Many of you wrote and asked for a photo of the
beautiful crocheted shrug that Kerry lent me to cover the Wardrobe
Malfunction, so here is my friend Danielle modelling it for us:
Danielle in the nifty shrug
It’s got a pineapple motif at the sides, back, and cuffs; the rest is a
V-stitch mesh. It’s a lightweight cotton/poly blend, done at a pretty
fine gauge. Very nice.
Do I have the pattern for it? Nope. Can I tell you where to buy it?
Nope. I will tell you that I did a pretty extensive internet search to
try to find one just like it for myself and I utterly failed.
I thought of trying to reverse-engineer the shrug so I could make
one like it, but the stitches are small, and it’s black, and although I
have my trusty Ott-Lite and a strong magnifying glass, I lack the time
and the patience right now to do the pattern justice.
Besides, sometimes I just want to admire someone else’s work, without
trying to figure out how to do it myself. I know I could crochet a
shrug just like this one, and I know I could come up with the
pattern—but just because I can doesn’t mean I should. Some unnamed
woman, likely a very poor woman, made this lovely garment, and she
deserves the credit for its design and construction. For now, I’d just
like to admire her skill and artistry, and let her work speak for
itself.
Imitation may be a form of flattery, but sometimes I wonder where
the line is between imitation-as-flattery and a disrespectful stealing
of someone else’s creative ideas.
Now, there’s a hot topic. Tell me what you think, and let’s see if
we can draw on our collective wisdom and find a way to inspire each
other’s creativity while still respecting creative ownership.