Cashmere Cafe

I purchased this lovely red yarn cloth with white polka dots to make a dress for Tamara in the end of April. I was feeling very bad about the fact that I haven’t made anything cute with it yet. So my brain was working hard last few weeks and the idea was ripe today.

As Grasswire and Tamara went out to do some shopping I set to work. I had something very simple, yet cute in mind. I relied on some ideas from a Japanese sewing book I got from Chie. The little dress was done in less than an hour and I am very satisfied with the result. It’s not perfect, of course, but we have no weddings to attend, so I guess it will do for this summer.

Here are photos of the work in progress and the final product (I added two red buttons on the back after the photo session):

When I entered the knitting blogosphere I started to learn about designers, designs and the fact that (obviously) some people make a living out of knitting. To me this came not as a total surprise, but it was all the aspects this community that provoked me to think more about it and develop a sense of magnitude of this issue.

As I mentioned in one of my older posts, I learned to knit from my mother who has a very ‘basic’ attitude to knitting. Patterns come from her head and she can play with them in her mind, no need to write anything down or read it from a magazine or book. Of course, she is limited by her knowledge of techniques, so her patterns (or ideas) will be repeptition of the stuff she knows and the stuff she saw somewhere else. Of course I inherited much of her attitude and for quite a long time took it as ‘normal’.

I learned quite some things from books, knitting included. And I must say I always considered them as a helpful resource, as a starting point for my own ventures. I also made quite some projects from knitting magazines (mainly in high school, I was buying Burda and Sabrine and similar German do-it-yourself publications).

And now I stumble across people selling their patterns on-line, some of them offering them for free but quite a lot of them considering them as something private, something they own, because they created it. There are big names in the knitting world, important bloggers and people who should be respected for their ideas and contribution to the world of knitting. Some of their work is truly amazing and every credit should be given to them for those things. But as it is in this world, some of the patterns of those big names are, to be honest, very basic and very simple and not that special at all.

So, I started to wonder, is it wrong if I make a cardigan which is very similar to a cardigan designed by Kim Hargreaves? Is it wrong if I make a scarf using a combination of seed stitch and wine-leaves pattern just like they suggest in xy book? They certainly did not make up the seed stitch nor the wine-leaves pattern, since they have been around for quite some time, several centuries, at least.

It’s not only me who has these doubts. Just a couple of days ago I read a post on this theme on the Half assed knit blog and quite samo time ago Dances with wool also had a post related to it.

Where is the limit between creativity and copyright?

I have some opinions about it, and I’ll be happy to hear any of your ideas.

(Tthis post will be continued in couple of days…)

…blogger.

I just had an operation on my left leg ten days ago, so I really didn’t feel like blogging.
But I did start working on Cherry and I have a good part of the back already done. I like this pattern a lot. It’s very simple to memorize and there’s just enough happening that it doesn’t get boring, but on the other hand, there’s also enough of right and left rows that you don’t have to work on the pattern all the time.

Photos WILL follow. In the evening. I promise.

I have finally finished the Spring park cardigan. No photos, yet, because I have to do the seaming, which - after re-knitting sleeves for three (!! 3 !!) times - is easy-peasy.

Now I have all the energy to think about my next project. Since I am using my Bosnian Yarn it should be something that is done rather fast, so I can start wearing it soon. That means, I am not going to experiment, I will just take a pattern I like and do it proper way. Sounds easy, huh?

But picking up a pattern… so, after browsing through Ravelry for three evenings I’ve come up with short list of these lovely projects.

Camelia (Ravelry link; or Kate Gilbert)

Cherry (Ravelry link or My Fashionalble Life)

I also like Arisaig (more info with photos on Knitty) and Colette (photos and info here), but these are my second choice.

So, what do you think?

I feel it’s been ages since I last posted. The fact is that I have been so sick last week, I was just laying in the bed feeling very miserable and very sorry for my self. The horrible weather didn’t improve the situation either.

Luckily, I am feeling much better (so that in fact I am going to work tomorrow (grrrr…why, why?)) and that means I can show you the nicest things my husband bought for me in NY. Here you go:

• lovely Malabrigo yarn
• Vogue Knitting: Crocheted scarves on the go (I am going to make at least three scarves from this book!)
• Needles case
• Sew in labels ‘Hand knit with love’ (my personal favourite!, this is so sweet, I can’t wait to use them)
• and two very big white plastic buttons (have no idea what those will be used for, but I like the idea of having such big buttons handy ;).

And here’s everything arranged neatly on our red carpet:

I wish I could travel to one of the big cities in the States and choose from all the accessories there are available… But on the other and - I migh get too frustrated to have to actually make up my mind and buy stuff. It’s much nicer if somebody else does that for me :)

And - I ripped off a part of hat which I crochet last summer for Tamara (turned out too big for her, but ths year it will fit perfectly). I re-did the edge and made last two rows a bit wider, so it looks like a proper hat now. I hope I can get her to model it for you very soon.