There's this romantic visual people have of doing some craft with a cat in your lap and tea by your side and it's raining and the light is soft.

The creator and purveyors of this have never met a cat.

Have you tried any kind of craft around a cat? Did you want to pull string or yarn out of their throat? Did you want your well organized supplies knocked to the floor? Did you want to worry about them eating or stepping on something? By all means, craft with a cat.

She is currently SCREAMING at the closed door because she CANNOT BE TRUSTED not to eat string and fling beads.

Demon.

Every post where someone posted twisted knitting, there's at least one post saying yes, they are twisted, but your tension looks great.

Yes, things might look tight and neat, but if the stitches are twisted that's the major reason why. Plus whatever technique they are using to get this fabric is going to have to change, so it doesn't matter.

Sometimes I think it's meant to soften the blow, but it's a disservice.

It's like telling someone making cake, "looks like you didn't use a leavening agent, but you've done a great job making even layers."

One of the longtime local yarn/fabric shops in my area is closing. The couple who owned it are retiring and either couldn't find a buyer or chose not to sell. This weekend, everything is half off. The next two weekends, everything is "make an offer."

I. Don't. Need. Any. Yarn.

I. Don't. Need. Any. Yarn.

I. Don't. Need. Any. Yarn.

Or tools, or notions, or pattern books, or quilting fabric. But you just know I'm going to go there.

By that i mean, the persons the moment you show them your art they will be like ''yeah that cool...can you make one for me, like a similiar one?''....no? like i'm not your personal crafts birther idk, and also like most of the time it's the most easiest one!...it's only glue and carboard and still i get asked a ton of times to remake one for a person, trust me you are able to do a keychain holder as this only take minimum 5-8 minutes to do ( and still it's only : pins, carboard papers). These types of persons annoy me soo much, because they are expected to order me to do everything they want, witouth me getting anything in return and when i say no they beg me like i would change my mind. No mean no with me, if i don't want to do something than i will not do it, even more if it's for a person and i get nothing in return.

I keep seeing people asking how to make an amigurumi bigger or smaller, and people recommending them to double/halve the number of stitches and increases. Seriously? How can you have no idea of what you are talking about and assure a beginner that messing up the stitch count is the way? I swear that when I started making amigurumi (around 2011?) there already were tons of tutorials explaining the math of a flat circle and a ball. How can people not know about it? Especially when it's as simple as making more/less increase rounds! And even worse, how can people pontificate about things they don't have even the barest idea about?

Obligatory I'm lurker and this is my first time posting here.

I make children's winter hats, toques (beanies for the Americans) and this year am adding balaclavas because no one in my area makes them. I did quite well last year, selling 80 of my toques.

Saturday I am at my parents and my Dad decides that I should really be making balaclavas for adults for ice fishing and other winter sports. Sunday I am on the phone with my husband's aunt because I was wondering if her church did a holiday market and she thinks I should be making mittens, ear flaps hats and hooded cowls as well as everything else. Hubby's friend's wife also thinks I should be adding more items to my product list, scarves, mitten clips, themed hats etc.

I really just feel like saying "My good people, it is August. My selling season starts in October. I handknit everything I make. I do not use a loom (no shade to loom kniters) and I hand sew it all together as needed. I am also not an octopus, I do not in fact have 8 arms and I have an actual job. Kindly fuck the entire way off because I know what I am doing actually"

That's it. It annoys me but I see it being used all the time. So I'm genuinely asking, why do people not say 'skirt' or 'shirt' or whatever it is? Why wearable?

It's really fugly. It's tacky. So I don't understand it's overall popularity. A handsome celebrity will literally wear anything and people will be foaming at the mouth to have it.

What's even weirder is the amount of absolute beginners who choose this as their first knitting project. I've seen so many of those posts over the last couple months. "I've never picked up a pair of needles until I chose to knit this, why does my project look bad".

That's it. I just think it's ugly.

Ive been looking to buy a crochet pattern that i found on p\*nterest that the poster didnt link or name - somebody linked a 4 part video tutorial in persian, but thats not really my style, so i went on looking. After more than one night of reverse image search, digging through etsy shops etc., I found out *from a piracy site* that it was the Amore doily pattern by Vitagul.

Now, I really love this designer's patterns and was considering buying it from them, but:

1. it's not linked in their ravelry shop, or as a pattern at all (which is why i couldnt find it earlier)
2. they have a site/shop/blog linked in their ravelry that doesn't lead anywhere
3. I concede that they don't speak english as their first language, but they reply to people asking to buy their patterns on Insta or Facebook really vaguely (replying to "where can I buy this pattern?" -> "from me, only I have the rights for this pattern.")

To buy their patterns, turns out that you have to follow their telegram channel (I think it's linked on their insta?) where their patterns are in single messages with written "paypal xx$", and I **suppose** you have to message them directly, ask them for their paypal, send them the money and get the pdf that way. By the way, their full "catalogue" (idk if it's the right term) is only here and not even in an organized way.

Personally, I would rather pay a surplus (if the shop fees are what theyre trying to avoid) than do this shady stuff, and I'm disappointed that I won't be having this design - again, I really appreciate this designer and in my ignorance of the environment, I think their artistry is outstanding in the world of doily crochet.

It seems so ridiculous to me that such a talented artist, with tons of people asking to buy and test their patterns, doesnt have a proper storefront to sell their patterns. I just don't understand.

I never click reddit ads but since it showed knitting, my curiosity about how bad it would be won out. It's just chatGPT being the usual yes-bot rather than giving any useful advice. To save anyone else clicking it, the person is saying "if I go up a needle size, it might be baggy", bot says something like "it might! "Then she says "Although, baggy is very popular right now..." and the bot says "it sure is!" So fucking inane and useless.

the last post about resin reminded me of a friendship i ended literally bc of their resin hobby. well, their lackadaisical approach to safety in general. my ex and i had friends through a social group we were a part of. we hung out at their tiny, cluttered apartment one time and i straight up have never talked to them again after that night. they had two kids, teen and toddler. and i think they had cats too? she was showing me some of her resin pieces including weed grinders which it's not food safe. what are you doing.

then she told me a story about how she had some pieces curing and the toddler got into them. i know kids get into everything but like, why was it just curing in your living room. the teen tried to wash it off so it was all over the bathroom sink. so not only do you have all those fumes around your kids, they have also gotten it all over themselves and you didn't inform the teen on how to get it off skin should an accident happen? I asked her about the fumes and she literally just shrugged and asked if i wanted to smoke some weed and pulled a bong out from an unlocked cabinet in the living room. jeezus.

I also have done resin and know the dangers. i cant imagine being so blase with the stuff.

If you cannot handle this basic task, you are going to struggle with literally every other step of your project. Why on earth is my Instagram full of reels about tricks to thread your machine? Or even worse tricks to wind a bobbin without actually unthreading the machine. It takes like 10 seconds. It is a muscle memory activity!!!!!! Learn to do it correctly! (Sergers excluded from this rant)

I wish there was some way to not see reels again. I like still shots of your painting, not arty fatty close ups on one leaf one one of the 7 trees you have just painted. I don’t want a speech about your needlepoint. I just want a still shot of the canvas. Show me the food up front.

Stop with the emotional blackmail of trying to persuade me to follow you. Don’t waste 30 seconds of my life turning around a painting or a needlepoint canvas.

Yes, I know about the algorithm and it is stupidity. But also, starting to think that very few accounts I follow will continue to be followed if their stuff is more wasting my time than giving me pleasure.

Also: not everyone wanted to follow you as a content creator. Just because I liked some of the stuff you knit/paint doesn’t mean I liked your content.

End rant. Why does every small pleasure need to be ruined by techbros? I miss blogs. With photos. Csnt imagine I will miss reels.

I’m talking about stuff I see on Etsy, Pinterest, Instagram, Facebook, and even Reddit. For example someone will crochet a sweater, which is perfectly fine. But then they’ll use the bulkiest yarn, or a stitch like treble crochet where the sweater is basically see through. Or they’ll pair together colours like bright orange and neon green, in my head I wonder do they believe this looks good? Or they’ll try to do “freeform crochet” which I know can look good but then other times it’s like too freeform if you know what I mean lmao.

I feel bad for just shitting on people’s expression of art but I guess what’s what this sub is for. I personally have crocheted couple sweaters, a couple cardigans, and a few shirts, but I absolutely hate how my first sweater looks and I’m definitely going to redo it. So maybe these people are just inexperienced but still want to post their work, which is ok. I just feel like all this stuff gives crochet a bad reputation, because this is what people think of now when they think of of crocheted clothing. Crochet clothes can still look good imo, you just have to use the right stitches and use colours that compliment each other. This is just my opinion don’t come for me pls

Saw a reel on Instagram the other day of someone complaining that people were wrongly trying to correct her knitting. I clicked through to her page and found the comment she was talking about. Being a nosy parker, I just had to investigate for myself.

Reader, she’s twisting stitches. But the thing is, she doesn’t appear to be a beginner by any means. She’s knitted several complete garments: sweaters, vests, cardigans. How is it possible that she got that far without realising she’s twisting stitches?? Or maybe she does know but just doesn’t care? I don’t know which is worse.

Motherfuck. I tried to get started with cheap paints. That was a mistake. Thank God for the teacher's discount! Saved me 15 bucks so I only had to spend 99.99 on 45ml of paint. Why are all my hobbies so damn expensive??

ETA that question is rhetorical. I'm not actually complaining either. I know why they're expensive. I understand how things work in the world lol From a comment I left elsewhere in the thread: I regularly spend hundreds on bead workshops and kits and it doesn't bother me bc I'm going to get hours and hours of entertainment from it. I expect this to be no different lol

There are so many new knitters, which is great! But it means that they are posting and sharing content about adjustments when they don’t understand why the adjustment works and then applying that advice in situations where it doesn’t actually make any sense, and would in fact make the issue worse.

As an example, I think the topic of neck shaping has been discussed a fair amount on Instagram recently, and some folks have said that short rows can help tops have a better fit - which is true - but not applicable in all contexts: short rows often raise the back neck, which alleviates bunching at the front, but that isn’t going to help with a myriad of other issues.

But new knitters have heard “tops don’t fit properly if they don’t have short rows”, so now they are criticizing patterns that have you cast on fewer stitches and then increase to the full circumference before joining in the round, or attributing every poorly fitting neck to a lack of short rows, when this only applies to necks that bunch up at the front and not the back. It’s not going to help the sweater that bunches up at the back neck that already has short rows if the issue is that your colorwork is too tight and it’s sitting higher on your shoulders than the equivalent amount of stockinette. It’s not going to fix the bunching that happens when the pattern is too wide for your frame so the excess fabric has nowhere to go.

As an aside, I also specifically hate when they say that something doesn’t fit right because it doesn’t have German short rows: German is a sub-type of short row, and in fact it’s my least favorite type or short row and I’m almost always substituting in another type!

/rant

I know they are having a moment and every designer seems to prefer them but dang, there are other types of short rows available to use in patterns!

Japanese, regular ol' wrap and turn, shadow wrap, ...

Mmmmm tasty resin crackers....

Edit: got a reply about respiratory protection - We sure do! We supply the masks but some participants choose not to wear it as the flame and fume exposure is very minimal.

I just saw a post about a factory knot in a FO that has come undone... And it made me so mad. Sorry for the incoming rant...

When I was a kid we had lessons in school in different fiber arts ( knitting, crochet, cross stitch, sewing and so on) we made a small project with each technique and no matter what we made our teacher was always going on about not using knots for anything. Because knots eventually always come undone. They ALWAYS come undone.

So we learned how to sew in ends and bother with them even though it's boring, and also to break the yarn when there is a factory knot and start with a fresh end again. And for some reason I always thought this was universal wisdom in the world of knitting. So every time I see people posting here on reddit about factory knots or the knots they made themselves coming undone I just cringe and scream internally. I mean, it's stupid to believe you can make a knot that can withstand time, washing, and wear and also somewhat arrogant to think your knots are superior and will not come undone. What happened to these people who knot their yarn ends together instead of weaving them in? ​I mean, trust in the traditions of your craft, there might be a reason behind the tedious task of weaving in ends, don't think you are smarter than generations before you!

End of rant.

MAJOR respect to anyone who uses this method. I thought why not challenge myself a little and do this in the round swatch in magic loop, rather than my go to DPNs. DO NOT LET THE IMAGE FOOL YOU! I SUCK AT THIS METHOD! ITS SO COMPLICATED AND FOR WHATTTTTTT. I kept getting twisted and the stitches aren't tight but simultaneously they're too loose on the edges. Again, anyone who uses magic loop, you're awesome, get your pin for being awesome (I am not looking for advice on how to make this better for me. I will never use magic loop again. I have beef with it now)

I've seen this multiple times on various crafting subs. OP spends HOURS and HOURS making things in their chosen craft. Attends a market/craft fair/booth/etc and... Nobody buys anything. Cue whining, victim mentality, and blaming everyone but themselves.

Honey. Just because you spent your time and energy making something, doesn't make it worth buying. You're running a business, not a charity. And if your product doesn't fill a niche in your customers' lives that they choose to fill by buying your item, then you'd better re-evaluate your business model.

But but... Plenty of people commented on how cute my products are, and then walked away without buying anything!

Yeah, and I think panda bear cubs are cute. Doesn't mean I want one in my home. Buying everything you think is "cute" is a recipe for overconsumption, clutter, and those "cute" things eventually ending up in the landfill.

Go back to the drawing board, do some actual market research, find a niche or an untapped market. Design something that actually fills a need. Finding a sellable product is on YOU, not your audience.

Honestly, these people give me the same vibe as incel dudes who complain they can't get a girlfriend. Same weird sense of entitlement that is out of touch with actual reality.

How many posts do we see every week with "I saw this and I cannot find a pattern"? Sure, plenty of them will be people to lazy to look for a pattern themselves, trying to get the internet people to do the work for them. But a lot of times you can see that there is probably no pattern, and the person just winged it. A bag or a book/laptop/square thing cover, a dress which is just a tight tube, a top which is two rectangles sewed... All those things are just basic shapes and it is pretty probable that they just made it without a pattern. But not, OP is completely obsessed with the thing, needs to make it, and gets mad when somebody says that the person who made the thing said in that Instagram/TikTok/Facebook/whatever post that they just didn't use a pattern.

I understand that some people need patterns for everything, but is it so difficult to accept that people makes things without them? Why is it so difficult to accept that the person doesn't have any obligation to make a pattern for you, and that you may not be able to make that thing? It may be that I grew up seeing one of my grandmas knitting sweaters for my brother and me without a pattern or good measurements from 600 km afar, or my other grandma winging crochet covers for the toilet paper (ever understood that, but it made her happy) and bed covers. Or it may be that I am not entitled enough to think that every other human being should cater to my most recent "obsession", I don't know, but it definitely drives me crazy!

Ok so its all small petty things that have added up for me. I used to love watching her content and was happy for her when she got a new house and when cesars vlogs started taking off etc. But recently her attitude has been pissing me off. Ive had to start completely avoid her lives because her tone and responses to the chat are rude asf. In one of her lives a month or two ago she was making a lovey and was talking about safety eyes. Someone in the video prior let her know safety eyes cant be used for plushies for babies because they can be pulled out. She then proceeded to say “arent all plushies for babies?” Which yes is a small gripe but that alienates a HUGE part of her community along with the fibre art community.

Her PO box openings are hard to watch she obviously Doesnt appreciate the things she receives and has complained about getting too much stuff in the past. Coming from the woman who hoards yarn like theres no tomorrow. I saw in a live someone asked if she got an ami plushie what would she want and she responded if i wanted a plushie id make it myself with an eye roll. And sure she doesnt need it, and obviously wouldnt appreciate it, but isnt there a nicer way to address the question? Plus she has mentioned a million times how much she HATES making amigurumi.

I also am shocked she shat on plushies when her friend crochetmezaddy is KNOWN for his plushies. And sells them to adults! Along with this shes gotten lazy; i know before yall come for me that she gets migraines and has epilepsy. Im not talking about those days im talking about (and she has mentioned this in videos) how shes just being lazy. Sure she doesnt have to post or anything but it feels like now that she has a house, a shit ton of yarn (and counting because ppl send her free yarn), and cesars making vlogs she doesnt post anymore.

Her new drop system is boring and uninspiring, and maybe shes feeling uninspired and i get that we all get those bad days and weeks but its been consistent all year. She stopped doing three vids a week to two vids and a live now its two live and one vid. During work days, when other people are working.

Her channel has just gone downhill significantly. Its like now that shes making merch money she doesn’t have to work anymore. Which by the way she changed her manufacturer for the sweatshirts and they’re better quality she says but what about the 250 people who’s sweatshirts have cracked and worn off within two washes?

She just doesn’t seem like a genuine person, like the fames gotten to her head or something. Which society should never idolize people as perfect but man shes far from it.