I own a set of Options in the Harmony tips. And I appreciate others who have the good fortune to be able to use both these and the “Darn Pretty Needles” and can give good comparisons, because I cannot afford to. At this point all I can say is that I aspire to be one among you as I knit happily along with my KP’s Harmony needles. As for the confusion between the name of DK’s “Harmony” to something that isn’t a knitting needle, again, I don’t see how this can hold up in court.

I understand the emotions of the idea of one small business seemingly hurting a smaller, niche artisan business. I also understand how one finds KP’s actions shady and unfair. But unless DK produced and manufactured the wood used in their product and patented it, they really have no leg to stand on unless KP’s marketed their wooden needles as “Damn Pretty Needles”, or “Darn Pretty Things”, etc.

I’ve only bought yarn from KnitPicks once — and that was because it was specifically requested by the recipient — and I won’t be buying any more.

Life’s tough enough for small businesses and independent craftspeople without big business picking on them.

It still makes me angry. They couldn’t have cut their copy in a different shape even? I mean, come on.. get your own ideas!

I’m glad you posted this as I didn’t know about Crafts Americana’s actions but I’m also not surprised because I knew what they did to KPixie. The big difference is dealing with an artisan, a craftsman versus dealing with a company that is only about making money. Personally, I buy Darn Pretties

I don’t see how either company can lay claim to that “chevron” appearance of the needles. Lots of stuff made out of Dymondwood has that same chevron, which isn’t surprising because you can buy turning blanks that were specifically cut so they produce that nice chevron pattern when you turn them.

To my (un-legally-educated) mind, it seems similar to two people buying self-striping sock yarn from the same third party and then arguing over which them owns the stripe pattern of the resulting socks. Neither company invented the “chevron” pattern of the needles. Like self-striping sock yarn, the material the needles were made from was specifically designed by the manufacturer (and not by the end users) to produce that chevron pattern when turned.

If they’re ordering custom colorways then they maybe the could claim to own the colorway? (I’m sure Knitpicks is, I don’t know if Dyakcraft is or if they’re using standard colorways.) But the Knitpicks colorway doesn’t appear to be identical to any of the Dyakcraft colorways. I mean, the color combination Knitpicks chose is multi-colored and garish, as are several of the Dyakcraft colorways, but I don’t know that you can claim a trademark on that… garish color combinations are as typical of Dymondwood products as that chevron pattern is! (Do a Google image search and you’ll see what I mean.)

Tom and Linda are creative and talented people and I stand behind them. I say that people who are tired of these shenanigans need to step up and help them, in any way that they can, whether going to their shop or website to purchase from them or as I have done…contribute to their fund for attorney fees. Enough is enough. I am very sorry that I purchased something from Knitpicks recently, after long saying that I would not do it. Now I wonder if the particular item that I bought (a magnetic pattern holder) was knocked off, too. I will never ever ever buy from them again. I should have known better. Shame shame shame.