Who’s that girl?

It’s been an exciting few weeks in the Lattes & Llamas office*. We’ve done a ton of design work, the Geek-A-Long is really starting to take off, and we’re saying goodbye to our Etsy page while we say hello to a Ravelry pattern store. Normally I would start rambling here about how change is stupid and scary and no one ever should, but I’m really excited about making patterns. Just call me “pattern girl”.

Up until now, our bread and butter has been making and selling finished objects at craft shows and online. There’s really a lot involved in making the switch to patterns, and writing patterns is no small task. One of the hardest parts for me is determining what’s worth patterning and what isn’t. When you consider that it takes at least 20 hours just to make a sock pattern (and considerably more for a sweater or complicated color work), we had to put some real thought into “who’s our girl”.

I want to make patterns that you want to knit, and let me tell you, Caffenistas, you are a discerning crowd. Jac touched on it some last week. Our girl can’t/won’t/probably shouldn’t wear superhero t-shirts and other traditional nerd-attire to work or social functions, but may still want to show her nerdy stripes. Our girl is an adult. She had a job (stay at home mom counts!), maybe a family, and she cares about how she looks. Our girl probably has interests outside of “traditional nerdery” and needs a wardrobe as versatile as her personality. Our girl needs to be able to rock it with heels and a suit to work and jeans and sweater on the weekends. The Lattes & Llamas girl is not a manic-pixi-dream-girl, she’s a real person and needs clothing to reflect that. 

In many ways, our girl is me. As I’ve been working on new designs, I’ve been carefully considering, “Would I wear that?” And as a follow up, “Where would I wear it to?” In the past I’ve been let down by other designers that I thought were designing for my girl. But as I mature as a designer, I find myself in a different mental place about it. It’s not them, it’s me. I’m just not their girl.

First Party is a great example. (Although, I will say their new belt is fantastic. My girl would totes buy that belt!) I was so disappointed when their highly anticipated professional-nerd attire pretty much came down to jewel-tone polo shirts. I was disappointed because I thought they would be something else. They never made false promises, I just assumed what they were making was meant for me and it never was.

Anyways, I’ve given a lot of thought to who my girl is and among other things, I think she is always evolving. So please use the comments section to tell me about who you are. Chances are, if you read all the way to the bottom of this post, you are my girl (or guy) and I want to know more about you and what you want.

~Megan-Anne

*And by “office”, I mean my living room couch.