They’re Crafty, Cozy, and Yarn-Obsessed. They Will Also Destroy You Online With No Mercy.

Users Knitters Can’t Stop Fighting With One Another Online. It’s Kind of Delightful. They’re here to knit sweaters and destroy lives—and they’re all out of yarn. Photo illustration by Slate. Photos by Getty Images Plus. Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Knitting is supposed to be relaxing. This is what I tell myself when a dropped stitch ends up partially unraveling two weeks’ worth of a sweater, or the time I had to chase my cat around my apartment to pull a string of yarn he had ingested out of his butt. Why shouldn’t it be? Depending on where you look, the hobby is the hallmark of the kind, old woman gently passing the time in the background of the coffee shop, or the full-time job of a beautiful young Scandinavian woman on Instagram, or simply the person who, when you ask where they got their sweater, coyly responds, “Thanks, I made it.” I’m obsessed with them all, both as a model for my future self and also the person I’d like to be right now—effortless, serene, perfect. But spend enough time online and you’ll realize that the facade of cozy nights in and days quietly posing for photos lit by never-ceasing natural light is just that. Make no mistake: These women are monsters, and they will fucking destroy you. I have to imagine there was drama in the crafting community before the internet. After all, one of the biggest pet peeves of modern makers is the perception of their craft as being a frivolous hobby, rather than centuries-old skills that served as a foundation of modern engineering. But in the 1800s, no one could make a YouTube video accusing another creator of copying their slipper pattern, or debate English vs. Continental knitting in TikTok comments. And there definitely wasn’t a subreddit called “Bitch Eating Crafters,” a play on the internet forum term “Bitch Eating Crackers,” dedicated to the subtle ways everyday makers commit faux pas. “One of my theories about this is that crafting gives you a lot of time to sit and think,” Aspen, a pattern designer and online creator, tells me. Three years ago, they launched their YouTube channel Aspen in the Moment, dedicated exclusively to breaking down the latest discourse in the crafting world. It’s your standard drama-commentary channel, but about, for instance, “The Most Controversial Episode of the Great British Sewing Bee.” “When you have time to think, you have time to analyze, and that’s sort of the other side of that, too: People who are more likely to be nitpicky and analytical are drawn to knitting because that’s what it requires.” Which means these attitudes are not just confined to dedicated craft-snarking spaces. Posting in r/Knitting can be like a game of Russian roulette. Will your question invite helpful suggestions, or, unbeknownst to you, poke a bear who is exhausted by people making this same mistake over and over? Last year, I wrote about how President Donald Trump’s tariffs were impacting the wool industry, and solicited opinions from the subreddit about how they were handling the loss of a number of popular yarn brands who would no longer ship to the U.S. Almost immediately, I was met with suspicion. How could they trust me? Did I have proof my Reddit handle was actually connected to who I said I was? It would be so easy for someone to impersonate me (to do what, however, I was never quite sure). In the end, I received far more helpful and thoughtful responses than I did negative, but then it came time to share the finished article. The original art for the piece featured a globe stitched out of yarn—crochet stitches, specifically. This was an article about knitting, and this mismatch was immediately called out. “Thank you so much to everyone here who I connected with for this piece, and who shared great resources,” I captioned the post. “Hey quick question has your artist ever seen knitting or crochet?” a user replied. “Or did ya just slap some AI slop on this piece that we were so helpful with?” The art was not made using A.I., but this didn’t stop the accusations from mounting. While knitters were frustrated that the piece was being represented by crochet, crocheters were irked that the piece talked so much about knitting. I asked to have the art changed, feeling as if I did so at gunpoint. “If people have never interacted with knitting before, they might just be like, ‘Oh, it’s just a bunch of old women sitting around,’ ” Aspen says, “and not realizing that even if it’s just a group of old women sitting around making their knitting, there’s a lot that goes into it.” Let me be clear: I love when people are passionate, even more so about things others tend to overlook. But I am a mere hobbyist. For people who make their living in the online crafting space, patience can wear thin. “My social media routine has slowly changed over the last year or so, as I’ve felt more anxiety around it,” Sydney Graham, a sewing-pattern designer, told me over email. This summer, she announced on her YouTube channel that she would be taking a step back from short-form social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. “It felt like every time I opened Instagram, there was a post debating whether pattern designers should live or die, some new discourse I felt I needed to have an opinion on, or a million reminders that everyone else was apparently doing more, making more, selling more, posting more.” It doesn’t help that it’s not just crafters who tune into these conversations. The niche, sometimes unbelievable drama of this community attracts rubberneckers who’ve never even attempted German short rows or an Italian bind-off in their lives. One of Aspen’s most popular videos has 1 million views—not surprising, when you consider it’s about an indie yarn-dyer who faked her own death. But not far behind at over 700,000 views sits coverage of much more niche topics, like the lore of a specific crochet hook (crochet mentioned!) or what went wrong at a fiber festival. Ironically, though, these pet peeves and controversies have only made that community stronger. While it’s all well and good to connect with people over a mutual hobby, online discourse provides a much more fertile foundation than small talk. If someone makes the Sailor Slippers, you can talk to them about how the original creator filed a copyright takedown against a designer who adapted the pattern for crochet. If you see someone in the store reach for a skein from Knitting For Olive, you can ask them what they think about how they just sold to a private equity company. Or, just say the words “superwash yarn,” and watch the whole room erupt into debate. And then there’s the controversies I don’t know about, the missteps I’ve yet to commit. There’s almost certainly one or two buried in this piece alone. I’m excited to open up my phone and find out. Internet Culture Social Media YouTube Hobbies TikTok Reddit