The Ethical Yarn Slut
Somewhere, in a drawer, is a little red hat. It was the first thing I ever knit and I didn’t use a pattern. Nope, instead I found a hat calculator sort of thing, and then half ignored its directions, and ended up with something that was a touch too short, with a horrific seam line up the back, but otherwise quite wearable. Thus began a knitting-mantra of “fuck the pattern, I can figure it out myself”.
I don’t need no stinkin’ pattern! Or do I? Well, okay, sometimes the easiest thing to do is just use the damn pattern, but then what? If it’s free online, I’ll probably use it, because it’s there. I’ll modify it up the wazoo because that’s what I do, but I’ll use it. Failing that, one of four things will happen:
- “Hey, my library has the book with that pattern, I’ll drag my ass over there and borrow it.”
- “Well, I can order it online for five bucks, so why not, that’s not too bad.”
- “Looks like I can’t get my hands on it easily/cheaply, but meh, I don’t want to make it that badly anyway. Screw it.”
- “I DON’T NEED NO STINKIN’ PATTERN! I’LL FIGURE IT OUT MYSELF!”
The thing is… I don’t think I have ever had to resort to Option #4. The closest I’ve come to it is along the lines of “I like that collar/button band/stitch pattern and I think I’ll add it to this completely different sweater that I’m designing”. Which is not so much an ethical dilemma. I’m not copying their pattern and I’m not even copying their garment. I have never actually sat down with a picture of a knitted item and reverse engineered it as an alternative to obtaining a pattern for it.
Until now.
Oh yes. That is a lil’ piece of Noemi, and though I’m sure I didn’t get it exactly right, I honestly can’t tell the difference between the stitch pattern of the real one and my fakey fake one swatched with scraps of orange acrylic. The shocking part was that it was really, really easy to do.
I didn’t even write anything down.
(Hmm. Maybe I should. Meh, effort.)
I don’t know if it’s a really simple stitch pattern, or if I’m some sort of knitting savant (thus adding to my list of Completely Useless Talents – why am I only good at things that are totally unmarketable?), or if I just lucked out, but, so easy. It took two tries, and I knew the first try was wrong like three rows in and knew immediately how to fix it, and now, if I want to, I can make that scarf without needing any stinkin’ pattern at all. But should I?
It just seems… wrong, somehow.
But it’s done all the time, isn’t it? I always see knitters trying to reverse engineer designer garments so they can knit their own version and I’ve never thought that to be wrong. But maybe that’s because there’s no alternative. There’s no pattern for that sort of thing, so you make your own. A machine-knitted item at a store. A pattern that is out of print. An improvised pattern that the designer has no intention of ever publishing. Okay. I can get on board with all of that. A… pattern that’s in a book that you don’t want to buy just for one pattern? Eh. I don’t know. Sketchy territory.
Maybe I’ve built up enough Pattern Karma from having published so many free patterns that it’s okay to do this once in a while. Maybe I am waaaay overthinking it. Maybe I am a little bitter that I’m on a budget and thus can’t just Do The Right Thing and buy the book. Maybe I should put away my fake!Noemi swatch and just pass on this particular project.
Maybe I should change the subject.
I’m still patiently waiting for my new skein of Smooshy to arrive – and if it’s the right colour, then I can frog my brown Lace Ribbon Scarf and start my black Lace Ribbon Scarf and and and… I will then have an extra skein of brown Smooshy demanding a pattern. And the angst will begin!
Except, no it won’t!
The unthinkable has happened and I found the pattern I want for it, immediately: Japanese Vines. And there will be no wailing and gnashing of teeth over obtaining this one, because it’s downloadable for five bucks. Nooo problem.
And yet, I still found myself doing a search for the stitch pattern online, and even, just for a second, considering trying to figure it out myself from a picture. What is this nonsense? AHHHH FAKE!NOEMI HAS SENT ME DOWN A SLIPPERY SLOPE LEADING STRAIGHT TO UNETHICAL PATTERN HELL. Hrm. Just buy the pattern, you big loser, sez my brain, and I’m gonna.
But I can’t, at least not yet.
Why? Because I am a dirty filthy project slut.
The second I have that pattern in my hot little paws, I am going to want to cast on for it. I MUST HAVE YOU NOW, DELICIOUS SEXY SCARF. But I don’t want to start it yet, because I don’t want to frog the brown scarf until I’ve started the black scarf and can make sure I do ’em both the same, and can compare them, and all that sane, responsible stuff.
Okay, so what about after that? Well, after that I will be knitting up a black lace scarf. And while I have never been one for project monogamy, will I want to be knitting up a brown lace scarf at the same time? Wouldn’t that be like cheating on your boyfriend with some guy who looks and acts exactly like your boyfriend, but has, like, a different haircut? Doesn’t that seem awfully… indulgent? Isn’t this… the stupidest analogy ever? Yes. Yes it is.
All right then, I’m buying the pattern as soon the brown scarf is good and ready to be frogged, scarf-faithfulness be damned. I AM A PROJECT SLUT AND I AM NOT ASHAMED.
As for fake!Noemi, well, fake!Noemi is like that really hot guy who’s hitting on you at your friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s party, and you know that he’s sleazy, and you heard that he has a girlfriend, and it would be very, very wrong to hook up with him and you should probably give him a good hard slap and walk away. But he’s oh-so-attractive, and you really, really want to be bad…
Fuck the right thing. Knit it! Heh.
1 Jun 2008 at 2:30 pmI’m with michelle. Knit it. I mean, it’s not like you borrowed the book from the library and photocopied that one page…it’s not like you even held someone’s in your hand and figured it out. Heck, for all you know, your way of doing it is completely different. What if you had just caught a glimpse of someone wearing that scarf and had gone home and come up with your example? Or just come up with it on your own, fiddling around with your orange acrylic?
I say go for it. But then I’m probably ethically hazy…I bring home pens from work.
1 Jun 2008 at 3:26 pmWith my designer hat on – what I sell are PATTERNS, not IDEAS. If you can, by yourself, figure a way of knitting something by looking at a photo – go for it, more power to your elbow.
1 Jun 2008 at 3:53 pmI’m still in awe that you managed to reverse engineer Noemi so well! What are you, some kind of knitting prodigy? :P
And another thing, I know personally that scarves cause problems. You see all these beautiful patterns and yarn and knit them all, and then you will have 10 handknit scarves that you never wear because they shed all over your coat, and maybe they’re kinda itchy, but still sooo pretty so of course you can’t bear to give them away, so you decide to stop knitting them, but then you realize you have like 11 single skeins in COORDINATING COLORS that would look great for a striped scarf but you don’t want another scarf and besides winter is like only three months and you’d feel guilty if you wore one but not the others, because isn’t there such a thing as scarf discrimination?
Ah, screw it. Smooshy is wonderful and delicious and BELONGS as beaded lacey scarfy amazingness around your neck!!!
1 Jun 2008 at 7:31 pmOh em gee! I love your analogies! They are spot on! I totally have about 5 different “boyfriends with different hair cuts”! I love reading your blog! And your fake!Noemi dilemma, I was contemplating this the other day and I am still undecided about this. Maybe we should ask the knitting community at large?
1 Jun 2008 at 9:27 pmJust knit it! If you can figure out the pattern by yourself why not? Maybe you even improved it?
In my opinion knitting is people’s art, and sharing is just one of the attributes that relate to knitting. If people whould stick to their own patterns, copyright them and hide them in their closets, knitting as art and practical activity woudn’t have survived until these days. But today, no, oh no, everybody is talking about ‘their pattern’ (OMFG!) and publishers are making big money out of it. I am just waiting for some important ass to copyright the knitting needle.
2 Jun 2008 at 12:50 amEff it, do what makes you feel good.
Although now I’m facing a moral dilemma, is it cheating if you make out with your BizarroBoyfriend?
2 Jun 2008 at 5:53 amI say as long as you’re not publishing the hacked pattern, go for it.
2 Jun 2008 at 7:45 amMaking one copy of one chapter out of a library book for your own personal use is perfectly legal. Making more than one copy, or making copies of more than one chapter, or making copies and publishing them or selling them, that’s potentially a violation of copyright law (there are exceptions. You can copy the whole thing if it’s in the public domain).
Yep, I work in a library.
2 Jun 2008 at 8:02 amI love reading your blog. Fake Noemi, wow that looks great. And that’s all yours.
2 Jun 2008 at 10:37 amI love your blog. I love the japanese vines and have made it a favorite on Ravelry so now I have a bazillion and ONE projects I want to make. You go girl.
2 Jun 2008 at 3:19 pm[…] not only me who has these doubts. Just a couple of days ago I read a post on this theme on the Half assed knit blog and quite samo time ago Dances with wool also had a post related to […]
3 Jun 2008 at 3:12 pmI don’t think you’re doing anything wrong figuring out the pattern on your own instead of buying it. It’s not like you’re going to sell it. Figuring it out yourself is one of the joys of being a knitter!
3 Jun 2008 at 10:09 pmIt’s even more acceptable when the item is from some hotsy-totsy, overpriced designer. Then it’s actually a requirement.
You must put Knitting Prodigy in your resume.
5 Jun 2008 at 10:32 pmYour analogies make my day.
KNIT IT! There is no such thing as being unethical in the world of fiber arts. (Except selling someone else’s pattern as your own… which you’re not.)
10 Jun 2008 at 10:42 pmAs for fake!Noemi, well, fake!Noemi is like that really hot guy who’s hitting on you at your friend’s sister’s boyfriend’s party, and you know that he’s sleazy, and you heard that he has a girlfriend, and it would be very, very wrong to hook up with him and you should probably give him a good hard slap and walk away. But he’s oh-so-attractive, and you really, really want to be bad…
13 Jun 2008 at 10:56 amSo let me tell you about these last two weeks in Israel…
No, but seriously, I want you to write a big book of knitting -to-life analogies. And, screw it, don’t feel bad about fake Naomi. You sat down and figured out the pattern by yourself. That’s not wrong. It’s wrong if you try to sell or share it, I think, but you just did the work that the patternwriter did and aren’t trying to make a profit on it or anything. So go, knit on!
I love how knitting dilemmas can be extended to other life situations. Me, I think you should stay at the party, forget the slap, be very very bad, and then go home and knit your fake Noemi. ;^)
17 Jun 2008 at 4:00 pmIs it bad that I thought the boyfriend analogy was perfectly good? You are hysterical! This is my first time to your blog but it wont be the last.
28 Jun 2008 at 9:02 pmHrm, this sound very familiar.
I loved the Montego Bay scarf, but somehow it was completely off my radar when it first came out. When I finally “discovered” it, I couldn’t find a copy of the IK issue it was in locally, and I had some……er….problems, trying to order the issue online. I finally said screw it, it’s an easy lace pattern, and figured it out myself.
Then I felt guilty, so when my LYS offered to sell me their store copy, I bought it right up. :)
1 Jul 2008 at 4:06 pmKnit it. It’s traditional to see a pattern and figure out how to do it. It works both ways: I’ve found a few popular, named, “new” designs in older books of public domain traditional folk patterns.
3 Jul 2008 at 4:49 pmOoh, project slut. I knew there was a name for that irresistible urge to start a new project even though the eighty-seven other projects I’ve started aren’t done yet!
13 Aug 2008 at 1:51 pmI think that if you are smart enough to figure it out that easily you deserve to knit it
9 Sep 2008 at 5:35 pmGo for it!!
My mom used to take my sister and I into stores and have us pick out dresses we liked and then she’d go home and make them, at the time I hated it but now I’m just in awe about how awesome she was to be able to do that.
You have a talent, definately, or as you said “knitting savant ”
:0)
huh?
12 Aug 2011 at 3:55 pm