Garden Stripes Baby Blanket or Possibly Lapghan, Free Pattern

When I started working on this design I intended it as baby blanket, but when I finished it I realized it can make a wonderful lapghan as well.

I’m actually going to keep it and use as a lapghan. It’s nice to have something cozy on my garden chair (which is cast iron and therefore gets cold easily) when I’m reading a book or having a cup of coffee in the morning.

In my free pattern below I included some notes on how to adjust the pattern to make a lapghan in the size you like.

This is my first pattern in PDF format that I embed on my blog. I’m still figuring out how to work with Docstoc website, so if you are not able to see/open the file, please let me know.

This pattern is my original design. It cannot be posted on other sites or distributed in any other form. If you would like to share this pattern, you can post ONE image on your site with the link to my original post. You can use this pattern to make items for personal use or for sale. If you sell finished items from this pattern, you must give design credit to Olga Poltava or Lacy Crochet blog (lacycrochet.blogspot.com). Please, respect my work. Thank you!

Also I will gladly welcome any feedback from you on the pattern. I tried my best to write it, but mistakes and/or typos are possible. I hope you’ll enjoy making either a baby blanket or a lapghan from my pattern.

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Pammy Sue from Scotty's Place kindly tested my pattern for a pinafore baby dress that I recently created. Just look how lovely her dress turned out. She also made a lovely headband to match the dress. How cute!

Thank you Pammy Sue!

The pattern for this baby dress is available in my Etsy shop.

I'm linking this post to 

Create It Thursday @ Lamberts Lately
Link Your Stuff @ Annamarie's Haakblog

Craft Schooling Sunday @ Crative Jewish Mom
Home Sweet Home Friday @The Charm of Home,
Show and Tell Friday @ My Romantic Home,

Crochet Lace Summer Cardigan

Just look what my darling mom got me!

No, she didn’t make it (she doesn’t work with crochet thread that much anymore).

She found it at her local thrift store for a ridiculous price of five dollars. She thought I might like it. 

Being a crochet lace fanatic, I absolutely love it! But the best part is that it fits me perfectly.

I also like how it looks with the sleeves rolled up.

I wonder what the story behind this gorgeous cardigan is. Who was the person that made it? How did it end up in a thrift store? Those things I will never know, but one thing I can tell for sure: whoever made this beauty is (or perhaps was) at the top of crochet art.

The cardigan is made of small motives that were very neatly joined together along the way. There is not a single seam on the entire piece! The stitches are neat and even, and the crochet thread that was used is thinner than the common size ten. To make such piece requires not only superb crochet skills, but lots of patience and determination.

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Thank you so much for your warm comments on my previous post. I read and re-read them; your kind words really lifted up my spirits.

I'm linking to

Link Your Stuff @ Annamarie's Haakblog

Lacy Crochet Blog Rules

In the light of the unpleasant incident that recently took place I was faced with a dilemma whether I should invest my time and work into this blog or give it up. I was showered with sincere comments and e-mails from people who actually find my efforts valuable! I am very grateful to you for sharing with me your experiences in similar situations, for your wisdom and advice, and for your encouragement.

Yes, I will go on! However, I came up with a list of changes and rules that I’m going to implement on my blog.

1. I will not let people take advantage of the hard work that I put into my blog! I will not be afraid to publicly denounce on my blog people who try to make profit of my work selling my patterns on Etsy, Ebay, or other sites.

2. I will put some of my designs and patterns up for sale, and I will not feel guilty about it.

3. I still intend to share my crochet patterns and tutorials with my readers. However, the images will be heavily watermarked and I will clearly state in each post my terms of use, which are:  

My original designs cannot be posted on other sites or distributed in any other form. If you would like to share my pattern or tutorial, you can post ONE image on your site with the link to my original post.

You can use my original patterns to make items for personal use or for sale. If you sell finished items made following my patterns, you must give design credit to Lacy Crochet Blog (lacycrochet.blogspot.com)

All the photos on this blog were taken by me (unless stated otherwise) and cannot be reposted without my permission.

4. I will no longer provide support and answer questions for my patterns older than one year. This is simply a matter of my time. I now have over 200 posts on my blog, and I can no longer stay on track of all of them. If you have a question or problem with a particular pattern, please read the comments first. It’s possible that I have already addressed the question or problem in the comments. If not, you are welcome to ask for help on crochet forums or discussion boards, but make sure you only give a link to the pattern and not repost it there.

5. I often get e-mails from people asking help with patterns that were not written by me. I’m flattered that you consider me a crochet expert, thank you. I don’t know everything about crochet, but I do love the challenge of figuring things out. If you want to ask for help or request a tutorial for a particular stitch, please send me an e-mail. I will try to address your request as soon as I can. If I consider that it’s worth sharing I will make a blog post out of it, so that other people in our craft can learn and benefit from it.

6. Please, don’t get upset with me if I don’t reply to your e-mail or comment or do not address your crochet problem. I greatly appreciate them, and I will try to do my best. However, as I already said it all boils down to a limited time on my hands.

7. If you have any suggestions or advice, I will sincerely welcome them.

A Thank You and Goodbye

Don’t laugh now, but I’m going to share with you something quite personal.

As a little girl, I dreamed a life of a fashion designer. When I was in my teen years, I was knitting, crocheting, and sewing my own clothes. But when I immigrated to the USA in my early twenties, there was no time for such “trifles” as needlework. It was time to study, to work, and to acquire a “meaningful” profession (which I did, I’m a proud Statistics graduate from the University of California, Davis). 

But soon a most wonderful thing had happened to me. I became a wife and a mother. Not only that, but I am one of the fortunate women who have the opportunity to stay at home and raise their children. And this has been the time for my youthful dreams to reemerge.

As I stared working on this blog, more and more people began showing interest in my crochet. People started asking me: What stitch did you use there? with how many chains did you start? could you explain this stitch in more detail? etc.

All the questions, comments, and your thanks encouraged me to learn more about crochet, to try different crochet techniques; they ignited my imagination for creating new things. I began to believe that I really do have a talent for crochet and that one day I can become a real designer, selling my own patterns, publishing books, and being featured in crochet magazines. 

Those were silly but oh so sweet dreams. And even they are shattered now. “What’s the point?” I ask myself. The world, and especially the world of the Internet, is full of crochet designers.

I recently had an unpleasant encounter with one of such designers on Etsy. My attention was drawn to her shop because I recognized the photograph of my own crochet work. In the About section, the shop owner proclaimed herself a crochet designer, who “offers her original designs at reasonable prices”. The prices were reasonable alright, but the designs were not original. 

The person obliged to my request to remove the listing of my baby blanket pattern, but of course she wouldn’t remove the rest of the violated patterns:

"Your pattern was removed immediately yet you are still not satisfied. There are others selling on this site who will ignore your requests to remove the pattern and you will be left with months of corresponding with Etsy until they remove the pattern. You could at least be thankful that I am reasonable."

Yes, my pattern was removed. But no, I’m not satisfied and I’m not thankful because other copyrighted and stolen patterns are still there. I am not satisfied that there are so many reasonable cheat-designers on the web.

I am overwhelmed. I am bewildered. I am disheartened.

I need a break!

From the bottom of my heart, a huge thanks to all of my wonderful readers and followers. Thank you for your comments, for your support, for your appreciation of my work. I really enjoyed sharing my crochet projects and a bit of my personal life with you. The year 2013 had been the best for me as this was the time when I truly discovered my creativity and was the most prolific in pattern writing/designing. 

I am taking an indefinite break from blogging. I don’t know when I will be back and if I will continue this blog at all.

Olga

Here We Go Again

Here we go again! My first reaction was like what a fool I am! Spending hours creating my designs, writing patters, taking and editing photos. Then spending more hours making tutorials or explaining things to people in countless emails... It really hurt that people just shamelessly take advantage of me.  

But then I calmed down and tried to see the situation from a different perspective.

Dear thieves, thank you so much for your interest in my work and the confidence you have given me. After all, if you believe my designs and patterns are worth being sold, so should I!

From now on, I will put ALL of my patterns in my own Etsy shop!

Peace!