As I mentioned yesterday, I'm interviewed in Shannon Okey's wonderful new book, The Knitgrrl Guide to Professional Knitwear Design.
Shannon interviewed me by email... we've worked together a few times, and it was a long and fun email conversation, and I was my usual candid, opinionated self. Shannon printed many of my comments verbatim.
Rereading it now, I realize that my intended tone doesn't come through in print at all... it reads to me like I'm cranky and bitchy.
In the interview I criticize another designer's work, and name names. And that's not fair or professional.
The design in question is a top-down raglan, and my personal struggles with those are well known. I cannot wear a top-down raglan - seriously wrong shoulder/bust ratio to make it work. To make it fit around my bust, it gets (much) too big in the shoulders and armholes.
When talking about challenges with finding a garment that fits your own body well, I cited this sweater as an example of a sweater that had fit challenges. What comes through in print is that I think the sweater is bad. Not at all true - it's just bad for me.
As soon as I realized how it read in the book, I contacted the designer in question, Pamela Wynne, to apologize. She was gracious and kind in return, and I'm very grateful for that.
One more lesson learned from Shannon's book - to remember that tone doesn't come across in print, and that anything may be reproduced out of context.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
3 comments:
I'm glad you made the effort to make it right. I think we've all done something similar--written something in an e-mail only to realize later it came across differently than the way it sounded in our head.
Part of my professional job is to comment on professional design submissions. I realized early on how very easy it is to be critical of someone else's work. And that comments in print can be percieved as blunt and heavy handed.
I applaud your action to contact the designer and apologize. Sounds like a good lesson learned.
Hi Kate,
I wonder if you could elaborate on why top-down sweaters don't work for you?
I'm just starting my very first top down sweater, and I'm concerned that I may spend a lot of time on this, and not be happy with the final product. I did the math (at least, I tried!), and calculated that I could add 3" under the arms to get the right size for my bust. I'm a large person, and a sweater will take a lot of knitting. Are there certain body types for which top-down doesn't work?
Thanks!
Post a Comment