EFFORTPOST Knitting Drama

Happy Sunday everyone.

I haven't been around for a while but I wanted to do an effort post while I'm bored on Sunday. I'll take a break from my usual effort posts documeting weird neurodivergent g*mer things and instead focus on a topic that I'm sure all dramatards will enjoy.

Knitting!

You don't have to be a member of !nooticers to know that most of the online knitting-sphere is compromised of

As such any hobby infesting with white women of course it's also obsessed with identify politics, racial grievances and ARE WE DOING ENOUGH? struggle sessions of inclusivity

Interested are you? Well read on!

Let's start with something mild and oversocialized.

https://www.craftyarncouncil.com/blog/diversity-knitting-are-we-any-further-ahead

Over the last 12 months, many in the fibre community

everything is a community these days

have had to step out of their comfort zone to address issues such as lack of diversity, representation and, the elephant in the room: racism.

I'm glad she said racism three times, I just hope she didn't say it in the mirror

As individuals, it's never easy to discuss things that make us feel uncomfortable; it's much easier to let the lure of yarn tempt us back to our happy place so we can carry on with our craft of choice, whether that's knitting or crochet.

Good heavens, imagine if we did our hobby in peace and serenity instead of looking for ways to get offended on the internet #dramanaut problems

Diversity is a tricky word. Why? Because it means different things to different people and it can often be a way for companies to engage in a bland, box ticking exercise.

But if we think in terms of who is missing from the room, then it has more meaning. In order for us not to revert back to ‘business as usual,' we need to be aware of who's not represented, look for whose work isn't seen and take steps to ensure that they're included.

This is a cogent argument that works every time on white women. Thankfully, I am bipoc, and I will not ping that group since it's mostly mayomoids.

It's certainly a positive thing to see issues of diversity and inclusion being openly discussed at an increasing number of fibre events. But sometimes I worry that ‘The D word'

is used by organizations as a means to deflect criticism when one of their events or publications - through lack of inclusion - continues to perpetuate the myth that BIPOC don't knit/crochet/weave/spin/etc.

If people truly believe that black women don't knit, they are remarkably r-slurred and probably haven't interacted with any nubian queens. However, I think the author is doing a griftmaxxing here to imply that if a magazine or e-publication refuses to make their cover look like a college campus advert then it's a heckin erasure and that grinds my gears a bit.

Using it shouldn't be a get out of jail free card.

Queen speaking the truth

Speaking about diversity has to be followed up with positive, mindful action. And, as a fibre community, we should be looking to include the voices of those whose work for far too long has previously been overlooked by events and publications. The main focus should be engaging with them and lifting up their work. It's one of the reasons I agreed to become involved with the Diversity Advisory Council and why I set up BIPOC in Fiber.

Fat Knitters Rise Up!

WARNING: Fat Logic ahead*

https://www.theverge.com/22309480/knitters-plus-size-crowdsourcing-social-media-inclusivity-design

Hopeful crafters pick up knitting for a variety of reasons: to adopt a slow-fashion wardrobe, to keep stress at bay during the pandemic, or to make the clothes they wish existed, controlling the color and fit to their liking. Ravelry, the largest knitting and crochet site, lists over a million designs — there's no shortage of patterns to pick from.

Unless a knitter happens to be plus size.

How do you gatekeep a fatty out of your community?

Keep the doorways slim

People falling outside of straight sizing (generally between extra-small and large)

I'm what you might call a superstraight size

say that even when they want to make their own clothing, their options are limited or they're outright excluded.

Create more patterns for fat people bigot

Krentz's spreadsheet sizing doesn't force knitters to explain why they deserve to wear her sweaters; a person's measurements are just a set of numbers.

Ah yes, if I don't include a 5XL sizing to my knitting design it is forcing you the landwhale to justify your existence and why you deserve to wear my pattern.

“That says something about the choice the designer made,” Krentz said. “Of not wanting someone like me, or not thinking someone like me should or will wear their garment.”

>not wanting someone like me

Don't worry sweaty there are plenty of braphog ranchers around

For the past several years, that question of the imagined audience — of what a knitter is supposed to look like — has swirled and at times exploded in the knitting community. Capping a sweater design at a 46-inch bust (an XL, according to Craft Yarn Council standards) sets a visible and quantitative limit to who can wear that pattern.

When people say raise your standards they mean raise the weight class bigot

But the industry has a way of asserting other assumptions around race, gender, class, and more, issues that are perhaps imperceptible to those who have always felt welcomed in knitting spaces. Knitters say limited size offerings go hand in hand with issues plaguing the craft, often presented as a hobby for white women.

I mean it's primarily a hobby for white women and 2nd generation mayoadjacents. Key word being hobby. To be serious for a moment, plenty of non-yuppy women of various colors have been knitting since ancient egypt they just weren't making a fuss about it since their priorities were on clothing their children instead of woke mayo and POC grifter nonsense.

Narrow size offerings also leave money on the table. Despite the twee, old-timey image prevalent in the general public's imagination, knitting can be an expensive hobby. A skein of yarn from a big box craft store might only cost $5, but hand-dyed and indie-produced fiber popular in the crafting community could run upward of $30 a skein. A knitter like Hicks who might need 10 to 15 skeins for a sweater is looking at a $300 investment, not including the time it takes to knit the garment.

OH NO, people are spending money on their hobbies! Feel bad for them!! J*rnocide when?

(This holds true in traditional retail, too; two-thirds of American women wear size 14 or above.)

JFC

It's an excuse Mere Conatti had heard too many times. Conatti says she started the Instagram page Fat Test Knits out of spite, after two designers told her they hadn't created their pattern in her size because they couldn't find a suitable test knitter. They didn't have any future plans to include Conatti's size, either. “It made me really frustrated,” Conatti said. “I'm thinking, ‘I'm fat and I knit, and I'm telling you I want to give you money.'” Fat Test Knits serves as a bulletin board that connects designers looking to offer a wider range of sizes with test knitters eager to help them.

They say bulletin board but it's not the anonymous one you can troll, it's on instagram.

##Inclusive Knitting and Handwringing

https://www.louisetilbrookdesigns.net/everyday-knitter/2019/1/14/knitting-and-inclusion

This post has been brewing in my mind for little while now. Random thoughts and experiences have swirled around but stubbornly refused to merge into a cohesive piece. I'm still not sure they are fully formed to be honest but now seems as good a time as any to get them out of my head and on to paper. I'm sure I've talked about this before and at length but the statement that “All knitters are lovely” has to be one of the biggest myths around. If you talk to any group of knitters they will invariably say how welcoming and inclusive knitting is as a hobby, but scratch beneath the surface of this well meaning statement you'll invariably find that groups of knitters can be anything but welcoming.

Pretty much everyone can relate to an experience of being shunned by a cliquey Knit Night group for example, or been made to feel they aren't one of the ‘cool kids' on a Ravelry forum. It happens and it happens every day.

!veterans I've been voluntold into many spouses club events and the term "Knit Night" group has never come up. Mostly just :#paint: paint and sip lmao

When people are recommending a group - either in real life or online they invariably say “Oh, everyone there is really lovely”,

That sounds nice

when in reality what they actually mean is “Everyone there is like me”.

oh nevermind DIVERSITY IS OUR STRENGTH DEATH TO ALL HOMOOGENOUS SOCIETIES

In the Everyday Knitter FB group for example, I am known for calling out people when they start a post with “Hey ladies”. The idea that all knitters are automatically women just drives me nuts. And when you (gently) point out that the group has a significant number of men and non binary members, often it is met with anger or defensiveness.

Good morning! I hate hand maidens so much it's unreal.

>Editors note: Thanks to whoever explained the Kazkhstan thing a while ago, my decreipt walnut sized brain was unable to figure out why so many dramascrotes said Good Morning in relation to women

This issue has come to greater prominence in my mind after all the discussions centering around race and white privilege over on Instagram over the last few days. You can read more of the back story here and here. As the discussion unfolded, I like many other people who have benefited from white privilege realised that I had a lot of reading and learning to do.

>Here's the usual apology to the woke mob statement: https://ktslowcloset.com/2019/01/12/words-matter/

Racism and discrimination is as rife in the knitting community as it is the general communities around us

It really isn't.

I genuinely believe that the knitting community can do better and will do better in the future.

It definitely won't get better.

PS I'm not a knitter, so don't go asking me for any esoteric knowledge like my gauge or grading. My cousin is a knitter (She made a nice blanket for my youngest) and she was complaining about knitters last week and wanted to do an effortpost on it so you all could enjoy.

You can read part 2 here: https://rdrama.net/post/252459

Bonus links from Dramamine:

https://www.blockedandreported.org/p/premium-oh-what-a-tangled-web-we

https://www.blockedandreported.org/p/premium-this-is-what-a-modern-day