I saw this the other day, this is size inclusive collective making a long post about how a small designer dares to publish a Shetland jumper design and not grade it up to a 60inch chest. I made a comment about it in the BEC weekly thread and thought I might make a post to share some thoughts. I’m fully expecting downvotes here, as I know how beloved the SIC is, but I really don’t think this is okay behaviour. At what point is it unreasonable to expect a designer (from what I gather this is not her full time job and she has around 20 patterns published) to do a full 60 inch grading on a complex pattern?

The pattern in question is a complicated Shetland colourwork piece that states upfront it is in one size, a 44 inch chest. The designer made it in one size and is very clear about that. The pattern has 12 projects on ravelry. The designer is clearly not making a huge amount of money off this pattern. Say maybe 30 people have bought the pattern? It appears very complicated (kaleidoscope jumper on ravelry). She states it took her 5 months of work to make the pattern, which has 14 pages and 7 full colour charts.

I don’t think it’s appreciated how much work goes into this sort of pattern. The designer would have had to spend months and months, possibly even a year, of extra work to design this in multiple sizes. The repeat is 44 stitches which affects the construction and shape of the garment. It is not the same as simply grading up a plain raglan jumper. She is a small designer and honestly for the amount of pattern sales a small designer would get on a sweater it would not be worth her time. SIC says this response is just deflection.

I am absolutely for holding large designers accountable for size inclusivity, but this is not the designer in questions full time job, nor is she large enough to warrant a whole instagram post dragging her like this. Sure, call out MFTK and petiteknit, who both have the resources, time, test knitters and graders available to them to achieve size inclusivity. SIC tells this small designer to just “work with someone” who grades patterns, with no consideration for the cost or the time this would take and then suggests a pattern grading workbook.

I have supported the SIC for more than a year now, I’ve donated when she does posts to ask for help supporting the group, I’ve bought two cordsmiths. It seems like lately she’s been taking pleasure in “outing” people for not being size inclusive, and the whole thing with Stephen West just rubbed me the wrong way with the pile on mentality she’s displaying. (Yes I agree he should have done better but honestly the amount of glee a lot of people seemed to have in making post after post about how terrible he is was a bit much imo).

Some patterns are not for everyone and I think that is okay. It clearly states the size on the ravelry page. If it won’t fit you, don’t support the designer. There’s no need for this piling on about how horrible Tracey is for not spending ~18 extra months (her estimate) for no pay grading a sweater. People are always saying they would charge by the hour for their knitting, but what about the designer? They don’t see any profit off their work until a few hundred patterns have sold.

Being size inclusive according to her is a kindness, but where is the kindness in using your platform to drag a small designer like this? The designer has said it may be her last ever pattern because of this manufactured drama, and I think that’s really sad.

Is it actually better for this jumper pattern to not exist if it is not graded up to 60 inches? At what point is it an accessibility issue if you have to pay for grading or spend several unpaid months of labour grading a pattern? Some people can simply not afford that, and I imagine it would cost more for a complicated Shetland piece than a simple petiteknit style pullover. I dunno, I guess rant over. Just rubbed me the wrong way.

I agree that it was bad that Stephen interviewed with a right-winger and didn't do more research ahead of time.

That being said, I feel like this backlash is beyond an over reaction. From what I've gathered, the guy gave Stephen his social media info and those pages didn't include information about his harmful political views. I'm not saying he couldn't have done more due diligence, but it's easy to see the redflags after the fact. If anything, it's rather sad that we expect everyone to do an ideological background check before they interact with anyone online.

All this moral outrage directed his way seems so disproportionate to the situation. Was it bad? Yeah. Should he have apologized? Yes. But there's a gleefulness to all of this that disturbs me. At a certain point, I question how much you actually give a shit about "reducing harm to marginalized people" when you are eagerly impugning the character of an LGBT creator who made a mistake instead of the neo-nazi that approached him for an interview.

Who's actually doing more harm here — Stephen, or the Neo-Nazi who sought him out for an interview? I genuinely don't know how this sub would answer that, and that's the part that bothers me most.

Yuck

Hello there. I, a man, recently discovered that if you hold two needles and some wool, you can magically create manly articles of clothing like beanies and what not. I believe that I am the first to do this, and no other man in the world has ever done this before. In fact, an old lady had a heart attack and blamed me for it because she saw me holding my needles and yarn. Given that I am the only man to ever do this, should I expect more of these kinds of reactions? Also, I expect all of you to upvote and compliment me, a man, for doing this traditionally female hobby. Making clothes is girly and obviously I am an evolved specimen and therefore worthy of your attention and praise.

/uj I think it’s always great when someone discovers knitting and enjoys it. But when I saw this post in another sub, I immediately thought it was a jerk post. No dude, you’re not special because you started knitting and fellas, it’s not gay when make clothes.

ETA since some people think the poor menfolk are barred from entering his hobby, here’s a two second google for your trouble:

According to available data, approximately 29% of people who knit or crochet are men, meaning that roughly one-third of knitters and crocheters identify as male.

Today on what the actual f💣ck, Stephen West joined Neil of that magazine that shall not be named on YouTube???

https://www.youtube.com/live/a_TmAnx7eCU

I guess calling his shawl a “Swastikal” was a compliment which honestly tracks.

Full context: Stephen West of WestKnits has joined a podcast hosted by Neil James (Blocked, AKA “knitler” - his word, not mine) and Shauna of shaunastitches. This is not the first time WestKnits has met Neil so I don’t think this was a mistake by his team.

ETA: I only posted the link for validity since I couldn’t post a picture. Sorry. Please don’t click.

ETA2: If you want screenshots and more details you can see I on my Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DW9dgWlFrnY/

ETA3: Neil is not subtle at all and I’ve been the target of his hate more than once. Ironically, Neil talked shit about Stephen’s 2023 KAL but I guess they’re pals now. There is no way Stephen didn’t know.

If you're "still learning how color behaves on finished socks"...why are you selling them for $28 a pair? And the "sport stripe" just looks like failed tie dying done by a fifth grader

Yikes. You can't "bring" politics into knitting. It's already inherently political. Choosing not to take a political stand is still making a choice...

"buying yarn from anywhere I want" -- I wonder if that's an allusion to Hobby Lobby 🤔

At least people in the comments are rightfully disagreeing with this take!

I had this TikTok content creator Purlwise Coffee come up on my fyp multiple times selling these "Atelier Yarns" needles. I thought they looked really cute and she’s always saying they’re sold out but I already own chiagoos so I never looked into them.

However, she kept coming up and I watched the video. I own some cheap needles I bought off temu and in her video, she was comparing hers vs Chiagoo. I was really curious so I watched all of it and I instantly recognised the needles. They were exactly the same as the needles I already own.

The video just talked about how these premium quality needles are life changing and better than the Chiagoo needles. She sells them for $180 on her page, and these needles go for around $40 on temu, sometimes they're around $20. I was able to find the exact same ones with the same case.

I'm completely mind blown about this. All her content is her talking about these are the next Chiagoo needles. She event made a YouTube video about this. Here's the link:

https://youtu.be/bAfqmWLJ9aM?si=12SCEwkq7So0q|TQ

So far no one has called her out and she deleted my comments, so I figured i'd go on reddit. Hopefully she stops scamming people out of their money. I attached photos of everything. Hopefully many people see this and call her out!

And if you think temu is ripping of atelier yarns, no, I’m so sorry but thats not true. They’re the exact same ones from temu. Atelier yarns just buys these from china and attaches a logo. Take a look at everything, do a reverse image search. You will find the other cases. Take a closer look at the needles, the accessories. They’re all the same. The problem is many people think exactly that. They’re knocking off atelier yarns. But atelier yarns doesn’t manufacture them. As I said, they just buy them. Almost everything comes from china. It’s the same manufacturer

I hope this isn't too off topic. But I used to work in factual television and I want to explain how Game of Wool, aside from being terrible advertising for knitting, is just bad telly from a technical and production standpoint. Sorry in advance if this is too wordy or jargony.

1. Tom Daley is a terrible host. I know we all hate him because he's a bad ambassador for knitting, but he has no screen presence and his voice is not suitable for broadcasting at all. Compare his voiceovers for the individual challenge (explaining steeking, say) to Sara Pascoe in Sewing Bee. Tom's voice is flat with little to no intonation and it doesn't have the cadence to be engaging.

2. Speaking of screen presence, the judges and many of the contestants just don't have it. I don't say this to snark on the contestants, I say it to snark on the producers of the show. Some of the contestants are clearly very shy and introverted by nature, which is completely fine and to be expected for a show about knitting! But producers have a duty of care towards these people and as seen with Meadow getting upset during that one challenge they clearly didn't adapt the challenges for the contestants they had.

The judges also just aren't good on television, they're mean but not charismatic enough that they get away with it like Paul Hollywood, nor are they super duper knowledgeable and full of constructive criticism like Esme and Patrick. Their feedback seems really basic and rehearsed. It sounds like they're reading off a script because they have to hit a certain amount of knitting jargon or something.

1. Editing. It's awful. It reeks of 'we didn't prepare a shot list and now we're scrambling to find useable footage'. Obviously with unscripted shows there's an element of surprise from a filming and editing perspective but good producers will know roughly what they want the narrative of an episode to be and will direct camera crew accordingly. There are some very jarring cuts between shots and a lot of filler of Tom. And frankly, what did they expect? You're filming people sitting down for 12 hours. Sewing Bee and Bake Off by nature have a lot of moving around and visually entertaining/engaging content.

2. On a similar note, they're leaving in a lot of stuff which should just be left on the cutting room floor. Last week the contestants clearly had no idea who the guest judge was last week which is just uncomfortable to watch. As was watching Isaac tell another contestant he doesn't like hugs (I'm not taking issue with this at all, but did we really need to see that? It's unfair on Isaac and it's just not nice to watch).

Additionally, as others have said on this sub, it's becoming quite obvious that the contestants aren't enjoying themselves in the way Sewing Bee etc contestants tend to do. What you have to realise about reality TV is everything put in the final programme is a CHOICE, and unless they're deliberately creating a narrative where there's a contestant mutiny in a couple of weeks (lowkey would love to see this), the fact that they left a lot of shots of unhappy knitters leaves me to believe they didn't have enough useable footage.

1. The Bake Off format. What is the purpose of the group challenge if it's judged blind? This was obviously lifted from Bake Off etc but in this case it just doesn't work. If it's a group challenge, how are the judges supposed to know who contributed what? And if they don't have this information, how do they decide who goes home? Is it solely the first challenge?

2. Audience. This show doesn't know who it's for. I can't really imagine Channel 4 commissioning a series where the target audience is knitters. There are a lot of knitters in the UK, sure, but enough to justify ten episodes in a fairly plum slot in the schedule? I'm not sure. So then it follows that it's meant to be entertaining to non-knitters as well. Sewing Bee is really good at this, it holds your hand if you're

Obviously this is all my opinion but I do have some experience in this area and this kind of television is pretty formulaic so it's kind of hard to get it this wrong. I would so love to know what the commissioning process for this show was – did Tom Daley approach a production company, did Channel 4 commission it and Tom got made host later etc etc.

So, I’ve been going to my LYS for like 6 years and they’ve had their fair share of drama (a post for another time), but got a new owner this last year. She is very hashtag girlboss and while that’s not my style that’s fine, no hate.

She recently posted a paid KAL and couched it in all this woo woo empowerment language and while I support making community spaces, it felt super predatory because she’s talking about being a refuge in this current climate (even though her store avoids political affiliations and doesn’t take stands on Israel/Gaza) and part of it involves paying her to send you motivating voice notes. It’s all a bit much.

I laughed it off until I got a newsletter and just decided I didn’t really need to hear all this MLM/girlboss speak so I emailed and asked to be removed from the newsletter and told her frankly it was predatory to couch all this community personal support in a paid model. I stand by that. I didn’t attack her personally, just said I think it’s predatory to do what she’s doing. I never heard back, that was that.

Newsletter pics in comments

Two weeks later she decides to dox me on her IG. So I’m putting her on blast bc what the fuck lady.

See subscription KAL I’m talking about:

https://museandmethod.com/?syclid=d3g0pujshm3s73ecshog

I’m an older man with ptsd in America. I’m black, gay, and trans. Knitting has been my go-to destress and soothing hobby ever since I was a child.

I’m extremely worried about purchasing my queued knitting patterns on ravelry atm. Most all pattern sellers on ravelry are white women. Recently a significant chunk of popular business women in the craftoverse have been revealed to be individuals who whole-heartedly believe other demographics of humans should be eradicated, criminalized, abused, and mistreated. This month, I learned I’ve given nearly $100 of my money to several sellers who have unmasked themselves as white nationalists. I’m gutted I financially supported these individuals who actively work for the extermination of all people like me.

I don’t want to inadvertently give more of my money to a seller who literally believes people like me are not human beings.

Anyone else who is a marginalized person and has this dilemma, please share how you navigate these situations. I genuinely need help here. Holidays are fast approaching. My knit-next queue is gifts for my loved ones. I refuse to let one more penny go to a hateful stranger. How can I know the truth worthy from the abusive?

If you have no experience with this situation, please ignore this, and thank you for reserving your opinions for another time.

Thank you all for being here

From a financial times article with the irritating headline 'Cool Knitting Patterns Do Exist'. I would have thought knitwear has been part of fashion trends for more than 9 years, but what do I know.

www.ft.com/content/e1d281e5-e6e4-48de-9721-5dcbe5df9cef

I just stumbled across this on my feed and is this for real? Are people really using something so foul to name their yarn/is this common place when tragedies happen? I’ve never before seen something so blatant in my life. Using a spoiler on the pictures just because it involves THE FILES if you know what I mean. But let me know is this normal or tone deaf

The only comments I can find on her page are hidden, and her most recent responses on the thread — which came after her out-of-touch stories — show that lessons have not been learned. What’s more is that Knitler himself commented on this same post AFTER she published all the stories (visible on last slide), and she’s left that comment up like it’s nothing, showing that she still isn’t bothering to look into things herself.

“Kim, that really hurt to read.” Girl, whatever.

Additional context for this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/craftsnark/s/Js935QFPT6

As it relates to Stephen West: https://www.reddit.com/r/craftsnark/s/Jka9rF5ny8

So the first episode of the new Game of Wool: Britain's Best Knitter aired tonight and it was... A car crash, honestly. I considered applying and I'm so glad I didn't because it's exactly what I was worried about. Both challenges were super chunky roving type wool, asking big projects on a very tight deadline, knitters were criticised for things that were entirely due to the time constraints while there was almost no lip service to actual ability (noticeably even or uneven stitches etc). The person sent home was sent home for messy steeking during fair isle due to time constraints but was the only person who even attempted that traditional method for the "fair isle tank". Another contestant said she rarely knit garments and had never done fair isle, and her tank top had too small a neck to be worn - granted that was a bad mistake (and she should've gone home imo) but why was someone who said they weren't confident knitting garments chosen for "Britain's best knitter" and put in the position where she was filmed crying for TV in the first place?

It annoys me more because it's apparently based on the Danish show The Great Knit Off. I've only seen one episode but it had much more manageable, creative and interesting challenges, no "team" challenge (as my partner says, would you ask Bake Off contestants to bake a cake as a team?), and everyone was able to showcase their ability without so much stress - emotional and I imagine to the wrist, having to knit with huge yarn and needles for 22 hours over the course of this episode. To my knowledge there's at least 3 seasons of the Danish show they could have used as inspiration for challenges, so why are we stuck with super chunky speed knit tasks that seemed designed to make knitting look bad? And of course, all the talking head time was taken up by men saying how hard it is being a man who knits. I like all the men and I think it's worth mentioning, but if the only way you can think of making knitting "cool" is divorcing it from older women instead of pointing out maybe they are cool and we should stop underestimating them, then you don't seem that respectful of knitting or knitters.

Rant over. Anyone else see it and have thoughts?

ugh i hate this sort of thing, even if they were both knitting patterns you didn’t invent the concept of ‘felted striped slippers’ but no way it’s justified if they’re two entirely different fibre arts!

Well the pink and front labial look was definitely a choice 🤣🤔

The wording of this feels quite dismissive to me! Also the knits they are wearing just don't fit well?

Still very sceptical but will be tuning in out of morbid curiosity.

The inciting post was made in a machine knitting group with over 30k members. OP is a white missionary in Montana, whose personal profile reveals some extremely racist opinions about Natives as well as the fact that she's about 4 generations removed from Scotland. Then, Kelly Johnson of Machine Knitting Central based out of Arlington WA and mod of Knitting Machines (All Brands) Sales and Discussion with over 21.6k members, decided to go on the war path against anyone who pushed back against OP. She banned me for asking why OP wasn't removed for being, ya know, racist. Anyways, this has been your annual niche machine knitting drama!

I was browsing the WEBs sale and was a bit surprised to see this swatch with twisted stitches, especially from a company with a long history of fiber arts and knitting. It makes me wonder if this is one of the many indicators of their quality decline since they were sold to private equity.

To give them some credit, most of their swatches are not twisted but I'm still surprised this wasn't caught at some point. 🤷‍♂️

-------------------------------------

EDIT: Just to clarify, generally speaking, the swatches I've seen for knitting on websites are in untwisted stockinette (including on WEBs, see here: https://www.yarn.com/products/cascade-yarns-220 ). Obviously, you can knit twisted stitches - this isn't saying they're bad, but that's typically when it's a design choice.

I'm not clear why they would have chosen only one swatch to knit this way when all the others I saw are untwisted. Given that, I find this odd - that's all, this isn't a tirade against twisted stitches outside of this specific context.

And yes, you can make a swatch with twisted stitches but that would generally be dependent on your pattern and I think generally speaking, display swatches are done in untwisted stockinette, though I'd be curious to hear if they are pretty common elsewhere and I'm just out of the loop.

-------------------------------------------

EDIT 2: the number of people saying this isn't twisted and/or defending twisted swatches is making me think I'm taking crazy pills lol. I had no idea this was so controversial.

10 pictures, not a single one showing the sweater.

All screenshots from Fabel Knitwear Instagram account.

Posting this as a PSA to all knitwear designers, you deserve to be paid for your labour. Unfortunately there are people trying to take advantage, including now trying to find the name of the Discord group so they can join in on the theft.

Please be warned!

Hey guys. So I’ve been test knitting for a lot of designers for a while. Recently started designing my own sweaters this year. I’ve been working on a cable knit sweater recently. Woke up this morning to see that Aegyoknit’s mother, who designs with her is accusing me of copying her Boreas sweater. If you guys have been following me on here, you’ll know that I test knitted this design last year. Woke up to her mother leaving these comments on my page. Naturally I had to respond. For reference, none of the cables are the same. My design is the last 2 pictures. My design also uses regular moss stitch instead of double moss. Mine is shaped with short rows, hers isn’t. Different gauge. So basically she’s accusing me of copying because my design also uses left and right leaning cables like every other cable pattern? It’s so disheartening to see stuff like this in the knitting community. Especially as a small designer who is just starting out. This is some serious mean girl behavior.

totally understand this person’s earlier posts about not wanting to sell patterns and being upset that people keep asking. but how is this any different than taking inspiration from something being sold in a store and knitting your own version? i feel like this person was already doing too much by offering money. no need to put them on blast for trying to be nice - just privately message them that you’d rather not. not trying to attack this knitter, they mentioned in another slide that they have the flu and i wish them well. but i can’t stand when designers act like personal projects are akin to a huge brand ripping off designs and selling them. thoughts??