheet directly - you must go to File > Make a copy to save it for yourself.

Select your gauge and desired ease from the drop-down menus, then enter your leg and foot measurements in the fields below. After that, your personalized sock recipe will populate in the pattern text below! Gauge options range from fingering to DK/worsted, and both inches and centimeters are provided.

If you’re just interested in a free vanilla sock pattern, feel free to stop reading here!

If you’re interested in possibly creating your own spreadsheet, here’s a rundown of the math I used.

Cuff

Since this is a cuff-down sock, we’ll start with the circumference on the leg in inches or centimeters

Socks typically have negative ease, so now we need to decide how much negative ease. In my internet travels, I’ve seen 10% referenced a lot. I discovered that I personally prefer something closer to 20%. For the purposes of this spreadsheet, I decided to offer a range because WHY NOT but you can also stick with one if you’re doing a particular kind of design!

Negative ease = leg circ. * .1 (for 10%, replace with desired percentage)

We’ll use the leg circumference LESS negative ease to figure out how many stitches to cast on:

Cast-on circumference = leg circ. - negative ease

Now we need to know the gauge - this can be whatever works for your yarn weight. For ease of calculations, I used the same for both in & cm calculations - how many stitches do you get in either 1 in or 2.5 cm? This doesn’t have to be a whole number, either, because we’ll take care of that next.

Number of stitches to cast on = (cast-on circ. * gauge) rounded to a whole number

For reasons that will become important later, I actually recommend rounding this to a multiple of 4.

Divide this number in half - that’s the stitch count for the front/back of the leg and will be used in the heel and toe.

After this, knit your cuff and leg as desired, then move onto the heel!

Heel flap

The heel flap can be whatever style you want (though usually something with more thickness like slipped stitches or garter is recommended since stockinette could wear through more quickly).

Most places I’ve referenced have said that the number of rows in the heel flap should equal half of the cast-on count. (So I guess that would mean the rule is (half of your leg circ. - neg ease)?) I’ve found that slip-stitch heels feel pretty short when I only work half the cast-on amount in rows, so this won’t work for me.

At some point during Sock Madness, I saw a comment that said to knit to the length of your thumb on the heel flap. Since starting to do that, I’ve found my heel flaps have been sufficiently deep, so I’m using it! Of course, if you have a better measurement to base the heel flap on, I’m all ears! Let me know if comments.

On the heel flap, knit an even number of rows and end after a purl row.

This is where I thank Sara Morris Designs for her blog post of wisdom.

Heel flaps generally have a flat portion around which the decreases occur - the blog post recommended 10% of the total cast-on count, and to round down. (There’s another bit about whether to make this number even or odd to match half of your stitch count, but I can’t figure out how to express that in calculations yet so I’m skipping it.)

Center of heel flap = (Total cast-on * .1) rounded down to the nearest whole number

The decreases need to be centered on the heel, so now we figure out how to approach that first heel turn row:

(Center of heel flap + half stitch count) / 2

You’ll knit that many, ssk, k1, and turn.

How many to purl back = Center of heel flap + 1

Purl that many, p2tog, p1, turn.

And continue until all heel stitches are worked!

Gusset

How many stitches to pick up on each side of heel flap = Rows in heel flap / 2

You’ll probably also want 1 or 2 in the gap where you resume working across the instep!

Decrease every other round until you get to your foot circumference - the circumference around the ball of your foot.

Foot circumference is calculated the same way as the calf - Subtract your desired negative ease from the total measurement, then multiply by the stitch gauge.

Toe

For a wedge toe, I aim to decrease to 2/3 of the total stitches doing increases every other round, then to 1/3 of the total stitches every round. To figure out how long the toe will be (and thus where you need to start it…)

Rounds for every-other-round decreases = total stitches - 2/3 total stitches

Rounds for every-round-decreases = (2/3 stitches - 1/3 stitches) / 2

Add up for the total number of rounds, then divide by your round gauge. That’s how long the toe will take, so subtracting it from your total foot length will tell you where to start!

Goals for 2021

Having had a surprisingly solid 2020, knitting-wise, I have a good idea of what I want to accomplish in my knitting and designing life this coming year.

A big thing that’s been weighing on my mind is…a sweater pattern! I have SO. MANY. sweater pattern ideas, but the fear of presenting something not perfectly tailored to all sizes of test knitter is keeping me from…just doing it. After all, I have pretty decent reference info for measurements besides my own, and I have a great tech editor! Later this month I’m looking forward to learning the custom spreadsheet method that Swanky Emu Knits uses, and I feel like with that technique in my bag of tricks I’ll really be able to stir things up.

Another thing I want to challenge myself is submitting a design to a publication. A few things have held me back here - first is designing to a prompt rather than working with something already in my imagination. Another is adapting the pattern to a specific format - I spent a lot of time working on my own templates, abbreviations, and stock language, so having to change all that to suit a different format feels like a lot of extra work. Finally, I worry about submitting an idea I can’t actually deliver on. At least this one is an easy fix: I just need to do a bit more design work before the submission so I know it’s doable! Hopefully in 2021 I can overcome the other 2 hurdles.

I’m hoping to get back to my Jane the Virgin-inspired socks this year. Early last year I developed one that needed to go back to the drawing board before release, and I got a big win when I revisited it over the winter holiday and found it pretty easy to update and improve! One thing I’m waffling on is whether it’s worth it to go back and update Xiomara - as much as I ADORE the look of that pattern, it’s like 1000% more complicated than it probably needs to be. That said, it’s technically doable as-is. This will probably be on my mind for a while before I finally decide.

I got a lot of great experience establishing my templates and processes in 2020, so I hope to keep polishing those in 2021. My absolute favorite technology of 2020 is Todoist, which has helped me keep track of everything from cleaning the litterbox on a regular schedule to remembering to hit the “start” button for my Ravelry discount codes so they don’t sit uselessly inactive during a pattern launch. (True story!)

Finally, I want to add regular blogging back into my schedule! It’s something I did a ton in high school and through my 20s, but I wasn’t doing knitting OR designing back then and as such had a lot more free time. I kinda tried to force it this year, with so-so success (?) but hopefully with the benefit of my uber-schedules I can do it a little more regularly.

Counting the Days is here!

The last pattern in the Marking Time collection is here and ready for your advent kit scraps!

Weirdly, though my main goal for this project was to work well with advent kits, the yarn I used was a collection of 24 5g minis from Canon Hand Dyes. That at least gave the correct yardage limits as if I really were working with scraps, so it all worked out!

Though my natural inclination with a simple daily knitting project is always garter stitch, I wanted a little bit of SOMETHING for visual and knitting interest. I found a simple lace pattern that has the added bonus of creating a slight chevron shape, and it worked perfectly! I couldn’t believe how much fun it was to knit the sample - that confirmed it as the perfect daily advent kit pattern. (Of course, it would be equally fun in a single color; that way you don’t have to pause in between each stripe!)

My favorite type of cowl is one where the different colors/patterns circle around your neck, rather than stack vertically, because the vertical type ones always end up hiding some of the design in the folds. This cowl is long enough to wrap twice (though I didn’t get any good photos of that since I later discovered a huge logo on my jacket was in every photo!)

My 2020 Made Nine and a Canva tutorial

“Shouldn’t that be make nine?” you might ask.

And the answer is…no! As much as I am an active and aggressive planner, I don’t seem to get much value out of deciding a bunch of things early in the course of a long year. Instead, I usually end up feeling stressed if I haven’t completed specific projects from the list, even if I’ve been doing plenty of other great projects!

This year, I’ve decided to create a Made Nine grid to enjoy the projects I already made last year. One thing that surprised me when selecting them is that I feel like I made fewer items than I normally do! The biggest reason was likely being less active on Ravelry - in March I stopped playing the House Cup, which had been a huge driver in projects for me previously, and in June Ravelry released their new design, which greatly reduced my interest in being on Ravelry in general. I was able to regroup on Discord with some friends and that’s been one of the best things about this year, especially when in-person interaction was so sparse.

Are most of these projects of my own design? Hell yes! Knitting design samples takes away time from knitting other things, and besides, I’m proud of what I created this year :)

Top row: Alba socks, Black Flame Candle socks, The Wheel of the Year shawl, all by yours truly~⁠

Middle row: Find Your Fade by Andrea Mowry, Ewe Rock by @sosuknits and Lacy not Lazy Madness Socks by imawale⁠

Bottom row: Star Chart cowl, Chocobo Racer socks, Counting the Days cowl, also by me :3⁠

Want to make your own grid (to reflect or to plan)? Let me introduce you to Canva. It’s free, and I’ve been able to get what I needed out of it without having to upgrade to pro.

After making an account, hit the “create a design” and pick one of the presets or enter custom dimensions. I usually go with an Instagram post because it already had the pixel settings I need.

To make a photo grid, click “Elements” in the left side bar, then scroll down to “Grid” in the sub-menu. There are a ton of grid layouts, so go with your favorite!

To get your photos into the grid, click on “Uploads” in the left side bar. Upload the photos you want to include, then drag them to where you’d like them in the grid. They’ll snap into place, automatically centered. If you want to change how they’re cropped in the grid, double-click the photo to open a photo-specific editor. Drag the photo do the crop you want, then hit enter to exit the editor.

Play around with adding text and other elements like borders or badges if you want. When you’re ready, hit the download button to save your work. Enjoy!