Okay, I’m not going to lie: it’s kind of fun when there’s a scandal in the knitting world. Because we hardly ever have them. Most of the time, it’s love and rainbows and happiness. So when something scandalous does happen, it’s delicious. Hunting down the original post, getting caught up in the outrage, feeling part of a community. It’s new, it’s different, it’s exhilarating.

Until you remember there’s real people being affected.

This is what happened on Saturday. It started (for me, at least) with an Instagram post from Knitsonik displaying Donna Smith’s iconic Baable Hat and a cowl that used a very, very similar colourwork chart.

Now, there’s are many different ways people can (and have) gone about addressing this issue. Some posted on the pattern page, with varying degrees of civility. Others have posted on the same page, offering support to the designer. Others have taken to Instagram with the hashtags #istandwithdonna and #getyourbaablesoot showing off their Baables to increase the original designer’s pattern and raise her profile (as many people were unaware the pattern was a copy). Still more have purchased both the original Baable Hat and the new Babble Cowl and Mittens that Donna released over the weekend.

I’ve chosen to go with the latter – I bought the pattern on Saturday morning and knitted it up that day (procrastinating on school work? Me?). This is a really quick knit – it took longer to dry than to knit (actually, that might be more of a reflection on Wellington).

Support original designers. Pay for good designing. And share the results!