🤝 Community Knitwits in the Fiber Arts Hobby - Drama in the fiber arts

[toilet_rainbow]

On today's episode of "Why Knitting is Not Inherently Political:"

If you have been on Ravelry in the past week, you have seen that the popular pattern page is flooded with variations of protest crafts, particularly of the Norwegian Resistance Hat variety. The most popular and "OG" is the Melt the ICE Hat by Paul S Neary (archive), associated with Minnesota based LYS Needle and Skein. This is a charity pattern where the proceeds are supposed to be allocated to organizations that will help immigrants "impacted by ICE."




A similar popular pattern is the Melt the ICE Toque by Anna of Sisu Designs (archive). Unlike the other hat, it is free.




While many people are commenting on the pattern page that they appreciate the free option and/or solidarity, an almost equal amount told her to take the pattern down immediately because it will hurt Needle’s fundraiser. Some appeared to even salivate over the idea of the free pattern being taken down in favor of the $5 one.







There are claims that KnitLoon, another Needle and Skein associate, threatened Sisu with legal action if she did not take down her pattern (which is still available as a download as of me posting this). Upon questioning, she vehemently denied this. Further insisted that the fundraiser has been so successful that it has raised over $250,000 just from the pattern.








While some were content with that explanation, others find it odd why KnitLoon will not even mention where the donations are supposed to go, or where the donation receipts are (common with charity fundraising). Merely name dropping organizations they're writing a check to in an Instagram post is not most people's idea of such.






Remember, this is all over a red hat. The pattern in question isn’t even an original design. It’s not just a historical reproduction, but also a generic nisselue design. Sisu’s is an all red version of one of her past patterns for one (and a nod to the store's original owner's Finnish immigrant roots).




I don’t mind people making protest crafts if it helps them express themselves, but in this situation it's obvious who is virtue signaling. The lack of transparency from KnitLoon/Needle and Skein raises my brow, as well.

I’ve never seen any examples of AI written patterns. Does anyone have one to show me, even if it’s a scam or fake. I’m interested.

This one shared on r/crochet that involves a Canadian dollar store amigurumi kit came to mind. Many of the AI crochet scam examples I’ve seen also make logs for the entire project





(Despite the kit using Chinese ami terms, it should be obvious enough since the numbers are same regardless of language)

 

[Bees]

While many people are commenting on the pattern page that they appreciate the free option and/or solidarity, there are people telling her to take the pattern down immediately because it will hurt Needle’s fundraiser. Some appeared to even salivate over the idea of the free pattern being taken down in favor of the $5 one.

Can you imagine a conversation like this going down on Bodybuilding.com or in the comments section of one of those youtube channels that reviews golf balls or a site about marble racing? Why are these women so grating and nasty and performative? It's like they are competing, but who is the audience?

 

[Hyacinth Bucket (Bouquet)]

Can you imagine a conversation like this going down on Bodybuilding.com or in the comments section of one of those youtube channels that reviews golf balls or a site about marble racing? Why are these women so grating and nasty and performative? It's like they are competing, but who is the audience?

Too much time in the online crafting community could turn Jersh into Nick Fuentes.

Why are women like this? Whhhhhyyyyyy

 

[mold]

I dunno ladies bodybuilding forums get pretty catty

 

[Accept Only Substitutes]

Can you imagine a conversation like this going down on Bodybuilding.com or in the comments section of one of those youtube channels that reviews golf balls or a site about marble racing? Why are these women so grating and nasty and performative? It's like they are competing, but who is the audience?

Themselves. Look at how good and wholesome and pure I am, but not in a nazi Aryan way, just like snow, but not the kind with acid rain, the white stuff in the Alps, but not white white, I glow in the dark but my heart is Black like my sisters, but not in a …

You get it. Its exhausting. I don’t know how to teach people like that they don’t need to apologize for offending someone because you can’t avoid offending someone! All you’re doing is giving yourself an anxiety disorder.

 

[FarmVille]

Can you imagine a conversation like this going down on Bodybuilding.com or in the comments section of one of those youtube channels that reviews golf balls or a site about marble racing? Why are these women so grating and nasty and performative? It's like they are competing, but who is the audience?

What a stupid fucking comment. The most viewed thread on bodybuilding.com is an argument over how many days are in a week. Women are grating and nasty; men are grating, nasty, retarded, and violent.

I mean this site is literally 90% pure retarded men threatening each other over shit stupider than marble racing.

 

[Accept Only Substitutes]

What a stupid fucking comment. The most viewed thread on bodybuilding.com is an argument over how many days are in a week. Women are grating and nasty; men are grating, nasty, retarded, and violent.

Link pls. I have to see how that thread can be anything more than two posts. Max.

 

[FarmVille]

Link pls. I have to see how that thread can be anything more than two posts. Max.

Look it up.

 

[Aunt Carol]

Link pls. I have to see how that thread can be anything more than two posts. Max.

Website is down, alas, so it's only secondary sources.

 

[Steak Sandwich]

lol imagine needing a pattern for a hat that simple.

 

[mold]

Link pls. I have to see how that thread can be anything more than two posts. Max.

I'm sorry have you met men

 

[Accept Only Substitutes]

I'm sorry have you met men

Yeah, I’m married to one of the most argumentative men alive. I don’t know what I was thinking. Did find the secondary sources Aunt Carol mentioned. I lol’d.

 

[Uncle Tom's Condo]

I dunno ladies bodybuilding forums get pretty catty

This is very unsettling.

 

[FarmVille]

 

[assigned Karen at birth]

View attachment 8574448

LOL, I remember somewhere around 2019 the fatties were screeching about this and haranguing designers for larger and larger sizes. One of their targets was Petite Knit. Some of her sweater patterns go up to like a 60" chest, despite only being about 60" tall herself and around 100lbs. I don't remember if they were seething for even more sizes, or demanding she use fatties to model her samples instead of just modeling them herself. It was clearly just pure jealousy.

Looks like she's still doing her skinny little thing and designing sick shit for Scandinavian Stacys, which warms my heart.

 

[FarmVille]

Knit a blanket and make a hole for the head

 

[Otterly]

I don't remember if they were seething for even more sizes, or demanding she use fatties to model her samples instead of just modeling them herself. It was clearly just pure jealousy.

I’ve got a few of hers, they go up to a 60 inch bust, which is larger than I am tall.
It’s just pure jealousy. She’s a tiny little blonde pretty danish lady with a successful business and a brood of little blonde danish children, and they can’t go for the eating disorder angle because she’s regularly posting pics of herself scoffing gigantic danish pastries, as one does in Denmark.
There’s clearly a market for all sorts of sizes and that’s as it should be, we aren’t all the same - there are things that suit taller, shorter, thinner, larger. What you cant do s insist that every single designer does every single size out there for every single garment. Not every garment suits or is able to be sized up or down so much. PK generally does things that are baggy and thus able to be adjusted up quite easily but some stuff just doesn’t work
And it only goes one way - I’ve started seeing garments that even the lowest size would be far too big for anyone petite and nobody is yelling at those designers. I’d just shrug and look for something that fits and suits a shorter frame.

 

[Liber Nihil]

View attachment 8574448

That mindset is so strange coming from a community of people who make their own clothing. Design your own damn pattern, sell your own 6X circus tents to the morbidly obese. Be the change you want to see.

Then again, I suppose if these people were good at exercising autonomy and taking the initiative to improve something they wouldn’t be land whales in the first place.

 

[Accept Only Substitutes]

That mindset is so strange coming from a community of people who make their own clothing. Design your own damn pattern, sell your own 6X circus tents to the morbidly obese. Be the change you want to see.

Then again, I suppose if these people were good at exercising autonomy and taking the initiative to improve something they wouldn’t be land whales in the first place.

But math is ~hard~ and like I can’t use my brain enough! Seriously, crafters are some of the dumbest people alive. There was a whole thing a number of years ago about ~privilege~ because someone made a sweater, but the yarn was $30 a skein and no one has $300 for yarn!!! I think she did make it go up to size 7-billion, but at that size, no shit yarn is expensive.

These idiots though, apparently had never thought that that designers use of yarn could be considered a suggestion, and they could easily substitute with a different, cheaper yarn.

I see this in the cross stitch group I’m in now, every day it’s the most retarded questions. Someone posts a photo of a very simple project “I don’t have the chart”, dude, you don’t need a chart, stitch from the photo. Or “I don’t like these colors” , so use different ones? You don’t need permission to make a project your own.

 

[Trapper]

But math is ~hard~ and like I can’t use my brain enough! Seriously, crafters are some of the dumbest people alive. There was a whole thing a number of years ago about ~privilege~ because someone made a sweater, but the yarn was $30 a skein and no one has $300 for yarn!!! I think she did make it go up to size 7-billion, but at that size, no shit yarn is expensive.

These idiots though, apparently had never thought that that designers use of yarn could be considered a suggestion, and they could easily substitute with a different, cheaper yarn.

I see this in the cross stitch group I’m in now, every day it’s the most retarded questions. Someone posts a photo of a very simple project “I don’t have the chart”, dude, you don’t need a chart, stitch from the photo. Or “I don’t like these colors” , so use different ones? You don’t need permission to make a project your own.

Substituting yarn can be tricky, and sometimes results in a completely different fit. You can choose something with the same fibre content, weight and so on, but the stretch percentage is slightly different and it doesn’t hang right. It’s not always something that can be spotted in a gauge swatch, either. Rowan is notorious for designing patterns to work in certain yarns that only they sell, for example. Having said that, a good yarn store will usually know enough to point you in the right direction, or you can see what other people have done on Ravelry.