Alright.  I have a bone to pick with..... well I don’t know.  But here is the thing. Stop trying to tell me that I can’t complain about something I get for free.

I don’t care if it’s free.  The reason it is free people is so that you will sign up.  And the reason they need you to sign up is because they charge people to advertise in their little newsletters.  Or on their websites.  At the very least, they advertise their own products to you.  Do you really think you are getting something from a company because it warms their hearts to give stuff to you?  No!  You are getting free shit, so they can make money, so they can pay to warm their own damn hearts.  Seriously, where the heck did you all go school?  Candyland?

There is no such thing as a free lunch, and there is no such thing as a free knitting pattern.  Everyone who offers you a knitting pattern for free is getting something out of providing you with that pattern.  Either exposure for themselves, or traffic to their website where they sell advertisements, or whatever.

Now don’t misunderstand me.  I am a businesswoman.  I don’t have a single problem with people trying to make a buck.  That is, after all, the American way.  What I have trouble with are the nitwits out there that think because something is provided for free, you cannot critique or complain.

Examples:  I subscribe to Knitting Daily.  I am sick of crap about crocheting and spinning.  Seriously.  It isn’t called Crochet Daily or Spinning Daily.  It’s called Knitting Daily.  Now I can unsubscribe, that is true.  But I enjoy what little content ends up being about knitting so I continue to subscribe.  When I broached this issue on the Rav forums, I received a ton of flack from people saying that I wasn’t entitled to complain about something I get for free.  Really?  Why the fuck not?

The next example is my favorite.  I have been reading a lot from designers lately who are just starting out.  Their logic baffles me completely.  “I don’t want to charge for a pattern, because I don’t know how good it is, or maybe it has mistakes in it and stuff.”  Um, WTF?  You can put out a shitty product with your name all over it, and it would be okay, because it’s free?

Get a life people!  There is more to value than “CASH” value.  Things can be worth something, even if they are free.  The fact that an item is free, does not make it immune from critique or complaint.  And for Pete’s Sake, if you are going to put a product out there that is for shit, don’t put your name on it.  Do you really think that if someone downloads a pattern from you for free and it sucks or is full of mistakes, you really think they’re going to pay you for the next one?  You’re high.

CONFIDENTIAL TO JESSICA:

Here is the additional photo of my man you requested.  If he sees this, I’m so busted!  And yes, I always wear a crown.  Don’t you?