I just changed my shop banner on Etsy from this:

to this:

I learn a lot of stuff on the Etsy forums.  The other day someone mentioned making a shop banner using Picasa, the photo-editing program.  Specifically, the word "collage" was mentioned.

Cool idea, I thought.

An hour or two later, I had my new collage banner: a row of hats framed with a sky blue border.

The old banner (also made with Picasa) showed an extreme close-up of a hat crocheted in wildly colorful Italian yarn. 

I left the shop name off the new banner.  Right under the banner it says "Hats by Elvee/Stylish handmade hats and crochet patterns," so I decided that my new banner didn't need to repeat the shop name.

I applied the special effects setting for "HDR-ish" -- high-dynamic-range imaging -- to make the little parade of hats really pop.

Like lots of crochet designers, I have stacks of ideas for future patterns.

Some of these ideas reside in notebook sketches.

Other ideas -- in the form of actual hats -- live in plastic containers.

These hats may have an unusual stitch or method of construction.  An eye-catching color pattern.  Or simply a shape that I love.

At least once a year, I empty the containers out onto the bed.  I choose the hats that I want to turn into patterns next..

Sometimes I've made notes about the idea hats -- very helpful when I start to write the pattern.  With note-less hats, I have to count stitches and figure out what I did on each round. 

Some idea hats are translated directly into a pattern.  Others are tweaked so much that you wouldn't recognize the original hat and the new one as remotely related to each other. 

This spring, the lilac tweedy hat, in the photo above, got its turn.  It was the first crocheted hat that I designed, way back in Fall 2010. 

The new hat is shorter and the band is wider, but it's essentially the same as the original.  In 2010, I thought of it as The Lacey Lilac Beanie.  Now it's The Tiny-Crown Juliet Cap.
 

It took me a while to get accustomed to slouchy hats.

At first, I thought they looked too much like shower caps to be flattering -- unless you were someone who looks gorgeous even in a shower cap.

No slouchy hat for me.

But then one frigid day this winter, I just pulled on a mohair beanie that had a big cuff -- not bothering to roll up the cuff.  In my "slouchy" look, I got compliments wherever I went that day.

Hmmm. 

I realized I had to re-think this slouchy thing.

It turns out that, like berets, slouchy hats are almost universally flattering.

Plus, on a really bad-hair day, there's room to tuck in all your hair.  Like you would with a shower cap....

I just published my first pattern collection, Boho Dreams.

Although it's a very small collection: two patterns offering three designs -- The Groovy Cloche, The Tiny-Crown Juliet Cap, and The Boho Slouchy -- I'm really proud of it.

One reason is that 2014 is the first year that I've put together a publishing schedule for my designs.  And this little bohemian, hippie-inspired, spring-into-fall collection was first on the list.

(A confession: Boho Dreams was supposed to have five patterns and six designs, but hay fever season starts early in Central Texas....)

Coming up on the schedule are three more collections: fall women's, fall men's and holiday/winter.  Right now, I'm working on the women's fall collection.  The theme is Shape and Color, two of my designing darlings.