Knitter or impostor?

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A couple of years ago, I bought myself a knitting machine. Those who don’t know, this is a plastic machine where you can insert a yarn strand, and when you crank the lever, it knits rows and rows of stockinette stitches, in no time. Magical. I use it very rarely. Pretty much only to make infinity scarves for my kid’s teachers, which are so fun to give, by the way. That being said, even though my machine is slowly getting dusty, I still joined a knitting machine community on the Internet. By curiosity, and because I am inspired by other people’s creations. And oh boy are they creative! It’s amazing to see them invent all sorts of things.

As I scrolled through the posts, there’s a thing I saw many many times. Hats, yes, obviously, but also, a lot of people saying they’ve been accused of cheating. That they aren’t really knitters because they use a machine. Wait wait wait hold on, I need to repeat that again: some people are told that knitting with a machine is CHEATING!?!?!

Excuse me, bitch, but what the fuck?!

I am paraphrasing here, but yes, that’s what I read. Because you aren’t wiggling needles around, you can’t say you are knitting? Okay, first of all, I’m not sure how it’s affecting anyone’s life that somebody likes to use a machine to make hats and scarves. How does this impact your life? Second, if you follow this logic, a seamstress isn’t a seamstress if she uses a sewing machine? Does she need to sew everything by hand to be able to call herself a seamstress? Is a chef really a chef if he’s using a food processor to cut his veggies? Or does he need to cut everything by hand to earn his apron?

I’ve been a part of this fiber community for a couple of years now. I am in different crochet, and knitting, and embroidery groups on Facebook, and everytime, I am appalled to see how it sometimes is… so toxic!! Of course not everywhere. And not all the time, and not everyone. I am just speaking generally here. But it’s a pity that instead of supporting each other in our shared passion, there is so much competition.

Here are other judgmental point of views (which I absolutely do not share, I wanna make that clear!!) I’ve seen over the years:

• Knitting is better than crochet
• Merino yarn is better than acrylic yarn
• Patterns should all be free cause it’s part of the HeRiTaGe (ok, not really a judgment, but what the heck!)

Who would have thought that the knitting and crochet community was that intense. Like dude, calm the heck down, take a deep breath. It’s just yarn. Just stitches. You are not curing cancer, you are only knitting.

So here’s what I think: whether you like crocheting, knitting, machine knitting, cross-stitching, weaving, loom-knitting, finger knitting… welcome! I’m so glad you are here! Your hobby is valid, your technique is valid. Your favourite fibre is valid.

You are valid. Keep on yarning, fiber friends ❤

What do you think about this? Let me know if you agree or not by leaving a comment!

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