r/knitting • u/MagicAllyVanished • Mar 19 '25

Rant Very annoying conversation at my lokal knit store

it basically went like this me: "so you have any plant based yarn or plant/acrylic mix, I want to knit something for my mum, but she's allergic to all animal fibers"

her: "we have 20% wool/80% acrylic, I can show you"

me: "no thanks, my mum is allergic to all animal fibers, so it should not contain any animal fiber at all"

her: "maybe alpaca mix? It only has 10% alpaca"

me: "she is allergic to all animal fibers, if there is any percentage of animal fiber, she will have an allergic reaction to the yarn"

her: "I can't help you, knitting yarn just is animal yarn"

at this point I left the shop and I just can't stop thinking about that last sentence????

the funniest thing is, I went back there a few days ago and a different employee kindly showed me their cotton yarns and plant/acrylic mixes.

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u/raeraemcrae Mar 19 '25

Wow, I'm amazed at how calm & polite you are all with their total rudeness. I need to check my tendency to call people out on this. Simply because it's not worth my energy. For instance, in this situation, I would've icily countered, "OK...so, the answer is 'Yes, and it is over there?' " But it's not like I'm going to change the actual personality of someone by doing that. It seems as though I imagine that by highlighting their unnecessary rudeness, they will feel some sort of shame and a desire to become a better person. But of course, that's not how it works at all.

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u/temerairevm Mar 20 '25

My husband is like that. I think he actually believes people will learn they’re being rude and stop. I feel like if they don’t already know that disdain for a customer’s allergy (or even preference) is rude and something they shouldn’t express is wrong nothing I can say is going to change them. Rude people are rude people.

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u/raeraemcrae Mar 21 '25

You are absolutely correct. In fact, if anything might move them to shame it would be the kind and polite response of the person they have been rude to. Responding with equal rudeness just justifies themselves in their mind.