When I first ran across Delancey, I was really excited to make it. I went and ordered grey yarn with some black yarn to be the accent color. I was going to replace my beat up pilly old grey cardigan that I’ve been wearing for years.
While waiting for my yarn to come in the mail, I found this. That really pissed me off. The pattern page on Ravelry has the pattern for sale for twice as much and there is no mention that it is available on Knit Picks. The yarn used in the pattern isn’t even linked to Knit Picks Capra’s yarn page on Ravelry. I went to the designer’s website because I was curious what price the pattern was o there and whether or not it mentions that the pattern is available on Knit Picks for half the price. The designer’s website doesn’t even identify the yarn as being Knit Picks yarn! The combination of factors makes me feel like the designer is intentionally trying to trick their customers and that pisses me off. I realize that Ravelry has perks to download from (being able to access the pattern online all the time) and that there are a service charges for each sale from Rav and PayPal that might justify the increased price, but the way it appears that the designer tried to hide the availability of the pattern on Knit Picks for a lower price makes me feel like they’re not just trying to give their customers more purchasing options and is making up for those extra costs. I should probably note that there legally is nothing wrong with what the designer did. The Knit Picks IDP contract allows for it. I just find it kind of insulting.
Now I don’t know what to do. I’m annoyed about the way the designer presented things, but I sort of still want to knit the sweater. I can’t think of anything else to do with this yarn that wouldn’t take a lot of math on my part and I wanted this to be a math free project. The designer being a jerk doesn’t make the pattern any less rad, but I also don’t like giving money to people who try to trick me. What would you do? Buy the pattern or just stash the yarn until inspiration strikes?
In other news, the reason why this post contains no pictures of lovely yarn and that I haven’t updated more recently is that my laptop was sent in for repairs. I’m using my sister’s craptop. It sucks. Hopefully my laptop will be back soon and regular content will resume.
ETA: I took Vivianne’s advice and sent the designer a message. She told me that the yarn wasn’t named because she self published the pattern on Ravelry and her website before Knit Picks’ release of the pattern and the new yarn line the pattern uses. She said the difference in price is because that is what she feels the pattern is worth which leaves me wondering why she published through Knit Picks in the first place. I’m still feeling iffy about the whole thing.
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