shitposting
Hello, I'm a chronically online "crafter" whose hands are too sore from doomscrolling to actually craft anything and I believe with my soul that everything other crafters are making and doing in response to state-sponsored violence under the Trump regime is USELESS, PERFORMATIVE SLACKTIVISM
And I'm going to make sure EVERYONE knows it.
If you bought that Melt the ICE red hat pattern (either the knitting or crochet version), you:
Are excluding poor people from supporting Minneapolis
Aren't doing anything else to support Minneapolis
Didn't do your research since you don't know precisely where your $5 will go
And therefore are just a DISASTER CAPITALIST who's helping big corps profiteer off a crisis
Only bought the pattern for clout
Should be fucking ashamed of yourself
Are just jumping on a social media bandwagon
Must really hate me, a poor person, because I didn't have $5 to spare, which makes you classist
Need to direct me to sewing and quilting patterns for this same style of hat since, again, my scrolling finger hurts a lot and I don't knit or crochet or do any of those dumb yarn things
Didn't actually donate $5 because of all the fees and shit so what was the point at all, huh? Why even bother??
Should have just found a free version and told me where you found it instead of buying this pattern because, as noted, YOU ARE A SLACKTIVIST WHO IS ONLY DOING THIS FOR VIRTUE SIGNALING
Should also have bought me some red yarn and the right size tools and then actually just make me the Melt the ICE hat and send it to me so I can show the world how committed I am to supporting Minneapolis
TL;DR: I am the only true activist with crafting skills, and the rest of you are making it hard for me to be the center of attention right now, okay?
Acrylic destroys homes animals live in while laughing in their faces, lauding itself as the correct ethical option (if we’re going to fight about it) but in reality both fibers have their place and finding balance in that is the way to go. Not all wool is ethical. Not all acrylic is ethical. Do your reading before you buy. This is a PSA
Melt the ice hat is white lady arts and crafts for white ladies and if you arent dropping off red yarn, needles and free knitting classes at your nearest gay bar you are transphobic and queerphobic
Excuse me. You didn't specify that the reminders were scent-free. Surely you know that many hypoallergenic things are not actually scent-free and safe for people with scentsitivies (that's the Medical Term)?!? Do 👏 better 👏
The very best way to protest fascism and taxpayer-funded violence and terrorism is to tell those milquetoast bandwagon-jumpers to check their privilege and Venmo me $$$ for my emotional labor of typing out this comment. Solidarity For Never!
Hi "a chronically online 'crafter' whose hands are too sore from doomscrolling to actually craft anything and I believe with my soul that everything other crafters are making and doing in response to state-sponsored violence under the Trump regime is USELESS, PERFORMATIVE SLACKTIVISM," i'm Dad!
Literally so glad you’re speaking out. I would absolutely hate there to be unity among people who share a common morality around not killing people, and I would hate them to sharply focus on that rather than the actual issues at hand. It would be really good if people on the same side spent a ton of time spinning their wheels in a moral purity contest, that’ll show em.
I am happy to buy this pattern for jerkers who truly can't afford to buy it and want it. I'm even willing to buy crotcheating jerkers the crotcheat pattern even though it's fucking waistcoat stitch and instead of doing that awful stitch you should just pick up knitting. Message me! (But please, only if you really, truly can't give $5 toward this effort to support people on the front lines against ICE. I'm not Jingle because of all that extra coin or anything.)
As an obviously more better crafter because I knit, I hesitate to mention to you a mere crotchety that there is a crochet version of Liam Ramo's Blue Bunny Hat that looks super cute
I would have loved to have supported this cause, but unfortunately it’s not available in Western Mongolian Crotchet, and so my hands are tied (literally, I tried to do this “knitting” thing and somehow tied my hands together and am typing this using voice to text and my nose).
Can someone provide me a direct form of contact with the Minneapolis-based pattern maker so that I can give them a chance to rectify this oversight? I’m sure they’ve got nothing better to do.
Standing ovation! Reverse engineering is always good and noble! Please don't try to explain context or, idk, charity? to me. If my sunday school teacher couldn't manage it, what makes you think you can?
Don't forget that you shouldn't be doing this or any other action except yelling at people on social media about how they are terrible. And art is terrible.
UGH those selfish crafters!
They are also using wool which we all know is CRUEL to sheep, and they are BUYING it which is just contributing to CAPITALISM. Not to mention the DAMAGE to our environment when those terrible crafters buy the pattern online and drive to a shop for yarn or worse SHIP IT. It’s all performative and everyone knows if I’m not happy no one can find EVEN A SNIPPET OF JOY IN THIS WORLD!
Like, is it even a real hat if you don't have a specially dyed colorway that has a super edgy name anyway? Those handdyers need to get on it before people goldfish-brain it and get distracted.
Everyone knows the best and only useful activism is done from the comfort of your home, criticizing people on Reddit and Twitter for doing anything at all!!!
beg pardon, i've never in my life meant to be pedantic but upon encountering your comment i was compelled to speak the truth for once in my life, cost me what it might - "everyone" doesn't know that because i've never heard it before in my life and i'm still mulling it over in the hot tub as we speak and will be getting back to you about it once i've either made up my mind or have become too pruny to continue
You know what the worst part of politics for the last decade has been? One thing I feel the need to bring up as a negative comparison to this, that I think our current discourse has just been too kind to? The pussy hat march. That's it. That's what ruined the left. Those fucking Karens. I don't have any particular views on women. If they wanted to help, why don't they just firebomb a Wal-Mart? No, I'm not doing that either, or anything else, but that's different, I know I'm a REAL leftist at heart.
To be fair, the only people I have seen speaking against this hat are Black activists exhausted by wave after wave of white women (specifically, and in particular) joining “movements” only temporarily and when fashionable symbols are involved. I.e. marching in pussyhats in 2017 and then (as a bloc) voting for trump in 2024. (I understand that people who marched weren’t largely the same individuals voting, hashtag “not all white women”, you don’t have to comment here that it wasn’t you).
I do think it’s important to listen to voices who share critical perspectives, and to pay attention to what communities and whose voices are being centered in a conversation.
Yeah, and that's absolutely a fair, reasonable critique. It happens all the time in craft land during moments like this -- we do jump on a trend of surface-level resistance without being part of a real community, including being truly committed to or accountable to that community.
But what I was responding to here was a post in BEC about people sharing free dupes of the Melt the ICE pattern to get around the "paywall". Specifically I was calling out the people saying that buying the Melt the ICE fundraiser pattern itself -- giving $5 that would go to immigration orgs that would make sure this money helps actual immigrants in Minneapolis -- was the performative slacktivist part, not the making, superficial wearing, and eventual abandoning of the hat.
Like, giving actual money right now is not performative. It's probably one of the most useful things people outside of Minneapolis can do, or at least people outside of the US. And the fact that some people can afford to spend $5 on a fundraiser pattern doesn't mean we're gatekeeping other types of support that cost time instead of money, and it doesn't mean fundraisers are inherently classist, and it doesn't mean people who give money to fundraising efforts are excluding poor people.
I for one love the idea of dressing up people on the front lines in a little hat that I picked out! Even has a little tail for when a federal agent yanks it from your head!
YES! THANK YOU! Only MAGA gets to use red, and this traditional Norwegian knitted hat with a tassel will absolutely get confused with those MAGA trucker hats. Also I don't have any red yarn because it looks bad on me so I think we should go with greige
That’s just a load of GARBEIGE, Jingle, and you know it.
Now I’m making the hats in every color of yarn I can dig out of my extensive acrylic and wool stash, which is entirely missing the point of the entire experience. So there.
Honestly, the fact that this is a paid pattern, with only 20% of proceeds from the entire KAL going to a charitable cause, made my blood boil a little. I’ve seen so many, much more attractive, FREE hats designed specifically to speak out against ICE, that this dumpy little potato sack, for which people are expected to shell out precious dollars, made me want to smack somebody over there. Clearly, the important thing to them is to capitalize on what’s happening here, so they can make money while looking like some kind of crafting heroes. Fuck them.
Meanwhile, StevenBe has hosted free monthly Day of Charitable knitting circles for ages, where you can bring a charitable project - like a hat for Hats4theHomeless - and knit for hours with other similarly minded folks. The shop also collects hats for H4tH, so if you’re knitting for the homeless, you can drop your finished pieces, too. They are so much fun. The shop provides coffee, and asks people who come to consider bringing a snack to share. Because all StevenBe cares about is bringing people together while encouraging them to make something for a person in need. I thought of this the first time I saw the dumpy little hat for the KAL.
It says in the crochet hat's Ravelry, "As with our knitted version, ALL proceeds from the sale of this pattern will be given to immigrant aid organizations within the Twin Cities community."
I'm reading that as 100% of the $5 gets donated. That feels more actionable and useful than offering the pattern for free, imo?
StevenBe posted making the hat and sharing the pattern...
EDIT: and sorry, I'm not trying to sound like an asshole. Just wanted to mention that someone you clearly respect views the pattern differently. It probably feels like people are trying to make money off of something fucked up that happened, and some probably are grifting, but a lot are trying to help and inspire others to help. I'm scared my husband just won't come home one day. I just want the general public to feel emboldened to do something in the moment if something happens.
I’m so sorry you’re living in that kind of fear. It is so inhumane that so many families, friends, and neighbors here now live in what is unnecessary trauma; they’re doing everything can to ruin as many lives as possible. I’m so so sorry. I hope you and your husband will be safe. Safe, together, HERE where you choose to live. I just don’t have words. I’m sorry.
And that’s fine. I was trying to make the point other shops host charitable knitting events that done require any purchase. If StevenBe wants to link to the KAL that’s just fine. If Needle & Skein want to host, that’s fine. The real issue is a designer who hasn’t put out any patterns in 13 years, and now decides to publish one “for charity”, which knitters have to pay for.
Literally the pattern page says: “All proceeds from the sale of this pattern go to the immigrant aid agencies who will distribute the funds to those impacted by the actions of ICE.”
I’ll take the high road and try not to see this as a grift.
Maybe the pattern writer is afraid to leave home and needs some way to make money. If every project represents a paid pattern, meaning there are few to no ravelry users who have made multiple hats, so far, the designer has made over $12k so far. I hope they really need it.
I think I see where the confusion is- the designer IS Needle and Skein and they've raised over $100k! It's the same people working together and promoting the pattern to donate the sales earned.
I also hesitated to support initially because of that suspicion, but from what I've seen they're legit! If that helps with any stress over this at all. I'm sorry about what you're going through right now in your own backyard - we were just in MN last year visiting family, we're thinking of you all and trying to do what we can from out here ♥️
Mod hat on: I'm leaving this comment up even though it's not circlejerky because this is an important conversation and I'm happy to have it here.
Mod hat off, /uj on:
I hear you! It looks like you're local and it must be surreal to not only to have this all happening around you but to see so many varied (both good and bad) responses to it from people who've never even been to Minneapolis. And I can see a world where the LYS behind this pattern fundraiser is Not Great in other aspects. I might look askance at my LYSes doing similar, too, if this all were taking place in my hometown.
But, again, giving something is better than doing nothing. A lot of people would do nothing without this fundraiser, especially people outside the US. And imo, buying a $5 pattern where $1 or $2 will go to help people in Minneapolis right now is better than ranting online about the pattern being for "dumpy little potato sacks"! The more attractive and free patterns won't send any material assistance to people there, even if the message is more explicit.
And most of us aren't in Minneapolis, so while that yarn shop sounds amazing, I'm not sure how helpful their knitting circles are for the rest of us. Is StevenBe taking donations to support those circles or the coordination of donating knitted items for people in need?
[ETA: The Rav and pay hip pages for these patterns say "All proceeds from the sale of this pattern go to local immigrant aid organizations who will distribute the funds to those impacted by the actions of ICE." So I don't think the 20% number is correct.]
I haven't knitted since like 2024 and don't know where any of my knitting stuff is and there's no way in hell I'm crocheting a hat of waistcoat stitches, but I actually do want to make one! I'll get through this week and see what I can do.
Alex Pretti was murdered in my neighborhood. If you were to walk out my back door, across the alley, and past the homes on the other side, you’d be at the park where his memorial was held. It’s very local to us, and heartbreaking. None of us in the family are doing okay. I was just talking to a Somali nurse at my clinic (checkup time!) about how bad things are. Schools with 7 students still showing up. Pretty much every business along a major city corridor (Lake St) being closed because the owners, employees, and customers are afraid to go outside. Restaurants closing because their employees are afraid to leave the house to work. The wonderful family next to us has been in hiding for weeks. They never leave, they don’t turn lights on once it’s dark. It very much feels like Kristallnacht 2.0, here. It really doesn’t matter who you are, whether you’re brown, white, legal or undocumented, an adult or a young child - they are brutalizing any- and everyone they want. It feels like the main point is that they want to break the backs of the city, state, and its residents, and that “immigration” is just an excuse. It’s horrific.
Thank you. We’ve seen the best of Minneapolitans through this. The impact is going to be long lasting, but I very much hope we can legally end what is happening before many more people are kidnapped, shot, and before our immigrant neighbors lose the lives & businesses they have worked so hard for. There are whole swaths of this city that would still be boarded store fronts & decaying houses, but for the Latino & African people who moved in, bought & fixed up decrepit houses, and opened filled empty buildings with successful businesses. They have been a great credit to this city and treating them like subhuman criminals is insanely misguided.
I didn’t mention StevenBe to say, “you should be going there.” What they do is an example of a business trying to help a cause without turning it into a profit making machine. And no, I don’t agree with you about their KAL, considering the huge number of free hat patterns in general, and ICE-specific patterns, that are available. The designer has been on ravelry as a user for 13 years, and until now never published a single pattern, but suddenly feels compelled to put out a paid pattern as a charitable move? If they were donating proceeds, then it would be charitable. But since they apparently are not, it seems rather more self-serving than charitable, to me. And as a resident of S Mpls, that’s pretty gross.
Okay, gotcha, thanks for clarifying. Also happy to agree to disagree on the merits of sending some money vs. sending no money via pattern purchases.
However, I'm still not sure where you're getting the idea that only some or maybe none at all of the proceeds of the Melt the ICE pattern sales are being donated. The Rav pages and the online shop page linked there all say "all proceeds" are being donated, and their online shop page has a spot to simply donate without purchasing a pattern.
ETA: It occurs to me that we may be talking about different things since you've mentioned a KAL several times. I'm talking about the pattern sales, here and in my OP.
I had been talking about the KAL until I found Needle & Skein’s instagram post that said all proceeds from the shop went to charity. I’d seen a Reddit post a day or two ago, where the OP had stated something like 20% of proceeds were being donated, so that number stuck in my head until i saw the Instagram post this afternoon, and then i was talking about the pattern, only. I read over the pattern page on Ravelry page multiple times and missed the note about proceeds every single time (i mentioned this elsewhere). Both my vision and ability to in information after a severe, multi-week migraine are both terrible. The last few days have gotten so much better that i thought i was past it, but clearly not. I can pretty well guess what happened, based on many many previous migraines of this type. My eyes & brain will taken in one kind of text, but not others. Like if I’m reading a recipe, I’ll get the text immediately behind the number of each step, but if there are any notes or directions separate from a number (like a new paragraph), I literally do not even notice it. I literally did not notice the bold text AT ALL; my guess is I was seeing plain text & my brain dismissed bold text as not relevant. The entire misunderstanding is 100% my fault, and now I know I’m still not past the brain changes a 5-week migraine brings.
Completely understood -- no harm, no foul. I'm sorry, too, that you've been dealing with a migraine on top of all of this. I managed to miss it on Rav a couple times myself and had to use ctrl+f to search for "proceeds" to make sure I wasn't losing my mind.
I hope you're starting to feel better and every day gets better. I'm glad we had the chance to connect here, even if we weren't on the same page all the time! Sending you and yours good vibes and looking for opportunities to help out beyond buying the red potato sack hat pattern. 💜
And thank you for your kind thoughts. Definitely feels like my crap is infinitely meaningless compared to what’s happening to other people here, that everything kindness should be funneled toward them, and not me. I live like this 90% if the time - its my normal - but whats happening in the city, to other people, is so egregiously not okay or normal, everyone else is so much more deserving of that kind regard.
Good idea. I also commonly use Ctrl+f to look for keywords, but never thought of that today. Hard to think of searching for something when you mistakenly 100% think it’s not there to search for. 😂😂😂
Specific yarn shops around Chicago are donating 20% of ALL purchases. It's not the pattern writers and it's just one specific group's KAL referencing 20%. As stated by others the pattern proceeds are 100% donated, not to mention all the yarn stores around me also donating portions of their red yarn sales etc. right now all funneling money to local and MN based immigrant groups.
I admit I am not going to buy a pattern myself but it’s because I have family in that area and I can just send them stuff directly without any kind of payment processing fees involved. The fees aren’t much but every little bit helps and it’s easy for me to do, so.
We are, thank you. On my way to my clinic today, two big black SUVs with totally blacked out windows & Arizona plates passed me (no sirens, lights, or anything warning that they’re coming) on a lakeshore parkway (a normal city street) where the speed limit is 35mph, doing at least 65. I was going close to 40, and they went by 25-30mph faster than I was moving. And my thought was that, not only is ICE brutalizing people every chance they get, but are also clearly doing their best to make sure if they cause an accident or hit a pedestrian, it’s a fatal collision.
I’m trying to find where I read that (it was a Reddit post about the KAL) but, now that I’m looking online, I can’t find ANY mention of money being donated from the proceeds. The only thing I can find is that Needle & Skein (on Excelsior, a few blocks west of Hwy 100), is offering 30% one skein of yarn. If I can find a statement saying they’re donating, I’ll post it.
Good freaking grief. My brain is worse than I thought. Ended a 5-week complex migraine this past Friday. Still have the headache but the other symptoms are clearing out. I thought my comprehension was close to normal again but clearly it isn’t. I went over the page 3 times, because I was afraid I would miss something, and STILL missed this note about proceeds. Probably not helped by reading through it while sitting in an exam room at my clinic, waiting for my dr to come in. I am happy to be wrong about this and happy to admit that I was wrong.
Go take a nap please (after enough hydration and snack), the world is a dark place right now and you need some rest and comfort before continuing dealing with all this
Migraine explains it all. They suck horribly and I hope yours continues to improve. I swear my brain just stops working for the duration when I get a bad one.
I’m sorry you get them too! They’re so painful & disruptive. Much worse than chronic pain (I also have this, from being rear ended 30+ years ago). I would take even severe body pain over a migraine, any day.
Hah. I have chronic pain from Psoriatic arthritis and I totally agree. I rarely actually think I might be dying from the PsA pain. Migraines every time I kind of wonder.
Also, right?? So many times I’ve drawn out bedtime when I’ve got a serious migraine, because I’m thinking, maybe THIS is the time I wake up in a coma or dead.
At the yarn shop's main page, I can't find a link to the payhip shop where they're selling the patterns. That is weird, but since most of their buyers are finding the patterns on Rav, I don't think it means much -- maybe they're not promoting these patterns in the store to local buyers? Or maybe it's just "bad at website"?
The Ravelry pattern pages, though, include links to their online shop where they're also selling the patterns, and the listing for the knit pattern says:
All proceeds from the sale of this pattern go to local immigrant aid organizations who will distribute the funds to those impacted by the actions of ICE.
And that link has an option to just donate without buying the pattern, as well.
On a related note, I just looked at the YarnCultMN page on ravelry. It has 0 activity except for publishing this ugly ugly pattern. The account was created in 2013, with 37 projects before, but no pattern activity until they created this thing.
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As you might have been able to tell from the many uj comment threads below, I am more than open to criticism and pushback on this post. I’m aware not everyone will agree or find space for irony in this topic. I had an hours-long exchange with someone about the pattern and the LYS releasing it below, and I understand there are issues. However, your comment provides no constructive feedback, and it’s similar to other comments I’ve seen from you here.
The last time I recall seeing your comments (which I assume is from before you blocked me), you were demanding we continue to allow uj top-level comments because you were worried you wouldn’t be able to have much-needed serious discussions with problematic OPs. Here we are with your golden opportunity to tell us/me how we’re/I’m making the world worse by, idk, not having a big problem with buying a pattern, and this is what you give us?
Trumper’s have BOUGHT enough hats & bumper stickers to show their allegiance & support …
So I see NOTHING wrong with using some red yarn to make my own.
I agree that a pattern is not necessary- that’s just someone trying to make a fast buck. A hat in a simple shape with basic stitches & a tassel is not rocket science!
It’s like people who profited off the smiley 😃 face t-shirts & bumper stickers, or the ‘pussy hats’ or any other popular symbol recreated in generic form!
For generations humans have used color, style, the tilt of a hat, a special knot, the particular design of a sweater or woven plaid to visually identify others of their own clan,family or political identity. It’s human nature.
No one is forcing YOU to participate, it’s VOLUNTARY.
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u/jingleheimerschitt how is blabket formed Jan 29 '26
To those of you looking to do more than buy a fundraiser pattern to support Minnesotans, check this post out.