Valerie Baber Designs

A Desperate Fortune Scarf and hand warmers designed for Author Susanna Kearsley and her newest book “A Desperate Fortune”.  This one of a kind design was designed from the inspiration that Susanna used for her newest book.  Take a trip into the past and present with this extraordinary book with a cryptic journal from the past telling a secret story in the present day of this written book.  A fabulous read that includes suspense, deception, allegiance and love that will entice you through each chapter with plenty of visually written moments.  Plenty of twists and turns to entertain you throughout the book and as always a surprise ending.  I absolutely love this book, it is a must read so add it to your list soon.

I am fortunate that Susanna is a most wonderful friend and I thank her for asking me to work with her on this wonderful adventure.  Like the two women in her book working separately, yet together though they lived far apart in time and Susanna and I in distance.  It is a true pleasure being a friend of Susanna’s and I am so very proud of all she has done and continues to do.  Awesome job my friend on your newest book!!! One of my new favourites by far!

The A Desperate Fortune collar style scarf (small scarf) and hand warmers are available for purchase together or separately at http://www.valeriebaberdesigns.etsy.com  takes about 1 to 2 weeks to make. See more information about them at my Etsy store.  

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/234093217/stained-glass-rose-window-small-scarf?ref=shop_home_active_12  

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/234093633/stained-glass-rose-window-scarf?ref=shop_home_active_13 

https://www.etsy.com/ca/listing/234094189/stained-glass-rose-window-fingerless?ref=shop_home_active_14

The present day character Sara wears various scarves through out the book and originally I thought of designing a scarf that included these various scarves.  The Architectural descriptions in Susanna’s latest novel were speaking louder likely since I have been greatly inspired by Architecture of the past in my work this past year.  I couldn’t wait to begin this newest member of my Architectural designs just for Susanna.  Below are some pictures of the building Susanna was influenced by in her description of the building in the book.  Susanna’s description:  “The building with the windows is the chapel inside the old chateau of Saint-Germain-en-Laye, in France, which once housed the exiled Stuart kings of Britain and their courtiers. For me, having written for several years now about these people and their lives, actually getting to stand on this spot was a very moving moment, as this chapel would have been at the centre of their daily routines”.

You can read the first two chapters of this wonderful book here: 

http://books.sourcebooks.com/adesperatefortune/

I began this journey into the past for the A Desperate Fortune Scarf with a crochet base of a light coloured stone as shown in the pictures above.  Adding green at the bottom for the stained glass effect that the stone tracery would be adhering to down the road.  You can see more of the progress in the pictures below as I design the stone tracery and add the brick colour to the scarf and hand warmers.  There are two brooches that accent this scarf so you can wear it in various ways and use them to fasten the scarf.  The are both Stained Glass Rose windows that were designed for these wonderful Architectural buildings of the past.

For the “A Desperate Fortune” scarf I used beautiful yarn from SweetGeorgia Yarns, a Canadian Company, who dyes yarn in wonderful colours that portray their local area and Canada.  A fitting yarn to use since both Susanna and I are Canadian.  The colours were perfect for this design with the light stone colour being the Birch colour way, the stained glass is the Woodland Colour way of greens and the brick is done in the Terra Firma colour way.  All yarns were by SweetGeorgia Yarns in the Superwash Merino wool blend.  SweetGeorgia yarns are as noted in the name, SWEET!  One of my favourite yarns to work with, luxuriously soft and the colours are truly fantastic.  I recently took a visit to Vancouver and popped into the store to see the latest colours and newest yarns for this year.  They are even more delectable and wonderful than ever.  I can’t wait to use them in my next series of designs.

Be sure to check out SweetGeorgia’s website at  

http://www.sweetgeorgiayarns.com/

I am off to work on some new Architectural designs and new designs for Fall.  Come back soon to see my latest as well I am restarting my Architectural project as there was so much inspiration in my research that I have decided to go a different direction.  I will blog my start on that very soon.  Have a most wonderful day today.