Monday, August 2, 2010

Call the ASPCA--I'm beating a dead horse.

I don't know if it's coincidence or if the copy cat flu was going around, but twice in one day designers I follow talked about what they felt were knock-offs of their designs. I'm not posting names or links because certain family members would crap their pants if I got sued--honey, that's why we have insurance--so I'm using discretion and not showing you the alleged offending designs. Being the inveterate smart ass that I am, however, means I WILL get a blog post out of this, but let's pretend assume that everything in this post is hypothetical and doesn't pertain to any particular person, place, or thing.

Before publishing my own patterns, I kid you not, I looked at every single Ravelry photo of baby hats and socks that could have even remotely been in the same category as mine, to make sure my designs were original. Then, I went back and did it all over again to make sure my pattern names were original. Then, I checked out other knitting pattern sites. Anal? Maybe, but if the hat or the socks had been close enough to someone else's design to make me squirm, I wouldn't have published the patterns. Instead I would have added them to my Ravelry Projects page, with the acknowledgement that, yeah, my hat/sock is pretty similar to Yada Yada's, and here's what I did and here's a link to Yada Yada's pattern.

I know--Jelli, STHU. This sort of thing has been going on since the second person learned to knit, crochet, sew, write, etc. It ain't gonna stop any time soon. BUT. Out of respect for your own creative abilities, when you purport to present the world with your original design, you're obligated to go the extra mile and make sure it's really original. Pain in the ass? Yep, but as one designer put it, "Just hoping that she will soon find out that it's more successful to do your own thing!" Amen, sister.

It probably doesn't feel good to figure out that what you thought emanated from your own creative genius has already been done, but sometimes you have to put on your big girl underpants and admit that, no, I'm not the second coming of Elizabeth Zimmerman. My own fear is that I'll inadvertently come up with the same design as Franklin Hobbit and he'll send Dolores to smack me into next year. In my dreams will I ever come up with anything like Franklin! Seriously, have you seen that guy's biceps? If I weren't a spoken for woman... I'm a pushover for buff, bald guys who knit.

And if you just out-and-out cheated and slapped your name on someone else's design? Karma's a bitch, my friend, and you don't want to go there. Sooner or later it'll catch up with you.

8 comments:

  1. "...since the second person began to knit..." crack me up.

    "second coming of Elizabeth Zimmerman" also crack me up.

    Title- "beating a dead horse ASPCA" also crack me up.

    And Ima be watchin' the internets to make sure nobody swipes those lines of yours either!

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  2. Great title. I love it! Who is Franklin Hobbit? I followed your link but then I couldn't figure out how to get to his actual blog. He looks like an interesting person to follow!

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  3. This was a great post! You had me cracking up.

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  4. Susan, what a great post. And so funny too! You cracked me up!

    You're good!

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  5. Great post! you're off to a great start with a post a day :)
    It is hard to figure out a pattern that you think you designed and to later find out someone else has done it just a tad bit different. Is the difference enough for your design to be considered original?! Just how many ways can you take a stitch dictionary stitch pattern and design something?

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  6. Franklin might shit himself with the "Hobbit" infraction! Maybe not. You just carry on gurl, because you ARE an original. It's obvious. I really like the new scarf and trust me - I spend WAY too much time on ravelry - it's the real deal.

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  7. i meant to knit SOCKS! (not scarf)

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