He gets on my nerves like sand in the underwear line

So, do you know someone who's very presence in this world is irritating? I am currently troubled by one such individual, and to make the matter even more ridiculous is that I don't even know the person. They're a buzzing annoying fly of a presence in an online community called www.menwhoknit.com. That's right, it's an e-annoying person. Ridiculous, right?

So, this is a site that I often go to. I love to read others ideas, thoughts, problems and get inspiration from them as well as do some posting of my own. But there is this one person who whenever they write, they come across as the biggest ego-maniac you have ever met. You'd swear he must be a knitting expert that is published monthly in all the best fiber rags by his online attitude. Last week when I posted my socks pics and spoke of the toe, I was informed that they look fine and that his opinion was the final one. Really, his opinion in his own writing, ws the final and most important one. This was just an addition to all the other comments he's made to tell me of the mistakes I've made with my choices, knitting style, and execution. Now, not to be an egotist. I'm not an awesome knitter, but I do decent job. This week, I posted an update regarding a yarn issue I have been having with a purchase I had made out of town.

Basically, I had yarn quite literally fall apart on me over the holiday weekend. Yes, it was frustrating and I thought I was going mad because I have never seen such a thing happen. But I had a plan. I would call the store and the yarn company on Tuesday when everything opened back up. When I did, I had a pleasant experience with both the store in Cheyenne that was willing to replace the skein and the yarn company who asked me to mail it on in so they could replace it for me. It all ended up being caused by a batch of fabric softener the yarn company had been asked to demo(5 gallons worth). It was found to like to disintegrate organic fibers. Yeah, not so hot for hand spun yarn, eh? Anyway, it was all taken care of and I decided to post an update on the site I had originally asked for some help on to see if anyone else had had such an experience or had advice regarding this.

And here is where my trouble started again. This sand grain under my groin panel wanted to bad mouth the company. Which hey, if they hadn't been so helpful I might have joined in a bit, but they had wanted to right the situation with no urging from myself. For that, I can only really be thankful. Let's face it, they could have told me to bugger off instead of explained the issue and offered to right my problem. Some would argue that they should have recalled the yarn but I can understand to a degree if they didn't know exactly how bad the damage to the product was across all their product lines (I imagine 5 gallons worth of fabric softener affected a very large amount of yarn). They are a small company, and a recall... can you say "Ouch?" With the current financial crisis I could see one large recall could quite possibly have shut them down. With the loss of revenue for that product, and the shipping of product back to them and then replacement of it? That's a chunk of money. Especially if not all the yarn was as badly damaged. I can see the logic in waiting for the affected parties to contact them regarding it. Yes, it sucks for me, but is it an obstacle that is insurmountable? Hell no, and I'm just stoked with all the crappy service that happens in this town, that not only was the yarn company willing to fix it, but so was the vendor I purchased it from. Not that long ago I had a major dye lot issue with 2 separate projects using the same yarn producer and the local yarn shop owner told me there was nothing wrong in what both I and all others that saw the items/skeins could see. So I'll take this service with the smile it deserves.

As for my internet irritation... I have long wanted to respond to him. I have purposely not for a couple reasons. The main one is that I feel as though written wording can sometimes be taken out of context due to it's lack of inflection. And second, I just didn't think it was the correct forum nor did I want to get into a duel with the man. but this time, I decided to respond, not only in a private message, but to his public posting about how it's all about the money. I figured it was time, and he gave me an opportunity for it to not just sound like a personal slight that upset me. So, fingers crossed...

In the past, I have tried to have his postings removed from my subject lines due to them being offensive, but due to their lack of outright insults or vulgarity they don't get cut. I try ignoring him. He starts off with private messages that I tend to just delete. When that doesn't work he steps it up like your little brother always did and goes with public postings. When that doesn't work, he leaves you be for a couple weeks, then starts again. Of course, my theory is that the little turd has no real friends in Canada so he's got the time to be such an annoyance. And honestly, such thoughts do give me a warm feeling. Even the friendly Canadians have their skid marks of personalities to deal with.