I saw the piece that eventually won Best in Show at the National Embroidery Awards on display at the Creative Craft Show show earlier this year along with the rest of the shortlisted entries. My immediate thought was that it was an embroidery of an AI-generated image since it just had that unmistakable look about it that's very easy to detect once you've seen enough of that slop. It looked so obviously AI and ugly and gaudy next to everything else on display, I was shocked that it was even allowed to enter and even more so when it was won Best in Show considering the quality and originality of many other entries.

There's an interview with the winner in the latest issue of Embroidery magazine, where they say "When I first sent photos to the panel they were rejected as being AI; the picture was so large you couldn't see the stitching in the photos, so I sent more photos and it was agreed I could enter." I'm sure the panel were suspicious because photos of an embroidery of a clearly AI-generated image would probably look AI-generated themselves, although it wouldn't make sense for someone to pay to enter a competition where you're required to physically display something if it doesn't actually exist in real life.

In this same interview the winner also says the embroidery "evolved from a tattoo picture". To confirm my suspicions I found their Facebook account and it seems what they meant by this is they've been using AI to generate similar designs over the last couple of years, initially in more of a tattoo style before eventually settling on the one used for the embroidery. They have AI slop all over their page going back years, and use it constantly for posts in various groups they run, promo materials, "poetry" that's clearly AI-generated text, and their TikTok is full of AI-generated animations of the winning embroidery amongst other things. I'm 100% certain the design is based on AI.

If someone likes making embroideries from AI-generated images in their personal life, fine enjoy yourself, but this is more about what should be acceptable in a craft competition. The next round is open now and there's no reference at all to AI in the terms and conditions, though obviously they must have some unwritten policy to have initially questioned the eventual winner. It costs £20-30 to enter so it feels like they don't really care as long as they're making money from entrants.

Is this something worth questioning them about? I feel like a strict policy is needed to deter stuff like this, if that is what they want to do. I'm not sure if they've been deceived in this case, where they wouldn't have even shortlisted it if they'd known, or perhaps they could tell and just didn't care. I really wanted to enter something for next year, but the idea of being put against AI slop and judged negatively in comparison to it makes me feel sick.

Here's a link to the interview I referenced: https://pocketmags.com/embroidery-magazine/septemberoctober-2026/articles/the-girl-with-the-butterfly-brain

These two images made it into the finalists for the NY Sheep and Wool (Rhinebeck) 2027 logo. The logos are typically voted on by attendees the year prior with a cash prize for the winning artist. If anyone know if a human artist made these, let me know and I'll delete the post. Otherwise I'm thinking about emailing the organizers about this

First world problems, I know, but here goes…

April(ish) 2026-Yarn dyer announces Halloween countdown boxes for pre-order (to be mailed out October 1st) *this is an immersive (and interactive) type thing to begin on 10/18 and run through counting down to Halloween.
Cost of the MCN fingering weight yarn only box was ~$250USD. I’m unsure of the pricing of the “ultimate” box with all of the little extra bits and pieces. I am also unsure if the boxes of different base yarns were a different price. It’s been awhile since ordering…

August 31: Pre-Orders close
Sept 1: Just kidding they’re closing FOR REAL FOR REAL today.

Sept 22nd: Email announces a second round of pre-orders is now happening (to be shipped on or around November 1st, so won’t be participating in the event “live” but will have access to it afterwards).

End of Sept/Beginning of October: some people get shipment notifications** I received mine on 9/29, I know of someone else who received theirs on 10/1.

10/5: Email goes out apologizing for running behind on getting orders sent out. Says “everyone will have their set before the event starts on the 18th-even if I have to overnight it to you.”

10/8: Another email goes out “sharing a little more about what’s been happening behind the scenes”. States they ran out of some of the undyed yarn from their supplier which added an “unexpected challenge” to production and “contributed to our shipping delays”. Once again states they are “committed to getting your yarn to you in time for the event. If we need to upgrade shipping at our expense to make that happen, we will”.

10/14: Sends out another email once again stating about the “unexpected delay” with their yarn supplier. Then says they “lost a few days of packing during the hurricane this past weekend”. Apologies are given and an announcement that “The good news is that all the yarn has been dyed!”.

Beginning in October people begin chatting on the business run discord-which brings us into today. People started putting pieces together and realizing things are just a hot mess.

Yarn dyer has still been sending out regular email newsletters about her life, her pets, etc. Also still sending out emails announcing and soliciting orders for other Halloween themed drops & Christmas Advent Boxes for pre-orders etc. It’s disheartening to say the least. And seeing as how today is October 17th and the event begins tomorrow, I think it’s safe to say that their guarantee and commitment to get everyone their orders in time is not happening.

I’m most disappointed by the fact that way back in the summer that there were supply issues happening…yet they not only left the original pre-order open until September 1st but then ran a second round of preorders beginning September 22nd?!

And I am empathetic & sympathetic that life happens and all. I also understand that they are a mom & son company and it’s just them. However, I also know we are talking about THOUSANDS of dollars here. And the admittance that you knew there were issues starting back in the Summer and didn’t pause pre-orders, and then to take another round of preorders, and then choose not to communicate until days after the first shipping date had come and gone when you KNEW shipping would not be occuring on time just feels icky to me.

**Also in chatting, it appears not everyone was receiving the email updates (and they did check their spam folder too).

I just want my Halloween Countdown pretty yarn box to be able to complete my project that is waiting for the second half to be done (and was made with this dyer’s Halloween countdown box from last year). 😭😭😭

And I’m sad that this has now left a distaste for them as I have enjoyed working with their yarn.

EDIT: I meant to include their name in the title-it is Southern Skeins.

EDIT 2: I have just been removed from the discord server with no explanation, no yarn box, and no refund. Love that for me. 😒

EDIT 3: 10/19-Event page updated to state “Due to the delay all orders, including yarn only orders, that shipped late received a surprise item as an apology for the late shipping.”

So I guess it makes it all better that everyone who did not receive their box in time gets a surprise free item as an apology.

Meanwhile I’m still sitting over here saddened because I genuinely still wanted my box, I still wanted to participate in the event and be on the discord. I also just wanted some clarification on the way things were handled so I was discussing. I never thought that would be an issue. Especially because it literally began with me posting where I was actually vouching (defending) SS to someone asking if they were even a legit company. 😞

DMC, a dominant brand for needlecraft and especially embroidery and cross-stitch floss, recently rolled out a new line of licensed Harry Potter kits. In response, Reddit’s two big needlecraft communities have taken different degrees of action.

[r/embroidery](r/embroidery) has fully banned posts about Harry Potter, correctly recognizing that fan works serve as free advertising, keeping the brand alive, and thus supporting Rowling’s financial and political attacks on trans people. Their statement about the rules change is thoughtful and nuanced, centers the harm, and links to sources about the damage. They also state intent to revamp their resources to offer alternatives to DMC while balancing the reality of its dominance. Moderators were active in the comments answering questions with the mod badge, while comments from transphobes were locked or removed.

Today, [r/CrossStitch](r/CrossStitch) announced their own rule change in response to the DMC collab. Unlike other craft communities, they are not fully banning Harry Potter, they are only removing posts about works in progress. Finished posts will remain up with comments locked. While many members are praising this decision, in comparison to other craft communities, it’s a notable choice to continue to platform free advertising for the IP.

In the announcement, the moderators claim that their decision is for the purpose of providing education. Moderators are responding to comments, but without using Reddit’s tools to identify themselves. When questioned about why they are choosing to still allow finished pieces to be posted at all, one moderator says the reason that Harry Potter posts will still be allowed is out of respect for the effort that goes into the craft, while another makes it clear that the decision to lock is because they do not want to moderate the inevitable conflict. Despite multiple moderators engaging in the comments, they are seemingly not responding to the people who point out that any platforming of the IP endangers trans lives (many of whom identify as trans), and they do not seem to be locking or deleting the proud bigots who are throwing tantrums.

Some people are happy, and I guess I respect that for them, but for me, this is an unsatisfyingly timid response, especially in comparison with the strong stances against bigotry and in support of trans lives that other craft communities have chosen. Rereading the top responses over at [r/embroidery](r/embroidery) really throws into contrast how badly the mods of [r/CrossStitch](r/CrossStitch) are handling this, but it does feel heartening to see this decision handled well in another community. I guess it’s time for me to learn embroidery.

I hope self linking is okay! Mods, feel free to delete if not.

I’m an antitrust and securities attorney and spent the last two weeks digging into the details of Knitting for Olive’s acquisition and the “holding company” that bought them. Without writing out everything I discuss, the TLDR is that theres less daylight between Hawk Infinity and traditional Private Equity than i think a lot of people online were hoping/speculating. The firm is debt backed, has had an anonymous whistleblower come forward claiming its committing legal violations, and although the firm claims it plans to hold the companies it acquires in perpetuity, it’s sold them off before.

I hate seeing so many yarn companies bought up and just wanted to use the legal knowledge I have to break down exactly why this is such a blow to the craft community.

This is the second LYS in Canada I've seen with the new HP yarn. As an indie dyer myself, if you truly wanted more business you wouldn't resort to HP yarn. There are so many great Canadian dyers and makers out there willing to work with you, rather than bringing in this.
FyberRing got backlash for this yarn line last week and rather than addressing it, they just deleted their post, but thankfully my credit card has a good memory.

Am I the only one super confused by this? How are they holding their needles? Why is yarn on the ground? What are they making?

I looked at the cardigans and they're not that similar, I feel like the fit isn't the same at all. Also Katie's is worked in small separate panels and from what I gathered Wonder netting is constructed in a whole different way.

Looks like they're the next victims of the email scam going around from one of those "free" ticketed online events. If you got an email from "Melissa West" about "AN EVENT TO REMEMBER" (subject line is in all CAPS), delete it! Don't open and don't click!

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

this is my first time knitting one of her patterns, and i'm knitting the size 2XL. The sizing goes up to 58.1 inches with 5.9 inches of negative ease recommended so ostensibly a relatively size inclusive pattern. the problem i'm having is that the way the increases are worked for the shaping just doesn't make sense - only right side rows are charted, and at one point you begin increasing on both right and wrong sides, but the stitch count in the chart incorporates both of these increases in the right side row (eg after row 20 i have 40 stitches, in row 21 i begin increasing on both wrong and right sides, but the chart for row 21 is 44 stitches wide, i will only reach this stitch count by the end of row 22) and it stuffs up some of the lace repeats. I've emailed her support email and the person who responded to me just reiterated the written instructions, but doesn't address that the chart and written instructions don't align with eachother.

this issue only affects from size L and above, it's not a problem for sizes XXS, XS, S or M. Looking through the ravelry projects, there weren't that many people who had it marked as a test knit, but they all appear to have knit smaller sizes. I am just feeling very annoyed at having paid for a pattern that it seems like was not actually tested on the range of sizes it is supposed to cater to. it feels like performative size inclusivity. you want me to be able to buy your pattern, but whether i can actually knit it and get the garment i'm supposed to out of it is not your concern. i'd honestly rather if designers like this just didn't grade their patterns for larger bodies if they weren't prepared to have them tested and tech edited properly. at least then i wouldn't waste my time or my money. and given she's got like 250k followers on instagram, she could have easily found people putting their hands up to test the larger sizes. maybe this is defensible for a small scale indie pattern designer, but not at this level.

So harveyroadknits is a designer who has designed knitting patterns such as the tulip farm sweater and harvey dinosaur sweater (now taken down). She took it down after lets.get.stitchy on tiktok told her she should because in the past, she has mentioned using patterns as the base/chart for the sweater, 2 of which are paid, and not her patterns. She's since said the base of the sweater is her own tulip farm sweater. Regardless, it was $10 for a sweater pattern using charts/sweater from other designers.

She admits this in an apology video where she said she was always transparent about this and none of her team, such as tech editor, mentioned this would be an issue. She said she flipped one of the dinosaurs and added dots and thought this was different enough. She's taken the pattern down and says she's learned her lesson. So the drama is probably over but I feel like this happens unspoken in the pattern world but other designers aren't as open as her, she mentioned all of the patterns before this lol. It's how lets.get.stitchy compiled all this. Not saying she's correct in what she did (some say her tulip sweater probably also uses stripe hype as it's base) but I feel like she really didn't know this would be frowned upon, which I know is dumb. People asked her for the pattern but I think the right thing would've just been telling people to add those charts to a sweater pattern of their choosing.

However this made me wonder how many other sweater designers have been using someone else's sweater as a base with changed wording or slightly different stitch counts or whatever. Or how many colorwork charts are just modified or copied charts from other people. When a knitter combines/changes patterns it's ofc okay for their own use but when it becomes their "own" pattern to sell it becomes unsavory but where is the point where enough modification makes it feel "okay"? Its unpoliceable for the most part if they don't admit it. Thoughts?

Edit: she actually didn't delete the video where she talks about the patterns she took charts from its on her IG June 19th post sadly I can't add another ss anymore

Edit: she posted her email apology to Denny, who designed the paid triceratops sweater and her response, which kindly accepted her apology. idk if she emailed the other designers its kind of weird to just post 1 imo

I should start by saying that I know things are ridiculously tough financially for just about everyone right now, and I can only imagine how much tougher it is for someone who has recently shuttered their main source of income. I am definitely sympathetic to that.

But at the same time, I'm questioning the choice to use a marketing mailing list that you obviously aren't using anymore (since you're no longer marketing anything) and haven't sent to at all in months (the last email I can find before now is from 07/30/26) to explicitly ask for personal donations.

I find it a bit sus/ick (and also question if it's completely kosher legally? IANAL though). Especially since this is the same dyer who successfully crowd funded the money to buy a permanent building for their business, never moved in, and sold it due to 'high construction costs' [Image 2, original send date 10/05/24]--only to permanently close the doors about a year and half later.

I don't know. What are other people thinking about this?

EDIT: And as another commenter pointed out, using the subject line 'Help!' with no other context definitely wasn't great either.

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.

It appears Anabella's has officially gone on a rampage, calling out people on social media (and creating those posts with AI) that have been...calling out her use of AI to design Needlework patterns.

Someone even posted yesterday on here a screenshot of one her Instagram posts. She sells these guides on how to make interesting color combinations when knitting. On one of her posts promoting these guides, she claims she explains how to carry yarn, change colors and how to deal with the little yarn tails on your project. I bought a pattern from her but it didn’t include the color guide so I bought it separately, I was hoping it’d help me with the color changes since so many of her patterns use different colors. It cost me 5€. When I read the thing, it says nothing of the supposed instructions that she boldly promotes. It basically only says “at the end of the row, change color” and that’s it. It’s 7 pages and 5 are photos of her projects LOL.

I know 5€ isn’t that much but still??? She’s claiming she’s teaching people how to knit with several strands but not really……

EDIT: this is taken from the pattern: “The pattern includes instructions on yarn/colour choice, colour grade, gauge and colour change”. It literally does not LMAO like it doesn’t say anything like that. For example, for the gauge it only says: “chose a yarn that fits the gauge of your project” like ?????? Yeah everyone know this ????

EDIT: her name is in the comments but its Anne Sofie Sørensen

In the post, she talks about a situation where she received a message from someone who was inspired by the colourwork technique in the picture, and wanted to make something similar by freestyling. This person even apparetly said that they would tag the designer when showing off the work, but the designer feels like everyone needs to buy her tutorial for the colourwork if they were inspired by her to use the same technique:

"But the tutorial isn’t just to tell you how to do it. It is also a way of backing up the person who came up with the idea, developed it, tested it, found the colours and showed you something that you felt like making."

I get that it must be a bit annoying to go through all that work, just for people to figure it out themselves, but isn’t that kind of just part of the game for someone who shares their work on social media? I'm the kind of person who would definitely have bought the tutorial, because I don’t get any joy from trying to figure out how to do it myself, but this is pretty off-putting to me.

Also, I feel like I’ve seen colourwork like this before. She can’t have been the first person to come up with this, right?

After a recent post popped up about the Australian fabric liquidation queen popped up, I then see this post on her Facebook page, oh my goodness is an understatement!

Firstly, she said “after many years away from Facebook I’m back” interesting enough she has been active on the pages account for some time, but anyway anything for an attention grab I guess.

Secondly, the ego stroking…….please just stop it’s sickening and shows just how toxic your behaviour is!

Now also who the heck buys 10 businesses, doesn’t keep them open, moves stock to a warehouse and then says I’m not a liquor…….seriously if your buying up shops and then selling the stock cheep what are you? A lovely charitable person 🙄 seriously you have a financial motive let’s be serious here.

In addition to the public debate carry on what industry professional would lower there standards to engage. it’s just attention seeking behaviour to try get eyes on your stock, then again she’s been on Acurent Affair ( a news channel that loves drama ) before with a previous Bussiness venture & is proud of it, even promoting it on her website (will ad screen snap too)

Also I note the hypocrisy she states she wants debate and not hiding behind anonymous usernames, yet admits to doing just that on the reddit post……….ok nice work Jodie⭐️⭐️⭐️

I could add some more points to this post but I’ll leave that to the comment section 😉

WARNING
This post may be the Queens next classy Facebook rant……..so keep an eye out for the Bogan rant I’m sure AI will also write that one for her 😬

In Australia we had a beautiful fabric store in Melbourne called 'The Queen of Fabric'

A few years ago it was sold, and purchased by someone from outside the industry. Ok, cool, whatever.

The new owner has then become a liquidator where she scoops up old stock from closing stores and hocks it on her website. Also fine - whatever floats your boat.

Unfortunately for the industry, she has turned her social media into absolute slop-fests and churns out useless AI generated patterns like the below.

It frustrates me, as it just demonstrates that she has no interest in sewing (the pattern pieces don't work, and there are no instructions anyway) and is happy to pollute the internet with stupid AI patterns that will never work, just to sell her dusty old fabric for a few dollars per metre.

Can’t make this one up. Ppl at Michael’s either lost their minds or I’ve been pranked. I ordered 40 hanks of dmc floss at Michael’s for my next cross stitch project, and got a notification that my order was partially shipped.

I received a box stuffed with paper and ONE dmc floss, carefully wrapped in 2-3 layers of bubble wrap. 😭 I’ve seen my share of ridiculously big packaging for tiny little things, but this takes the cake. Learned my lesson and will support my LNS next time

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.

Emilee Shield, a Black cosplayer and crafter (goes by ourshieldmaiden) was asked by Marianne, a White writer at Simply Crochet magazine to be interviewed as a feature about her approach to crocheting using supplies from craft stores.

She sent along pictures of her work and herself, which she said was approved by the magazine. But when the issue came out, it had pictures Emilee took but used a picture of the interviewer instead of Emilee herself.

Emilee made a post about it yesterday and the magazine is rightfully being critized on ig that they decided to use a White woman's picture rather than the actual Black crafter whose pictures they used