Mura Makes Messes

Mid 40s year old woman currently trying to teach herself crochet despite a short attention span, inherent klutziness, and a mild case of familial tremors. And an inability to do basic math. This could get interesting.

[behaviornerdwithahat]

So many fiber arts have difficulty levels that are less about your level of skill than your ability to tolerate extreme multi-step processes.

[behaviornerdwithahat]

Its also probably one of the reasons why any fiber art is a gateway drug into every other fiber art. I could do [other fiber art], I basically do half of those steps already for [current fiber art]. If I’m already doing 18 steps to make this sweater, is it really that many more steps if I spin my own wool? If I had sheep, I could skip the step of sourcing my material.

[muramakesmesses]

Okay, if you're ever in San Antonio and are looking for a queer friendly yarn store, Yarnivore was excellent.

My haul, not counting 2 skeins for @fallenangelfish

Ravel Realms was having a trunk show, so that's the three on the left that will become a shawl at some point. Fingering weight.

The blue/brown sparkly one was a $29 impulse buy and will look good as a hat or kerchief. DK weight.

And on the right is Malabrigo Arroyo in Sombra de Palma which will also become a hat. DK weight.

And a 3.0mm addi swing hook that I was delighted to find as my previous supplier decided to become AI idiots.

[mothman-etd]

Not sure got to feel when the hobby book says this should only take an hour but it took me 5 hours.

[gallusrostromegalus]

1. Hobby books are often written by the same people who think you can caramelize onions in 5 minutes

2. Hobby books are even more often written by people who don't have or are actively neglecting their partners/full-time jobs/pets/children/household maintenance.

3. Hobby books are often written by people with ADHD, and an hour in ADHD hyperspace is like 2-7 hours for everyone else, including other ADHD people who are not currently in the zone.

4. Hobby books are written by people who, when told by an editor to add in how long it will take, just make shit up

5. If you're doing something for the first time, you're going to take way, way longer to do it than someone who's had years of practice. Maybe it does only take an hour IF YOU'VE BEEN DOING IT FOR TEN YEARS. Think about how long it took you to make idk your first excel spreadsheet vs how long it takes now

To actually answer your question: proud. You should feel proud, because you made something, AND you did so while learning a brand-new skill! Go you!!

May I ask what the Allegedly-One-Hour project was? Both because I like hearing about what my friends are doing and I want to see how wildly inaccurate the listed time scope is.

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Hobbii's LinkedIn About Section Before and After Their AI Posts

I went back to their LinkedIn because I needed a clean screenshot of their original post about using AI to stop doing "awkward photo shoots" and went, "Wait. They were calling themselves a tech start up when I was here last time."

So, let's hear it for the Wayback Machine once again making it easier to side-eye how Hobbii used to refer to itself and how Hobbii NOW refers to itself after customers lit into the staff about their attempt to justify using generative AI to create product photos.

Like, I'm sure they have a line from marketing about how this has been a change a long time coming and they just happened to change the definition of their company RIGHT AFTER getting dick kicked. It's all a magical coincidence.

Yeah. And I've got a bridge to sell you.

[behaviornerdwithahat]

So many fiber arts have difficulty levels that are less about your level of skill than your ability to tolerate extreme multi-step processes.

[muramakesmesses]

Yarn Swift | Monitor showing Victoire @ Charge | Winder

This is an excellent desk setup for caking my project yarn.

[muramakesmesses]

Gotta make an emergency trip down to TX for three weeks which means trying to figure out a project to bring because the Efthalia Shawl is GROUNDED again.

I really want to start that Juliette Hooded Shawl, but that's gonna use quite a bit of yarn that I don't want to bring, so it will probably be the Wanderer Scarf, which means sometime this week I gotta cake up the Rios Pupuras like I don't have enough going on.

[titimylove]

are those even the real people quoted, or are they ai? who can say. 🙄

[titimylove]

you explicitly stated in your linkedin post that you wanted to use ai to avoid, and i quote, "awkward photoshoots".

i no longer trust you as a valid creative resource so long as you use ai at all. use of it is killing the planet and is built on stealing the work of creatives--your clientele. no matter how you want to break it down and justify it: ANY USE of ai in your business tells me you don't care about your clientele, your product, your employees, or the longevity of your business.

wake up and smell the yarn dye: you fucked around and now you're finding out.

i'm sure all the people that worked for you for years are so relieved the company fired them to save a buck on week one, and pay out the ass by week 4 onwards.

hey hobbii, was it worth it?

---my commentary crossposted

[titimylove]

even their reply sounds like it was written by a machine. what's with all the abbreviated talk? you're a company: speak normally.

this reply sounds like it was written by a machine. what's with all the abbreviated talk? you're a danish company, not my dudebro from arkansas. you are so feckless and disrespectful, you can't even give me the respect of talking to a human being, and you think i should be placated by your claim that ai isn't an issue at your company? god, you're so tone deaf.

i just thought this was too funny not to share. imagine not being a crafter, coming into crafting spaces, and telling crafters "your concerns are invalid because progress" 😒 like why are you here, how'd you even find this post? it costs $0 to stfu. (they got absolutely roasted in the replies)

[sweaterkittensahoy]

AHEM

Jump up my butt, you assholes.

[muramakesmesses]

Never posted my MDSW haul

Stud Buttons from Jul Designs

And Shawl kit from Bead Biz (you select the beads you want to use which is nice).

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Great, Hobbii. Fucking great.

"No one has total control over AI." Well, actually, there is one control you have: using it or not for product photos and pattern photos.

And the fact that you're justifying using it is absolute fucking nonsense.

Do other yarn companies use AI models and rooms these days? Yes. Do they go on linkedin (a space where Hobbii's customer base is not likely to look for info, which is another choice) and talk about how they're gonna go hard on it? No.

What the entire fuck.

Also, I found out by seeing this on a youtube short that Hobbii is also one of the yarn companies who gives fiber artists free yarn, demands x, y, and z in terms of posting the finished project, but does not pay artists for their labor. Which is something other yarn companies also do, too, but also what the fuck x2.

I am so tired.

[sweaterkittensahoy]

BTW, checked back in yesterday (May 7, 2026). Hobbii has not backtracked at all even though the comments on LinkedIn are not positive.

I just remembered to unsubscribe from their newsletter. I really cannot condone a company going full-chest yes AI when they are a company trying to sell me things I have to make, which means trusting that the yarn and patterns actually show a mostly realistic image to work from.

Also, 'awkward photoshoots' has not left my head since I read this notice the first time. What the fuck does that even mean. It gives me the creeps.

Anyway, taking recommendations for places to get yarn online. I do not shop Knitpicks because they never owned up to their customers about the carpet beetle infestation, but I am willing to consider other brands under that fucking VC umbrella.

Of course I am happy to hear about indie brands and local yarn shops with online storefronts. Honestly, if you love a brand or a shop or a dyer, drop a name.

[muramakesmesses]

LionBrand 100% vagued hobbii on IG today:

For yarn:

Annapolis LYS we use: https://knitsandpiecesofannapolis.com/

Philly LYS (with their own yarn line too): https://www.loopyarn.com/

Online shops I love:

https://www.woolandcompany.com (massive selection of brands)

https://littleknits.com (most dangerous mailing list with occasional extreme sales or special dye lots)

[muramakesmesses]

I just purchased some patterns for sport-to-dk weight yarn so I have plenty to choose from to use up all that nice Rowan Glace I bought. A few tops and a few skirts.

And also two shawl patterns I 100% didn't need but one will be nice when I start looking at fingering weight more seriously, and the other is for when I find aran yarn I covet.

Some of this is based in being at MDSW and going "ugh it's so nice but what would I even do with it" at a lot of yarn. I still need to find something that would go great with Cat Mountain Fiber Co's Fusion Yarn that I wanted so bad while I was there. Thank god they have a website.

I 100% want to go to MDSW again but we have no chance in hell of convincing my BiL to go with us again. However, my father did seem intrigued at sheep shearing demonstrations so maybe...

[sweaterkittensahoy]

Hot fuckos don't gatekeep, so I want you to know about the gay goth yarn I found on etsy. I will be buying 3 skeins soon to make a gay little vest from the 19-teens.

I spoke with the dyer because I was seriously considering buying another colorway to make a cosplay that would likely be about 5,000 yards, and if you want this, you need to grab it now, as the dyer changes up colors semi-regularly.

Also, this is the gay little vest:

[muramakesmesses]

Went to Maryland Sheep and Wool. My feet and back are KILLING ME.

I didn't buy much, crochet uses SO much more yarn than knitting that trying to properly supply a project in the same dye lot with the stock at a festival is rough.

I did get more stud buttons though. And a very lovely shawl kit that I am not technically ready for yet but Crafting Hubris is what separates us from the animals... except for the bower bird.

[muramakesmesses]

Uggghhhh hood is definitely too tall. Gotta undo the edging and the last 5 rows to remove 8 rows it looks like. May be a weekend problem

[muramakesmesses]

Woo, only attaching hood to scarf left. Hopefully anyway.

[muramakesmesses]

Also fun thing I've learned,it's easier to make yourself weave in as you go if you develop a DEEP irritation with ends flopping around and getting in the way.

(But not right away; gotta get at least 5 rows in to make sure you don't have to undo em)

Maybe it will change as I do more projects, but as of right now I just get so frustrated with them that it becomes "fuck you, get out of my fucking way, where's my needle pack"

[muramakesmesses]

Approximately 2.8 miles of cotton dk yarn that I really had no business buying except damn it was a good sale.