Veritas, Equitas pattern for sale on Ravelry

I'm not sure how the wondrous Camanomade manages to be so wondrous. She created this awesome book which boasts about 30 fabulous patterns and articles. My Veritas, Equitas fingerless gloves have the honour to be in there. And somehow she has given us all permission to sell our own patterns individually as well. I was very loth to do this for a long time. To me it seems this practice can only hurt book sales. However, seeing so many of the book's designers selling their patterns as Ravelry downloads, and the book continuing to sell just fine, I can only conclude that Camanomade is protected by angels, as she deserves to be. I asked her permission anyways, just to be sure.

She very happily gave it. So I set up my Ravelry pattern store. It costs 5€. Also I posted a tutorial which is free. Here's the link to both: http://www.ravelry.com/stores/crochet-codex-designs .

These would make a perfect Christmas gift, if I do say so myself.

Tracery FO!

They're both done at last and I'm thrilled with them. They are such a perfect fit! One day I'll try to write a pattern for them. I have to say that this is the most difficult project I've done to date. The fingers are very fiddly to make. But worth every fiddle!


Now that my hands are warm, I'm ready to start making the Gryphon Cowl out of that awesome liquid gold yarn from the Sanguine Gryphon. I worry that this may fall into the category of Pleasures Not Meant for Mortals.

Quintessence of Delight

Comparable only to the aroma of baking bread. My Gaia DK from Sanguine Gryphon arrived. No photograph can capture the magic of this yarn. Touching it is like kissing the top of a baby's head. The colours are infinitely complex, deep and compelling. And it shines like gemstones.

O come, let us adore it!

Love of Glove

I am over-the-moon in love with this glove! It has fingers! And they fit PERFECTLY! And it's pretty, and soft, and green!

Don't laugh guys, but I've been working on this for months. I've tested 4 or 5 different methods for making fingers and thumbs with jacquard before achieving this. Sideways, backwards, intarsia, jacquard, fingers-first, cuff-up...and the winner is: cuff-up, intarsia.

Holding Pattern

Well, this is the pattern for people who have no time to invent patterns.

1. Ch 108, join to form a ring. (or however many sts goes over your head comfortably)

2. Work whatever motifs take your fancy.

3. Fasten off.



And there you go, a Cowl. I got the graphics from this great book, Celtic Charted Designs by Co Spinhoven. Also a must-have for people with no time left to think.

Before I leave you, however, I have to share my greatest discovery of the decade. If you love beautiful clothes, Go Here. I haven't bought anything yet because I'm afraid if I start I won't be able to stop!

Gryphon

Here's the finished cowl, and I've christened it "Gryphon" after Sanguine Gryphon Yarns. If all goes well, I'll soon be making it again out of her incredible Gaia in silk/cashmere. And then if everything continues to go well, she'll be selling the pattern and kit on her site! I'm so impatient to get started, and having hissy fits every time the postman fails to bring my samples. This is such an exciting gig!


And here it is being modeled by my beloved Jones, who is a 1977 Sakurai guitar, the best guitar in the world.

Last Project

Tomorrow I start work, and so this is it. School starts in 2 weeks and things will go very badly for yours truly if all is not in place on the 15th. I'd better not even think about crochet. I have to finish this today or forever hold my peace.

I've made a couple of other things which will have to remain a secret until further notice, but this cowl is a prototype for many more, I hope. I love it and I foresee having to make them for all my friends and family. This is the first time I've tried to stick to one yarn for a whole project: because it's so close to the sensitive skin on the face and neck, I made it entirely out of Drops Alpaca. Who wants a scratchy cowl? Actually I'm telling a lie here: some of the red stuff is Posh Yarn Sophia, pure cashmere! If I had cashmere in dozens of colours, I'd do the whole thing in that, but cashmere seems to be a rare and expensive commodity.

Cloister Gloves

I was in the cloister of Santa Anna in Barcelona the other day at dusk. I love these gloves, but I promise the cloister of Santa Anna is more beautiful.

Homage to Blueberries

So here I am in bright, bleached Spain, but my mind is still filled with images of Georgian Bay: dark river, lichens and mosses in a thousand greens, blueberry bushes and the sweet smell of forest. And a whole month of crochet time ahead of me! Joy! I've started working on patterns for mittens to send off for submission, but this is not one of them. This is a laboratory of experiments, some of which will be used, some not - some of them were way too complicated and not worth the effort! - but it was fun to try to recreate the North.

Holiday Snaps

That was so fun. I have a great sister. I keep mentioning my Mom and how extraordinary she was, but did I mention that I have an equally extraordinary sister? All the women in my family are awesome. Brilliant, beautiful, creative...extreme cooks, artists and gardeners . We invented the Stash Expedition decades ago, and although our mother has been gone for 15 years, we're still keeping the faith. Anyways, before I wax emotional, on to the pics:

As you can see, I wasted no time. I went to 3 LYS in Toronto: Romni Wools on Queen St, which is my favourite LYS to date, Lettuce Knit in Kensington Market, and The Naked Sheep in the Beaches. This picture is about half of what I came away with. Am I ashamed? Not in the least. It will all get used!

After Stash Ex. #1, we headed up North to Georgian Bay, specifically to a tiny island on the Naiscoot River where my sister has a beautiful cottage. Here's my DS driving the boat, supervised by my sis:
Me being driven!
We picked blueberries. I could make a pie out of these colours alone. We did make pie. It was the world's best blueberry pie. And here it is along with my Georgian Bay project. I made Troubador Socks for my sister, using this beautiful Noro sock yarn.
Back in the city I finished these Veritas Equitas for my stepmom. She has Reynaud's Syndrome where your hands get cold and turn white, so she needed these: in fact, she's been at the back of my mind since I first started making wrist warmers. They turned out prettier than in the photo, but I didn't have a chance to take FO pictures before coming home to Spain.
I wish I had stayed much longer. Sis and I only made 4 pies (sour cherry mmmm accounted for 2 of them) and we bought beads but never got around to beading, stepmom needed more cheering up and more fattening up, and Toronto was a symphony of greens that made me catch my breath about 8 times a day. My Dad needed my DH who always cheers him up, but sadly DH was home in Spain, poor lad. I returned home to find him very skinny. What is this, nobody eats unless I'm watching?

On the other hand, I gained 2 kilos in 2 weeks and would have gained a few more by now if I'd stayed. In my family we are seriously good cooks. And I would have had to send my stash by boat if I'd been allowed anywhere near another LYS.

The Queen's Work.

Now then, would anyone like to make Laracroft really and truly angry? It's not easy, but if you have what it takes, I will show you how. Are you armed with righteous fervor? Have you girded your loins with disciplinary zeal? Are you wielding your rod, and not afraid to use it? Then come along, for there is the Queen's work to be done.
Where are we going, you ask? To PicasaWeb, also sometimes referred to as a Den of Vermin.
And here we are, at the page of , insert name in Japanese, Russian, Portuguese, Ukrainian Korean Chinese Greek or whatever. And oho, what do we have here? Why, dozens of magazines with patterns, scanned and posted - for free, no less! - on this vile person's page. They are in Russian, Japanese, Portuguese, etc (see above). No matter, for as we well know, this is Illegal. They are long off the stands and long out of print. No matter, it is still Illegal. Anybody who thinks that spending hours scanning unavailable magazines to share with the rest of the world is a Good Deed, is about to learn the error of her ways. It is not a good deed. It is a Violation of Copyright.
Simply click on the button reading "Report Inappropriate Content". Snap! No more page, no more unavailable crochet magazines for the other Vermin to read. With a little practice, I'm sure you could turn the offender to stone like Tumnus.

See how easy it was? To make Laracroft truly angry? Since this just happened to 2 of my favourite pages in one day, I just can't contain myself.

PicasaWeb is not about getting patterns for free. It's about access. Pattern magazines should not be printed on paper and sold in newsstands. For the obvious reason that we are running out of trees, but also because we crocheters would buy them if we could. Publishers could make a fortune: printing costs would not exist, and individual patterns could be sold online for the price of the whole magazine.

I have a pattern published in Interweave Crochet. Once that issue is no longer available, that's the end: nobody can legally make my pattern ever again. Woe betide me if I dare to make a copy of it for a friend. So, unless one of those morally reprehensible insurgents dares to post it on their Picasa page(which they won't: even they are not so foolish as to post an American magazine!), it will be dead and buried. And I as a designer should be happy about this?

A while back on Ravelry, a whole group of indignant, politically correct ladies resolved to make a habit of visiting PicasaWeb pages for the sole purpose of shutting them down.

Making Laracoft truly angry.

Sriyana

It's not for nothing that we Tapestry Crocheters love Sriyana. Personally, I would lay down my life for her. She won my heart the first time I saw this:


How to win the heart of Laracroft: beauty, geometry, thoughtfulness and phenomenal technique. How to further win the heart of Laracroft:



With a light heart - of the kind that makes Portraits of Hens - and phenomenal technique. I hope you all realize that this is as difficult as Tapestry Crochet gets: worked flat (in Mensa Stitch!) with up to 8 strands at a time! And in case one were to get bored with that, there's a few days' worth of bullion stitches in those leaves. And all for the love of one little hen.

And then, this J.S. Bach of crochet offered to test my Veritas, Equitas pattern for publication. The mind boggles. Herr Bach, would you mind proofreading my latest tune?


So I am very proud. They look so beautiful it's hard to believe I designed them. Thank you, Sriyana!!!