I cast on my Pride Sock KAL socks Tuesday (and then ripped them out and cast them on again last night) and I was thinking about Pride right now. As you probably know, June is Pride month here in the US. I’ve seen some people/outlets calling for cancelling or subduing Pride right now because the Black Lives Matter movement should be our focus. In this vein, the quiet queer craft along has been postponed. To some extent I agree. We shouldn’t be blindly posting about pride and ignoring the other issues going on in our society. Big, lavish statements of like YAY PRIDE from corporations who can ignore other issues are not great either. However, I think it’s also important to note a few things. First, the reason we celebrate pride in June is because of the Stonewall Riots, which were protests and riots lead largely by trans Black and other women of color. Secondly, Black members of the LGBTQ+ community are often targeted by people and police and have some of the highest rates of violence against them, especially trans women. Part of Pride is speaking about the good and the bad, and so I think that is important too.
All that said, I feel I can personally celebrate Pride this month and also continue to work on eliminating racism. In that vein, I am planning to donate 5$ for each pair of Rainbow KAL sock completed to SOLUTIONS NOT PUNISHMENT COLLABORATIVE. If you’d like to join me, please see here for a list of Black-Lead LGBTQ+ organizations. Thanks Sarah for this idea and for creating this Knit Along!
So, the socks themselves. I bought yarn from Fully Spun Yarn, which is a black and queer owned business I found through the Quiet Queers Craftalong directory. Brooke has some amazing pride colorways, which are currently sold out, because people showed her a TON of love this week (yay!). This colorway is Majestic, which is not a specifically pride colorway, but it is SO RAINBOW-Y and I love it so much! I’m making a standard sock with some cabling detail. I wanted something that kept it fun to knit but would still work with this crazily variegated yarn.
The pattern is why I had two cast on attempts. You can kind of see my original chart below the socks in the pic. I wanted to do this pattern when you slip st with the yarn in front. But in actually knitting it it wasn’t working. So I tore that out and cast on again. Then I tried a similar pattern to the Diamond in the Rough socks I just finished, but the patterning was too small, so I tinked that back and then I landed here. I think it will look really cool. Stockinette is still probably the absolute best option for this yarn, but to me stockinette socks are the knitting for bringing in a bag and working on while watching a sporting event or at rehearsal and honestly that just makes me a bit sad right now.
I got some other pride-themed yarn, an Asexual pride colorway from Fully Spun and a bisexual pride one from Merry and Mae. There’s also another yarn that I’m saving to make something special from a friend (don’t think they read the blog but if they do I’m keeping it a surprise).
Your socks are looking great! I love the yarn you bought too.
Very cool yarn! I love your socks 🙂
I ha a look at that particular shop yesterday, and WOW, the colours look great (I also saw that almost everything was sold out, but well. 😉 ). I love the socks you are knitting! The other two yarns are great as well – I have been thinking of making a friend of mine who’s also LGBTQ+ something in the colours of their flag, but I’m not so sure whether they would find that I overstepped boundaries here. We’ll see.
Happy Pride month to you! Even if you don’t get to celebrate right now. 🙂
Ah yeah – it definitely can be an interesting line. I told my friend I was making something for them and asked what they want but didn’t tell them what the yarn was. This person is pretty out and we’re very close so it felt right for this situation but there’s definitely other people I wouldn’t do this for
Yes, that makes sense … noted: Maybe now is not the time for a surprise present. 😉 At least not in flag colours. Thank you! 🙂
Your yarn is so lovely and fun!
And what difficult timing for Pride Month. I have to imagine that there’s room to elevate the voices of people who are BIPOC and LGBTQ+ right now to ensure that both messages are heard. I’m glad you’re continuing with your Pride projects and I can’t wait to see how they turn out. And thank you for writing about Pride Month – it’s so easy for things to get drowned out right now.
Yes exactly! I don’t necessarily want to “dilute” the message of speaking out against police brutality as a result of the racism that pervades society, but I think it’s especially important to note the intersections between being Black and queer and how that plays out in peoples lives
I definitely agree that there has to be a way to highlight both Black and queer views and causes right now, but since as a straight, white-passing non-Black person I guess I don’t think it’s my place to decide how to do that. I’ll do what I can by donating to both causes, though.
And I love the socks! They’ll looking great with this choice of pattern.
I have to agree, it’s not like people can or should only care about one social issue at a time when they’re all so interconnected.
But at the same time I don’t want Pride to focus on people like me (bi, but privileged in most other ways) to the detriment of helping people of colour.
I’m doing my bit by learning as much as I can about events like Stonewall and looking up some UK charities to support. I guess we all have to find our own balance and try to do as little damage as possible.
Yes, totally agree!!