• Patterns

    Why these yarns for the Coloring Book Tee?

    One of the things I see a lot in our knitting community online is anxiety over ethical purchases. We put ourselves through “no buys” with mindsets borrowed from diet culture, periods of compulsive purchasing, and acquire stash that can often grow out of control. And while yarn purchasing is a matter that is deeply colored by financial privilege, location, and access, I think all of us could do with some deprogramming to unlearn that language of diet culture.  And by the way, I really strongly believe that you…

  • Knit Diverse

    Being bad at capitalism from a business perspective.

    When I first started my knitting design business, it was to support my friend Jen at 626 Yarn and her Thai Iced Tea gradient sock set. We ended up raising funds to donate towards organizations that supported Asians and Asian Americans, during a time of rising hate crime against us.  To be honest, as new businesses it doesn’t make very much financial sense to donate huge chunks of income. And yet, we have continually made choices which in any reasonable capitalist society would be called “bad business.” At…

  • Knit Diverse

    6 ways to measure environmental impact by fiber.

    Disclaimer: If you’re new here, don’t forget to read the previous posts in this series for context. We don’t do yarn snobbery here so please do not take any information from my work to go and be a rude jerk to other people. Everyone here is a beloved member of this community and this work is for those who are able to financially, medically, and mentally have the space to try to make these choices in a more targeted way. Last time, I wrote about how the relative…

  • Knit Diverse

    Choosing fibers that align with your values AND project

    processes, but not life cycle assessments to show how a sustainable knitting life really would look like. This is a capitalist viewpoint and many times conversations about sustainability are steeped in racism, classism, and is generally exclusive. This is an attempt at giving a more well rounded overview into changing our knitting habits to be more sustainable.

  • Knit Diverse

    Does this yarn company align with my values?

    Disclaimer: Before you go on, please make sure you have read part 1 of the yarn values series so you’re not using this knowledge to be a yarn snob and judge other people. Additionally, I know some of you reading will think this is too much work to put into researching a yarn company and you don’t want to. That’s totally fine. This post is for those who do want to evaluate yarn purchases against their world views and values. Additionally, please note that your values may not be…