ok, so there has been some mayhem going on in the “art yarn” world, unbeknownst to some of you…i have come under attack from a dork of the highest magnitude who has a knitting blog and went on a bit of a rant about how we suck. the link? i dunno if i should. although, it would be fantastic if he got flooded with comments that didn’t support his idiotic views, one them is that we don’t know how to spin, that our yarns cannot be knitted with and that we are looking to make a quick buck. hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. ha. ha. hahaha. ok, i will stop. ok. i am doing it. i don’t care. he wants to slam people he doesn’t know and question our love of the world that is fiber…be damned! you will face the wrath of the blogosphere! and so it is written….his boring picture-less blog. i commented, i really nice comment, especially considering that this yarn was compared to vomit. i will let you read it for yourself. he is a know-it-all that not many compare to, you will be blown away. i don’t know many people that do this for a living that could POSSIBLY do it for the money. are there crappy yarns out there? sure. are there people who pride themselves on knitting stuff that is so boring that bert from sesame street would be excited? oh, yes. do i care? no. if it makes you happy…go for it. if you love my yarn…super! if you hate it, that is fine too. totally fine. to each their own.
as you all know, i think, anyway, i am in south carolina, so we have no internet, causing me to go to barnes and noble and spend 4 bucks to check email and send you a short blog. cause i miss you . so much! seriously. i mean it. i brought my wheel, a ton of fiber, and i am learning to knit socks on circulars. i will keep you posted. i started out with the fingering that i dye, which is super pretty, but i can’t knit something that thin. i will go insane. it takes forever to knit 2 inches. my attention span cannot allow it. cannot. i made a bag from the one skein book, which i plan to line and put handles on when i get home. i swear it.
we will go to savannah this week and my favorite yarn store in the universe (next to kpixie.com) called wilde fibre. they have wheels, a bit of fiber, and wonderful yarn, habu included (!!!), japanese books, and they offer you a “soft drink…sweet tea…coca cola?” i am planning to take photos to post. i swear. although i lost the cable for my camera. amy have you seen it in the house? usb on one end, little square thingy on the other end? amy? please?
otherwise, i had a bad bad migraine most of the way of the 12 hour journey here, and the first two days of vacation. last night i was sure i would have to go to the ER. i didn’t. i was just a bit hysterical. you know how that goes. so i am not sure what the problem is, but i hope i am done with the migraines. i haven’t had bad ones like this in a while.
i will probably come back to check emails again in a couple of days…
smoooooochies!
n.
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don’t sweat the pompous dude. he cares whether you spelled his freaking *name* right (um, hello–did anyone call him out on the zillions of typos or spelling or grammatical errors in his own posts? no–it’s called “blog writing,” not “professional writing,” goofus) and whether you used capital letters (it’s called a “stylistic choice”–i’m guessing he’s heard of them, but just couldn’t think of anthing better to say).
and take pics!
bottom line: who cares if one person likes your yarn? you like your yarn and you have customers who like your yarn. if he doesn’t like it, he doesn’t have to buy it. no big whoop.
don’t let him ruin your trip! enjoy
See, he seemed much more reasonable (well, slightly more reasonable) in his responses, but then he got all snarky about your spelling – you should point out to him that it’s fliCkr, not FLIKR…dumbass!
I love sanctimonious turds that think their opinions are the be-all and end-all and have no room for understanding of others. You handled it quite well, my dear!
Enjoy your vaca! Hope those migraines back the *f* off!
Ok, so now I’ve got my Irish up! Something else I was thinking about with this guy – he doesn’t realize that not a lot of spinners don’t have their own sites and consign with other sites…which can charge as much as FORTY PERCENT of the selling price. I don’t know about you, but I mark up yarns I sell on consignment so I get something close to what I want back. I don’t have the money nor the customer base yet to justify my own site, so I consign.
Sheesh, I’m done now, promise!
i admire your grace in the face of such….
love art yarns or hate them, there is no need for a person to be so hostile about something that essentially does not matter. i am fascinated that he can value evenly spun yarns so highly, yet have no appreciation for civility.
difference of opinion is healthy. so is informed yet respectful discussion. i don’t know if you saw the post in spinning fiber dealing with the same issue. so different. http://community.livejournal.com/spinningfiber/862460.html
To be honest, I kind of agree with him. I’ve not seen your yarn in person, and from what I see online, I’ve no problem with it, and I love a good art yarn myself, but I do see some complete crap around and that hurts the handspun industry and it hurts the public’s perception of hand spun.
There has been discussion of this in the LJ spinning comms and I always say that people are trying to run before they can walk. You need to be able to spin consistent singles and ply consistent, well balanced yarns before you can make art yarns that will hold together and have some use.
looking for the camera cord…. nope, don’t see it. i checked in teh studio and around the bedroom, no luck. you can borrow mine since they’re the same when you get back, sorry you can’t upload while you are there… peeps, k and pavel say what up? right now since i went into the studio, peeps is trying to bang on the door to get in there…
As I said before clearly he was attacked by artyarns when he was young – I don’t see any other explanation for taking someone else’s chosen pasttime so personally.
If someone chooses to see one example of spun yarn as a representation of an entire artform, well, seems to me they were looking for an excuse and don’t really compose an audience worth having. Same goes for someone who chooses to look at a Pollock (or a lazy imitation Pollock) and think that is the embodiment of the entire history of art, that’s quite a narrow mind, is it a person who would appreciate well-spun yarn if it bit them on the bottom anyway?
As I also said before, ranty aesthetically unpleasing livejournal blogs tend to reflect poorly on graphically designed weblogs with open source or expensive engines and a hosted domain. But I don’t waste my blog space bitching about them on my site because I have better things to write about and if that’s how they choose to blog it’s fine with me.
I just thought it was a similar argument to his stupid rant that served no other purpose than to hurt feelings and bloat his frail ego which seems to rely on shallow truly pretentious unoriginal arguments on a completely unknown livejournal weblog.
He is a sad pedantic asshole who decided to pick on art spinners this week. And when confronted and could no longer attack your technique he focused on your grammar – a common high school debate team tactic.
Screw him and his angry picky empty little soul. Hopefully he’ll find something else for his little personal crusade soon and leave the artyarn spinners alone.
Yo finger: Go forth and attack the pre-prepared food industry on behalf of your sous chef son you sad little weasel you know you want to!
I’m sure he’s teaching his son to cook because the poor boy’s mother had the good sense to jump that ship a long time ago. What a pompous ass. Your yarn is fabulous. And like I said, someday when I win the lottery, I’m going to buy every inch of it!! I sure he spins total crap. Otherwise, believe me, his camera would be working just fine.
Darlin’ your stuff is gorgeous and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I figure to each his own… people have different tastes… let the bozo wear his walmart sweaters in ignorant bliss.
Why did you even bother trying to talk with him, he is clearly a pompous hack with an axe to grind. It makes him feel important and smart to be closeminded and condescending.
Several people really tried to engage him an honest conversation but he seems incapable of tolerating or respecting another point of view. In his mind I am sure that makes him feel intellectual. Sadly, it just makes him an opinionated jackass with little intellectual ability.
I don’t think PT Barnum said this but “opinions are like assholes” and this guy is exactly an asshole.
And I have one of the first skeins spun by Natasha it is gorgeous and I am so proud to have had it gifted to me.
hahaha i saw that he called you out and i was like, wow this guy is a bag of toooools! but whatevs, dear. you make what you make and keep on bringing in those dollars and i and everyone else will be proud of you and support what you do. if nothing else, he brought you some traffic, no?
i didn’t want to get involved in that garbage conversation because he’s one of those people who unbendingly believes in his rightness, and resorts to insulting anyone who doesn’t agree. keep on doin’ what you’re doin’ and don’t let him get you down!
Oooh, that guy is just pissing me off! You could just see that his head is so far up his ass that he can’t see straight.
Has he even bought any of your yarns? Well, I am giving my customer testimonial right now: I’ve purchased some of Natasha’s yarns and they are beautiful, totally functional, and so worth the money. If you can’t make something beautiful out of them, then you shouldn’t be knitting because you don’t know what you’re doing.
You just keep spinning your yarns and people will keep buying them because they are GOOD yarns. Not like the crap that he probably has…
Yarns, heck — her fiber’s awesome, too. We made a scarf from it for the Interweave felting book.
you guys rock!