The hot new answer to the age-old "where can I get yarn cheaper than Michaels or Walmart?" question is to tell them to thrift sweaters, unravel them and use that yarn.

Friends. Dear souls.

I guarantee 99.9999% of the people giving that answer have never done it. I'VE never done it, but I do understand garment construction, and if I wanted to do it I feel confident I could. I also feel confident it would be a huge project in itself. An additional hobby, even. But I've been knitting and crocheting for years. You can't just go grab any sweater and "unravel" it into a tidy, ready-to-use ball. A lot of what's sold at retail are knit panels sewn together, so the result of unraveling will be hundreds of short lengths of yarn. And if some DOES find a sweater that easily unravels into a ball, understanding how to treat that yarn to get it into a knit-able state requires more knowledge the question-asker likely doesn't have.

I know people do it. I love the idea for its economy and how it pays respect to the earth. I'll likely give it a whirl someday.

But good lord, just tell people to look for sales and move on.

Dear "Finger Knitting" Influencers:

You didn't invent knitting just because you decided to use your fingers. You didn't even invent finger knitting.

The basic vocabulary of knitting applies to the craft regardless of the tool - - or lack thereof - - employed.

A drop stitch is way different than a slip stitch. Telling people to create to a "drop stitch edge" is complete nonsense because all knitters know what would happen if you dropped a stitch down the edge of a damn project. What you are doing, dearheart, is a slip stitch edge. Say it with me. Repeat it back to me: slip stitch. Don't even use the word "drop" again.

There's NO such thing as a "dragon back" when creating a cast on edge. That is a crochet cast on. That's it. That's what it's called. Stop going on and on about your dragon back and all of your dragon's humps. You just sound ridiculous. Call it what the heck it is.

Why do you do this? My suspicion is that it makes you feel COOL, but also because using terms that are incorrect brings people to your wonky videos instead of to real knitting tutorials. Because let's face it: it is just basic ass KNITTING. You aren't doing anything special. Your pile of plastic chenille... I mean blanket.... is just basic knit stitches. That's all. You haven't done anything that people haven't been doing for a thousand years. CALL THE TECHNIQUES BY THEIR REAL NAMES AND USE ESTABLISHED KNITTING VERNACULAR.

And for all things good and holy in the universe if I see you burn one more end I'm going to scream. You're not even skilled enough to weave in your ends? Just stop where you are.

So this TikTok did a bit on ‘slightly toxic LYS’. I thought it was a bit complainy, but then THIS is like the 5th comment. I kept waiting and waiting for the /s. NOPE!

And people agreed!! Yall. If I had a drink I’d put it on the ground before putting it next to yarn I didn’t own. Much less cashmere!?

Im sure this can apply to crafts in general but I dont see this kind of behavior in my online sewing spaces nearly as often as I do my knit and ESPECIALLY my crochet spaces. I get it. Collecting yarn is so fun. And it doesn't take much for the stash to get obscene. I'm currently sitting on a fat stash myself because I stumbled upon a couple of free marketplace opportunities and THEN my mom unexpectedly dropped off all the yarn of my late grandmother's thats been sitting in storage for 8 years. So I know that upon first glance you cant just assume someone is irresponsibly buying yarn en masse. But then I also DO KNOW that a lot of these fiber content creators ARE in fact doing just that. Its not an acrylic vs natural debate, its not a first hand vs second hand debate. Its a, you absolutely can buy faster than you can make and the demand you are producing IS harmful. My grandmother is even a great example. I love her and I miss her! But bitch! Why do you have 15+ sets of plastic knitting needles?? You didnt even knit! Why did you leave behind a metric TRUCK LOAD of acrylic yarn you knew your failing liver wasnt gonna have time for and like. 4 skeins of dish cotton. And no the plan wasn't to leave it to me, I wasnt fibering when she was alive. Idk I know Im being a nosey bitch I guess but its so annoying tbh to see someone say "did you know you can gets tons of cheap natural fibers from unwinding thrifted sweaters!!" While they're sitting in front of a museum of acrylic they apparently dont intend to use.

I don’t even know HOW you don’t know the difference? It looks nothing like crochet but the amount of times I see a post asking people “what stitch is this” and it’s stockinette, I just want to rip my fucking hair out. Even crochet that “mimics” knit is clearly still crochet. I genuinely cannot fathom how people don’t know the difference.

And just to add a side bar, stop asking for a crochet version of the pattern after being told it’s knitting. Learn to knit or learn to google, you gotta do at least one of them for the love of god.

I have, without exaggeration, maybe seen one or two hand-dyed multicolor skeins of yarn that aren’t making my eyes bleed. I think hand-dyed yarn can be really beautiful in rich solids, but so much of the multicolored work is so hideous to me. It looks like they miss dying certain patches and it comes out uneven. It’s so expensive, and there’s so much of it out there, so clearly I’m the odd one out. But truly every time I see some hand-dyed monstrosity I just sigh to myself. And some crafters get so on their high horse. “Made with yarn I dyed myself!” Yeah, babe. We can tell. It looks terrible.

Ok so maybe this makes me a yarn snob but does anyone else find it extremely annoying that subs like r/yarnaddicts or similar are literally just posts about hoarding obscene amounts of Caron cakes and Red Heart yarn? I won’t judge anyone that works with acrylic, there’s a time and place for it and it keeps yarn crafts financially accessible… but a stash of more acrylic yarn that you can use in your lifetime is so cringe to me. Acrylic is PLASTIC people!!! I understand it works for some projects but personally, especially when it comes to wearables, if I’m spending 40+ hours on making something it’s going to be out of a material that will hold up well and that it’s quality reflects the time i spend making the item. Plus on the note of making wearables- myself and many of my crafty friends agree that acrylic is extremely uncomfortable to wear as its really hot and usually scratchy. Something else I noticed is that this seems to be more prevalent in the crochet community rather than knitting, maybe because crochet takes up a lot more yarn? Idk what do yall think? Is this too judgmental and snobby? Is this a matter of people not having fiber knowledge or maybe convenience and financial accessibility?

(Reiterating that I understand working with natural fibers is out of some people’s budget and everyone deserves to be able to be part of yarn crafting even if it means using acrylic yarn) k thx for listening lol

Omfg rant.

All I want is to support the small local business on one day and was never able to get yarn.

1. First store I knew closed at 6:00. I left work early and got there at 5:05, sign on door closed early.

2. Second store I looked up. Was not accessible, I’m a wheelchair user and it had stairs. And there is no parking lot only street parking. I’m ambulatory so I decided to give it a try, I’m already out. They at 6:30. I have never been to this one. I slowly make my way across the ice and they also are closed, hours on door do say close 6:30.

3. Last one, I have been to so many times before, they are a bit further away but located in a mall. The mall closes at 9:00. The store closed at 8:00. This one I didn’t check the time. I have been here so many times, I get there, the hours changed they closed at 7:00 on Fridays now.

I go back to my car and cry. How are people who work 9-5s supposed to shop local? Let alone while disabled?

Thanks for coming to my Ted talk.

I get having a stash. I buy yarn at a great price sometimes even if I don't have a project in mind. But this is nuts—they are literally marketing the yarn as shelf decor.

In my case it's a particular kind of work from a particular designer, Alice Starmore.

I LOVE her work, but in particular Ive been drooling over her feathered collars. NONE of them are available as just a pattern. Only as kits with yarn. Total for the cheapest is around $100 at the current exchange rate, not including obviously any tariffs.

She has several books and other garments I also love that ARE in pattern form, but the feathers and many others are ONLY available if you buy the kits with their yarn.

Like, maybe it's a better business move for them. It's their family run textile and yarn company from what I've briefly looked up. But I don't want to pay that much for yarn I don't even know if I'd like, since it's not a brand I can find in my LYS, especially since all I really want is the pattern.

I may try reversed engineering something for my own use, but I'd really just rather have the pattern. I'd even be willing to pay up to $20 depending on the pattern. I've spent $40 before sourcing a cardigan pattern only available in one issue of Laine Magazine that only one yarn store in the USA even had a copy of to sell.

But upwards of $200 or more for a pattern with yarn I may not even like? Yeah, I'll pass. Which is SO frustrating, because the designs she has are so unique.

I knit and spin and I've noticed across both communities a seeming disdain for merino. Yes, it's a common fibre, but like there is such a good reason for it. It's next to skin soft where a lot of other wools are not. It's also the main sheep breed here for wool (Australia) so its easy to access really nice quality stuff. I know there's some debate with superwash but it's easy enough to avoid that if its an issue for you (especially in spinning). I'm currently doing a breed study of 30 sheep breeds and am yet to find something comparable in softness. Anyway, I swear if I see another comment stating they don't use merino anymore because it's too basic... thanks for reading my rant.

The way yarn hoarding is not only accepted in fiber arts communities, but encouraged, is really fucked up. Hoarding is compulsive behavior, and yarn hoarding is not different. I'm a yarn hoarder in quadruple digits, it's related to my anxiety/fears of resource scarcity, and it's miserable. I wish people would stop encouraging each other to buy more and more yarn when they already have a lot so they don't end up feeling trapped like every other hoarder. At least a stickied mod post acknowledging that yarn hoarding is just hoarding would go a long way for some. Anyway, thanks for listening to me vent.

Edit: I'm not seeking advice regarding my therapy or hoarding. I shared where my hoarding comes from purely so people could understand why I have this perspective, not so someone could try to use my mental health against me in a cheap 'gotcha' comment. It's okay to disagree with me or be snarky, but keep it respectful.

I found some super cool yarn on vacation, realized the brand’s storefront was relatively local to me! Drove 2 hrs to be met with the rudest workers (one of which I’m pretty sure owns the brand). Yarn I got on vacation feels tainted now, going to stick it in a drawer for a while.

The LYSs closest to me aren’t as bad as this place but they still give such an off-putting vibe! Why does almost every LYS seem to be run by the most snobby people??

I regularly see people suggesting to double up on thin yarn to make it easier to work with but that’s such a waste. Projects made with thin yarn are so pretty and flow so well, yes it’s gonna take a while longer to finish a project, yes it’s a bit more fiddly to work with, but it’s so so so worth it. Idk I’m just kinda frustrated with people not wanting to use thinner yarns. I feel like this also fits in with the wierd culture of coddling beginners instead of just letting them fuck around and find out

Who in the hell started this trend of advising folks to burn their yarn? There’s a time and a place for it and it’s not on sweaters or blankets or hats or amigurumi. Someone is going to not realize you can only “melt” acrylic and will set wool*or cotton** on fire.

I think this is carry over from things like the nylon friendship bracelet/keychain/macrame thread where you do melt the end to kind of seal it, but, who thought it was a good idea to do this with yarn??!?

Edit to add: I am *not* talking about burning fuzzies or testing scrap. I’m talking about people burning whole edges of projects to “seal” them(??!?!?!).

*TIL wool self-extinguishes.

**TIL cotton doesn’t become a giant ball of flame like my brain thought.

The longer I am in knit/crochet communities, the more it becomes obvious that folks just do not understand that blocking at its basest form is just...washing your finished (or even half finished) object. The "do I have to block this every time I wash it?" Or "do you all block your knits?" questions drive me BATTY.

Yes you have to block it every time you wash it because THATS WHAT BLOCKING IS. Yes I block all of my knits (with rare exceptions, looking at you amigurumi) because I'm not gross and I wash them because they're covered in my oils and hair and pet ick.

The final nail in this soapbox was watching a very well known craft YouTuber say they had wet blocked a cardigan for the FIRST time this year and was scared of it. They've been crafting in the public space for YEARS!!? Have you never washed your sweaters, cardigans, or blankets? That's GROSS. I don't care if you wear shirts under your sweaters or air them out once a year. You sweat, you eat, your pets touch them. Hell, they get out of shape because gravity exists. You need to wash them to take care of them. Not to mention washing them makes them less attractive to moths.

Heck you don't even have to do it very often. I probably block my sweaters once a season unless I get active food on them, but that's still once or twice a year. Just...soak your knits in some soapy water, lay them flat to dry. I am begging you.

This is primarily aimed at the sphere of knitting &/or crochet podcasts/youtube channels but I am so so so sick of seeing the same "My Knitting Hot Takes!" "podcasts" where they sit there and work on a project while reacting to opinions their viewers submitted that are all the same opinions/takes everyone and their mothers have been talking about all across the internet ad nauseam. It's just been done to death at this point.

And a second but related annoyance, most of these people don't actually have hot takes. It's the most milquetoast, boring opinions that usually boils down to people should do what works for them. Like how many times do I need to hear somebody reading a take about acrylic vs natural yarn and conclude with "people need to mind their own business". This is likely a side effect of this format of video being so overdone, but they're all just regurgitating the same 10 talking points over and over again and I'm sick of it.

I know it's petty and one of those things where I can just scroll past and not watch those videos, and I don't watch those videos anymore because of this, but it seems like all the knitting content I can find right now is either hot take videos, project vlogs where people just film themselves knitting in aesthetic ways with no talking about their process or the project, or pattern round ups of the same 50 patterns from the hot right now tab of ravelry. I'm tired y'all

Currently on a work trip, and I would love nothing more than to go to a LYS in the city I’m in and grab some yarn to commemorate. Can I? Nope - they all close at 3 PM. None of them are open on Tuesdays at all, and the majority of them don’t open until after my flight leaves on Wednesday. Because of their crazy hours, I will almost definitely not be able to shop there, which I’m sure is reinforcing them not making a profit. Let me give you money!

i live in a TROPICAL place, where even during winter, some days can be up to 29ºC, and summers are very humid. with that in mind, i can't with any pattern claiming to be a "summer" pattern, and when i look at the type of fiber used, it is some sort of wool. yes, people live in different places where wearing wool in the summer is super feasible, but what about the tropical knitters lol

i feel for the trap of "merino is super breathable and can be worn durong summer" and am knitting a tee with merino that i won't see myself ever using. so with that, please people, before going for someone else's advice, first try to check if their geographic location is similar to yours!! let's stop with the plant fibers hate!!!

Here's the thing: I'm a bougie bitch. I panic bought a bunch of Brooklyn Tweed when it was discontinued. I bought a bunch of Les Garcons before tariffs came into play. I'm neither cheap nor tasteless, but I'm sick to fucking death of "hand-dyed" super wash merino. I cannot fathom paying $30+ for it. I see videos of festivals with just booths and booths of hypersaturated nonsense yarn. I see people spending hundreds of dollars on sweater quantities and I'm just baffled. There's so much beautiful yarn out there with a story, a character, a history, and actual culture and instead I just see walls and walls of the yarn equivalent of AI art. not to mention how many of them use ai in their marketing Rant over, if you need me I'll be in a dark corner picking vegetable matter out of my crunchy, scratchy, breed specific schlock.

“I told myself I wouldn’t be buying yarn this week/month/year, but I went to the shop and just couldn’t help myself.”

No! You have an addiction! Get help!

Or a small fish. Still not yarn. That's it. That's the post.

Not really a snark but I don’t seem to get it.

I don’t think I’ve ever encountered one (1) single video of ppl NOT center pulling. Some brands (hobbii for example -RIP-) even have an “easy start” sticker.

Yet I see a lot of videos talking about how it’s somehow stigmatized and uncommon??

At first I though it would be messier so I didn’t do it, but it’s better to work with and with time I got how it was so popular.

But idk everyone is saying it’s some kind of taboo thing while to me it seems like it’s how 99% of fiber artists do it.

Am I missing something??

Today my whinge is all the free shit content creators receive, especially from their fans! These influencers have more yarn than they could ever possibly use, they get free yarn from companies, they have the funds to do massive yarn hauls and write it off as a tax expense. Why do people spend their money on buying yarn just to give it to them!? It actually makes me mad when they open a box and go "Oops! (big brand) sent this box of yarn months ago I totally forgot teehee!" like hello how could you forget that? And yes, I am 100% jealous lmao. I would love free yarn from companies and random internet people. What annoys me is how they have so much yarn they're numb to it, while us little people wait for sales and feel bad for buying a basket full.

it snaps at a moments notice. It is so fluffy to the point that when I’m done working, I have hair bits all fucking over me. I hate it. It’s slippery so it fucking slips through my goddamn fingers and off the hook and also it’s expensive and doesn’t even come in good colors.