**ACCESSIBILITY WARNING**
This blog post contains a screenshot of www.ravelry.com as part of the tutorial for finding unique design ideas. Ravelry has been reported to have headache & seizure triggering graphics. If you would like to access this information without the screenshots please email me at courtney@ilovetinderbox.com and I will send you a plain text copy of this blog post.
Who am I?
My name is Courtney and I’ve been designing crocheted garments since 2017. In this blog post I will walk you through how to ensure you are designing unique pieces and what to do if someone accuses you of copying or if you find someone copying you.
Creating Unique Knit/Crochet Designs
One of my most frequently asked questions from makers wanting to break into designing is “How do I know if my idea is unique enough?”. This can be both a difficult and an easy question to answer so let’s dive into the nuances of ensuring that your design idea does not exist already OR is different enough from an existing design so you can feel good about publishing it!
It’s important to note that you should be doing your checks for uniqueness BEFORE you even begin making. You will be very disappointed if you make an amazing sample and then realize something almost identical is already for sale. You must do the work up top to avoid disappointment in the end.
The first step in ensuring your idea is sufficiently original comes before the idea even exists! Wait, what? You read that right. The first step in ensuring your idea is sufficiently original is looking at when and where you get your inspiration. You should be getting your ideas from OUTSIDE of the knit/crochet world and bringing them to the knit/crochet world.
Where to get your inspiration:
You can get inspiration from your own closet, clothing racks of your favourite stores, TV & movies, nature, architecture etc. Personally, I love looking at fashion websites and google images of non-knit & crochet clothing.
Where to NOT get your inspiration:
Do not go looking for inspiration on Ravelry, Etsy, other knit/crochet designs on TV & movies, other designers’ social media accounts etc.
Once you have the idea – what next?
If you’ve come up with an amazing design in your mind and are feeling ready to put hook to yarn, it’s time to start searching the Internet to confirm that it does not already exist. Is this a bit of a hassle? Sure. But it is worth it to protect your integrity as a designer/wanna be designer.
Typically, I begin my search where searches for almost anything being: Google. I toggle over to the images tab and try a variety of search terms. Let’s use my Laurel Henley as the example. I might try googling “Crochet Henley pattern”, or “crocheted Henley sweater”. I usually try 3-5 combinations of words and scroll through for a while until the search results no longer look related (e.g. seeing mostly Henley’s made from material, not yarn, or seeing crocheted hat patterns). If nothing similar pops up – it’s time for a deeper dive.
Next up is Pinterest. I follow all the same steps as I did for Google, since Pinterest is more of a search engine than a social medium. If Pinterest is also clear, then I move onto the crafting specific websites – Etsy & Ravelry.
For Etsy, I once again use a similar technique to the above searches. Trying different combinations of search terms to determine if my idea or something similar is available already. The perk to searching on Etsy is their search bar, like Google, will give you some options based on what others search. As you begin typing you will see options populate below like in the image.
Lastly, and most importantly, is Ravelry! Ravelry is my favourite place to check for originality because of the categories and attributes features. To begin, head to Ravelry and click on “Patterns” then “Advanced Search” to access almost infinite refining options. Typical filters I apply are: age (adult), and then any construction or design elements unique to my idea (e.g. Henley). When I refine for “adult” and “Henley” only 38 crochet results come up so that is an easy number of designs to look through! Though there are still over 1000 hits for knitting so applying another refining feature will help here (e.g. “top down” or “circular yoke”). Sometimes you may need to refine further, and other times you’re just going to have to look through 200 search results to compare your idea to what already exists.
I don’t apply crochet only, yarn weight, or language as refining terms on Ravelry because in my opinion these things do not make a design any more or less unique. You cannot just change the weight of yarn and call it a new design. You cannot take something you see in knitting and remake it in crochet and call it your design. It is important to look at BOTH knit and crochet patterns when determining uniqueness.
Okay, so what happens if you find something similar already exists?
It’s time to tweak your idea until a MINIMUM of 3-5 elements are different. For our Henley example you could change the weight of yarn AND the ease AND the stitch AND the cuffs. Then the design would be sufficiently different. Some other items to consider changing include: yarn weight, stitch, ease, age, craft, sleeve style, body length, neckline, etc.
Please note: changing the colour does NOT count as a changed attribute. This includes adding colour blocking, fading, and striping!
What to do if you accidentally copied a design:
First, let’s look at a situation where you accidentally copied a design that was already in existence. The original designer, or a member of the crafting community may reach out to you to point out the likeness of the two designs. It is important in this situation to remain professional, acknowledge the persons message, but to take time to consider it. Just because someone sees a likeness between your design and another does NOT mean you copied it and does NOT mean you need to remove it. However, if they are near exact copies, or you know in your heart that you did not come up with the idea entirely on your own – then it is time to halt the design process or remove it from sales platforms if it is already for sale.
Next is a similar situation where there are SOME similarities but you think it is different enough. If the original designer is not the one who reached out or highlighted the similarities to you then it is on YOU as the designer of the newer item to reach out – explain to them your design, your process of coming up with that idea, and to advocate for it’s differences.
I experienced the above situation personally with one of my designs. A number of people were commenting on a new design of mine saying it looked like another design, a design which I was familiar with. I knew just how different they were so I reached out to the designer explaining my process and the exact construction of my design to advocate for it. At the end of the discussion I decided that my design was unique enough (It used a different weight of yarn, totally different stitches/gauge, different ease, different collar/hem/cuff) and knew first hand the integrity of my design process so I proceeded to publish.
What to do if you come across a design that looks like a copy of yours:
Now let’s consider if you designed something and see another design that is set to come out or has come out after you published your design. This one is TRICKY. Our designs are our babies and it is hard to keep calm and professional when we feel like someone is stealing them. Take a breath. Only reach out when you are calm.
In this situation it is very important to assume that the other designer did not copy your design – either because they never saw your design or they did their research and deemed it was different enough. Provide the other designer with a couple photos of your design and express your specific concerns over what appears to be copied. Hopefully they will understand and will explain enough differences for you to feel the two designs are different or they will agree to not publish the pattern or remove it from where it is published.
Unfortunately, copyright laws are very grey when it comes to creative works like ours and actually enforcing them is mostly just through an honour code amongst designers. If you feel the designs are too similar but the other designer does not, they may still go ahead and publish and that will be a very tough pill to swallow. But keep in mind; this person will only get so far in their “designing” career if they are ACTUALLY copying. The crafting community will see that sooner or later.
The last scenario to consider is being reached out to by another designer telling you they accidentally created a piece that bears resemblance to something you’ve already designed. This has actually happened to me twice. Both times by designers I know personally and both times I gave them the same response – if you feel that it is different enough and know that you did not receive any inspiration from my design in making it then I trust you and think there are space for both designs!
In conclusion
There are only so many stitch combinations in knit and crochet. There are only so many weights of yarn. There are only so many types of garments to create. Overlap is going to happen. Coming up with something that has nothing in common with everything else that already exists is very unlikely/impossible. As we continue to grow the library of knit/crochet designs in the world the margins of uniqueness are going to continue to grow narrower, but it is important for each of us to use our creativity first instead of copying or borrowing ideas from others.
At the end of the day it boils down to designers having integrity. Have integrity in your creative process. Have integrity in your conversations with other designers. Have integrity within this community and you shall go forth and flourish!
Have any questions or anything to add to this blog post about designing unique crochet patterns? Send me an email to courtney@ilovetinderbox.com or reach out on social media @ilovetinderbox.
Happy designing,