"What will you fight for?"- (MAY 21, 2020 Patreon Archive)

I wrote this post on Instagram summer of last year, 2019.

As the pandemic has touched everyone in so many ways, livelihoods, lives, I come back to these words I wrote in the fiber industry's responses to a multitude of situations, "What will you fight for?"

Big corporations likes Michael's, Vogue Knitting, Joann Fabrics are still mostly functioning as usual. Business is hurting but not as much as others much smaller. (Michael's is a $5 billion company, Vogue Knitting and all Vogue publications are owned by Conde Nast, generating over $1 billion in revenue, Joann Fabrics generates over $2 billion). I feel in talking about industry leaders, big corporations like these, they do hold a lot of power. While their products are financially accessible, we have to wonder how they have exploited people, currently or in the past, to make their products and run their business. While there is nothing wrong with acrylic or acrylic blend yarns, they are, at it's core, a synthetic fiber and manufacturing synthetic fibers have consequences to the environment. I have no solutions here at the moment but it's something we should examine and as someone who is part of the industry and a consumer, we need to consider options that do not hurt living beings, humans and the earth. Solutions can also always be evolving. 

But I'm really revisiting this post to talk more about what might be considered the "indie" fiber community, independent pattern designers, indie yarn dyers, etc. At this point, if you're following my work, you will know about the "big awakening" that surrounded the "knitting community" in conversations about racism and inclusion. I won't go into the history of how 2019 went down in terms of how businesses and individuals acted and ultimately failed in showing their true colors in their false statement of "all are welcomed". I want to talk about how businesses and individuals have slowly shown back up, like nothing had happened, no accountability, and the general public seem to be okay with it. There is definitely some grace and compassion in doing the work. At some point though you have to consider if yourself and others are doing enough and I will say, some people are not doing enough. What I won't do anymore, because I'm really tired monitoring who did what, who said what, and at some point that becomes more exhausting than beneficial to the causes we are fighting for. So here I am doing something else about it.

I stated that the industry will crumble, will not thrive, if the work isn't done. This small maker and crafting industry is lacking in a code of conduct, ethical practices, and education of the world around them so the industry progresses with society, so the industry can keep making money. I've been thinking a lot about what this looks like. How can we be good and do good, and make it profitable to those who do the work? How do we sustain a business without relying on capitalism and consumerism? What does that business model look like and what does it entail? Again, no answers yet, but it is important to consider, and for me, something to be striving for so that my work is aligned with my values.

I posed these questions in this IG post and they still very much apply:

1. Designers, yarn dyers, yarn stores, any business, that earns their income solely from this industry, what will it take for you to fight for human lives and livelihood while BIPOC and "allies"  are putting their bodies, mental health, their incomes, on the line, to make this “community” better,  to move this industry forward?

2. Industry professionals, stop hiring problematic people. You need to fully vet every teacher, speaker, vendor at every show online and offline. You need to hold your potential clients and customers accountable. Check your contracts and rewrite them.

3. If you are making any income or profit from selling or marketing online, you and your business is part of the internet. You cannot be one thing online and another offline. If you think otherwise, you are naive and you are not a professional in any industry. If you can’t handle being held accountable, hire someone. Their are professionals for social media. 

4. What more excuses do you have? Gather your industry peers, come up with an action plan to move forward as a whole. This industry and your livelihood depend on it. 

I might not be working in this industry full time but I have slowly seen my influence in it and it's part of why I created this Patreon page and realizing this goal I have. I do want to be part of the change and not the problem. In the most cliche way, I want to be the leader we want. I see potential in what the industry can become and I'm not going to sit around waiting for it to happen. I can't anymore because it's too important. While progress can be slow, I think it's worth the brief time I have living on earth because life is too short to just be okay with how things are and admitting defeat to the evils we are trying to fight.