Sheep boy's and crochet cake jumpers

I'm very, very tried and soggy.
We have 10 days to tie, mordant, dye, wash, dry, wind and label 80 kgs of wool to get it ready for Unravel in 10 days.
Daisy is away on holiday, so Phil and I are working almost 24 hrs a day.

My brain is exahusted, but I wanted to share a few photo's with you.

My cake jumper, I had nearly finished the body, I tried it on and it made me look like a barrel, so I frogged it and am now doing side increases to give it a more floaty shape. The trouble is because its aran its quite solid and now looks like a bell tent.
I'm hopeing it will drop when washed, but I like it lots more than the original.

One kg of chunky BFL slub that I managed to felt, I was test dyeing it to maybe add it to our range. But the wool doesn't take the colour very well, so i had to keep over dyeing it - result felted wool.
It is useable and I have crocheted a test square, it will be my next mindless project, but we won't be adding it to the range.
I ended up using a 9mm hook, so this really will make me look like a barrel.

And the sheep boys who live in the field behind the office.
They are Exmoor Horn (our local breed) and I think the prettiest sheep of all.
When I said good morning to them they all came running over, obviously thought I was going to feed them.

Incidently in my head all sheep are boy's and they are all called Barry - obviously thats not true, but I like to think some of them are called Barry.

Rainbow cake jumper with pompom's

Firstly thanks to everyone who commented on my copying post.
I found the comments really interesting, especially the difference in perception of what constitues a copy.
I've done some more research and have come to my own conclusion which I'd rather not share - enough said!

So onto my rainbow cake jumper with pompom's
As you know I've been working on this

And I was a bit bored with it, there is not enough colour changing, the existing colour scheme is a repeat of what I've already done. I need to be challenged.
So I decided to put it on hold and think about it for a while.

In the meantime I was crochetless, after last week's tooth incident I lost inspiration.
I've always found the way to tackle loss of inspiration is to just crochet something mindless.
So I rooted around in my stash and found 2 skeins of aran handspun that I had bought from my very talented friend Daniela, you can find her shop HERE
She spins the most amazing art yarn, if you fancy a treat I highly recommend a trip to her shop.
Anyway I also found a big pile of Dazzle Aran that I had intended to use for a blanket, I had done some swatching and decided I didn't like using such a thick yarn as I couldn't get enough detail into the piece.

Un-loved Dazzle Aran - I'm afraid I didn't photograph Daniela's skeins.

The 2 piles of wool fitted together perfectly so I decided to make a cake jumper.
If you are wondering what a cake jumper is have a look at this Father Ted video clip on Vimeo
Cake jumper has become a term used for big baggy shapeless sweather in the NDS household.

Its cold in Lynton and its not a glamous place, nearly all the residents are self employed and work very hard for a living, so everyone tends to walk round the village in their work clothes, a lot of the time their attire involves wellies and mud.
In the 9 months I've lived here I've only seen one or two suits.
I'm not glamous I'm scruffy, most of the time I have blue hands and dye stained clothes, no one cares,  I feel I can wear a cake jumper without being judged or laughed at.

So here it is, I started it saturday and am hopeing to wear it to the pub friday night.

Coincidence or not??

As I have already told you on several occasions I am not a prolific designer.
Each one of my designs takes ages to make and design, I put my heart and soul into my crochet, I do it because I love it.
So when I discover that someone might have copied me I get very upset and angry.
My designs are very personal to me and I feel betrayed and helpless.
My initial reaction is to shout about it and make a huge fuss, then calm down, forget about it and move on.
Yesterday I was made aware of the pattern below.
I decided to sleep on it and to see how I felt in the morning.

Lily is probably my most popular pattern, it was first published in 2011 and was a best seller almost instantly.
It has nearly 2300 hearts on Ravelry, plus loads of projects.
RAVERLY LILY
We have sold thousands and thousands of copies of the Lily pattern all over the world.
It always has pride of place on our stand at shows and always gets lots of attention and admirers.
Lily was designed in honour of my mother, so is very personal and special to me.

Our Mini Skein club grew out of the need for mini skeins to make Lily.

Last year not only was the Lily pattern in my blanket book, its also the cover photo.

So why am I so upset??
I'm upset because I found the links to this.....

The motif is almost identical, the foundation chain has more stitches, round 2 uses trebles instead of half trebles and round 5 is missing.

My Lily chart.

The other one

You can find it HERE on Ravelry.

You will notice the published date is January 2013.

There's a Facebook group HERE

and best and most upsetting of all it's been published in a book which is currently selling on Amazon.

Now you tell me...

Is it a coincidence?

Am I overreacting and being too sensitive??

Should I grow a thicker skin and be less of a drama queen??

I don't know, what do you think?

Star Scarf part 2

Here it is.

The orange trianges have begun to fade.
And you should be able to see the design emerging.