Thursday 18 December 2008

My Quandry and The Fan Neck Warmer

The idea for this neck warmer is not mine. The idea is from a shop called the Bonita Knitting Store.
The pattern is the Fan Neck Warmer, a really nice design.


I have yet to knit a pattern exactly like it has been designed. This pattern is a good case in point. This is designed to use a DK/light worsted weight yarn (which brings to mind that it would look fantastic in Silk Dream)but moms scarf is knit from a Collinette sock yarn. There is a different number of stitches, and even a different placement of increases and decreases. So come on, if I can sort of figure it out, do I need to pay for it?

I'm not the sort of person who can endlessly think up cool stuff. I'm not the sort of person who decides to take a seriously fine lace, and turn it on its side, like Annie Modesitt's Sideways Spencer Redux or come up with a way to put a spiralling line of lace goodness in a sock like Veronik Avery's really great socks or see the fantastic cable designs in Fiona Ellis' Inspired Cable Knits in the nature that surrounds us.

I'm the sort of person who enjoys knitting and goes into it knowing that I am going to have to change a pattern to fit my hips. I know that I am going to have to change things to make it fit me so do I really have to pay for it? Yes, yes, I do have to pay for the pattern.

I am purchasing not just a pattern here, I am purchasing the designers instincts for something interesting, I am purchasing the designers ability to see something different in a knit and purl. I am purchasing creativity and thought and flare. If I could have thought it up on my own, I wouldn't have been looking for inspiration, I'd have been knitting it.

Down the road, when we are tired of knitting an average knit 2 purl 2 hat (inspired by the Yarn Harlot and EZ), when a garter scarf isn't doing it for us, we need designers to be there to help take off the edge, to help us see our stitches and our wool in a different light. Take care of a designer today. If the pattern isn't free, buy it.

I just have one request, though. Let me know my delivery options before I pay for the item, so that I don't have to wonder if I am going to get the pattern by email or if it is is going to come by mail (since you asked for a lot of information you don't need if it is being emailed). If you can do that for me, I might not have to take liberties with your scarf, knit an approximation, and buy the pattern after the fact like I did this time. I do apologize for taking that liberty, and I do sincerely want to keep you guys in business.

At 4 in the morning this close to Christmas, I need absolute clarity. And coffee.

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