Copying Left

My shawl pattern mentioned here is basically drafted. I need to finish figuring out who took that picture, and I need to make sure that you can publish pi shawl patterns (and use those lace patterns) without running amok with the people who I took borrowed from. I mean technically, there’s 10% difference between what I’m doing and what other people have published. But the truth is that I’d much rather spend little time emailing Schoolhouse Press and Cheryl Oberle to make sure that I’m not crossing some boundary.

Speaking of copyright, I’ve been spending a lot of time recently in the Ravelry “Designers Forums,” talking about copyright and copyleft, and pattern production. This has been helpful as I’ve been writing an thinking about my own patterns. There’s a lot of--very legitimate--concern for copyright in this community, but I worry that there’s too much fear going around in a way that has the potential to antagonize the audience, and even stifle the creative process.¹

So if you’re on ravelry, check out the copyleft thread to see what I’ve been up to. It’s become part of my morning routine, which is part of the reason that I haven’t been blogging quite as much as I might like.

In other news, I did some really important planning work on a fiction project. Looks like I’m writing a story cycle. Who knew? I’m currently planning/developing on a short adventure story several years before the beginning of the novella I wrote last year. And even if I don’t get that done, this work will be very helpful in making that novella more sensical. Which felt good. Writing is good stuff, and the more I concentrate on the writing the less I can concentrate on things that I have minimal control over. End introspection.

I’ll be back throughout the day, be well.

Onward and Upward!