On my computer, I organise my patterns by status. There’s a folder for ideas, a folder for WIPs, a folder for released patterns, and a folder for patterns which are ready but not yet released.
In that “ready” folder is a single pattern. It’s sat there languishing for months now – made, tech edited, tested, ready to publish – because I haven’t been able to gain permission from the copyright holders.
Numberblocks is a popular TV show for UK preschoolers. It’s a sister show to Alphablocks, and it uses personified number characters, songs, and visual representations to engage young children and teach them basic maths concepts. As a parent I think it’s absolutely fantastic – it explains the basics with a depth and accessibility I didn’t think was possible – and the songs are pretty catchy.
One summer, my daughter was all about Numberblocks. We’d watch it every afternoon while we played. I got out the card, tape, and pens, and made her a series of 3D numberblocks characters. I made numbers 1-5…
…then 6-10.
I kept going. Some of the shapes were a bit of a challenge to figure out. Eventually I’d made numbers 1-20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, and 100.
My daughter was besotted with them. She carried them around in an empty shoe box, re-enacted stories from the show with them, and insisted on taking them upstairs to bed with her at night.
That’s when I started looking in earnest for a cuddly Numberblock toy, and realised that they didn’t exist. The only Numberblocks toys you could get were the ones that came free with CBeebies magazine – and they were hard plastic and going on eBay for £20.
Well. I think we all know where this is going, don’t we?
The cat really wanted to help.
It quickly became me that was obsessed. The project came with me on the school run so I could work on it in the car while I was waiting.
Pretty soon it looked like the cube it was supposed to be…
…then it had legs…
…then arms…
…then, crucially, a face.
This was the point where my daughter was well aware of what I was up to and was somewhat impatient for me to finish.
Thankfully she does have to sleep sometime, so that’s when I powered through to finish it.
The big blocker (HAH, pun intended) for this design was working out how to stuff it and keep its cuboid shape. It was my father-in-law who nudged me to the solution by mentioning that he’d bought foam cushion inserts online.
A very messy encounter with a bread knife later, and I was ready to finish the top.
And there she was: One Wonderful Block.
I excitedly took the finished block with me to pick my daughter up from school. I wanted her to see it RIGHT NOW because I knew how excited she was. It caused a little buzz at the school gates – other parents immediately recognised what it was and gave me some wonderfully kind compliments.
It occurred to me at this point that there were probably plenty of children who loved Numberblocks and would love their own cuddly One, and plenty of parents and grandparents and loved ones who could crochet one for them, and all that was missing was for me to write down what I did and make it available.
So I wrote it out. And that, truth be told, is what gave me the idea to start designing. The act of writing it all out was so… neat, so clean and clear. I realised that the part of designing that some designers don’t enjoy was the part that I really loved.
Here’s the problem, though: I haven’t been able to get a response from the company that owns the Numberblocks copyright.
This stings a little bit. I initially contacted the BBC, as it’s aired on CBeebies, and received the most wonderfully supportive response letting me know that they didn’t own the copyright and pointing me at who did. So I got in touch with Alphablocks and waited for a reply.
While this was going on, I was proudly sharing photos of the finished toy on Instagram, and there was an unfortunate incident – the social media firm looking after the Numberblocks Instagram feed, who have now been removed from Instagram for breaking community guidelines, stole one of my photos and republished it without my permission. The funny thing is that they didn’t publish it to the Numberblocks account – they accidentally published it to the feed of another client of theirs, about food in Bristol, which I didn’t follow.
But an old friend of mine did, and messaged me saying “hey isn’t this your work…?” and lo and behold, there it was.
One very irate comment later and the stolen content was removed. But then I got this message…
“Hello hello, sorry we accidentally posted the thing we stole from you to the wrong account, we’re asking for permission now! Hahaha”
No. No, you cannot.
And that’s the abrupt end to the story. There’s been no reply to my email to Alphablocks, and so I can’t release this pattern.
Today I’ve sent a last-ditch follow-up to my email and I’m really hoping that we can work something out. If not, One Wonderful Block will forever sit in limbo, waiting in my Ready folder.
Ah well. At least she’s happy.
