The Surprising Thing My Garden Taught Me About Pattern Design

When I started my garden, I didn’t think it would have anything to do with patterns, in fact, I thought of them as two separate hobbies. One inside and one outside. But what I learned is that they both require similar practices, time, planning, and patience. Things don’t happen as quick as I would like them to, and it normally requires a certain level of hands off that I would like to admit.

My pattern collection was supposed to be completed in a matter of a few weeks, and here we are at the end of the month. Life gets in the way, things get busy, what’s priority now shouldn’t necessarily be priority then.

Sometimes you don’t need to change something because it ended up looking different than you intended, and normally that’s how nature runs its course. A flower grows toward the light instead of straight up, a tomato comes in lopsided, and somehow it still works. How does that relate to designing patterns? Well the most unexpected designs, the ones I didn’t even intend on creating, actually ended up being some of my favorites. Instead of fighting it or scrapping it and starting over, I embraced where it was going and let it become what it wanted to be. That shift made the whole process much more enjoyable, and honestly produced better work.