Monday, December 2, 2019

"Free", But Not a Free-for-All

About a year ago I decided to make all my Ravelry designs free. Today, I spent all morning and afternoon adding this little blurb at the bottom of the first page of each pattern (previously I had merely put a copyright warning on the last page):

Copyright Elizabeth McCarten (fill in year)
This pattern is for personal use only. Patterns and items made from this pattern cannot be sold for profit.

Especially at this time of the year, when craft shows abound, I feel a need to remind knitters, and shop owners too, that just because a particular pattern is free does not mean there are no legal rules regarding what can be done with it. A huge amount of work goes into producing quality patterns. All designs are governed by the rules of "intellectual property". Please respect the hard work that designers do. Even when a pattern is free, remember that you are not allowed to make a profit from its use, whether by kitting it up with yarn to sell in your shop, or selling finished pieces at your local craft fair. If you plan to use one of my patterns as part of a kit to sell yarn, write to me first for permission. Even if you plan to use a pattern for charity sales, please have the courtesy to do the same. Many of you have already done this, and I thank you.

With that out of the way, here's where I'm at in the knitting of Isabel's "Hedgewood".


I am reminded of EZ's statement that all aran knitting is really just fancy ribbing. It's why this looks like nothing much pre-blocking. I'll probably go for another inch before I wet block to check for size. It'll look more impressive then.

And finally, there's nothing like the first major snowfall to put you into a holiday mood. I passed this mountain ash loaded with berries while walking home from the grocery shop.



At least we can enjoy the first week of winter (while we dread the long months to come -- sigh!)