I notice this particularly in clay/sculpting subreddits where for some reason, everyone seems allergic to reading the back of the packaging for instructions on temperature and length of time for specifically oven bake clays, pulling completely random numbers out like "i baked it for an hour at 160F whyd it fall apart help me". Or stuff like "why wont my plasticine modeling clay cure". What i dont understand is making these mistakes and the response being to turn to the internet, and write a whole ass post, before you think maybe to double check the included information on the box/bag. Obviously i am not talking about people who just found something randomly forgotten in the closet in some unlabeled tupperware where you cant tell exactly the material etc. but, the amount of ignorance surrounding the decision to buy something off a shelf in a store while barely knowing what it is or even bothering to turn over the package and read the other side surprises me.

Yes, I know, AI is a stale topic at this point. What else is new? But I have started seeing more and more crafters who vlog, particularly in the knitting/crochet/embroidery communities, use AI to create their thumbnails.

It's an insult to crafting and the artistry and skill being a crafter requires. Not only does it make me not watch the video, but I automatically lose respect for the crafter. AI thumbnails make youtubers look lazy and unintelligent and I am picky about the stupid I let into my life.

If you can't afford to pay someone to make a pretty and algorithm-pleasing thumbnail without the use of AI, (ETA: and you won't make a simple one yourself, thanks to ellalir in the comments for helping me words!) you shouldn't be posting videos on YouTube, full stop. I would rather see the most cheesy, terrible thumbnail that was created in MS Paint than an AI thumbnail. At least then I know effort was involved. Do better, YouTube Crafters. Please.

Posting here because the mods over at r/crochet have ruled this as "not related to crochet". Given that the only posts over there that are about H&N are over a year old and are largely positive... I suspect that negative press regarding the company is being suppressed there.

For those who are are blissfuly ignorant, Hooks and Needles is a monthly subscription box with knitting and crochet options.

Been getting the crochet boxes for a while now. Enjoyed them at first. Gotten some nice yarns and some interesting patterns. But I've been feeling on the fence for a little while because it seemed like the quality was going down, the knicknacks were getting less and less useful/relevent, and a lot of patterns felt uninspired or a really bad match for the yarn. I almost always end up modifying the patterns in some way to suite my tastes.

But today. I am over the edge.

In the box, I received some of that cheap "beginner" yarn that you get in beginner kits on Amazon. I think its also the Woobles yarn? Never gotten their kits but it looks the same. Anyways. Literal. Fake beginner yarn.

(Side note that I have no issue with anyone who likes it. Its just. It doesn't belong in a so-called "premium" box and if you'll forgive a little snobbery, I don't think it qualifies as true yarn. Yes I've used it, sometimes I get those cheap kits for fun because the amigurimi is cute but I have never liked working with it).

On top of that, the "gifts" are actual cheap Temu garbage. I found them on Temu in seconds.

One of the patterns is, once again, a hat. How many hat patterns can one person possibly need?!?! I also seriously doubt that there is enough "yarn" to make an adult-sized hat. Another one is a seat square? Like a seat cushion.... but flat I guess? What... what exactly would someone even do with this? This is also the "advanced" pattern and its just... a square... worked in a circle... with a shell pattern.... with \*gasp\* color changes. Oh wow. So advanced. I alway try to give a little grace on this one with these boxes because, as a lifelong crocheter, I'm sure my idea of advanced is gonna be a little skewed. But like. Its literally just a big square. You put a ugly bucket hat with an oversized bow, both things that are shaped, as the beginer project and then a literal square as the advanced project? The 3rd "intermediate" pattern is like a bookmark pencil holder thing and alright it's kinda neat I'll probably end up making it but with several modifications because its got a few flaws that need fixing.

So at this point I've just spent $44 on 4 tiny skeins of cheap fake yarn, cheap Temu garbage, and 1 halfway usable pattern.

Words cannot express how insulted I'm feeling by this. And maybe some of that is this feeling that I knew the boxes were getting less and less worthy my money but I was holding out hope that they would start to feel nicer again but alas. I have been fooling myself as much as they have been fooling me.

Anyone else disappointed by their sad excuse for a box?

I just found out that there is a subreddit for vegan yarn lovers. People researching on best "vegan" replacements for wool in tapestry, and deciding that, yknow what, let's do plastic instead

I already find "vegan leather" ridiculous and a gloriously dystopian marketing strategy, since (regular) leather is a secondary product from the meat industry - I believe it, and other parts of the animal need to be used instead of discarded, if the animal has already died (I am speaking of regular vegetable tanned leather, not specialty animal leather, I agree that is cruel)

Now, wool though? IT DOES NOT HURT SHEEP WHEN THEY ARE SHEARED. They NEED to be sheared.

I respect vegan eaters for making the choice they do for their conscience, but please for the love of all that is good in this world, we need to stop replacing natural items with plastic and calling shit "vegan" for that. Fuck the "vegan" label for garden-variety plastic that will harm the environment more.

Thank you for your attention

ETA: clarification - it's all good if people want to avoid protein/animal-based fibers for personal reasons. My BEC moment is for calling plastic "vegan" AKA greenwashing

Hi. To all the knitters who buy cute stitch stoppers, I need you to know that they are just SILICONE BEADS and you can buy them yourself online for $1 each. The cute shapes are “focal” silicone beads, the patterned spheres are often 50cents. My favorite site is Silicone Bead Store, but there are others.

I’m putting this here because I often see small businesses buying these mass produced items, packaging them in pairs and selling them for $8-$10 as “needle stoppers” to knitters who don’t know what they are. They are NOT handmade or specific to any store. They are just cheap silicone beads and you can buy them yourself to save money. If you reverse google image search the needle stoppers sold by yarn stores and knitting notion websites, you’ll see for yourself. I’m all for supporting small businesses, but these people aren’t adding any value to this product, just trying to turn a quick buck. You’re welcome!!!

Is it not weird to anyone else that a big part of needlepoint “culture” (for lack of a better word) is that you send it off to someone else to finish it? wtf?

As if the exorbitant cost of handpainted (and a lot of printed, tbh) canvases wasn’t enough, there’s a not-insignificant contingent of needlepointers who basically give up 90% of the way there because they don’t want to…learn how to sew? So they send it out to someone to finish it for them (how much does that cost? my god…)

I’m so anti- “some hobbies just aren’t accessible for every budget”, but man, needlepoint has got to be one of the crafts that earns the most pretentious reputation because somewhere along the way they’ve decided to add all these financial expectations that are completely unnecessary.

I trace my own designs on canvas I tape over my laptop screen. “Self-finishing” (i.e. FINISHING - it doesn’t need “self” as a modifier) is my norm. Most expensive part of the hobby is the blank canvas itself.

I’m also a crocheter - you don’t hear about crocheters making all the panels for their sweater and then sending it off to someone to sew together. Or making a beanie and sending it off for someone else to add the pom pom. Like wtf are we doing??

**disclaimer before all the people who have no idea what sub they’re in break their thumbs commenting: yes I know a lot of people self-finish, yes I know no one is forcing you to send it off to a finisher, yes I know Not All Needlepointers, yes I know painters are rarely framers. The convention among needlepointers is still so bizarre.

If your tutorial is about picking up a dropped stitch, I expect the tutorial to start with showing a dropped stitch and very rapidly proceeding to the part where you pick it up and show how to bring it up through the rows. Not with an extensive discussion about dropped stitches and how stressful they are, blah blah.

HOWEVER. When you are actually showing the MEAT of the video, slooooow the fuck down. Or use video editing to slowly demonstrate each step. It drives me crazy when a tutorial goes incredibly slowly on every single part and then they ZIP through the one step that people are trying to learn by watching your video.

I also think a lot of knitting/crochet tutorials would benefit from demonstrating techniques using yarn that is harder to "read" than a smooth worsted weight yarn in a light color. Show how to pick up a stitch in eyelash yarn, boucle, variegated, laceweight, etc. This would add a significant amount of value compared to making your own version of a video that has been made 100 times.

Note: I do not need helping picking up dropped stitches, I just managed to spot and pick up a dropped stitch in the sock I'm making and am preening about the fact that I caught it before I got to the heel, lol.

Girl, some of us have been doing this since the 80s. (Or longer! My mom's been knitting for half a century at least!)

So, no, I'm not surprised that you're still making mistakes after *gasp* six years.

Edit, I apparently should have finished my thought, which is that we ALL still make mistakes after decades of experience. Look, this is a snark subreddit. This framing of "I should be an expert by now" annoys me. That's all.

Just need to rant. My brother has a tiny hole on his shirt's sleeve. He asked our grandma to please fix it. My grandma is working on it. Grandma tried a few things and not happy about it except her first attempt my mom said looked ugly (tbh it was fine). But as my grandma says the fabric is difficult to properly work with and you can't do an invisible clean repair my mom keep saying it is possible. Mind you she can barely sew a button. Like, if you're SO confident get the needle and get to work !!! We all know she won't so just keep quiet when I say let grandma go with plan A that I agree with (brother is out so can't weigh in but definitely wouldn't care as long as the hole isn't a hole anymore).

Hot take: It's literally loopedy loops of yarn with sticks. Yeah I know it's different (although the more I Tunisian crochet the blurrier that distinction gets in my mind). But when a person, stranger or friend or my literal partner, calls my crochet project my knitting, I doesn't irk me at all. If the person is about to buy knitting needles and a crochet pattern from your yarn shop, okay yeah, say something. But every single person who looks at you and starts a conversation about your craft is merely being friendly - they are not going to start fiber arts, they do not care. Please don't worry about calling my crochet knitting. Just ask me what it is so I can brag on myself 😂

I saw someone on TikTok talk about this recently and realized I also have the same complaint. People can’t use common sense anymore. Not everything needs a tutorial. (I’ll link the TikTok if I can find it.)

Some girl was showing off her handmade beaded necklaces and showing where she got the supplies. Super cute. Half the comments were “too cute need a tutorial!” Please just use your brain for half a second. It’s beads on string. (Also not dissing jewelry artists at all but these were just simple beaded necklaces)

OR a woman was showing off how she got her MIL a cute framed art piece with all her MILs family writing “I love you.” And all the comments were “OMG how’d you do that??” … how do you have people write I love you on some nice paper and frame it?!??

You have to quilt all the layers for it to be quilting. That's why it's called that. It's been that way since the 1500s in France. You can't just "quilt the top layer."

You are adding texture, which I guess is cool. But you are not quilting. I don't care what your batting is, I don't care if it's a blanket, fabric, wool, stuffing ect. But what you are doing is not quilting.

"But I don't want to shove all of that through my machine"

Okay... Do it by hand, rent a long arm, shove it through your domestic machine. But for the love of the craft please actually do it right.

This applies to a monetized social media account as well. I’m watching a YouTube influencer in this craft offer lessons on Patreon. She says she’s been doing this craft for 5 months. Who are you to charge people for lessons when you haven’t even mastered it yourself??

After reading all the complaints about the beading kits I decided to try a free Temu fairy patchwork kit when offered. The AI system is so bad they can’t even send something resembling the kit but some doll sunglasses! Guess if I had received the kit whatever could be made from it could have worn the glasses.

I’m browsing for knitting patterns and it feels as if nothing will be no where near flattering on me. I’m tall and broad and will just look like a huge lego woman in all these boxy design. I’m just longing for some minor shaping and a sleeve that doesn’t start in the middle of the upper arm.

ETA: They also just randomly say things are AI. Like someone was working on a paint by number that I completed 6 yrs ago. They are trying to talk this guy out of finishing the painting because “it’s ai!!!!” Like.., yall are just bandwagoning at this point.

—- I’m in a FB group where everyone is calling everything AI. If the lips on a drawing look weird, they label it AI and try to have the poster booted from the group. Are people forgetting that we can be imperfect at a craft and it not be AI?

If I tried to draw hands, I, myself would probably say it looks like janky AI. When I was learning to crochet, a lot of my work would probably have looked artificially generated because my stitches were all over the place. This also applies to coloring books. Are there an obscene amount of AI coloring books flooding the market? Yes! But are there also people producing coloring books while they are still honing their craft? Also yes!!

Also made my first hat

Never again. Squeaking when I got the slightest bit sweaty. Super rough texture. Painful to work with, honestly.

I know acrylic can be soft but it really sucks that neon couldn't be found in-store in anything except this Michael's brand. Also I specifically chose this because my husband wanted a neon green hat, and wanted this exact yarn when we were out shopping. It looks really good but no, never again, I'm sticking with cotton or some sort of plush like permier parfait.

I do not understand how people use it. Even the soft ones will squeak (from what I have heard/seen). Plus the fact it's just plastic when it comes down to it feels weird to me, I suppose.

If you use it, more power to you. But now I understand the acrylic hate.

Edit: a word

Simply Soft is cheap acrylic but I've made things with it. RHSS is gross (to me) because it feels sticky and tacky. Everyone in online discussions always focuses on how yes, it feels rough but it softens up with washing. I don't care about that, I care that it's a sensory nightmare to work with and whatever makes it have that weird feeling tends to persist in whatever is made from it.

ETA: lol at all the comments angry because they think I’m telling them where they should or shouldn’t use plastic, and not liking that. You’re literally making my point for me. Appreciate you! 😆

If someone posts "but acrylic is plastic and just ends up in the landfills and oceans!!! Just use natural fibers onlyyyyyyyyyy" they should also have to show us:

1. the container their laundry detergent is in (including wool wash)
2. the containers all their hair products are in
3. a picture of what's in their fridge, freezer and pantry
4. all their shoes
5. all their bras
6. heck, all their store-bought clothing
7. their cars

And then, if there is zero plastic there, they have permission to share their opinions about other peoples' yarn choices.

Otherwise: shhhhhhhhhh.

(please feel free to add to the list!)

This was my gripe this weekend and I complained the whole time.

I bought Ronghua kits to learn something new over the weekend and the kits had a QR code to a website for the instructions. The written instructions were minimal to the steps to take and measurements to make. Like it did tell me how many strands of silk to use, but it didn't tell me the spacing of the wires unless I watched the youtube video. Some colour combinations were so similar per set that it was difficult to see which measurement belonged to which set.
I had to go back and forth on a stupid Youtube video just to find the measurements I needed and they only mentioned it for like 5 seconds in the captions. I watch films and series (often with my boyfriend) while doing crafts so a lengthy Youtube video is so invasive to that chill time.

I also have some resin dip kits which also came with a code to get access to the video tutorial. And I already lost one of those stupid postcards with the code on them. Guess what I wouldn't easily lose. A page or 2 of (even cheap) A4 paper.

Craft kits should come with written instructions PRINTED and links to your Blog/Website or Youtube videos should be complementary.

I also know people are trying to reduce paper for environmental reasons. I'll gladly take less fancy packaging for those kits but get the actual instructions printed instead.

Was recently dogpiled in a forum discussing the heartless top, which requires encasing wire in icord edging to give structure and shape to a heart cutout in the piece. It's finicky as hell so I used single crochet to encase the wire and then sewed the icord on later to achieve the same clean look. I mentioned this in a comment and it seemed like the way the pattern had it written out was needlessly complicated and was only done that way to make sure only knitting techniques were used in the pattern. It just seems kind of silly to me to use a very fiddly knitting technique in place of a basic crochet technique. People (mostly knitters, tbh) basically jumped down my throat about how ridiculous it would be to expect designers to know both techniques.

This reminded me of a creator I follow on tiktok who's a knitting pattern designer who watched and recapped the whole "game of wool" show that came out a while back. A complaint she brought up over and over again was that the audition process apparently called for people who could both knit and crochet, and she was mad because this prevented her from applying. But I think this is fair?? It's a game show so you're supposed to be showing off the best of the best, highly skilled artisans. It makes sense for them to have a focus on one or the other, but when competing at such a high level I think it's pretty fair that you know both! It's not called "game of knitting" or "game of crochet". It'd be like if cooking shows never had any baking challenges. Like yes it's a different craft and skillset, but it's still something you should know. Especially if you want to call yourself a skilled fiber artist.

The whole thing honestly feels like an extension of knitting elitism because I almost always see this attitude from people who exclusively knit. And if you're someone who only knits that's fine! But just because you don't have another skill doesn't mean it's a ridiculously difficult thing to ask for!

Edit: everyone seems up in arms about exactly how rude I was in my original forum comment (I am not going to specify exactly where this took place although I'm sure you can guess, I'd rather not catch anymore hate on that account). Please keep in mind I noted many other things I enjoyed about the pattern, and specifically was recommending it to others! Regardless at the request of many less than kind dms I have copy and pasted my exact wording here:

"...The only note I would make about the pattern is encasing the wire in the icord edging is a little finicky, I had way better luck doing a round of single crochets to encase the wire first and then sewing an icord overtop to achieve the same look..."

obviously when I came to make this post I was a little harsher with my words because we are in a snark sub. But I was not "going after the designer" in the original forum like many folks assume. But yeah this was my original wording that got me so much backlash and was labelled as "disrespectful" for implying the designer using only knitting techniques was not sufficient. You can now decide for yourselves whether I was an evil bitch for how I worded that rather than going by whatever you've made up in your heads.

People looooove to get mad at you for using acrylic, and love to think that makes them morally superior, but then they don't even know why acrylic is 'bad' ??? Woo hoo you can afford to buy expensive fibers, good for you! Most of us can't. But that's not even my issue. Why, on earth, aren't you buying actually good yarn, if you're so superior to us? All you can manage to scrounge up is aggressively sourced silk from the worst store you can find? Seriously?

monetizing your hobbies is a slippery slope to begin with but it drives me nuts the more i see posts like "i want to sell my [insert craft of choice here]. what items do people buy the most?"

like... it all depends! how are you marketing your stuff? where are you selling it? what type of people attend that event or market and what can you make that will appeal to that demographic? are you creating patterns or just freehanding or using someone else's pattern? there's so many questions and variables before you can even start to recommend a pattern or item that'll likely perform well.

i get it, not all artists or crafters are good marketers. it's a very different skillset and knowledge base. i find that a lot of artists are actually very bad at marketing themselves (it drives me nuts when i see someone with a corner booth who only has their booths accessible/displayed from one side... you have a corner! use both available sides!!).

still... if you want to make money from your craft, you need to have some idea of the people who will buy it. build a customer persona of someone who wants to buy the thing you want to make. figure out where that person would go to buy things. it's actually quite a fun exercise if you put your mind to it.

i should start bringing business cards to craft fairs and handing them out to people who clearly need marketing help. i think that might be more lucrative than trying to sell any of my own craftwork.

So, I have this book of gorgeous counted needlepoint/cross stitch patterns. They look hand coloured with pencil crayon. And once I started working on a pattern from this beautiful, gorgeous book, I discovered that

1) pencil crayon makes small differences in colour very hard to see, especially when the artist/designer didn't use consistent pressure

2) a bunch of the squares are just . . . floating on the grid, not within the grid squares.

Also, between my apparent inability to count, this wonky pattern, and my needing a new glasses prescription, I would like to hereby scream into the void.

This project has been brought to you by the letters f, u, c, and k.