How I knitted a picture from my brain...

Once upon a time, I looked at a tam pattern on Ravlery. I can't remember which one, but it was the first time I understood the construction of a knitted tam, and suddenly, I had a picture in my head and I knew I needed to duplicate it in yarn.

I'd only done a few colorwork projects but I felt pretty sure I could combine that with the basic tam pattern and make it work. I had some beautiful hand-dyed yarn in a colorway very appropriately called "Elemental" that had been calling to me for a color work pattern. I'd searched around and ordered some creamy-colored fingering weight to go with it.

Yes, that's a bunch of math and factors on that page under the yarn. Turns out I really can use math after high school! I worked out that I wanted to have the dragonfly repeat eight times, and the gauge times the size of the tam gave me the number of stitches I would need.

I worked out the design of the dragonfly on some graph paper, then transferred it to an excel chart, but before I could actually knit these dragonflies, I needed something for the brim. I charted out some small, repeating patterns (there was more math involved) and I finally got to work!

I was thrilled that the edging patterns turned out well, and not long after the above photo, I was finally starting the dragonflies heads. I remember doing a little happy dance for myself when I got to that point in the charts. I was so excited to see this come to life! It's that feeling of creation, of bringing something out of your imagination and into reality, that's what really drives me to Make things. I'm realizing more and more that I feel better and more alive on days that I do something creative, even if it's a little thing. Working on this tam, though, that was a thing that was both little and big at the same time. I was making this whole new pattern (and at the time, I had only found one other tam pattern using fingering weight and stranded color work) be an actual, wearable object, but I was also just doing a little knitting every day. 

As the images grew and I could make out the shapes and see that it was working, I got more and more excited. I also began to notice how even just one row of knitting, seemingly such a small thing, was enough to add to the design, to give a hint of wings, or to add to the lacy effect within the wings, or - as in the above photo - to show the first hints of the second wing. Not long after those second wings, it was time to decrease, and before I knew it, my first design was complete.

I almost decided to leave it like that, beanie shaped instead of tam shaped, but I ultimately decided that tams look better on me. Into the water it went, and then stretched over a plate to dry.

Remember those edging designs? Here's how they turned out...

And then you can see how it looks when worn...

And for those with smaller heads, here's a version with only 7 dragonflies instead of 8

That last one - the smaller sized one - it was knitted by someone else. I actually had a handful of fabulous people who tested the pattern for me on Ravelry, and it was only thanks to them, and a wonderful graphic designer friend, that I was able to take this whole thing and not only create a physical hat, but also a hat pattern .pdf that I could sell. 

I remember when I first posted it in my Ravelry shop, and how I thought it would be completely awesome if someone actually bought it! And then, someone did! And someone else! And another! I couldn't help my moment of "they like it! they really like it!" It's now available in my Etsy shop as well.

I've currently got another tam pattern in progress, and even had some yarn custom dyed for it! I don't want to say much about it yet, because I'm still a bit worried it will turn out looking horrid, but I promise to post with lots of pictures once I've got it done!