GourmetAmigurumi

I have a confession to make.  Something that I have been keeping secret and that many of you will find scandalous…. I don’t really like crochet and I never do it for pleasure outside of my studio.  Don’t get me wrong, the firm fabric you can achieve, the mathematical logic of it and the way it lends itself to sculpturing make it perfect for constructing toys.  But after that structure is built, I add as many other media to my toys as possible to sort of mask and distract attention away from the bumpiness.  So there you go, glad to have gotten that off my chest…

But I ADORE knitting.  And I am just dying to start this sweater.

I just ordered a bunch of different colors for swatching  the design.  I already tried a few and I wasn’t really happy with them.  They looked great held next to each other on the skein, but the turquoise and raspberry are sort of awkward knitted up.  So I think I’ll go with a warm palette of coral and lilac and mustard.  The yarn is coming for Camilla Valley Farm in Canada, and I haven’t seen the colors in person so I’m taking a bit of a gamble.  This is going to be a sort of expensive sweater especially since I bought Addi Turbos in the wrong size and they cost an arm and a leg!  Oh well, I’m sure I’ll use them sometime.

I love fairisle knitting but I’ve never steeked before and I’m a bit nervous.  But I never let that stop me; I sort of like learning things as I go along.  And I would get really bored if I never tried new techniques.

And I may be being foolish, but I am going to make the sweater in a size small.  And as you can see from this pic that I posted awhile ago, I am not small.  But I used to be.  I gained a bunch of weight after going on anti-depressants, and, frankly, everything I like doing is sedentary.  So I’ve joined Weight Watchers online.  And I am totally psyched!  I started the week of Thanksgiving and so far I’ve lost a bit over 15 lbs.  Which, considering much of the time since was over the holidays, I think that’s a good start.  My next goal is to have a total loss of 30 lbs by my 30th birthday.  That’s May 6th and it’s going to be tough, but I think I can do it.  Then I’ll be about half way there.  I’m just 5′ tall and buying clothes has gotten difficult and impossible from my favorite brands.  So I am really looking forward to being able to enjoy clothes again, which I have in the past.  I’m thinking of doing a bit of an image make-over when I get to my goal weight.  I’m gonna go for a layered hippie look.  I’ve already started growing my hair out so that it will be nice and long to go with the bell-bottoms that I plan on making for myself

Yuck!  It took me a week to get over that nasty cold.  I ended up loosing my voice, too.  I felt like a doberman who had her voice-box removed.  And now I have post-nasal drip that makes me feel like puking.  Ah well, working at home means I can spend little bits at a time in my studio, taking breaks when I need to, and still get my hours in.  Which is a godsend for my headaches as well.

So what have I been working on since we talked last?  My owl pattern, mostly.

The math on this one is a nightmare!  I don’t know how I ever got the same results twice.  So many of the stitch counts in the existing pattern were wrong and the decreases were in the wrong places.  Plus the owl is crocheted in joined, turned rnds.  And that always makes my brain feel like melting. I won’t be surprised if I need to make half a dozen more owls before I feel confident that the pattern is OK. So that means a couple more weeks before the pattern is ready.  But not longer.  I know I have been terribly poky about releasing new patterns so I have made a promise to myself to be more diligent.  I know, too, that lots of you have been waiting for my fox pattern and that one is still in the works.  I am just struggling with figuring out how I want to release it.  I mean, the basic body type can be turned into lots of different animals.  So I have been playing around with the idea of offering the basic pattern first with instructions for bear ears, which I think would be simplest.  And then after that come out with “a booster pattern”  that would include just the variations.

And a note to all the lovelies who are waiting on their special orders…I have not forgotten, I promise!

I have been working my ass off.  For the last 2 months I think I averaged more than 60 hours of studio time per week.  Now I’m sick and I was so wrapped up in my work that I didn’t notice it coming on.  And I can’t help but think, that  if I had been paying attention, I could have kept myself from getting this bad.  I could have drunk preemptive cups of tea or something..I feel awful.  My eyes burn and it hurts to swallow.  At least I don’t have a headache…yet.

Feeling this crappy has reminded me of the need for balance, though.  Obviously, I can’t  work ten hours everyday and expect to be healthy.  Physically or mentally. I could spend every minute of everyday for the rest of my life making art and never satisfy half of my creative urges.  That makes it hard to remember that other aspects of life are important too.  I haven’t been giving myself the chance to recharge or enjoy other things.  Like cooking, knitting, playing with the kitties or even having sex.  How twisted is that!  Getting myself out of the studio is like pulling teeth, let alone making myself leave the house.  But for now I’m not going anywhere, except into the kitchen to make another cup of tea.

It is really, really hard to admit that you were wrong.

On Monday, Melissa and I dragged ourselves out of our respective studios and went downtown, ostensibly to visit the new Modern Wing at the Art Institute of Chicago. What actually happened…we followed in the footsteps of many twentieth century artists before us and sat around drinking all day.  To be fair, we did leave the bar after about 3 hours, ran across the street to see the galleries, which closed about 45 minutes after we got there and took a pic at “The Bean”

But after we got that out of the way we sat back down at the Park Grill for 3 more pints for which I am still suffering.  Really, one shouldn’t mix so many prescription drugs with so much alcohol.  This was sort of our good bye outing because Melissa is moving to Switzerland in a couple of weeks.  Melissa, I’m really going to miss you, damn it.  Who is going to tease me about being a dirty hippie now?

I am tired of all this bullshit.  So instead of summing up, I am just going to copy the total of my correspondence with *** from Cloth-Ears and have done with it.  You can read it if you want, but some of the emails are pretty long, so I won’t blame you if you don’t.  Here goes… (you can scroll to the end to read a few of my thoughts, for what they are worth).

Cloth-ears: I am***, the owner of the independent online retail shop Cloth-ears, based in the UK. Until yesterday I had never heard of Beth Doherty or Gourmet Amigurumi, however as I have now received some threatening and disturbing emails from either yourselves or somebody seeking to represent you, accusing myself and my company of plagiarising your designs, I have therefore felt compelled to look into the situation. With regards to the two products you mention, we do not claim to have the copyright or to have designed the products ourselves. We have mearly purchased the goods to resell, from a widely established UK distributor. We purchased the products in good faith that the design and/or license was theirs.

I understand that you were upset as you feel the designs have been copied, however I feel it is very unfair to not to have contacted us first to get the full picture. Subsequently, you have posted a slanderous thread on your blog, which has no basis. We are a small online retailer who shares with you a love of all things retro, knitted & crochet and we find it most upsetting to receive vicious emails from people who see themselves as trying to protect you. Many of these emails also state that they will widely scatter this gossip across the internet. I’m sure you can see how damaging this could be to a small independent like ourselves. I would very much appreciate that you put a note on your blog to alert your followers that your original statements have no basis and remove all the slanderous gossip with regards to myself and my company.

I will contact our supplier today and forward your details. Please supply me with your direct email, as I feel this should be done outside of the forum.

On a more positive note, I have looked today at the three products that you have for sale on Etsy and they are beautiful. Perhaps once this all gets sorted, I can talk to you, as the original designer (!) about purchasing some of your wonderful designs.

Yours truly: This is your owl:
http://cloth-ears.co.uk/Products/Softtoys/crochet_owl.html

And this is MY owl:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/38635695@N00/43674525/

Now you tell me that my claims have no basis.

And as my website is not a journalistic site the accusation of slander does not apply and I will not be removing my post.

Yes, I completely understand that my comments will harm your business. However, conversely, the presence of a copy of my design harms MY ability to sell my own work at a fair price. And you will not placate me by compliments. I am an artist and will not sell my designs for mass production. Additionally, it is not my fault that you have not thoroughly researched your suppliers. And I can tell the prices you are charging for the crocheted items that the people who are making them do not receive a fair wage.

I will not take the time to read your suppliers’ information, so please save yourself the trouble.

Cloth-ears: Thank you for your reply. I can only assume that you have misunderstood the tone of my email. I am merely saying that your claims have no basis with me & my company, your issues are with the supplier and distributor that we purchased the items from. I understand that you feel very strongly with regards to this matter; the statements on your blog, ie refering to myself and Cloth-ears as ‘Bastards!’, fully reflects this (as well as being very hurtful). I really would urge you to contact the suppliers, put your view point across and discuss the matter further. After all the designer of a product deserves recognition.

Unfortunately, I cannot access your flickr pic, so I can’t compare the images. But I will do so when I return home, to a better broadband server.

The two items that we sell, are produced and sold freely and openly throughout the UK and Europe by small independents, large department stores and on the internet, all purchased from the same wholesale distributer. We are just one small shop that sell the product.

Here are some links to other shops and sites that sell the products, each one of them is as innocent as myself, with regards to selling the two products:

http://www.lillefolk.de/shop/product_info.php/info/p1042_H–kelhase-von-Disaster-Designs.html

http://www.kuddyco.com/details.php?cat=kids&ref=17

http://www.itsgorgeous.co.uk/magento/crochet-owl.html

I note in your email that you state that as your site is not ‘journalistic’ the accusation of slander does not apply. Unfortunately, this is not true, as it applies to all internet content and blogs. But I’m sure by now you have re-read my first message along with this one and realised that you are attacking the wrong person/company.

You state that I should have researched my supplier more, however they are a big UK/European supplier/distributer and I like thousands of other buyers therefore would have no reason to doubt the legitimacy of their product.

I do however, very much appreciate, that you have posted my email and allowed me a ‘right of reply’. Thank you.

Yours truly: I understood the tone and point of your email perfectly well. The gist of your argument is that since you have not made the toys you are not responsible for their design. You, rightly or wrongly, are placing the blame on a third party. The links you have sent me only further my feelings of resentment as they are intended to deflect attention from yourself.

Whether or not a blog is considered public enough to be capable of true libel is beside the point. The post on my blog is a quote from one of my readers and therefore does not come under the definition of slander in any way. Additionally, when you view the photo of my owl you will see that the statement made on my blog has a strong basis in fact. And above all, my post states an opinion, which places it firmly outside of the definition of libel.

As I said before I will not be removing the post from my blog, the title of which does not contain an apostrophe.

I am certain that we will not be able to come to an agreement on this point; so it is fruitless for us to continue this argument.

And…we’re done. I haven’t heard from her since.  I am very impressed if you took the time to read all of that.  Think what you want.  At this point I don’t really care.  But allow me to be a goody-two-shoes and name a few “morals of the story.”

Point number one:  ***Warning,  I am about to sound pretty egotistical*** Firstly, I am going to do my utmost (although I am certainly going to fail) to ignore unscrupulous copycats.  There are lots of them and no one will be able to stem the tide.  The thing is that there are very few people who are truly creative and many who wish they were, so a certain amount of lifting is to be expected.  (please don’t get me wrong, following another person’s pattern for your own enjoyment is a wholly different, and positive thing.  it’s really fun to see what other crafters do with them).  Additionally, I, and other artists who are dedicated to their craft, have a certain amount of native talent not to mention the fact that we spend dozens of hours every week making work and honing our skills.  So the likelihood that the copycats will be able to keep up is almost nil, so feeling threatened by them is pointless.

Point number two, which is not directly related:  I really should get better about publishing my own patterns.  Clearly they are in demand, and like I said it is fun to see other people making amigurumis by following them.  BTW, have you seen this monstrosity?  It’s from a few years ago, obviously it comes under the category of “things I’m not threatened by!”  I have been working on the fox pattern on and off, but since all this drama I think I will put it aside for awhile and focus on getting my owl pattern out there first.  I have some cute fabric picked out for the wings, so that will make it fun to work on…

Well, my hubby just said “Are you still working on that blog?!”  So I guess it is time to be done.

frineds dont let frineds blog drukn

Whew, that last post was exhausting!  But despite being all riled up,  I have been able to get some work done that I am very excited about…I spent God knows how many hours last weekend redesigning my doll’s feet.  I finished adding the trimmings last night (for one of the feet at least!)  Here are the before and after pics.

The larger one is the new foot.  I have been struggling with adding the details the shoes need.  Since the level of detail throughout the rest of the doll has increased the shoes have needed improvement badly.  They were starting to look as though I forgot to finish them. You will remember the sneakers and the cowboy boots, which I feel were a step in the right direction.  I finally came to the conclusion that the biggest problem was the shape of the foot itself.  There just wasn’t enough length from the toe to the ankle to add much detail.  So I redid the foot to  be much longer and the ankle much thinner.  Really, I have known this for a while.  It just took me a long time to suck it up and take the time to design a new foot.  And it did take loads of time to redo.  The problem with crocheting a spiral is, well, the spiral.  This is fine most if the time, but went you want a piece to be square, like the toe of the foot, you have to offset the spiral by changing the placement of the increases and decreases.  That was the hard part.  I don’t know how many times I frogged the foot.  I think I forgot on purpose so I wouldn’t feel ridiculous     I want to be able to repeat the details of the sneakers and cowboy boots.  I don’t think this is going to be too much trouble.  I will just have to change the proportions a bit.

Thanks to everyone who responded to my last post.  Your support means so much.  I have received a communication from the proprietor of “Cloth Ears.” I have responded and am waiting to hear back.  This is what she said:

Hi,

I am ***, the owner of the independent online retail shop Cloth-ears, based in the UK. Until yesterday I had never heard of Beth Doherty or Gourmet Amigurumi, however as I have now received some threatening and disturbing emails from either yourselves or somebody seeking to represent you, accusing myself and my company of plagiarising your designs, I have therefore felt compelled to look into the situation. With regards to the two products you mention, we do not claim to have the copyright or to have designed the products ourselves. We have mearly purchased the goods to resell, from a widely established UK distributor. We purchased the products in good faith that the design and/or license was theirs.

I understand that you were upset as you feel the designs have been copied, however I feel it is very unfair to not to have contacted us first to get the full picture. Subsequently, you have posted a slanderous thread on your blog, which has no basis. We are a small online retailer who shares with you a love of all things retro, knitted & crochet and we find it most upsetting to receive vicious emails from people who see themselves as trying to protect you. Many of these emails also state that they will widely scatter this gossip across the internet. I’m sure you can see how damaging this could be to a small independent like ourselves. I would very much appreciate that you put a note on your blog to alert your followers that your original statements have no basis and remove all the slanderous gossip with regards to myself and my company.

I will contact our supplier today and forward your details. Please supply me with your direct email, as I feel this should be done outside of the forum.

On a more positive note, I have looked today at the three products that you have for sale on Etsy and they are beautiful. Perhaps once this all gets sorted, I can talk to you, as the original designer (!) about purchasing some of your wonderful designs.

With kind regards,

***

As you can see, she told me that many of you have sent emails to her and I truly appreciate your action.  But do me a favor and try to be polite.  She said a few of the notes have been threatening.  I know we all feel very angry, but lets not gets ourselves into trouble over this issue.

I’ll keep you guys updated on the situation.

Hey everyone.  A thoughtful reader left this comment recently.

“I looked for an email address to write to you about this rather than stick it on here but I couldn’t find one.

http://cloth-ears.co.uk/Products/Softtoys/crochet_pirate_bunny.html

Is this using one of your patterns? I wasn’t sure but I thought they were copyright?”

Check out the link.

And this one:

http://cloth-ears.co.uk/Products/Softtoys/crochet_owl.html