If you follow many knitters on Instagram you have probably seen parts of the discussion of racism in the knitting/fiber arts community that was sparked by a blog post by Karen Templer of Fringe Supply Co.

In “My Year of Color” she talked about how she wanted to incorporate more color and more travel into her life, in particular by traveling to India this year. Many people of color and others were upset and offended by her descriptions, which equated people from India with literal aliens and talked about “colonizing” in reference to a nation that has suffered so much in its history from the forces of imperial colonizers.

Many knitwear designers, yarn makers and knitters of color took to Instagram and other platforms and did TONS of emotional labor to educate white people about what was wrong with these statement and the difficulties of being a person of color in the industry.

A few must-reads if you are on Instagram include the annotation of the problems in the initial blog post by thecolormustard and this thread on racist knitting experiences from su.krita.

I haven’t written about this before because as a white person with little to no influence in the industry, I felt like it wasn’t my place to speak up about it, that it was more important to listen to those voices that have experienced racism in the industry and in their lives.

But of course I have this space and I can amplify their messages, and this is such an important topic for the knitting community and the craft community as a whole to confront.

If you’ve missed the discussion so far there is an excellent overview of the discussion on Ravelry, where a thread on racism and inclusion in the yarn industry has sparked even more good conversation. Casey and Jessica seem to be truly interested in changing the culture at Ravelry to make people of color feel more included, for instance by consciously including more people of color in roundups and on their Instagram feed. Time will tell if the changes are more than cosmetic.

It’s something I was already thinking about and doing here at Craft Gossip as well. It’s never been a conscious decision to share or not to share a project based on the designer’s ethnicity, but I know being more thoughtful about what I share is one small way I can shine a spotlight on the wonderful diversity in the knitting community that is not as visible as it should be.

As always I am open to suggestions and willing to listen with a completely open heart to everyone in the knitting community and to do all that I can to make it a more inclusive place, because craft truly is for everyone.

And I’d very much love to know about your favorite designers, yarn makers and knitters of color, who you follow on Instagram and elsewhere.

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