Accused of stealing another creators crochet pattern, what do I do?
Hi everyone,
I’m looking for some advice because I’m feeling a bit overwhelmed.
I recently started designing and selling my own crochet patterns after spending a long time crocheting and buying patterns from other designers. A few days ago I released one of my own patterns, and I’ve now been accused in comments and messages of copying another creator’s design.
The thing is, I genuinely created this pattern myself. I didn’t copy their pattern or use it as a template. I know the creator people are referring to, and I really admire their work (I’ve even purchased a couple of their patterns before), but I have never bought the specific pattern they’re accusing me of copying.
Since the accusations started, people have been leaving nasty comments telling me I need the other creator’s permission to publish my pattern and saying that I’ve stolen their work. It’s becoming quite upsetting.
I’ve already reached out to the creator directly because I wanted to be respectful and transparent. I offered to send them my pattern to look through, but they have a very large following, so I’m not sure if they’ll even see my message.
I’m not here to start drama or attack anyone. I just genuinely want to know what the right thing to do is.
Has anyone else experienced something like this? How would you handle accusations like these? Is there anything else I should be doing while I wait to see if the creator responds?
I’m trying to approach this respectfully because I care about the crochet community, but it’s difficult when people are assuming I copied something that I know I designed independently.
Edit: The other creator answered me telling that they’ve had many messages with raised concerns for me copying her pattern. That kinda sucks tbh. She also raised concerns about notes and listing details which is valid, I looked through different patterns I’ve bought and Etsy listings to see that I included the important info. So mine is definitely a mashup of the stuff I looked through, but isn’t everyone’s? At least in my personal opinion the listing isn’t that important. And I’m happy to switch those up because they have nothing to do with the pattern itself tbh.