In my quest to identify, isolate and illuminate areas that inspire us, I've come up with the following triggers:
Place
Be it a favorite coffee shop, a street, the beach or an entire city, place can be an extreme influence over us. How does a place or better still, a sense of place inspire you? Your trip to India... your Grandmas house...your bed?
Materials
Sometimes just looking at a skein of yarn is enough to inspire. Silk, cashmere, twine.... but what about beads, buttons, ribbons? I have a bundle of little red buttons for example, just begging for a sweater to show them off. We can design projects specifically to highlight and utilize our awesome materials.
People
Friends, family, strangers, celebrities... they can all inspire us to make things. My favorite thing is trying to imagine just the right sweater for a particular pal. How do they move? What would they wear? What would make him or her feel like a king?
Color
It be be one color or a combination of colors that jump start your engine. I love the muted color in this photo, which was a total accident by the way, because it feels other worldly. I could design using these colors or try to re-create the mood it suggests say, in a rooms decor....
Fashion
Obviously, the trends and style of the times play a very important role in what we make.
Necessity
Most commonly we make things for a particular purpose like.... I'm cold, I need a sweater. Or my sister is having a baby, I should make her a gift. Filling the needs of others or even ourselves, is an important reason to make anything and perhaps the most satisfying.
I'd say most things we make are a combination of the above ideas. I like to include my "inspiration story" when writing up patterns because I think it's often more motivating than the project itself. If we learn how others are inspired, we too, can begin to notice what gets us in the mood to make.
Look for experiments with these ideas in the future....