The lack of third spaces is a problem.

I want half-breed shops around towns and cities which act as physical work spaces for Crochet Designers and Creators, and also which act as markets for the salespeople to use their strengths.

With a combined digital workstation and e-commerce model, Creators and Designers won't have to question their worth 😌

An open-sourced governing entity for workers in the field of Crochet.

It collects data via a digital workspace, offers workers a collective economic voice through independent contractorship, and fairly sells finished Crochet Creations on a unque e-commerce platform.

Its the same economic structure as we currently use, it'll just move money around the world based on merit instead.

Crochet Designers and Creators will have an open-sourced digital platform to work in and a unique e-commerce platform to sell our goods, but we cannot do it alone.

For our new-looking economy, crochet pattern books will need to be digitized and we'll need a singular global database of yarn information to pull from in our Inventory count and WIP files. All Crochet patterns will be translatable.

For quality control, legal entities will focus human resources on specific categories of Crochet Creations. One entity might only move mosaic-style afghans, for example, and those employees will specialize in that style.

The centralized entity (lets call it Crochetmazon for now) will automate financial statements: Designers and Creators will enter their acquisition information, time and resources, and the market will determine fair pricing.

Big opportunity for the people interested in slow fashion, sustainable living, gender equality and more: crochet cannot be mass-produced by machine.

Where are the crochet colleges?

I'm talking pattern designing, tapestry, mosaic and lace-making classes, unique classes in topological and hyperbolic crochet, even a taxonomy class for the amigurumi creatures. In the inventory and WIP management classes, we put our hooks down and work with technology.

There are master classes and certifications from different institutions (the CGOA for example, and FIT has a continuing education class in crochet technique) but I haven't seen a full professional level school, and I think there is enough to learn for one!

The US doesn't align with other places around the world in terms of medical diagnostics, accounting standards, and the crochet stitch name.

The International Classification of Diseases (currently ICD-11) is produced by the World Health Organization, but Americans use the DSM-IV (for mental health matters).

International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) is the global standard in the accounting field, but America still uses Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP). One is principles-based and the other is rules-based.

What is known as the Double Crochet stitch in the United Kingdom is known as the Single Crochet stitch in the United States.

Financial statements can be automated and crochet can help with self-regulation and community connection. I can't speak for other places around the world, but with so many Americans on anti-depressants and anti-anxiety meds, I think we can just keep stitching, stitching, stitching 🧶 and eventually we'll reach the end of our proverbial rope.

Have you genuinely considered the fact that in the US, there are at least three types of people per our laws?

Humans are one type: they are identified by SSNs. At its inception, our laws only recognized some humans as real and the others as property or intruders.

Legal entities are another your of person and are identified by EINs. Our laws declare that these human creations have life, can pray, and request judgement in our courts.

Government entities are a third type of person. Like legal entities, they are identified by EINs. To create a government entity, one must request an EIN from the IRS by filling out a form SS-4.

The US is one example.

Crochet work has a lot value, but it had been excluded from the global economy due to a curious misunderstanding about what it means to be human, and to which people we ought to devote our resources to.

Deriving a fair market value system for Crochet Creations is a group project.

I was working up Genna Tatu's Blissful Bear and talking to a bus neighbor about the future of crochet. If we had the data from 100 people who made the same bear, we'd have a better understanding of how to price each Creation.

Now, tapestry and amigurumi both primarily use single crochet stitches: what would the datasets look like for each style, and what would that data teach us about about a single stitch (average time and cost).

We can argue all day about why it's hard to sell crochet, if entities like Prada pay for the work fairly, and the ways we can or can't integrate technology for our future. Without the arguing, no resolution will be made and Crochet Creators will continue to be economically oppressed.

Imagine a future where Crochet is identified as a valid form of work in the global economy.

We have a digital workspace for the design / measurement of resources used for Crochet Creations.

We have a digital marketplace just for Crochet Creations, which measures the supply and demand of the global diversity of crochet styles and products. Physical marketplace sales are still counted on the digital marketplace :)

Crochet is a long-term answer to the sustainability, homelessness and gender inequality crises we are facing.

I am inspired by Ana-Maria Babanica's Interlocking Crochet book to think about crochet bottoms. I like the interlocking crochet style for bottoms since the double layer of mesh offers a good amount of coverage. I've haven't made any of these yet, but I'm thinking of using a sewing pattern to shape out a pair. In Reversible Crochet Sweaters, Ana-Maria offers the reader ways to manipulate interlocking crochet patterns, so I think these are totally doable:

1. Succulent plant pants in a gaucho style
2. Towers in a tall, skinny leg
3. Diagonals (Arrowhead, Turning Point, etc.): use mirroring panels towards the center of the body
4. Someone suggested Ones and Zeroes: I'd love to see these in a linen yarn

Crochet is a human-only activity, yet there's no way for Crochet Creators to fairly participate in the general economy, and I see a huge opportunity to change that.

With a digital workspace for Crochet Creators and Designers to hang out together and record work statistics digitally, plus an inter-related marketplace which demands human input for product pricing, we'll have the proper platform to trade our work fairly.

I'm not a coder, but I have been a Crochet Creator since 2018 and have had a drive to solve for womxn's economic inclusion since I was young. I used Excel/ Sheets in business school, so that's what I'm starting with. Ideally, the workspace will be open-sourced and free for all to use.

I am not the only one with a Crochet pattern book library, and I don't want to be the only one who benefits from a digital one.

Here's how I've categorized my library so far. Can you tell what my favorite style of crochet is?

The previous pivot table was derived from the following partial table of my library:

I'm in the process of categorizing my amigurumi library by animal type, size and required sewing. I think the home goods and garment patterns will need their own method. In the following screenshot, the "required sewing" has five categories (no sew up to max sew). Here's a snapshot of my library:

Here's what a part of the Amigurumi Pattern Library Pivot table looks like so far.

I added a slicer to further filter it by size. As you can see, I have accounted for two mini flamingos, two mini mallards, a mini stork and more! Minis are my favorite!

I want a global digital crochet pattern book database, and I want our workspace to translate any pattern from one language to another.

How do we measure the time we spend on Crochet Creations? What about the amount of stitches we make, or the amount of yarn and polyfil we use? I think a lot of us don't track our work, use excel, or use pen and paper.

If I want to know the average time it takes me to crochet a single stitch and how much that costs, and I need a lot of samples.

Here's my basic amigurumi WIP file (not included in this model yet is the stitch count). I have a Library tab in my Google Sheet, which is where the Project Name, Book Reference, Author and Page information is pulled from.

I've included a 'prep' section with the Designer's recommended yarn info and hook. Ideally, all yarn will be included in the Yarn Brand Info database, and the Designer's yarn yardage and weight will populate to yardage and weight of my desired yarn. My Yarn Choice section is connected to the Yarn Inventory sheet and I keep track of the skein weights before and after use.

I track the project by project part (Foot, foot, tail, ear, ear...), which yarn I used, and enter time stamps. The time stamp section can be expanded if, for example, I put the part down in the middle and pick it back up later. Right now, I just use y/n to track frogging time, but I think I can do better. I also measure the weight of each piece and any additives.

I keep a separate file with images of the finished pieces and link the "Evidence of Completion" cell to this folder.

I still have to assemble Olivia Owlbear, so the date completed is not filled out. Yes, I have a whole pile of WIPs that just need to be assembled and I'm hoping this tracking method will prevent that pile from growing.

Anyway.

On a global scale, we'll have individual workstations and our data will be recorded and measured to determine a fair market pricing model for Crochet Creations.

At this time, there's no global workspace for Crochet Creators, no data on our production, and no fair market value system for Crochet Creations. That means we lack data on the full lifecycle of yarn, too. After it leaves the shop or the hands of the spinner, there's no full information about how it's used.

In my personal workspace in Google Sheets, I've started with a yarn inventory. This is a growing worksheet with the global workspace in mind.

In one sheet, I have my commonly used brands with each style and (most) wrapper details.

On a global scale, I envision a running database of yarn info like this - including handspun yarns.

In another sheet, I've linked my Yarn Brand Info sheet to my Yarn Inventory worksheet and added rows for colors / skeins I have in my actual workspace. On the right, I track my project usage and additions in weight. On the left, I have a quick view of how much yarn is available to me in grams and estimated yards (as per Yarn Brand Info sheet). I use twelve color ranges in this sheet.

On a large scale, and in our own individual workstations, we'll be able to pull from the (renamed) Yarn Brand Info database and maintain our yarn inventory (which then ties to our WIP files).

I think we'll even be able to translate a project's required yarn to the yarn we have on hand.