Kudos to each dyer who created new colorways and/or
otherwise stepped up to the plate and willingly supplied yarn support to nine
designers and their summer creations. Yarn support is currently winging its way
around the globe so that creation can begin. The collection’s big reveal will
occur May 31st, which is also the beginning date of the related
maker event, which will last until the end of July. Since dyers make their own
design support decisions (I coordinate the call), even I have no current idea
of the shape the collection will take. I won’t know until designers provide me
with their sample photos in May so I can create this year’s look book (and the
look books from the last two collections can be viewed here and here). I genuinely like
it this way – some mystery built into the process is nice for me. Design
revelation toward the end of May is always so thrilling and that joy is,
hopefully, reflected in the final look book to which the public will have
access.
I am also pleased that I have developed and continue to coordinate
an event that is truly independent – independent designers, independent dyers,
no outside money of any kind, participating designers and dyers do all the
social media posting as a collective. I would be remiss if I did not talk about
this week’s crafty elephant in the room – the Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing of F+W Media, the parent company of many magazines and book titles, including the
entire family of Interweave knit and (sole) crochet magazines. This bankruptcy
filing touches a large, large, swath of the design and maker community (and a
quick look at the names on the almost 550
pages that make up the creditors’ list will provide you with a snapshot of just how wide a swath it is). I also feel for all of the day-to-day
editorial staff at these publications – they work so hard, and their professional lives are currently
in limbo. Since the bankruptcy pleadings have openly stated F+W will be looking
to secure a sale of Interweave (among other assets) within the next 90 days to
an as-yet identified buyer, not only do editorial staff not know about their
immediate professional future, but the design community’s willingness to submit
designs to current calls becomes a dicey proposition. For myself, I withdrew a
submission I just sent in last Thursday, and I will not submit to any
additional Interweave call until the dust settles on either an Interweave sale or a
bankruptcy discharge, whichever happens first. At that point, I will reassess the facts on the ground to determine whether or not I will once again start to submit (although I want nothing more than to see a positive outcome so I can do just that). For the record, I am also on the
creditors’ list, although I am only out some royalty amounts on four designs
(and I am not planning on ever seeing any of that money). There are many other
designers and contributors who have not, and perhaps never will, receive far larger
sums for their unpaid-at-time-of-bankruptcy hard work.
I have written, both previously on this blog, as well as
across most of my social media, that makers need to pay indie designers a fair
pattern price for their designing work, and that my designing for individual
publication as well as for third parties went hand-in-hand. There can be,
unfortunately, no more excellent example of that inter-relatedness than this
week’s events. We rise and fall together. In the initial dyer and designer call
for this year’s Adventure + Renewal collection, I wrote that this year could be
the most stressful of all of the last two previous years. Of course, I had
more geo-political ideas in my head when I wrote those words. I never
envisioned that the stress could and would hit so professionally close to home.
Businesses come out at the other end of a bankruptcy filing
and continue to exist (just ask many a car company and/or airline carrier) –
that’s what the bankruptcy code is there for, to provide a fresh start. I
cannot, however, be optimistic about a company whose own bankruptcy papers
admit (in an uncharacteristically honest assessment that I believe on its
face) it managed to piss away $6 million in fresh capital, and who are searching for buyers in order to liquidate. I genuinely thought
after F+W cleaned house at the end of 2017 it had turned a corner, but
unfortunately not. I also noted to myself a concern about the lack/quality of
the advertising in the winter edition of Interweave Crochet (although,
editorially, I think the magazine is as strong as it has ever been). For my
crochet-design loving heart, this bankruptcy also touches upon how
consolidating crochet publishing into just a few voices has detrimental
consequences. In the U.S., there are only two other major crochet publishers,
and one of them is electronic, no physical publications. F+W had purchased a
second crochet title and then proceeded to discontinue publishing it, leaving
only three U.S.-based crochet magazines that potentially might be seen on the
periodical shelves.
Nevertheless, just like Brexit – it ain’t over till it’s
over. Yogi Berra was never so prophetic. My hope is that a strong publisher
scoops up Interweave and, at least in terms of Interweave Crochet, re-imagines a
more robust and forward-looking publication. There are many ways that might be
accomplished, but no matter how, I hope it is accomplished with its current
editor. I expect she may have good ideas on how the magazine could be tweaked
and/or otherwise reinvented.
In the meantime, I am going to continue getting ready for
this summer’s Adventure + Renewal collection. I cannot tell you how pleased I
am to be in the company of these independent designers and dyers – artists all
– whose work as a group brings much summer designing and making joy. I urge
everyone to support independent designers. They are the collective
