My early designs treated pockets as just decoration, which seems silly now. Hearing a friend's mom call it a design failure really stuck with me. She was totally right, it's about function for the person wearing it. I had to unlearn that fashion-first mindset. Now I see a pocket as a basic need, like a zipper or a hem.

Remember my first starter, I named it Lazarus because it seemed dead for three weeks. Used tap water and my kitchen was too cold, drafty old house. The oven light trick saved it too, but the real game changer was using some whole rye flour in the feed. That stuff wakes them up like nothing else.

Right, milam42, that vibe is the whole show for me.