About Penny

From the WTF file:
I think a lot about the benefits of having an internet presence versus the disadvantages. How you are left open to any whack job with a functioning computer. Imagine my delight when I woke up this morning to find this love note in my inbox. I've copied it as written, including the spelling mistakes.

Hello
I am trying to knit the dog sweater-Penny_from knitty.com. I challenge you to actually use the posted pattern and see what you get. What a mess .The first problem is the number of stitches for the small size. It should be 50 stistches not 48 or --if you follow the instructions you will not get a rib , but a seed stitch. Then the body shaping -- on the first row it calls for an increase on each end , but row three shows an increase on just one end. I blindly followed the pattern and it was off kilter. I'm not an inexperienced knitter (60 years),but I spent a lot of time figuring out the pattern as posted. An in experienced knitted woul;d be tearing their hair out in no time.
As I am knitting this sweaters for charity(Animal shelter) I am very dissapointed as my time is valuable.

This irritated on so many different levels. This pattern is over three years old. I'm the first to admit that it's a "mess." More on that later. With 60 years of experience, she would have figured out it was wrong by the second row. So, about 100 stitches into the project. I guess she's just more important than everyone else, to have her "valuable" time wasted in such a manner. I have a mental picture of this person, and it's not a pretty one. I've assigned a she to describing this person, only because I can't imagine any man I've been acquainted with to bother with sending something like this. I was still waiting for my first cup of coffee, and so irritable, that I replied:

I've attached a corrected copy. I can only hope that you are nicer to the pets than you convey in your e-mail. I'll block any further messages, so don't bother to reply.
C.

Unfortunately, my Outlook Express did not block any reply:

I have no pets .but thought I was doing a good thing for someone elses pet --our weather has been in the -40%C range this week. A little critism never hurt anyone. Get over it.

Criticism. I don't know if I would classify this as criticism, but that remark makes me think that this is the type of person who would be estranged from her children, or the unpopular co-worker. Good thing for pets that she doesn't have one. I guess wisdom does not necessarily come with age, or this person would have figured out the you "catch more bees with honey" thing. Also, there are a lot of free patterns for dog sweaters on the internet. Hey, M--knit another one. Please. It's never, ever occurred to me to send something nasty to anyone that's written a pattern, regardless of the mistakes, or just a maneuver that I question. To me, part of the knitting process is problem solving.

I wrote the pattern for Penny in summer of 2003, and it was my first published pattern. As I recall, it was added to Knitty after the submission deadline, so I hurried it off without checking it throughly. At the time, Knitty was a completely free publication. All patterns and editing were donated. At the time, most of the contributors were people like myself, just starting out. There was a technical editor on the masthead, but how intensive her involvement was is questionable, as clearly my pattern was overlooked. Perhaps the post-deadline thing was a factor. I'm not stating this to be negative--when things are free, I think the expectation is that things can get overlooked, at least it's my expectation. I still get lots of hits on the Lucky Penny site three years later because of the Knitty pattern. Over the years, lots of very nice people have written, and I've sent them a more user friendly copy. Some of them have sent me pictures of their finished sweaters. Maybe some of them come back and read my blog. Thank you for being nice. That's what knitting is for. Being nice, and connecting to your pets, friends, and family in a positive way.