Since the diversity conversation started in the knitting community earlier this year, I’ve been reading and listening and learning. I’m glad the conversation is happening and want to see it continue – we are never going to be perfect on this issue but we can and should do better.
I’ll be honest, it is hard to feel like I have anything meaningful to contribute to the conversation. I am a privileged white woman. And I am small potatoes in the industry. But I wanted to mention it because it feels weird not to say something.
In late January, I made this Instagram post: “No one has asked me. But just to be clear – I believe in love, inclusion, equality and respect. I’m against hate speech and discrimination of any kind. If you hate people just because they are different from you, know that I do not agree and do not support your position. It is hard for me to find the words, but please know I’m watching and learning as this conversation unfolds. And thinking hard about the words of Maya Angelou, “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” #knitting#inclusion#loveknitting#whatibelieve ”
I absolutely and completely stand by that statement. I want to learn. I want to do better. And I want us all to work and learn together to make sure that our knitting community (and our world in general) is a safe and comfortable place to be for everyone. This can be a very uncomfortable conversation to have and none of us are perfect. We are all ‘works in progress’ and there is really no perfection on this issue. One resource that has been useful to me is this Ravelry thread on racism and inclusion in the yarn community (I didn’t find out about this thread until it had been locked, so I didn’t participate. But I did read through all 34 pages of comments in the thread….I likely missed some important bits because there was so much to take in but I really feel like it was an important conversation). Also, many of my favorite podcasts have done a good job talking about this issue – I’ve heard 2 Knit Lit Chicks, Doubleknit, Knitting Vicariously and the Knitmore Girls each touch on this issue and offer good resources to learn more.
On the one hand, I really feel like I need to speak up and make my views known. I don’t feel like I should opt out of the conversation simply because it is uncomfortable or I don’t have the proper frame of reference to understand it all. On the other hand, I know that not everyone feels comfortable speaking up or wants to be an activist. I don’t feel like it is my place to force anyone else to take part in this conversation. I cannot control anyone else’s actions and have plenty to keep me busy working through my own issues. So, I very much do not want to lean into a guilty-until-proven-innocent mindset but instead want to believe the best of people or companies until I have a concrete reason not to. I don’t want to shame or slam anyone else for making their own choices.
That being said, I do believe that where and how I spend my money absolutely does matter. I believe that I can and should vote with my dollars and that I simply can’t leave beliefs on basic human conditions and politics out. I’ve been thinking about what that means for my design business and what concrete steps I need to take next. For now, I’ve decided that I will pay much more attention to where I submit my designs and which yarns I feature in my self-released patterns going forward. I will be fulfilling all of my already contracted designs, leaving my previous patterns as they are and simply choosing very carefully who I work with going forward.
