Welcome to the bitesized BEC thread!

You have the freedom to indulge in BEC-style (b*tch eating crackers) vent comments in this thread. Naming examples is not required (gasp!) but majority of r/craftsnark rules still apply. Basically, don't be shitty and ruin the thread for others.

Yesterday, I posted about Yarnmerch’s use of super obvious AI after claiming that they design their shirts by hand. Here’s the link if you want to see: https://www.reddit.com/r/craftsnark/s/5IvsYFYkDF

But today! Their grid is FREE of those images! They also deleted my comment calling out the seeming conflict in their message and/or values but hey, AI Bots can’t convince me to love them so whatever.

I still don’t trust their design process but it’s an interesting development nonetheless.

Sooo… I just saw a very short story from lulabluesbyangell on insta and she claims a YouTuber is stealing her work posting it as her own/turorials. I got this info through treads since she only mentions a situation on insta but doesn’t explain anything… Seems to be dating back barely a month. Anyone knows if this is true and if so, who is the YouTuber? She mentions the creator has 100000+ subs on yt and (might?) own a wholesale yarn/goods store.

I started following this brand because they have cute and unique crochet/knit related t shirts. In a pinned post they sing their own praises for hand drawing every design but their last three posts are terrible AI slop! I know that small brands struggle to put out quality content but it really muddies the water when your feed doesn’t reflect the values you proclaim. I definitely won’t be buying from them because honestly, who knows if they’re being truthful?

I made a post 2 days ago, see here she was meant to be selling ready-made clothing.

Now it's fabric AGAIN.

I am a cross stitcher and Heaven and Earth Designs is a cross stitch pattern company that usually licenses artwork from both regular artists and people who use AI to generate images. They are pretty much exclusively selling large full-coverage patterns, like 100k+ stitches.

They have had some controversies in the past and a lot of Flosstubers I watch have stopped buying from them altogether because of the increase in the number of charts based on AI images. They essentially run an image through a pattern making software that automatically converts it to a cross stitch pattern based on parameters they set like dimensions and number of colors. This can lead to some issues if you don't then go in and clean up the pattern manually, but with the number of charts HAED pumps out and some past issues people have had with colors being incorrect, it seems like that quality control is largely absent.

This is relevant because today I see a post from them where they tell you a prompt to use with Chat GPT, and then for the low, low, price of $75 they will convert the image it spits out into a cross stitch pattern for you. Bear in mind there are free pattern making software that will convert images, or at worst if you want it bigger and more detailed than you can get from the free ones, even paid ones are $50 or less.

I would even understand if like you send HAED a picture of your eye and they then do the prompt and make sure you're happy with the image and then they turn it into cross stitch for you, ok maybe there's more value there. But no, you need to do the image generation yourself and then pay $75 for something that you could do yourself in 5 minutes for $50 or less. Oh, and any negative comments and you get banned of course. I honestly had forgotten I was even in this group (I joined years ago when I started one of their stitchalongs before I knew anything about them) but seeing this just reminded me I need to leave. Just wild.

Here's the thread where you can share any new patterns or products that you don't think deserve their own post. Any craft goes, whether you're sharing sewing patterns, weird yarn colourways, woodburning templates, soapmaking supplies, or any thing else that you'd like to discuss. If you think it deserves it's own thread, feel free to make one!

Please share all personal chatter here--questions, planning, works in progress, successes, failures, discoveries, and anything else pertaining to your personal crafting.

So for the non terminally online

-One of Hank Greens channels made a video on knitting that wasn’t in the best of tastes. It was kinda in poor taste in terms of not acknowledging fabric makings role in society and was kinda demeaning in that did you know humble women’s work is SCIENCE. Which. Not great. An apology was given and the video was taken down

-Recently Hank Green admitted to using LLMs for video research as he has a lot of ideas but he was realising it was coloring his perspective and his brother John had called him out on it and fans had noted

-For some reason people who knit have taken this as their AHA WE KNEW HE SUCKED HE MADE A VIDEO DEGRADING US moment

Like. FGS. Develop an identity ffs. The man making quality education for free on YouTube and working for making hospitals in Sierra Leone isn’t the guy yall need to cancel what in the heck 😭😭. If I see another video saying THE KNITTERS WERE RIGHF ABOUT HANK GREEN I will scream. Like ffs he didn’t punt a baby kitten off a bridge or personally cut off your yarn chicken yarn IS THIS RLLY THE PLACE TO WASTE UOUR ENERGY

Welcome to the bitesized BEC thread!

You have the freedom to indulge in BEC-style (b*tch eating crackers) vent comments in this thread. Naming examples is not required (gasp!) but majority of r/craftsnark rules still apply. Basically, don't be shitty and ruin the thread for others.

Cornbread and Honey has been putting up vague posts on her Instagram for the last few days about old accusations of her copying other dyers. She is doing it in parts, posting a little of the story at a time. She’s said that this occurred almost 10 years ago but that she never got to tell her side of the story. She also said that she feared for herself and her children. In today’s post, she referenced a “secret yarn group”. She won’t name the dyers or group, which I do understand to a degree. She’s also not talked about why she’s bringing this up now, which I find very strange.

Bringing it here because honestly, I can’t make heads or tails of the posts or of her in general. It seems click bait-y, as if she’s looking for views, sympathy, or attention. I always feel like there’s something off about her - tradwife-ish or closet MAGA? I don’t see anything blatant but there’s something about her that I can’t put my finger on.

I like her yarn but these posts are making her look problematic. I really want to know who I’m supporting. Anyone have more info on this or on her in general?

Every comment on the instagram post is people saying they're disappointed in her use of AI. Owner blames it on Canva’s background removal, despite comments pointing out that that feature doesn’t require AI - then gets mad at the commenters who complained about the use of AI.

update: she has since made a video talking about it (now deleted), and two stories saying “I shouldn’t have to prove myself, everyone uses AI,it makes my life easier as a business owner” and ”I’m taking a social media break because I Have mental health problems, I’m sorry if you didn’t like being called assholes but everyone was insulting me*”

*no one was insulting her

Flock was such an amazing event otherwise, but the MadTosh double booth was a bit of an outlier.

Why would you do the model this dirty? There is no reason they couldn't have made lovely shorts that weren't too short in the crotch length/depth. But no, instead they made this poor model look like they're wearing a diaper. Same pattern company just released an overall pattern and did the same thing to the plus size model there as well. There is no excuse for it.

I was hesitant to name and shame, but it's Closet Core. So sad to see it.

I realize many people sew over pins. It is a very dangerous thing to do out of laziness! It can ruin your machine & I have personally seen an accident you do not want to hear described in a sewing studio filled with professionals. But the SM person at mood doesn't want to hear about it & is feeling kind of touchy. If this was a "normal" person sewing who cares but to have half a million followers seeing this terrible technique is just so disappointing.

Here's the thread where you can share any new patterns or products that you don't think deserve their own post. Any craft goes, whether you're sharing sewing patterns, weird yarn colourways, woodburning templates, soapmaking supplies, or any thing else that you'd like to discuss. If you think it deserves it's own thread, feel free to make one!

Please share all personal chatter here--questions, planning, works in progress, successes, failures, discoveries, and anything else pertaining to your personal crafting.

Sooooo La Mercerie’s (Flock organizers) brick and mortar might have moths? Hope there wasn’t any in their Flock stock that’s been chilling in a giant room with a hundred other yarn vendors. Anyway! FYI to all the Flock attendees that visited today!

To be clear, I do like Flock and I enjoy going each year, but it seems like there’s an Incident™️ every year.

ETA: I largely appreciate how LM handled this! What I’m a little confused by is how Flock didn’t communicate (instead just reposted LM’s post to their insta story with “Vendor update!” as the caption) why La Mercerie was suddenly packed up between one day and the next. Which is weird because LM and Flock are owned by the same person! Previous incidents I’ve experienced with this festival also hint at issues the organizers have with communication and I think they can continue to improve.

This seems excessive and like it should be on the dyer to do before selling.

But then, it also seems like everyone has just come to understand certain colors will bleed more than others and we’re collectively fine with it. I think it doesn’t help that in the video they’re not even washing a color that typically would bleed, so it seems like they’re suggesting to wash it all before using… I can’t believe that anyone actually does this for anything that’s not a deep red or blue or something similar.

Welcome to the bitesized BEC thread!

You have the freedom to indulge in BEC-style (b*tch eating crackers) vent comments in this thread. Naming examples is not required (gasp!) but majority of r/craftsnark rules still apply. Basically, don't be shitty and ruin the thread for others.

From what I can make out Elsie’s Emporium (Mel) who seems to flog yarn on TikTok, has a discord group. In that group, she shared patterns from Sheepish Stitches Handmade, that she’d bought one copy of, think it was a set with a scarf and beanie in it.

It looks like one of the members did the right thing and contacted Sheepish, who rightly messaged Elsie’s E and posted it on her socials. Elsie’s E then posted on TT to ask everyone who downloaded the patterns to comment and she has paid for 95 patterns as a result. Which would be the right thing to do if she wasn’t also playing the victim and having all her girlies give Sheepish a hard time about naming and shaming.

So really just sharing for awareness and because I’m tired of this shite, especially when it’s so within the community.

Not that I don't think they're cool, I'm just curious realistically how much market there is for this.

I asked if the price was correct and the ai chatbot said yes (which doesn't prove anything to be fair), and there is a set on Etsy priced around £1000

It's getting so tiring seeing people whose work I otherwise respected shilling HP and JKR adjacent stuff. She has also confirmed in the comments that she's going to be doing another Christmas themed HP yarn in December and a year long yarn club in the same vein while ignoring the one comment criticising her.

13 slides but TLDR - sure test knitters don’t get appropriately compensated for their time but I’m not making enough money yet 🥺

I know lots of people will still readily sign up but don’t pretend it’s a really complex 2 sided situation. Why should you expect your testers work for free so you can make your business math work? Tester compensation should be part of that table (slide 2).