@zoy Fortunatey the industry I’m in: #knitting #crochet #yarn is largely built on word of mouth & #smallbusiness models. (I was there when a pair of techbros bought knitting(dot)com & thought they’d show the “grandmas” how online businesses were run only to get handed their hats & a swift kick in the rear)
I’m learning A LOT. Some of the challenges I’ve encountered have been kind of surprising as well: like the fact that there are no women-owned web hosting companies, most online marketplaces follow the Amazon model (especially in creating walled gardens with specific backend vendors/processors/service providers) and every handknitting yarn company in the world appears to be privately owned. I haven’t quite figured out how to overcome some of those without actually doing everything myself (I am exploring the web hosting thing). Any suggestions or input would be hugely welcome! @jana @WeirdWriter

You can't build up this factory infrastructure overnight. For the art supplies. For computer chips and other parts. For wool yarn (and other fibers). It could take years or even decades.

Where do you get the parts to make the machines for these factories? Where do you get the supplies to build these factories?

These tariffs are not the way to build manufacturing in the US.

In the meantime, people but small businesses especially suffer. Ugh.
#knitting #crochet

I think the reason the US doesnt use wool and other natural fibers as much as the rest of the world is because synthetic fibers like nylon were invented here and championed as superior to natural fibers.

So, we don't have the infrastructure for processing and spinning wool, let alone into knitting yarn. Knitting isn't taught in schools. It is a forgotten part of culture.

The US has sheep herds. They're mainly used for meat, their wool tossed.

And if you're thinking "Well, all the more reason to buy from indie dyers and indie yarn brands!"
...
Where do you think they get their yarn bases from? A LOT of Merino comes from Australia and New Zealand. A lot of silk comes East Asia.
Cashmere comes from East Asia.

There are small yarn mills dotted around the US. They tend to make small specialty yarns. Some have closed due to economic reasons. Where do they get their spinning machine parts from?

When you consider tariffs for fiber arts... good luck if you want fleece or fiber prominent from a certain country.

The US... for complex reasons we aren't a wool using country. A LOT of the yarns in LYS and big box stores are made in another country. Turkey, UK, France, Italy, some in China, a LOT from India...

Panic buying yarn isn't the solution. Folks did that during the pandemic and still don't know what to do with the yarn.

Idk.
#knitting #crochet #spinning #weaving