knitting | Citations in knitting? What's polite?

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Citations in knitting? What's polite?

If I'm writing an academic paper and I find some information I need in someone else's paper, of course I cite them. If I'm writing a knitting pattern and I find something I want to use in someone else's pattern, do I cite them? Or do I just write up the pattern and it's fine as long as I'm not copying someone else's whole pattern?

Bringing an academic background to knitting leads to unexpected questions. :-)

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I'd definitely cite. Many people don't, but that's one of the things that causes serious grumbles.

Consider, for instance, the way many circular-start patterns cite Emily Ocker as the developer of the great cast-on they use. Similarly, many people cite Barbara Walker when they use her stitch patterns.

There's usually an underlying technique that's really what you're borrowing, though, as these examples demonstrate. You may not want to cite the pattern writer but the developer of the technique.

Also, some techniques have more than passed out of the realm of "needing" to be cited (Barbara Walker doesn't get a footnote on every SSK), but I'd say feel free to mention them, not least because knitting history is pretty spotty and it's nice to remind people of developments that we think of as having always existed.

Note: you probably won't be able to do this in a magazine pattern, for space reasons.

Thanks! That's very helpful. (I couldn't find a pattern that did exactly what I wanted, so I wrote my own and am thinking about posting it on Ravelry, but I wasn't sure how to handle the parts I pulled in from other patterns I'd looked at.)

What I have seen as polite is citation. For instance, garments that incorporate lace patterns that the author got from a book will often cite the original book. For example, the Tree-Patterned Aran in Knitty says:
The sleeves are based on a twining vine leaf pattern taken from Barbara Walker's "A Second Treasury of Knitting Patterns." The front features an elaboration of the twining trees from "Charted Knitting Designs."

Fair use in knitting is something I think of the same way I do other writing. When I made the Mason-Dixon Perfect Sweater with a little row of colorwork, that was an elaboration, but I could never publish it as my own. If I add significant colorwork, a different shaping pattern, a different construction technique, and some other changes, then it seems like I have created Sense & Sensibility & Seamonsters or whatever it is, and can claim it as my own. It would still be gracious to acknowledge my debt, but not required.