Yarn Is NOT a Cat Toy, Part Deux

Last year I learned a very important lesson while The Animator's Wife was crocheting one day: Yarn is NOT a cat toy.

This morning our foster kittens learned that lesson firsthand when Elliette, the white female, got her head stuck in a ball of crochet cotton. The Animator and His Wife couldn't help laughing at her at first, but we had a moment of near-panick when we realized her head was actually stuck and she needed help freeing it.

The Animator's Wife had been wondering where that ball of cotton had gone--just last week she thought she had lost it! Well Elliette found it, and luckily she escaped with no more injury than that to her ego. However, it drives home two of my points from last year:

- Never let Kitty play with yarn unsupervised, and especially don’t let her eat it.

- Never leave yarn lying around where Kitty can get into it while home alone.

Incidently, we're still looking for forever homes for all three kittens. If you are interested in adopting them, you can come meet them at the Feline Foundation's adoption fair this Sunday, July 19th. See this page for details.

Please crochet responsibly.

Vintage Inspiration

In case you haven't guessed yet, The Animator's Wife has been on a vintage kick. She's joined two vintage-themed swaps, one in which she received this from Valerie on Ravelry:

And one for which she's made this necklace of vintage design:

We found this pattern in the vintage book Traveling Kitten sent us from Cape Cod.

Isn't it lovely? The Animator's Wife has played with crocheting jewelry before (remember the Hope Bracelet?), but she really seems to be getting into it this time. Last week she ordered a bunch of silk cord, freshwater pearls, and sterling silver notions, and as soon as it arrived she dived right into designing her own pieces. She finished her first necklace last night.

Do you like it? It can be yours after a quick stop in the Rambling Yarn Shop.

Hmm, I'm thinking The Animator's Wife has found a new favorite activity. Now we just need to figure out how to keep the kittens out of the pearls...

Daisy Cover-Up

Here's a little number that will never go out of style:

Look familiar? It's the vintage Daisy Cover-Up pattern that The Animator's Wife started back in April. You know something is truly stylish when it still looks just as smart over 50 years after it was first designed. I still can't fathom just how long ago that was. In cat years, I likely would have used at least half of my lives from then until now.

So we've been learning a lot about copyrights and the public domain ever since The Animator's Wife stumbled upon all those old crochet patterns earlier this year. As it turns out, when the copyright on a work expires, it goes into the public domain, meaning pretty much anyone is now free to build upon or change or republish the work. Anything published before 1923 is now in the public domain. Anything published between 1923 and 1963 is also in the public domain, unless the copyright was renewed by the original author or publisher. Anything published after 1963 is still under copyright.

With this in mind, The Animator's Wife did some research on the copyright of the Daisy Cover-Up pattern, and she discovered that the pattern is in fact in the public domain! What does this mean for you? It means that we are now free to make this timeless piece available for you, to treasure as crocheters treasured in generations past, and to share with generations to come.

In fact, this business with the vintage patterns has gotten us thinking that it's important to remember where we came from and how things came to be as they are today. We'll be looking at more vintage patterns in the coming months, seeing which ones have withstood the test of time and which ones we'll be able to share with you. And of course, we'll test every pattern before we republish it. But for now, you can find the Daisy Cover-Up pattern in our Etsy shop. Hope you enjoy it!