STITCH 'N' BITCH

How did the sedate pastime of knitting become a hotbed of online feuds and conflict? Kate Ng puts down her needles to investipate a world of faked deaths, AI a stolen designs

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Have you heard the one about the yarn dye entrepreneur who allegedly faked her own death to avoid completing orders? I first heard it last year, shortly after taking up knitting. The story, which seems to be gleefully embroidered with every subsequent telling, goes a little like this: a woman in the US, who'd become a superstar on a popular knitting site, was overwhelmed with orders for her products, so – via updates provided by her “sister” – pretended to be hospitalised, then pretended to have died. Orders went unfulfilled. Someone claimed to have spotted the woman “post-death” in a branch of Walmart. The phrase “Zombie yarn dyers” has since become an inside joke among the knitting community.

Scandals like these weren’t initially the reason I was drawn to knitting last year. I instead wanted a new form of distraction. TikTok had become a big part of my life, and I found myself mindlessly flicking through clip after clip any time I had a second to spare. I needed to break the cycle, and knitting was a good way to keep my hands busy and my eyes off screens. But nothing could have prepared me for how much drama underpins what many assume is a wholesome activity.

It seems inconceivable that knitting should be anything other than an innocent pastime. But not so! Just five months into my knitting journey, I had discovered a different side to the hobby. The algorithms of TikTok and Instagram quickly cottoned on to my newfound interest, so my social media feeds are now full of wonderful woolly creations – but also the never-ending conflict that seems to go on in the world of fibre arts.