1 00:00:00,000 --> 00:00:05,360 I'm Drea. I'm Meg. I'm Tina. And I'm Jess. And this is Pardon My Stash. 2 00:00:12,800 --> 00:00:17,040 Welcome to Pardon My Stash, a podcast about knitting, the fiber arts as a whole, and how 3 00:00:17,040 --> 00:00:23,760 awesome it is. Before we get into today's topic, let's talk about what we're working on this week. 4 00:00:23,760 --> 00:00:32,960 Jess, what are you working on? So I'm working on my Pardon My Stash, make along, tea cozy, 5 00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:40,000 thingamajigger, which is from Yarnspirations. And it's just the knit flower basket tea cozy. 6 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:44,480 And I've kind of gone off the rails with it a little bit because I am totally not doing it in 7 00:00:44,480 --> 00:00:49,360 the yarn or the gauge or anything like that. I basically took the pattern and I am going. 8 00:00:49,360 --> 00:00:54,480 But it's for a tinier teapot and it needed needed a tinier thing. 9 00:00:54,480 --> 00:01:01,200 Wing it like everything in your life. I'm winging it. And it's pretty cute. So I have 10 00:01:01,200 --> 00:01:07,040 one half done. I'm almost done with the basket part of the other half. 11 00:01:08,880 --> 00:01:13,200 Which is pretty fast considering you only work on it. I only work on it when we're recording. 12 00:01:13,200 --> 00:01:20,000 So and then I have my other projects for all the time. So so it's working out. But yeah, 13 00:01:20,000 --> 00:01:25,520 so it's coming along. I'm like, you know, almost halfway done with it. And I'm looking forward to 14 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:30,480 getting to the knit flowers, because those are going to be super cute from critical hit dies. 15 00:01:30,480 --> 00:01:34,800 And I'm pretty sure this one is a Barrett and I have red tail going on. And I don't know what 16 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:40,800 the flowers are going to be in. It's whatever I grab out of the bag. Excellent. Tina. 17 00:01:40,800 --> 00:01:50,800 I am plugging away at my Engel sweater. It is going along. I haven't knit too much, actually, 18 00:01:50,800 --> 00:01:57,920 since we last chatted. But which actually was fairly recently. But because we had an odd week 19 00:01:57,920 --> 00:02:06,640 last week. Thanks, air quality. But but yeah, I'm just kind of I've been stuck in the half inch 20 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:14,720 mark of the body. Feel like for too long. I'll get there. I swear I will. You will. How it be 21 00:02:14,720 --> 00:02:21,520 sometimes. Yeah. And I still I have the pattern picked out for the make along. So I think at 22 00:02:21,520 --> 00:02:29,360 some point I might switch over to that. The brioche hat I was making, I think is turning into a cowl. 23 00:02:29,360 --> 00:02:37,600 I don't know what happened. It got you. What the heck? I'm looking at it. I'm like, this is a 24 00:02:37,600 --> 00:02:43,440 really floppy hat. You know what? It's too big even for your head. Oh, wow. She's got a big head. 25 00:02:44,240 --> 00:02:48,880 I didn't take that as an insult. No, I know. Drea's head to my head in circumference is 26 00:02:48,880 --> 00:02:54,560 quite the difference. Also, I have a very tiny head. You do. Yeah. So I like, for example, 27 00:02:54,560 --> 00:03:02,080 I was making I made a hat on my Addy King and I bound it off. I'm like, oh, this is way too tight. 28 00:03:02,080 --> 00:03:05,920 Who makes hats like this? And I give it to Drea and it like fits perfect. It was like room. There 29 00:03:05,920 --> 00:03:11,200 was like room for her to put a hand. Yeah. And me it was like, I'm like, this is okay. It's a good 30 00:03:11,200 --> 00:03:21,040 hat. It's Yeah, at least I know will fit someone. It won't fit me. But I'm using a string NYC 31 00:03:21,040 --> 00:03:29,840 Dolcetto Decay in gray, dark gray and red. Excellent. Drea? Camichal by Isabelle Kramer, 32 00:03:29,840 --> 00:03:38,960 Faded Jeans. Jeans. I thought you were just gonna say jeans. Silver Moon Fiber Arts. That sounds 33 00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:47,840 right. Yeah, that sounds right. Feels right. And jeans. Faded jeans. Beautiful. Meg? I just split 34 00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:54,720 for the sleeves today on my Calliope sweater. That is so good. Look at the halo on that. Like, 35 00:03:54,720 --> 00:04:01,920 it is so good. I love it. First of all, that came up very fast. Yeah. It's listen, I've never knit 36 00:04:01,920 --> 00:04:07,200 a sweater out of Decay before. This is like lightning compared to knitting a fingering weight 37 00:04:07,200 --> 00:04:11,680 sweater. I'm looking at your mine is supposed to be Decay. I'm looking at yours and I'm looking at 38 00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:19,200 mine and like mine looks like fingering compared to yours. Well, it's a Decay held with a mohair. 39 00:04:19,200 --> 00:04:23,920 That's true. Yeah. So it's a little bit bigger than a Decay. Yeah. No, I'm like, yeah, that's okay. 40 00:04:23,920 --> 00:04:29,440 Because yeah. No, this looks like the same thick as your solid yarn. I'm just okay. Never mind. 41 00:04:29,440 --> 00:04:35,440 Yeah. I'm sitting there like, wow, I'm small. No, it knits up really, really, really fast. 42 00:04:35,440 --> 00:04:45,520 I've also been like pretty project monogamous for the last three weeks. So I know, I know it's been. 43 00:04:45,520 --> 00:04:50,160 So I did pick out what I'm going to knit for the make along. So I'm probably going to start that 44 00:04:50,160 --> 00:04:57,760 pretty soon. But on a whole, I haven't picked up anything else but this in a few weeks. So I've 45 00:04:57,760 --> 00:05:01,280 just been knitting round and round. This is what I needed right now. I just needed something that 46 00:05:01,280 --> 00:05:06,640 was tactile and easy. That was kind of where my brain was at. So that's why it's been going so 47 00:05:06,640 --> 00:05:12,960 fast. But anyway, it's Kaliope by Melissa Clullo. It's all over the internet lately. Yarn Harlot 48 00:05:12,960 --> 00:05:18,880 made one a few weeks ago. So a lot of people are knitting them. I've been noticing. Perfect time. 49 00:05:18,880 --> 00:05:26,800 Yeah. And I'm knitting it out of Critical Hit Dyes, Wizard and Mystic held together. And both 50 00:05:26,800 --> 00:05:32,160 of them are in the colorway etherealness. Be sure to check out our website, PardonMyStash.com for 51 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:36,800 more information as well as pictures regarding our current projects, patterns and yarns. 52 00:05:40,000 --> 00:05:43,440 So for our topic tonight, we're going to get a little bit serious. Something we never do 53 00:05:44,320 --> 00:05:49,040 on this. Super serious. On this podcast. What's the word I'm thinking of? I'm feeling super serious today. 54 00:05:49,040 --> 00:05:57,600 Super serious. We're going to talk a little bit about the state of the... Union. Crafting 55 00:05:57,600 --> 00:06:02,400 world in general. We're not doing the state of the union. We're being serious, Strea. 56 00:06:03,680 --> 00:06:07,840 I mean, the state of the union would be pretty serious, but I am not the president, 57 00:06:07,840 --> 00:06:12,560 nor do I want to be. Fair. I don't think anyone at this table wants to be. Agreed. Let's move on. 58 00:06:12,560 --> 00:06:22,080 So the least enviable job in the world. So state of the crafting world on a whole. Talk about 59 00:06:23,280 --> 00:06:29,520 kind of where things are at, because there's been a lot of talk lately on social media about, 60 00:06:30,480 --> 00:06:36,800 you know, what's going on with designers, indie dyers, small businesses in the fiber arts all 61 00:06:36,800 --> 00:06:44,400 together. And, you know, we had the unfortunate incident with the closure of stitches about a 62 00:06:44,400 --> 00:06:53,200 month ago and how that impacted a lot of teachers, indie dyers, craftspeople in general. We want to 63 00:06:53,200 --> 00:06:59,120 talk a little bit today about, you know, what we have seen, what's been going on, kind of noticing 64 00:06:59,120 --> 00:07:07,600 a puzzling, not puzzling, but more disturbing trend. And maybe what we as fellow fiber artists can 65 00:07:08,560 --> 00:07:15,360 do to try and help. Well, what's happening? At least from my perspective, I have seen a lot of 66 00:07:15,360 --> 00:07:22,160 people just kind of calling it quits, not with the fiber arts, but with the consumeristic side of the 67 00:07:22,160 --> 00:07:29,680 fiber arts. There's a lot of knitters that are pattern designers that are retiring, quote unquote, 68 00:07:29,680 --> 00:07:37,040 from doing any further designing. There's indie dye shops that are just done. Like, they're just, 69 00:07:37,040 --> 00:07:43,680 okay, that's it. Like, they might be doing a fiber arts venture, but it's no longer in the indie dye 70 00:07:43,680 --> 00:07:48,160 space, nor are they going to be selling to the general public. And then there's just this kind 71 00:07:48,160 --> 00:07:57,520 of collective, like, exhaustion with the idea of peddling, as I like to put it, your wares. 72 00:07:57,520 --> 00:08:08,960 Because, like, what happened, guys? Once upon a time, land far away. You know, like, fiber arts, 73 00:08:10,160 --> 00:08:15,440 and kind of honestly, a skill that you could do with your hand. I'm talking about, like, the trades, 74 00:08:15,440 --> 00:08:20,640 I'm talking about the crafts in general, any kind of crafts. There was like this time where people 75 00:08:20,640 --> 00:08:28,720 would like look at craftsmen or women and go, wow, what a skill. I will pay many, many dollars for 76 00:08:28,720 --> 00:08:35,920 that skill, because that is a very tough thing to do. And I appreciate the work and time that has 77 00:08:35,920 --> 00:08:42,000 gone into that. Yeah, but I can just go to like a big box store and I can buy the same thing for, 78 00:08:42,000 --> 00:08:47,760 you know, $15. Correct. So why am I going to pay you? Correct. And that's honestly the problem, 79 00:08:47,760 --> 00:08:57,840 is that you have this kind of reduction of the quality of craftsmanship in general, because it's 80 00:08:57,840 --> 00:09:05,360 all getting pumped out. And I think there's, and as we all know, as fiber artists, there is this 81 00:09:05,360 --> 00:09:12,320 misconception of that, especially crochet, that that is just, oh yeah, just thrown on a machine. 82 00:09:13,440 --> 00:09:20,560 Sir or Madame, that is not from a machine. What you were buying, if you're buying something crochet 83 00:09:20,560 --> 00:09:26,880 from some big box store is usually from someone getting severely underpaid for their work, 84 00:09:26,880 --> 00:09:34,800 for like pennies on the hour for their time. And it's just furthering this kind of distinction of 85 00:09:36,960 --> 00:09:43,360 poverty within the folks that have those kinds of skills, because it's just not valued. 86 00:09:43,360 --> 00:09:49,440 And it's interesting because it's causing disruptions with a lot of different things. One 87 00:09:49,440 --> 00:09:54,560 is that if you are selling your wares, you're just, you have the people that are just tired of it, 88 00:09:54,560 --> 00:10:00,240 like, no, I'm not going to reduce my prices. And it's not worth it anymore, because you're not 89 00:10:00,240 --> 00:10:05,120 going to buy it for the price that it's worth. So, you know, that you see an issue, so we're just 90 00:10:05,120 --> 00:10:13,840 selling them, you know, just by themselves is the fact that you, it has created this idea that it 91 00:10:13,840 --> 00:10:22,320 takes an actual artist that doesn't own a factory and a big machine that does it, that it takes them 92 00:10:22,320 --> 00:10:29,680 the same amount of time for the same amount of cost. And there's this disconnect now between the 93 00:10:29,680 --> 00:10:35,920 consumer and the seller of these things, thinking that it's all made the same exact way. And that, 94 00:10:36,240 --> 00:10:42,640 I think, is the issue is that I feel like it's not everywhere. Obviously, you still have people that 95 00:10:42,640 --> 00:10:46,480 know and understand what goes into a craft, but you get a lot of people that kind of like, 96 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:53,120 that disappears and there's just the magic of the store where they don't even think about 97 00:10:53,120 --> 00:10:59,440 how the production actually happens or how it's actually made, which I mean, even if you're 98 00:10:59,440 --> 00:11:03,520 looking at the factory things, it's kind of interesting and like super like, so check that 99 00:11:03,520 --> 00:11:08,400 out. But they don't think about that. It's just, nope, I walk into the store, I pick it up and, 100 00:11:08,400 --> 00:11:14,400 you know what, if I complain about the price, they'll try and barter with me down. And 101 00:11:14,400 --> 00:11:20,720 that's not necessarily the case anymore. And some of that too, you're seeing that is rounding about, 102 00:11:20,720 --> 00:11:28,160 you're seeing a lot of platforms that people are using to sell are starting to side more with the 103 00:11:28,160 --> 00:11:35,360 consumer than the seller, which in some cases, yes, that can be good, but it's to a point now where 104 00:11:36,000 --> 00:11:41,680 there are consumers that abuse it. And like Etsy is a bit having a big blowout right now because 105 00:11:41,680 --> 00:11:46,080 someone can just say, Hey, I didn't get this. And instead of actually looking into it, they're like, 106 00:11:46,080 --> 00:11:52,960 okay, we'll refund you. And now the person has the product, the cash and the seller is now out, 107 00:11:53,520 --> 00:11:59,040 all of that. And you're seeing, I'm seeing a lot of sellers saying they're leaving Etsy because of 108 00:11:59,040 --> 00:12:04,080 this, because they're, they're losing money. They're, they're literally going bankrupt because 109 00:12:04,080 --> 00:12:11,600 of charge backs. The best part of Etsy that is killing me right now is that there's, there's tip 110 00:12:11,600 --> 00:12:18,880 videos on how you can let someone know that they're buying a $5 pattern, not a $5 sweater. Yeah. 111 00:12:20,000 --> 00:12:26,560 Like there's people that legitimately buy something for $5 for like, or $10 even, 112 00:12:26,560 --> 00:12:30,240 and it's a pattern. And they think it's a, they think they're getting ships. 113 00:12:30,240 --> 00:12:35,520 A sweater product or a hat or a whatever. And I'm sitting there going like, are you crazy? 114 00:12:37,040 --> 00:12:43,840 In what, in what capacity, unless you're going to some kind of secondhand store or like that, 115 00:12:43,840 --> 00:12:51,840 you would find anything knitted or crocheted for nothing. Like you, when I see prices like that, 116 00:12:51,840 --> 00:12:56,480 it's usually because I've gone to a Goodwill, somebody dropped all grandma's blankets at the 117 00:12:56,480 --> 00:13:02,880 Goodwill and they're for $5 each. And that's when I see those price then not on Etsy. There's no, 118 00:13:02,880 --> 00:13:10,880 nobody's sending you a luxury beanie made of merino and silk and cashmere for $5. I'm sorry. 119 00:13:10,880 --> 00:13:17,120 I hate to break it to you. And, but what's happening is they put, they give them bad reviews. 120 00:13:18,320 --> 00:13:21,920 And then there's people who even buy the pattern and they say they like, they can't figure out how 121 00:13:21,920 --> 00:13:25,360 to download the pattern. So then they leave a bad review because they can't figure out how to use 122 00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:30,160 the app. And I'm like, that's not the seller's fault. That's Etsy's fault for having a bad app. 123 00:13:30,160 --> 00:13:37,200 Like I can't even realize that things like that were happening. Yeah. Yes. You're telling me this 124 00:13:37,200 --> 00:13:42,560 right now. Like people are buying patterns and expecting a finished product. Yes. And it's like 125 00:13:42,560 --> 00:13:47,760 literally killing me on the inside. There's, there's also very little oversight from the 126 00:13:47,760 --> 00:13:55,680 inside. There's also very little oversight from a lot of sites like Etsy that, and this happened, 127 00:13:55,680 --> 00:14:04,320 I remember a few years ago with Blue Brick, the Blue Brick yarn company and Wingspan when they're, 128 00:14:04,320 --> 00:14:08,400 did you remember when the Wingspan pattern went viral and everyone was buying Ibis? I don't think 129 00:14:08,400 --> 00:14:15,040 it was Blue Brick that was the, that was as impacted as the artists who designed Wingspan. 130 00:14:15,040 --> 00:14:22,720 Other people, scammers were taking that, creating their own pages with the picture of Wingspan and 131 00:14:22,720 --> 00:14:28,400 selling the kits. And there's no oversight. Like nobody could stop them. So people were getting 132 00:14:28,400 --> 00:14:33,920 scammed out of that. And scamming, I think is another huge part of why people are, are getting 133 00:14:33,920 --> 00:14:41,200 out of it, both sellers and honestly like consumers, because we, we've all heard the stories of small 134 00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:48,240 businesses that don't deliver that accept money and then they don't deliver a product. And especially 135 00:14:48,240 --> 00:14:55,280 in the fiber arts, if you're buying, you know, a indie dyed yarn or an advent or, you know, 136 00:14:55,280 --> 00:15:01,440 something that is a considered a luxury item, normally you have put some money away. You have 137 00:15:01,440 --> 00:15:06,000 planned for that. And it's, it's not like it's a couple of bucks that, you know, okay, you know, 138 00:15:06,000 --> 00:15:11,120 that's inconvenient, but no big deal. A lot of buyers have gotten turned off of small businesses 139 00:15:11,120 --> 00:15:16,640 because unlike a big box store, it's, it's harder to get, to be made whole when you've been taken 140 00:15:16,640 --> 00:15:22,080 advantage of. So it kind of goes both ways. It really does. It's, it's on the sellers. It's also 141 00:15:22,080 --> 00:15:28,640 on the buyers on both ways. And it sucks because this minority, cause really it is at the end of 142 00:15:28,640 --> 00:15:35,840 the day, for the most part, if you sell an item, it gets to the person, the person says thanks and 143 00:15:35,840 --> 00:15:42,560 moves on. But then you have the minority, you know, that's even if it's 10%, it's still a huge 144 00:15:43,120 --> 00:15:49,840 amount to a small business of people who are trying to scam them out of a pattern, scan them 145 00:15:49,840 --> 00:15:56,160 out of a product, you know, or from the buyer's perspective, buying an item and just never 146 00:15:56,160 --> 00:16:00,720 receiving it. And the seller just getting off. And again, there's so few of them that do that, 147 00:16:00,720 --> 00:16:05,840 but it doesn't matter. But it, but it, but it tarnishes. It's huge. It tarnishes everybody. 148 00:16:05,840 --> 00:16:10,240 And it goes crazy and everyone hears about it. Because at the end of the day, you all, 149 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:15,840 everyone gets lumped as a small business owner, right? And people talk and then it's like, oh, 150 00:16:15,840 --> 00:16:21,280 well this indie dyer scammed me. So then all of them, or this designer scammed me. So then all of 151 00:16:21,280 --> 00:16:25,440 them, or I bought an advent and I didn't receive it. So I'm never going to buy advents again. 152 00:16:25,440 --> 00:16:31,680 Yeah. And then it's like that product in particular just gets ruined. I understand, like things happen 153 00:16:31,680 --> 00:16:37,920 and, but it's, I think at the end of the day, if everybody would just, I know this is a hard 154 00:16:37,920 --> 00:16:44,880 concept people, but we're going to try right now. If everybody would just let go of their egos and 155 00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:52,000 be honest with everybody, you would be amazed at the problems that we could solve in this world. 156 00:16:52,000 --> 00:17:01,440 I really truly feel, I know, I know the concept of honesty, I think has, has been lost. Because I 157 00:17:01,440 --> 00:17:06,400 think at the end of the day, you have all these social media accounts and they show everybody with 158 00:17:06,400 --> 00:17:13,600 no problems and nobody Fs up and everybody's perfect. And I, and I do feel that the, the 159 00:17:13,600 --> 00:17:21,040 younger generation is killing this because they're just like, no, this is now everybody's got problems. 160 00:17:21,040 --> 00:17:26,800 This is not realistic. I do, I want to say that our generation, the elder millennial kind of 161 00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:34,480 generation probably started that because that started in when we were younger, this whole like 162 00:17:34,480 --> 00:17:40,480 influencer, like look at my perfect life. I also think that that came from our parents. Yeah. 163 00:17:40,480 --> 00:17:46,320 We're putting that pressure on airs and making sure you present the perfect picture. Yeah. If 164 00:17:46,320 --> 00:17:54,720 that isn't the case behind the scenes and it's, we just put it on social media and made videos. 165 00:17:54,720 --> 00:18:02,480 Correct. And I think as time goes on, you're seeing millennials start to like break out of that and 166 00:18:02,480 --> 00:18:08,560 go, you know, the Gen Z got something going on. And they just like, no, we're not going to do this 167 00:18:08,560 --> 00:18:17,360 anymore. And it like, we're going to eliminate this illusion of fast, quick production, productive, 168 00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:27,840 this kind of idea that like your life is meant to do something or give something or no, maybe, 169 00:18:27,840 --> 00:18:31,280 maybe your life is just literally to exist and like, that's okay. 170 00:18:32,960 --> 00:18:38,480 But my life is a mess and I'm just getting through it. I need breaks. Yeah. I like to do 171 00:18:38,480 --> 00:18:47,760 crafts and that's me in a nutshell. Yeah. And doing this whole like, it just, it's killing me because 172 00:18:48,560 --> 00:18:55,760 back to the whole idea of honesty, it honestly just, honestly, being frank and open and honest. 173 00:18:55,760 --> 00:19:03,040 So like say, I don't know, I have a design, I'm having it tested. It turns into be a crap shoot. 174 00:19:03,040 --> 00:19:07,520 If I just go to everybody and go, Hey, you know what? I did this design, we're testing it. It 175 00:19:07,520 --> 00:19:13,600 sucks. I'm going to go back to the drawing board. So any deadlines I told you, we're going to nix 176 00:19:13,600 --> 00:19:18,560 all that. And I'm just going to go back and like rework this and get this going. I feel like as a 177 00:19:18,560 --> 00:19:23,600 tester on the other side, I'm just speaking from a tester, I would be like, wow, awesome. Like 178 00:19:23,600 --> 00:19:28,640 they're listening to all of the problems. They're going to go try to resolve them. They're going to 179 00:19:28,640 --> 00:19:34,160 come back and try to do it again, instead of, oh, like, everything's fine. We'll just delay this a 180 00:19:34,160 --> 00:19:38,640 little bit, but it's okay. Everything's fine. And I'm like, no, it's not fine. It's okay. It can be 181 00:19:38,640 --> 00:19:45,440 not fine. Like it's, it's okay. It's fine. Same thing with indie dyers doing like, you want to 182 00:19:45,440 --> 00:19:52,880 do a batch of a certain color. You try the batch, the batch up. It's just screwed. And you're like, 183 00:19:52,880 --> 00:20:02,480 crap. I have, um, we call that wild magic. I love wild magic for that. Wild magic is like, 184 00:20:02,480 --> 00:20:08,400 we tried to do something. It didn't come out and we go, huh, it still looks good. It's still a yarn. 185 00:20:08,400 --> 00:20:13,920 There's nothing wrong with it. It's just not what we wanted. Wild magic here. It's cheaper now. 186 00:20:14,720 --> 00:20:19,280 But like the fact that you embrace that instead of like, okay, we're going to like pretend this 187 00:20:19,280 --> 00:20:25,040 didn't exist. No, no, no, there's nothing wrong with that yarn. There's a whole page on our 188 00:20:25,040 --> 00:20:33,600 website of mistakes, happy accidents. Some of your happy accidents are beautiful though. Okay. Uh, 189 00:20:33,600 --> 00:20:38,960 what was it? Tequila, tequila sunrise. Oh my God. That was hilarious because that was such a mistake. 190 00:20:38,960 --> 00:20:43,200 And I put those up. I'm like, I was, I was super upset about it. I was really upset because I called 191 00:20:43,200 --> 00:20:47,280 Jess and like, I had this whole batch and it's all wrong. And I'm like, you know what, whatever 192 00:20:47,280 --> 00:20:51,200 it's going up there, call it tequila sunrise. I'm good. And it sold out in an hour. And I was like, 193 00:20:51,200 --> 00:20:57,040 Oh, it was gorgeous. It was gorgeous. I can't recreate it. I don't know. It's fine. That's the 194 00:20:57,040 --> 00:21:02,480 one sad thing about those types of happy accidents. I don't know how I screwed it up, but like, 195 00:21:02,480 --> 00:21:07,760 but it was, it was what it was. You're right. Like, and it's, and I've, but, but to kind of 196 00:21:07,760 --> 00:21:13,520 go off what Drea said about that whole, like the pressure from, from older generations, like 197 00:21:13,520 --> 00:21:21,200 that is probably as a fiber artist been one of my biggest challenges. And Jess knows because she 198 00:21:21,200 --> 00:21:25,600 watches me go through the five stages of grief. Every time I screw up dying. Oh, I really do. 199 00:21:25,600 --> 00:21:29,920 Like it's terrible. I'm like, and in the wild magic kind of saves us because originally I was 200 00:21:29,920 --> 00:21:36,400 like, Oh my God, I'm destroying our stock because I'm an idiot and I can't recreate this dye color. 201 00:21:36,400 --> 00:21:43,920 And Oh my God, like I'm, I'm costing us money, like the whole thing. And so kind of like now at 202 00:21:43,920 --> 00:21:47,520 the point where it gets screwed up and she'll come home and she's like, what are you doing? I'm like, 203 00:21:47,520 --> 00:21:53,200 well, I don't know. It was this it's not anymore. Ta-da. And I don't care anymore, but it has taken 204 00:21:53,200 --> 00:22:00,560 me a long time again, going off what Drea said to kind of break out of that. This is a mistake. 205 00:22:00,560 --> 00:22:08,480 This is a screw up. I did this wrong or go. I'm bad. Like that mentality. And it was really ingrained 206 00:22:09,200 --> 00:22:15,840 that if it's not exactly what I wanted it to be, then it's a failure. Yeah. It's been really hard 207 00:22:15,840 --> 00:22:22,480 to break out of that. It really has. And I think too, there might be part of that with all these 208 00:22:22,480 --> 00:22:29,280 closures because I feel like, like I actually put that on a story, the other, if not yesterday, 209 00:22:29,280 --> 00:22:35,520 like today where no, it was yesterday. And it was about like how guys, I have all these followers. 210 00:22:35,520 --> 00:22:39,840 I don't make any money. Like I don't live off of this. Like there was people that legitimately 211 00:22:39,840 --> 00:22:44,640 thought like, once you hit like a certain mark, like just Instagram just sends you money. They 212 00:22:44,640 --> 00:22:48,480 just send you money. Nobody sends you money. Nobody sends you money. There's no money. Even 213 00:22:48,480 --> 00:22:53,440 when Instagram was doing money, I know it was bull crap. They kind of stopped doing that pretty 214 00:22:53,440 --> 00:22:57,280 quickly. Yeah. They were like, wait a second. This isn't, this isn't working. We're losing. We, we, 215 00:22:57,280 --> 00:23:01,600 instead of having 70 billion in profit, now we have 69 billion in profit. That's not okay. 216 00:23:04,000 --> 00:23:12,000 It's just like, I don't like it's, it's, I think there's a mentality of like, if I create a product 217 00:23:12,000 --> 00:23:18,960 and it doesn't sell out and it's not the number one product, I failed. And that's not the case. 218 00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:26,240 I'm okay. I'm okay with my seed. I think I have like a hundred something people or sales or 219 00:23:26,240 --> 00:23:31,200 whatever for the seed top. You need I'm good. I'm good. Is it a sellout? Is it like, am I like going 220 00:23:31,200 --> 00:23:37,600 to be a huge name at the next fabric? No, absolutely not. But you have maybe a hundred people that are 221 00:23:37,600 --> 00:23:43,280 wearing your head. First of all, the fact that even one person buys my pattern, I'm just like, 222 00:23:43,280 --> 00:23:47,200 oh my God, like, what did I do? It was it the, was it the pattern cover? Like, 223 00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:53,440 I actually can't wait for fall. That's like my favorite hat. Oh yeah. It's going to be a good 224 00:23:53,440 --> 00:23:58,480 time. I'm not even saying that to bump you just like, it's going to be, it's going to be a good 225 00:23:58,480 --> 00:24:05,360 time. But they like, but like, instead of feeling like I need to create something so that I meet 226 00:24:05,360 --> 00:24:11,280 some kind of capital capitalistic goal. Now I'm like, okay, I'm going to create something 227 00:24:11,280 --> 00:24:17,680 so that it makes me happy because I would make this. I would want to do this. So here's this idea. 228 00:24:18,240 --> 00:24:21,600 If you like it, buy it. If you don't, that's okay too. Like I'm still going to use it. 229 00:24:21,600 --> 00:24:26,880 It's and it's hard because I know that there's fiber artists out there that use this as like, 230 00:24:26,880 --> 00:24:32,960 this is how they make a living. And, and you can't almost take that mentality with it because it is 231 00:24:32,960 --> 00:24:39,680 your form of living. Um, and if it is, I'm sorry, you gotta try and find a happy medium though. 232 00:24:39,680 --> 00:24:44,000 Cause some, some with that too, it's like, and not everything is going to take off. So it's like, 233 00:24:44,000 --> 00:24:50,160 okay, that doesn't mean you're a failure. It doesn't mean that it's a bad idea. It just means, 234 00:24:50,160 --> 00:24:54,720 okay, that's not the market right now. And the market is always changing. Everything is always 235 00:24:54,720 --> 00:25:01,040 like flipping around. You got to stay on top of all of it. Um, I work in sales, uh, it's like food 236 00:25:01,040 --> 00:25:05,440 sales, but still. So the idea that's sort of where I'm saying is like, you've got to kind of figure 237 00:25:05,440 --> 00:25:10,080 out where your market is, who is by, you may be originally targeting towards an audience and then 238 00:25:10,080 --> 00:25:17,440 a different audience like enjoys it. So it's like, it's not a failure in less you do nothing with it. 239 00:25:17,440 --> 00:25:24,000 So long as you can take a loss and be like, okay, what, what were the factors that went into this? 240 00:25:24,000 --> 00:25:28,480 What can I do to kind of switch it around? Are there things? What have I learned from it? 241 00:25:29,360 --> 00:25:35,440 That's maybe not money, but what have I, yeah. And if you can take that and then go in from a 242 00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:41,680 different angle, like you're never really losing it. So it is, it is the cool thing. And it is also 243 00:25:41,680 --> 00:25:48,320 the unfortunate thing because a lot of times you are gambling with your, your own money and your 244 00:25:49,040 --> 00:25:55,280 time time. Um, and that part can get scary, especially if you get to a point where it's like, 245 00:25:55,280 --> 00:26:01,120 you know, it's, you're starting to get more on the thin side of things and it's like, okay. So, 246 00:26:01,120 --> 00:26:05,440 and I feel like that, that is what we are, especially right now with, um, just kind of the 247 00:26:05,440 --> 00:26:11,200 state of that things are in. Um, people are finding they are getting on the thinner side and they have 248 00:26:11,200 --> 00:26:16,320 to make that hard decision of, do I keep trying right now or do I have to like make the hard 249 00:26:16,320 --> 00:26:26,080 choice to stop until, you know, things can, things can pick up, things are a bit easier to, to push 250 00:26:26,080 --> 00:26:30,880 back into a business. Well, the other problem too, is that like with every market, with every 251 00:26:30,880 --> 00:26:38,640 business, there are highs and lows. Absolutely. And you know, 10 years ago, the indie pattern, 252 00:26:38,640 --> 00:26:46,160 indie dire markets were so small. And then you saw, you know, with, with Ravelry and social media 253 00:26:46,160 --> 00:26:51,840 and blogs in general, and that exploded. And at this point, right where we are at right now, 254 00:26:51,840 --> 00:26:56,720 even though it seems like all my favorite indie dires are closing, the market is oversaturated. 255 00:26:56,720 --> 00:27:03,440 It is, it's oversaturated. Um, that lends itself to, you know, a scarcity in the market of people 256 00:27:03,440 --> 00:27:08,560 having to choose between, you know, nobody can afford to buy from every indie dire that they like 257 00:27:08,560 --> 00:27:15,200 every week. So you have to pick and choose. Now, when that happens, this is basic economics, 258 00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:20,560 businesses start to close and eventually you get to the point where the market is no longer 259 00:27:20,560 --> 00:27:26,400 oversaturated when there is more demand than supply. So then more people enter the market 260 00:27:26,400 --> 00:27:31,680 and it's cyclical. It's just going to keep going. So right now we're still at an oversaturated point. 261 00:27:31,680 --> 00:27:35,840 It's not that we want the market to be under saturated or oversaturated. We want it to be 262 00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:40,960 whatever it is. Um, but it does make it hard for people that are trying to make a living within it 263 00:27:41,520 --> 00:27:46,480 really on both ends. It's difficult. Especially when you, again, you've got platforms and things 264 00:27:46,480 --> 00:27:52,800 kind of working against you and you got to, it's, it's hard and it's, it does, it's, it is kind of 265 00:27:52,800 --> 00:27:57,360 sad when you start seeing it, especially when you see like all the ones you really like. And it's 266 00:27:57,360 --> 00:28:03,200 like, oh, you know, we're starting a club and you're like, oh no. Um, but I think you do, 267 00:28:03,200 --> 00:28:09,760 you do see that though. It does. Um, especially with smaller businesses and, uh, the smaller indie 268 00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:19,120 died or indie owned. Um, you see a lot of like turnover almost. I honestly, so one thing, so I 269 00:28:19,120 --> 00:28:25,120 used to be in the Japanese fashion scene and one of the things that they, that they did towards the 270 00:28:25,120 --> 00:28:30,560 end right before I left, um, they did like a collective. So like someone came up with the 271 00:28:30,560 --> 00:28:36,720 idea of instead of all of us trying to all be like, whatever, like we could still be our brand, 272 00:28:36,720 --> 00:28:42,480 but like, we're all gonna pool together. And instead of going to like an Etsy or something 273 00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:46,640 like that, we're all going to, they, they called it literally the, I think it was like the Lolita 274 00:28:46,640 --> 00:28:52,800 collective and they had like all these different brands, small little brands underneath one 275 00:28:52,800 --> 00:28:59,760 website. So working together instead of trying to market against each other. And what that gave the 276 00:28:59,760 --> 00:29:05,920 opportunity for was, is when they, when we had, so we used to run our conference, they were the 277 00:29:05,920 --> 00:29:12,400 vendor, the collective. And then if you wanted to have items at our show, but you couldn't afford 278 00:29:12,400 --> 00:29:17,840 necessarily a booth by yourself, you could just be in the collective and they would include you on 279 00:29:17,840 --> 00:29:25,600 the rack. So then it gave opportunity for everybody to have success. Kind of. Yeah. It was almost, 280 00:29:25,600 --> 00:29:29,200 yeah. And I w I just like, I don't know if I just said a billion dollar idea and someone's going, 281 00:29:29,200 --> 00:29:33,600 Oh my God, I'm going to make that right now. Um, but like, and I hope so. Yeah, no, but it would 282 00:29:33,600 --> 00:29:39,600 be nice. Like I think it would, I think the idea of like kind of a collective idea in the fiber 283 00:29:39,600 --> 00:29:47,760 arts world. That's not like the site for me, when I see the Etsy's and the Ravelries and all these, 284 00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:56,000 um, there's like a, there's another app and they're, they're like, their business is to 285 00:29:56,960 --> 00:30:03,600 make money off of the people in it. Yes. It's not necessarily to come together and 286 00:30:03,600 --> 00:30:12,320 form a group to try to like work together. It's, it's to like the person who ran that collective 287 00:30:12,320 --> 00:30:19,120 in the fashion world had their own brand in it. Yeah. So they were just running the group, 288 00:30:19,120 --> 00:30:24,000 but they weren't necessarily like, okay, like I'm going to make money off of all you and you will 289 00:30:24,000 --> 00:30:29,200 do all the work. That's what Etsy does. Etsy wants all the, the crafters to make all their crafts 290 00:30:29,200 --> 00:30:35,280 and then they take a fee and then they make millions while the crafters still get haggled. 291 00:30:35,760 --> 00:30:43,200 So I think what we need is to go back to the, um, group help mentality. And I know that there's 292 00:30:43,200 --> 00:30:48,320 like this, I know that when you start going that way, people are like, oh no, it's going to be like 293 00:30:48,320 --> 00:30:56,320 a hippies in a, in a big, like, I'm not saying that I'm not saying that I'm not saying all the 294 00:30:56,320 --> 00:31:03,680 way that way. I'm just saying, can we grow tomatoes at the commune? Yeah. Great. I love tomatoes. 295 00:31:05,520 --> 00:31:10,080 They're so hard. Anyway, anyways, we're not doing that right now, but it's okay. I have my own 296 00:31:10,080 --> 00:31:22,000 tomatoes. I just planted some last week. The idea is, is like, I think if maybe some of these crafters 297 00:31:22,000 --> 00:31:28,000 or dyers or just anybody within this fiber arts industry, just like said, Hey, I have a bunch of 298 00:31:28,000 --> 00:31:33,200 friends. We all have this thing and we're going to call it the fiber collective or something. I 299 00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:36,320 don't know. That's probably already somebody already has that, but whatever, but something like 300 00:31:36,320 --> 00:31:42,480 that. And then like under that, there would be a whole bunch of indie designers and dyers and stuff, 301 00:31:42,480 --> 00:31:45,920 and they would just work together as a small group. It wouldn't be like this. 302 00:31:45,920 --> 00:31:52,480 Okay. Like there's thousands to pick from. And it's like, no, it's maybe they have all have a joint 303 00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:59,840 venture where like all of them are women or all of them are LGBTQA or all of them are, I don't know, 304 00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:04,080 like you just all have something in common and then they go that way. I just, I don't know, 305 00:32:04,080 --> 00:32:11,520 throwing ideas out there. Somebody do it. Like merchant guilds. Yeah. Yeah. What I said, be the 306 00:32:11,520 --> 00:32:18,320 I said, be the change go. No, but honestly, kind of to go along with that, I was, I was 307 00:32:20,000 --> 00:32:26,480 looking in on a conversation the other day and people were talking about two, two designers, 308 00:32:27,280 --> 00:32:30,240 one who was actually they're both pretty well known. I'm not going to name names. 309 00:32:30,960 --> 00:32:38,800 And someone was irate that one of them had used a similar prefix 310 00:32:38,800 --> 00:32:44,320 on a design name as the other dyer, as the other designer, which again, I was like, okay, that's 311 00:32:44,320 --> 00:32:50,240 petty, but whatever. And that's why Ravelry has like the cowl two, the cowl three. Oh, I know. 312 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:55,120 Like literally if you like just, just for reference, when I was looking for a T related, 313 00:32:55,120 --> 00:32:57,840 cause I didn't want to do a T cozy when I was looking for that, I just put in T and there were 314 00:32:57,840 --> 00:33:05,600 like 7,000 patterns that had to do with T. But the reason like pettiness aside, the thing that 315 00:33:05,600 --> 00:33:09,920 really hit me and actually really made me sad was the person who was irate about it said, well, 316 00:33:09,920 --> 00:33:16,320 I think that's just a really low thing for a competitor to do. And I was like a competitor. 317 00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:25,920 The thought that designers, dyers, crafts people that we are competing against each other, 318 00:33:25,920 --> 00:33:33,120 it really bothers me and saddens me. Like we, we're, we don't have to, it doesn't have to be a 319 00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:40,560 competition. It's not like we're fighting. I, I dye yarn. I still buy other people's yarn. I don't 320 00:33:40,560 --> 00:33:47,280 look at them as, oh, that's my competitor. I don't. Like when you decided to make a pattern, 321 00:33:47,280 --> 00:33:54,480 I didn't go up Meg, mind your own business. Instead I was like, hooray, come join me 322 00:33:54,480 --> 00:33:59,920 in this whole of patterns and math. Because the more we put it together, the more options we have, 323 00:33:59,920 --> 00:34:05,600 the more people that are involved in the more art that gets created, the more options that we have 324 00:34:05,600 --> 00:34:12,640 in terms of yarn, in terms of colors, in terms of designs, the wider and bigger and more diverse 325 00:34:12,640 --> 00:34:17,280 our craft becomes. And that's a good thing, not a bad thing. We shouldn't look at each other as 326 00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:22,880 competitors. The five words is very much like there's something for everybody. There really is. 327 00:34:22,880 --> 00:34:28,320 And looking at it as we're all in competition with each other is sad. And I think that's 328 00:34:28,320 --> 00:34:35,840 the point. Like everyone wants to focus on the fiber and forget about the art at the end of the 329 00:34:35,840 --> 00:34:43,360 day. We're all artists and you, you cannot, one artist can copy another like work, like line for 330 00:34:43,360 --> 00:34:49,440 line. But even if they, unless they were tracing, even if they copy line for line, it is still 331 00:34:49,440 --> 00:34:55,840 their own, like it's completely there's, you can tell like this is somebody else's and this is the 332 00:34:55,840 --> 00:35:00,320 original. And because, but because of that, I'm not saying copy each other. What I'm saying is 333 00:35:01,520 --> 00:35:05,920 because of those unique perspectives of how you view the world, I mean, we have people who are 334 00:35:05,920 --> 00:35:10,480 colorblind. We have people who literally just see things differently because our brains are a little 335 00:35:10,480 --> 00:35:18,160 messy, me included. Um, but like you just, because of that, you have so many different perspectives, 336 00:35:18,160 --> 00:35:24,640 so many different viewpoints, so many different layers of experience that people have been in 337 00:35:24,640 --> 00:35:30,880 that you, I could not go up to somebody and say, well, you understand you've clearly been in my 338 00:35:30,880 --> 00:35:35,920 shoes because they probably haven't. And you haven't been in theirs and I haven't been in 339 00:35:35,920 --> 00:35:41,360 theirs. So when someone, if someone were to come up to me in this stranger and say, I would like 340 00:35:41,360 --> 00:35:45,600 you to draw a picture of your happy place, guess what? It's going to be two different things. 341 00:35:45,600 --> 00:35:51,280 Even if it was the beach, they're not going to look like the same beach. No, they won't because 342 00:35:51,280 --> 00:35:58,240 your, your visions are completely different. So I, I don't, I get the whole like, I'm trying to make 343 00:35:58,240 --> 00:36:04,400 money or whatever, whatever, but I honestly feel at the end of the day, if everybody would just go 344 00:36:04,400 --> 00:36:11,120 back to the fact that this is art and work together rather than against, you have to understand 345 00:36:11,120 --> 00:36:16,880 that guys, we are working all these indie folks. The reason why we're indies is because we're all 346 00:36:16,880 --> 00:36:23,200 tiny. We're all working against the consumerist society that is we're working against all the big 347 00:36:23,200 --> 00:36:29,040 box people, all the people who just put out like just nonsense that you can just walk into a store 348 00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:37,360 and buy. And we're also working against that fast, fast fashion industry that is, you know, chunk, 349 00:36:37,360 --> 00:36:44,640 like just throwing things out, creating horrible, like I just go into that anyway, but instead of 350 00:36:44,640 --> 00:36:50,240 like looking at the other fiber artists next to you that may be also designing hats, plenty of 351 00:36:50,240 --> 00:36:55,680 people design hats, but there are like, your hat will be different. I remember when I made my seed 352 00:36:55,680 --> 00:36:59,520 dot beanie, I was like, nobody's going to want this hat. I'm like in my head, I'm like, it's just the 353 00:36:59,520 --> 00:37:04,240 seed stitch and the dot stitch. Nobody wants this hat. Nobody wants this hat. It's just a hat. 354 00:37:04,240 --> 00:37:05,280 Some people want that hat. 355 00:37:05,280 --> 00:37:09,120 Yeah. A hundred plus people wanted my hat. So it's like, it's like, if I could speak to a hundred 356 00:37:09,120 --> 00:37:16,640 people and with my little simple hat, then maybe your hat that you have out there in the universe, 357 00:37:16,640 --> 00:37:23,840 whoever's listening, maybe your hat idea will speak to 10 people, one person. It doesn't matter. 358 00:37:23,840 --> 00:37:28,720 Like you are speaking to somebody else because everybody has different viewpoints. 359 00:37:29,360 --> 00:37:36,000 Guys at the end of the day, knitting is all one stitch that can be reversed. That we put together 360 00:37:36,000 --> 00:37:45,280 in different ways. Dying. There's only so many colors that actually exists that you, the artist 361 00:37:45,280 --> 00:37:52,320 are mixing in different ways. It's a freaking mic drop sound. It's crochet. Same thing. Like one 362 00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:59,200 stitch spinning. There's only really one way to spin yarn. Wrong. There are a couple different 363 00:37:59,200 --> 00:38:04,720 ways. You're twisting fibers. You are fusing fibers, correct? So there are different ways. 364 00:38:04,720 --> 00:38:09,120 No, there's different ways, but you're, you're fusing fiber. That is what spinning is. You're 365 00:38:09,120 --> 00:38:15,120 fusing fiber. That's how you make yarn. There isn't like a non-fusing fiber way to make yarn. 366 00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:19,520 So everything yet is fusing fiber. Okay. Meg, enlighten us. 367 00:38:21,520 --> 00:38:26,400 No, I'm just saying it's so if we're stopping at like, okay, you're copying me, 368 00:38:27,520 --> 00:38:32,880 then everybody just stopped because you know, way back, like right when Homo sapiens first 369 00:38:32,880 --> 00:38:38,240 discovered how to make cloths and we're at the end, we're done. They figured out how to do it. 370 00:38:38,240 --> 00:38:43,440 Just stop guys. Cause now you're copying that person. I mean, to be fair, someone made a stock 371 00:38:43,440 --> 00:38:48,480 net sweater probably like a hundred years ago. Let's stop probably longer, probably way back. 372 00:38:48,480 --> 00:38:55,680 So like, can we just wait more than a year? I, I, yes, we have, they have had sweaters, you know, 373 00:38:55,680 --> 00:39:01,120 so it's like prior to the 1900, I am aware that sounds like I just threw out a hundred. I know 374 00:39:01,120 --> 00:39:09,440 that a hundred is a big number. Okay. Sorry. Back when the hobo, so I started this episode by saying 375 00:39:09,440 --> 00:39:14,080 we were going to be serious and I clearly lie. Let me go back. Oh, okay. Fine. Jess has got it. 376 00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:23,440 The Homo sapiens. Okay. I will go back to Homo sapiens. When they created fire and the Shetland 377 00:39:23,440 --> 00:39:28,560 sweater. That was it. That was it. They created fire and then the Shetland sweater. 378 00:39:28,560 --> 00:39:32,480 Everybody's conception of history is making my brain explode right now. 379 00:39:32,480 --> 00:39:35,920 And ancient is not even my fourth time. They made the fire. When the fire would go out, 380 00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:42,080 they made the sweater. Well, you got a lot for the blooper reel. Oh no, this should stay in. 381 00:39:42,080 --> 00:39:47,920 This was great. I'm just saying this, this, this thread was everything. The idea of people copying 382 00:39:47,920 --> 00:39:53,360 things in that regard, like, yes, if you just copy paste somebody's pattern, like bad on you, 383 00:39:53,360 --> 00:39:59,440 that's back off that, that is not nice. But I mean, again, it's, it's all just different 384 00:39:59,440 --> 00:40:05,120 putting together of patterns that exist guys. Like we need to calm down. 385 00:40:07,120 --> 00:40:11,840 And that's it for this week's topics for additional content and opportunities to connect with the cast. 386 00:40:11,840 --> 00:40:17,280 Check out our website at pardon my stash.com. Be sure to tune in next week for more fun friends 387 00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:23,520 and fiber at pardon my stash.