Last week I posted the first in a series of designs using diamonds, a shape I don’t sketch – or sew – very often. The first sketch was an ordered, regular pattern; this one’s more improv.

This design reminds me of the twists and turns of barbed wire, with sharp edges pointing in every direction. The diamonds are 2:1 scale – in other words, they’re twice as high as they are wide. You can see ink spots in some of the long lines where I paused to check I was on the right trajectory!

I don’t always know how a design would (or could) be made into a pattern when I’m sketching. Most of the time, I figure it out after I’ve put the pen down. In this case, I think it would involve a lot of angled strips and diamonds, and maybe even some half-rectangle triangles. Plus some partial seams, and a lot of planning.