FOR MANY years there
has been an ongoing
debate about issues of
diversity, representation
and racism in the knitting
and crochet community.
This conversation reached
a crescendo on Instagram in 2018 with
people of colour sharing their individual,
often painful experiences of racism and
exclusion within the crafting world.
With these issues finally being openly
discussed, some of the community began
asking yarn companies to adopt anti-racist
practices in order to bring about changes
that would make the community more
inclusive - something lasting and positive.
One starting point was by exploring
which knit and crochet designers people
were following. Another was to look at
who was being featured in magazines and
patterns. Was there any diversity in that
range of models and designers? Many were
open to the idea of being more inclusive in
terms of who they were following, but
found it wasn’t always easy to support
crafters or designers who are BIPOC
(black, indigenous and people of colour).
People often use emojis or pictures of yarn
in their social media profiles which meant
these couldn’t be relied on for clues, whilst
others preferred not to be classified purely
by their ethnicity, which of course is
something that is entirely their right to do.Be the change
Black knitwear designer Jeanette Sloan
decided to tackle this under-representation
by creating the POC Designers and Crafters
list and posting it on her blog.
Jeanette was propelled into action after
speaking with myself, an artist who was
studying for an MA in Knitted Textiles
at London’s Royal College of Art. I was
looking for black knitwear designers whilst
researching for my MA dissertation ‘Myth:
Black People Don’t Knit’, but didn’t know
of any. In fact, when I asked, even my
tutors told me the only one they could
name was Jeanette. Flabbergasted that she
was ‘the only one’, Jeanette did a callout
on Instagram to find other black designers- and the response was amazing. As well as
replies naming black knitwear designers,
she received comments from other crafters
and other ethnicities (among them some of
Asian heritage) saying how they also felt
invisible and under-represented.
Realising how many people of different
and mixed heritages weren’t being
represented in the wider crafting
community, Jeanette began to curate those
names she’d been given by creating the
POC Designers & Crafters List. What
started as a search for knitwear designers
broadened to multidisciplinary designer
makers, indie dyers, crochet designers and
others working with fibre. The response to
the list was one of overwhelming gratitude.
It brought practitioners of colour to the
public gaze, enabling magazines to
diversify their contributors and raising
the profile of those appearing on the list.Dream big
Jeanette was pleased with this start, but
felt there was still a lot more that needed to
be done. Her dream was that the list could
be transformed by widening the range of
fibre-based disciplines included, and
creating a website that would become an
online interactive resource. With the new,
broader objective there was a name change
from ‘POC Designers and Crafters’ to
‘BIPOC in Fiber’. It was decided to use
BIPOC not only because the term is more
widely used globally than BAME (Black and
Minority Ethnic), but also as a way of more
broadly and accurately including those of
mixed, non-white ethnicity.
The BIPOC in Fiber website will contain:
; A searchable directory
; Photographic gallery style listings
; Twelve monthly in-depth BIPOC in Fiber
profiles and interviews written by
Jeanette Sloan
; Learning resources designed to enable
further paid opportunities within the
industry for by BIPOC makers and
educatorsThe creation of the website will enable
BIPOC working in the fibre industry to
find and see one another, whilst enabling
event planners and publications to be more
intentional when curating events and
issuing submission calls. It will pool
resources designed to improve accessto opportunities for BIPOC working with
fibre, and also raise the international
profile of BIPOC working with fibre.
For the project to become a reality,
Jeanette knew she would have to assemble
a team. Because she felt the initiative
should always be BIPOC-led, she called on
me to design the BIPOC in Fiber logo,
and Alyson Chu to build the website.
Working with the support of trusted allies
who shared the vision for what the site
could achieve, the team started a
Crowdfunder campaign to raise £20,000
in order to pay for the branding, build and
maintenance of the new site.
The Crowdfunder fibre related product
rewards were created by BIPOC makers:
; Suraya Hossain of Mahliqa – designer
and maker of hand-knitted and
hand-crochet textile jewellery
; Lola Johnson of Third Vault Yarns,
an indie dyer
; Leila Bux of The Urban Purl, an indie dyerFrom dream to reality
On September 7th, 2019, the fundraiser
campaign was launched, and five days later
the target had been reached. The speed at
which the funds were raised showed the
level of support from within the knitting
and crochet community for this innovative
project. When the Crowdfunder ended on
October 4th, £32,039 had been raised from
533 supporters in 28 days. Support came
from well known companies such as
Stylecraft Yarns and La Bien Aimée, but
just as important was the support given by
many individuals wanting to do their part
to support this important project.
Raising funds has been arduous, but now
the rewarding task of building the website
can begin. If you wish to support this
project financially, you can still do so
through the BIPOC in Fiber PayPal Me
account. You can also help by spreading the
word about the project via social media:
we’re on Instagram as @bipocinfiber or
you can use the hashtag #bipocinfiber.
Lastly, if you are BIPOC, working with
fibre and wish to be included on the
website you can register your interest now
at http://www.bipocinfiber.com.PayPal Me link: http://bit.ly/paypalBIPOCRepresentation matters
Lorna Hamilton-Brown explains why the new initiative,
BIPOC in Fiber, was set up, and how it aims to improve
diversity and inclusivity in the knitting world
Knitting community
The Knitter Issue 144 Subscribe now at TheYarnLoop.com