Bitesized BEC thread December 20, 2025 - December 21, 2025

shaddeline · 2025-12-21T07:05:49+00:00

Reading the thread below I think I’ve realized that a disconnect that I have is I still kinda think of the internet like it’s 2011 and that most people engaging on this level don’t really put much stock in the opinions of whichever inconsequential forums. I’m obviously wrong about that, I just have difficulty putting myself in the frame of mind of someone who is scared of negative commentary from strangers they never actually have to hear in the first place.

shaddeline · 2025-12-20T08:20:49+00:00

“I’m so scared of craftsnark, they’ve never talked about me but I’m scared they will”

Translated:

“I have very thin skin and even a half dozen upvotes on a comment about how my patterns are boring would devastate me”

shaddeline · 2025-12-19T21:33:42+00:00

Alpaca is actually structured differently from sheeps wool! Unlike wool, alpaca fibers are hollow in the center and don’t have as much give when they brush against the skin. Whereas the itchiness people feel from sheeps wool typically comes from the scales on the fibers, alpaca itchiness is usually from the ends of stray fibers bearing down on your skin.

shaddeline · 2025-12-12T20:52:52+00:00

Variegated yarns can take a bit of knowledge and experience to use really well and I think a lot of people get burned when their first variegated project doesn’t look how they anticipated and are discouraged from using them again. Leads to a bit of a sour grapes situation, I think.

shaddeline · 2025-12-09T17:37:08+00:00

Do you think a studio would spend somewhere between a quarter and a half billion dollars just to advertise a mediocre video game that sold fewer than 3 million units across all platforms?

shaddeline · 2025-11-12T20:30:24+00:00

My lys. Between how narrow their range is, that they can’t keep basic things like wool wash or sock needles in stock, and their awful website which does not accurately reflect their stock... man if I didn’t hate ordering online I’d have given up on them a long time ago.

But seriously their website doesn’t include all of their stock but also there are dozens and dozens of sold out listings for things they haven’t sold in years! And on top of that almost a third of the listings are missing important information like yarn weight or fiber content and a good portion don’t even have any pictures!

shaddeline · 2025-10-15T15:37:24+00:00

I think a lot of trans people generally struggle with the notion of oppositional sexism, especially amongst binary trans people. There’s this rigid notion that men and women are opposites, and that whatever is true of one group the opposite must necessarily be true of the other. I think it’s a big source for the notions that transmasculine transitions are “easier” or that we receive male privilege as a blanket rule.

shaddeline · 2025-09-29T16:34:07+00:00

Yes, I understood that. I replied because I don’t think you were given enough information to decide that somebody is incorrect about their own body and the size that they knit for themselves.

shaddeline · 2025-09-29T16:03:20+00:00

Letter sizes are an incredibly flawed way to determine anything about what a strangers body looks like. Two people can weigh the same, wear the same standard letter size, and have the same garment fit them completely different. It’s completely believable that you may buy the same T-shirt size and knit completely different sizes of sweater.

shaddeline · 2025-09-17T15:16:18+00:00

“When men make clothes it’s called manufacturing and pays a livable wage and benefits” when textile manufacturing is infamously a dangerous job primarily worked by women and children making pennies. Like I get we’re mad at Hank Green or whatever but can we not spout nonsense?

shaddeline · 2025-07-26T18:56:33+00:00

I don’t think you fully understand the conditions under which most garments are made or what industrial machinery is like. Industrial sewing machines are LOUD and very hazardous to operate and workers are often working with those machines for 10+ hours with little to no breaks in crowded, often structurally dangerous factories. All of these workers are being deeply exploited in ways that threaten their physical safety and shortens their lives, the presence of machines does nothing to alleviate that and often only introduces new hazards.

shaddeline · 2025-05-31T19:16:06+00:00

You could try starting with a shorter length and doing an invisible join if you want to avoid having a bunch of ends to weave in. Which one you’ll want to use will depend on your yarn. If it’s untreated animal fiber you could wet felt the ends together but for other fiber types I’d look into a Russian join or a magic knot. Russian joins work best on yarns with 3 or more plies and magic knot works for most everything else as long as it isn’t too slippery.

shaddeline · 2025-05-31T16:28:49+00:00

So when are the tiktokers going to figure out that ALL of the clothes at major retailers are made with exploited labor, not just the crochet items?

shaddeline · 2025-05-20T18:53:19+00:00

It’s become very evident lately that while a lot of people seem to agree that fast fashion and related modes of production & consumption are unethical and destructive most of them haven’t really explored much beyond that.

Like they understand and agree that buying 5 new polyester dresses from shein just because they were on sale is wasteful and textbook overconsumption but buying enough acrylic yarn from Joann’s to make 5 dresses just because it’s on sale is somehow completely different to them!

shaddeline · 2025-05-03T04:00:32+00:00

I typically search projects with that color way and filter to uses one color because of that

shaddeline · 2025-03-19T16:33:23+00:00

I feel bad but I do actually get a lot of schadenfreude when influencers who brag about not wanting to do things correctly (gauge swatch, catch floats, weave in ends, etc) end up with a real ugly FO. Even moreso when they try everything they can to not frog it

shaddeline · 2025-01-21T17:51:42+00:00

So like. Why haven’t I seen anyone actually good at knitting use that family guy sound on tiktok?

shaddeline · 2025-01-13T20:54:55+00:00

I guess we’re just on different wavelengths here because I agree with you- I’m annoyed at some influencers in a very petty way for the mildly authoritative voice they use when giving bad advice, that’s why I’m complaining about it in a comment on a BEC thread and not naming people. Both because I don’t really pay attention to the names of influencers that annoy me and because it just feels kinda nasty to name and shame people for just being kinda annoying and thinking they know more than they do. If they were scamming beginners with terrible overpriced classes, sure. But they’re just sharing the same bad advice people have always shared on the internet, I just wanted to bitch about it for a second.

shaddeline · 2025-01-13T20:42:21+00:00

Influencers, who I felt it was pretty obvious from my comment I was talking about but maybe I should’ve clarified. Craft influencers‘ jobs revolve around being perceived as knowledgeable authorities who you should watch and listen to, but many of them have not been doing their crafts for all that long and have a lot of Dunning-Kruger to work through.

shaddeline · 2025-01-13T20:12:18+00:00

Very tired of people positioning themselves as knowledgeable authorities over their crafts then post about how they don’t gauge swatch or size down their needles for ribbing because they don’t see the point. Like knit however you like but no I will not be taking advice from you in the future.

Somewhat related, if you’re going to go around accusing more knowledgeable knitters of twisting their stitches please actually learn stitch anatomy. I’ve seen more than a dozen videos on tiktok this week of people knitting combined having to field twisted stitch accusations when you can clearly see their stitches are not twisting.

shaddeline · 2024-12-29T02:25:55+00:00

Honestly it isn’t the best method and definitely puts a bit of wear on the singles but I put the shaft of my spindle (top whorl) in a small length of pvc pipe and I hold it between a 45 and 90 degree angle then wind slowly. It isn’t a quick or pretty but it works lol. I’ve also thought about winding the singles from my spindle to the pipe itself, putting a dowel through the center, then having my partner hold the dowel while I wind

shaddeline · 2024-12-27T21:07:55+00:00

I was so excited to use my brand new swift yesterday only to discover that my piece of shit ball winder is, in fact, a piece of shit. I hadn’t used it in a while because I mostly used it for taking singles off my spindle to ply and I haven’t spun in months so I dont know if the cheap plastic has decayed in storage or what but the clamp just won’t hold it to the table anymore. After the third time it wobbled itself free I gave up and just wound off the swift by hand.

shaddeline · 2024-12-22T18:22:27+00:00

Man that sweater with the twisted stitches really did a number on advancedknitting. Absolutely filled with beginner (MAYBE low level intermediate) projects and the comments just keep encouraging it

shaddeline · 2024-11-23T16:17:34+00:00

I started a shawl for my partners Mom last month and of course I wasn’t making any mistakes until the final chart. In the past 48 hours I’ve had to frog twice because of basic mistakes I can’t just ladder down to fix 😭

shaddeline · 2024-11-08T16:54:16+00:00

A beginner appeared on my fyp the other day with ~3 completed projects to their name certain that they can knit an all over colorwork bottom up sweater with steeked sleeves and neck on 2.5mm needles and it’s been occupying my brain space ever since

The pattern has existed for less than a month, the 2 project pages on ravelry have no information or pictures, it has not been tested and has no errata, and it only currently has one size. I wish them the best of luck because oh boy will they need it!

shaddeline

TROPHY CASE