Life has it’s ups and downs, I accept this. But, wow, karma has a wacky set of scales. I’m going to need some opinions in a moment. In the “news” section of this post, I picked up my free loom and other weaving tools and bought 8 oz of undyed Karaoke, here it be:
In the mail, I recieved my Heirloom Knitting Lace Wedding Shawl package. I’ll post pix tomorrow, I’m tired right now, sorry. In weaving class I made this much progress:
To respond to Yarnahoy’s comment, thank you. No, the fabric in that picture was not 4-shaft. It was woven on a Jacquard loom, which can be equated with having 180 sheds. Crimson, I promise to post pix of mum’s sox tomorrow.
Now, here is my problem. I would greatly appreciate some advise here. I recieved my Pirates of the Caribbean Swap package today. And, umm, I don’t know what to do. Here it is:
And here are the close-ups Mum and Emmos kinda made me take. Mum, Dad, and Emmos were kind of indignant on my behalf when they saw the box. I don’t want to be mean, and I don’t want to hurt my partner’s feelings (she’s, like 16, y’all); but, I don’t think that she fulfilled the swap requirements. I don’t want her to have to make anything else, I don’t! I just want to kind of find a way to explain to her the issues with her package, without hurting her feelings.
Emmos and Mum think I should post all the close-ups we took on the Swap Gallery, but I think that’d be cruel. Especially when my partner sounded so proud of herself. I don’t want to publicly embarass her, at all.
So, what do I do? I’m having second thoughts about posting any pix at all. I mean, c’mon, I don’t want to mortify the girl.
While I wait for third, fourth, and fifth opinions, I’m going to go post the piccie of Emmos weaving her rya. And, uh, read and respond to my email. And knit. I need to decompress.
Sara Morris Design 
OK. Swap stuff… weird. Maybe you can let her know that you are proud of her for going through the effort and how it’s really wonderful that she’s stepping out like this… but also how you’re really glad that it’s you who was her partner because the package doesn’t fulfill the requirements and you’re glad that she won’t been getting nasty comments in her thingy.
Is that a batik thingy that says “Savvy”? I mean, that’s really pretty involved and probably something she had to do in art class.
However, if she’s asking for feedback, you have to tell her that you have to be honest about her not following through with the requirements. I think you could also privately email the organizer of the swap and let her know why you’d rather not give feedback because you’ve addressed it with your partner privately and that, since she’s so young, perhaps it would be wise to be lienient. But also, it’s a red flag for age limits in the future.
I’m certain that a teenager with limited or no income is a poor idea.
Could you just PM the moderator and talk to them about it?
I wouldn’t want to hurt her feelings, her ideas were cute, but they don’t fit? They also didn’t seem like they took very much effort…
Post in the forum to describe what you’ve got — maybe she’ll post pics before you.
By the by, I caught a red flag regarding the organizer the other day, so I’m a little wary of my package. She hasn’t sent it yet, or at least given me a DC. I didn’t think she’d ever post pics of what I sent, since she’s leaving (and again the red flag), so I did it myself.
Wow, that is a difficult situation you find yourself in. Firstly, was this her first swap?
It looks to me that she had some very good ideas, and may have had trouble making those ideas come to fruition which caused her to procrastinate and do everything last minute. I know this look because I’ve done it for LARPing events. I think she had some really good ideas, but no experience in the execution of those ideas. We all must face it at some point that not every person with a Craftster account is Jordy or ohmystars.
What should you do? I’d be politely frank with her. Like, ‘Thank you for the package you sent. I totally loved the ________ and the ________ and totally loved the color of the ________. ‘ (because not every last thing she sent is terrible)’BUT I will be honest in that I had some trouble with a few of the things you sent. The hip scarf is unfortunately too small, and I am curious as to what the nautical flags are intended for (room decor?) as well as the rope.’kind of thing, you know?
After looking at this alot I think what she intended was to send you a “Make Yourself Jack Sparrow For A Day” kit. I think the hip scarves may actually be her take on the scarf Jack wears on his head (and she sent you two), with the bookmark possibly being that bone bead dreadlock braid thing he has. I kind of see where she was going with the Nautical/Sailor Bracelets (where you get them wet and they shrink to your wrist size)but its not very PoTCish unless Jack was wearing one and I never noticed.
Basically, if you feel it wasn’t up to snuff… then it wasn’t… and you should relay this to the swap organizer (who, if it was you, I’d ask one of the swap mods). If her feelings get hurt, it will suck, but sometimes you can’t help if that happens. I agree in that I don’t think she fulfilled the requirements. To do craft swaps you have to put yourself out there, sort of like buying Christmas presents all year round for perfect strangers. There should be a level of quality expected in a swap package and I don’t think she met it- just being honest. So I’d PM the organizer and the young lady. Be polite and honest. Possibly even give her a chance to redeem her package… maybe she didn’t get everything she wanted to make done in time.
I know I’m chiming in late, but in my experience post photos, and say thank you, but you don’t have to gush. I got total shite in my first swap from craftster and honestly cried when I opened the first package. I gushed a little too much and hated myself for doing it because the remaining three pacakges [it was a 4 send-out swap] were even worse. There’s a whole thread on lousy swap package etiquette too.