Design question: How do you design shawls / triangular shawls / stoles / cowls?

Dear users, dear authors,
how does the process work when you want to design a shawl / triangular shawl / stole / cowl / scarf?
Tell me all about it. :- )

Well, for me, it’s always completely spontaneous :)

I think to myself: “Okay, now I’m going to make a cowl (or shawl, etc.)” and then I just get started.
I usually have a very rough design in mind beforehand, but most of the time I end up doing it completely differently on the fly.

Most of the time, I test it out first with cheap, scratchy sock yarn (which I once accidentally bought way too much of), and if I like the pattern, I start on a Bobbel.

  While crocheting, I take lots and lots of step-by-step photos, and I jot down the crochet chart as I go.
Once the crochet piece is finished, I then put everything into a form that’s easy for others to understand. 

I have to agree with Tina on this one.

For me, the requests for a scarf, cape, or something similar come from my loved ones. They’ll also let me know if they’d prefer something light and airy or something a bit denser.
Then I experiment with the pattern using leftover yarn. Be sure to take notes. Otherwise, you’ll end up starting all over again a week later. Or you’ll start working on the beautiful piece and realize after about 5–10 rows that the pattern doesn’t quite look like it did on the swatch....

Then be sure to take photos of everything as you go and write it all down on paper.

...or you’ve finished the sample shawl and decide... nah, something still needs to be changed—I tend to do that right at the beginning ;-). And since I’m too lazy to unravel it, I just grab the next ball of yarn and start crocheting.
It also happens that I change the edging a million times until I really, really like it... so the crochet chart gets revised just as often. 

For me, it works like this: I see something somewhere; it doesn’t have to be knitted,
it can be made of fabric, paper, or anything else that catches my eye,
then I think about how I can knit it, then I try it out,
also with leftover yarn; it usually takes 2–3 days before it becomes clearer
what it should be, then I start with the right yarn,

but it can also happen that, in the middle of working on it, I no longer like
what I’ve knitted, so I just try again, unravel what I’ve already done
and start over; after a few attempts, it usually works out.

It’s a longer process, but it’s fun, too, to see the result
afterward.
And of course, I take photos in between and write down what I’m knitting.
That often gets corrected or changed again later; I’m sure you all know what that’s like.

I’m a lot like Tina—I just start knitting. Most of the time, the yarn tells me what it wants to become. I can’t really stop myself once I start. But if I write things down at all, I only do that afterward; I can’t do it at the same time. At most, I’ll jot down a few very brief notes if there’s something I don’t think I’ll remember.

It varies for me—if the yarn speaks to me, I start straight away with the original yarn. Sometimes I do have to unravel it because the pattern and the yarn don’t harmonize after all. But I also work a lot with hand-dyers who decide the yarn and the color for me, and then inspiration is needed. I have lots of stitch dictionaries, and I’ve also jotted down plenty of ideas over time that I want to make someday. Then I pick out the one that fits.