Originally Posted by
ArtsyOne
I've just finished reading a book about knitting (Sweater Quest by Adrienne Martini) in which the issue of copywriting and ownership of patterns is discussed at length. The following paragraph will help the OP assuage her guilt and let her think of herself as an artist: "Is knitting art or is knitting crafts? ..... If you buy a pattern and buy the yarn the pattern suggests and knit it in the color suggested, you're executing someone else's directions, no matter how much joy you do it with; that's craft. That's execution. The definition of art for human beings is that it is self-expression. So the minute that you say, "I think the sleeves should be a little bit shorter," "I think this should be green", the minute that who you are begins to influence what that thing is, now it's art."
I have to disagree with the quote. Do you think if anyone who plays Mozart or Beethoven exactly as the composer intended is not an artist? Of course they are! Anyone who completes a pattern and it ends up like its supposed to, is an artist. If you change it - it's creative interpretation.