High School Revisited
Lately there seems to be signs of my high school years all around me.
Take R2 for example. If those designs don't take me back to the 80s, nothing will. Every time I see the pic of the girl in the torn skirt I think of Madonna's Like a Virgin videos.
Then, the other night I came across an old patternmaking book I had bought from the FIT Bookstore when taking a Saturday class during my Junior year. It reminded me of such a fun time. I struggled in high school to find my niche unitl I discovered that patternmaking was a creative way to use math. I was hooked.
I use the principles taught in that book whenever resizing my knitting to fit me better.
And then sadly, I had another reminder of high school last night.
While over reading Marnie's blog I came across her post about being on the KnitFlame list. This really saddens me. It reminds me of the days in high school where a girl would pick apart another girl because she was jealous of her.
Marnie's designs are creative and different. She has a passion for knitting and freely shares her designs with us all. I've learned much from reviewing her patterns. She sparked my new interest in crochet and combines the two arts beautifully in her designs. The fact that another person who recently started getting her patterns published would be so critical of a fellow designer in such a public forum baffles me.
We knitbloggers are a small community. What are we -- 400-500 members? We all share a common interest and passion. And for the most part I've loved being a part of this community. The comments are great and seeing progress shots inspires me. The occasional time I'm able to help someone else makes me happy too -- like I'm giving back a little of what blogging has given me. It both saddens and surprises me when I hear of someone posting nasty comments about a design just because it isn't for her.
Good for Marnie for not retaliating.
And yes, I realize that I may very well be adding fodder to the (knit)flame, but I felt this needed to be said.
Jody,
I don’t know what to say. You are beyond sweet. Thanks for your very kind thoughts.
I agree with you 100%, the knitting community is small and represents a wide array of tastes. We’re better off developing and encouraging that community together than trying to rip it down.
I don’t love every pattern I see, but I surely respect the time and creativity a person has to invest in making it.
Thank you again, and, of course, thanks for having a great blog
~marnie
You have to consider the source of comments like that. I'm not sure why anyone would want to be on that list. Way to go Marnie and thans Suzanne for bringing Marnie's blog to our attention.
Good for Marnie for not responding. Do these people not have their own projects to work on rather than cutting up fellow blogger's designs? I mean, yeah, I see patterns sometimes that I find hideous - but SOMEONE worked very hard on that pattern and SOMEONE thinks it's gorgeous.
The Knit Flame group totally sounds like the "mean girls" from grade school and I plan to ignore them the same way. :-)
I think you summarize very well what most bloggers think about this story. When you are lucky enough to come by a free pattern that someone spent time designing yet kindly provide for us all to share, all you have to do is just to click along if you don't like it. Now, were are those yarn pictures we are all longing for ?
Nice post Jody. I was reading KnitFlame for a while...'cause I couldn't stand the knitlist but I had to quit KF too. Unkindness for the sake of unkindness leaves me with a bitter taste that I can do without.