You’d think that someone might just post their one guestbook comment and be done with it.
But no.
Yes, I blocked out the link identifying the picture here. But I kept the reply guestbook comment that records quite the fortuitous coincidence about the IP address. Yes, IP addresses get reassigned, but in the event that someone was trying to play copycat or spoof the original guestbook signer, what are the odds that they’d be able to spoof the IP address? (Seriously, I don’t have enough technical knowledge to answer that question.)
Now, I’ve looked at the picture in question. I’m not that size. I am probably much closer in size to the offensive guestbook signer. But (and I note that I have likely been subjected to the same North American media that glorifies particular body shapes over others) I can state that when I first saw the picture in question, I saw an attractive woman who looks happy and confident wearing a tank top that fits her properly. Now that I’ve been compelled to examine the photograph in more detail, I’ve also concluded that she’s tastefully covered, with no flesh bulging out or anything like that. And oh yeah, she’s bigger than me, so I guess I won’t follow the pattern instructions for that size if I choose to knit one of those tops.
If this followup guestbook post is for real, it’s like this person has her own private war against women who are sized larger than the prescribed Maxim or Vogue norm. Maybe she’s got some life history that makes her feel repulsed at the sight of people who are bigger than her. If that’s the case, she should probably be pitied or counselled instead of harassed via e-mail, which is of course the consequence to which she left herself exposed by leaving the original guestbook post in the first place.
And I’m skipping over the comment about preferring to suffer an eating disorder.
Do you know what’s kind of funny? When I first read about that horrible comment I thought to myself, “I wonder which pattern she’s talking about. I don’t remember seeing any grossly overweight models in the new Knitty.” Then I went back to the patterns page and saw that yes, there was a smiling, confident woman wearing and XL tank top that fit her perfectly.
The joke’s on you Tigress. That model clearly doesn’t have the body image issues you do.
… Except, Terri, trolls seldom, if ever, use their bona fide e-mail address to do this sort of thing, which was done in this case. Plus independent verification indicated that the authenticity of the initial guestbook post.
Truth be told too bad Amy can’t read or believe it. My mom admittly said she wrote those last comments(tigeress). She goes on Knitty too, so obvoiusly she is going to defend me. Now Amy can slam me as much as she chooses for what I said but to keep going on and on say I wrote such and such is obsurd. BTW Amy I am a sz 4
Diane/Tigress looks to me like a good old fashioned troll. No, not a big smelly person with bad manners, but someone dragging obvious argument-bait through the waters, hoping to get a a bite. Ignore her and she’ll go away after a good fuss. They always do.
I, too, was pleased to see a plus-size model at Knitty. Was especially pleased to see one who was smiling, seemingly confident in her appearance, and wearing an attractive garment that wasn’t pastel or adorned with kitties and bunnies. My fat @ss feels a lot less alone when I come across something like that. Conversely, it also gets pretty burned when I read comments posted by people who hate for the simple joy of it.
These woman are clearly flammers for whatever reason. I’m surprised they haven’t hit the Knitty boards yet… but then, perhaps they haven’t figured out where they are yet. They don’t seem very bright, that’s for sure!!! Oh, I hate when people are so mean!
Thanks for the tips j!
I guess I didn’t dig deep enough into her site, I found it a bit hard to navigate. I think I will get the book, from the toc it looks promising.
As a medical student smack in the middle of a psychiatry block in school, I’ve been innundated with information about eating disorders as well as the dangers of obesity. One of the scariest things that we have learned is that girls as young as *8* are now showing up with fairly advanced eating disorders. Many of these poor kids have moms who “model” the destructive behavior by way of their own eating disorders. Very distressing stuff. The other sad thing is that being overweight, what I belive to be a serious medical condition, is still considered ok to make fun of. America in particular has a problem with lots of its population being dangerously unhealthy and overweight. People who are overweight suffer more often from pretty much every disease you can think of. Certainly, this isn’t a funny or jokey circumstance, I think both extremes in weight are not ideal. Of course, I am thinking of this from a compassionate, patient-centered way, as opposed to finger pointng and laughing. I agree with Jo–average, especially in my country (US), is NOT a size 0. Its nice to see differences in size represented.
Being the kind of person who regularly knits up the XL, I was actually quite pleased that that top was modeled in a large as well as the XS. I think the more prevasive problem is the LACK of such models in our print and other media. This probably contributes to the perception that there is something wrong with larger women. We just don’t see enough of them represented (despite the fact that over half of adult women wear larger sizes).
Spetsley, I couldn’t say about Knitting Heretic–I’ve never read the book. But there’s a table of contents available here, and you could always e-mail Annie Modesitt and ask. It looks like decreases are covered. In fact, Annie’s got diagrams of shaping stitches on her site here.
Gibson-Roberts’s Knitting in the Old Way shows diagrams of knitting and purling using eastern, western, and combined, but I don’t recall if it shows shaping stitches.
I don’t believe this woman! What does she think she’s adding with these remarks? I find it incredible that anyone can be so self centered.
Guess who will NOT be buying from “http://www.mypollywogs.com/”???
Hi there, nasty comment for sure … but on a totally unrelated note, I see that you are a combined knitter. I have started knitting that way and I love it! Just wondering though if you know of any good books that specifically have conversions for making stiches like ssk and k2tog etc. work for a combined knitter. Does the ‘Heretic’ book show all that? Thanks so much!
Note: if you’re looking for the original of the comments screen captured above, they’ve been removed from the Knitty guestbook. But the sequence of events has been reproduced on the Knitty blog: April 15 entry. I always find it amusing when people stand on what they believe are their First Amendment grounds to express themselves on someone else’s property. In this country (which happens to be the same one in which Knitty is domiciled), there are limits imposed on the use of other people’s property for one’s own freedom of expression, and I have no doubt there are similar constraints south of the border. (And anyway, could an American enter Canada waving around a semi-automatic, then rely on their right to bear arms?)
“If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen” — inappropriate for these circumstances. More correctly, if someone orders you to get out of their kitchen, get out or be prepared to take the heat, don’t you think?
I don’t understand this kind of venom. What bug got up her arse that she has to share her fat-hatred with the rest of us? I think you’re right that it’s some kind of personal self image problem on her part, so I won’t be sending her an angry e-mail, but hats off to Amy for refusing to let nasty comments go unanswered while at the same time refusing to get nasty right back.
I just hope the model in question is confident enough in herself to not be too hurt by this nonsense. I thought she looked great and showed off the versatility of the top perfectly (we’re not all like the OTHER model wearing the same top in the smaller size, after all, but the point of showing both is that it can fit everyone).