June is Pride Month in the United States, an annual celebration of the contributions made by the LGBTQIA+ community. Some craft businesses plan special activities during the month to celebrate Pride Month and to show their allyship. We spoke to several Craft Industry Alliance members about their plans for June.
Crochet Foundry’s June edition will be a Pride Issue.
Crochet Foundry
June’s issue of Crochet Foundry digital magazine will be a Pride issue. This is the first issue under the magazine’s new owner and publisher, Jessie Rayot. Rayot says that each pattern sample in the issue will be made in the colors of a different Pride flag, along with a picture of the flag and what each designation means.
The issue, which will be released June 7, also has free advertising for various queer-related charities like Knit the Rainbow. In future issues, Crochet Foundry will be offering free advertising for charities related to highlighting communities during specific months, like Black History Month and Women’s History Month. You can subscribe for 12 months, or get a 3-month Summer Bundle.
Rayot stresses that it’s important to spread the word because she has encountered people in the creative community who want to understand and support the queer community but aren’t sure how to go about it and who to ask. The mother of two queer children, Rayot is passionate about making sure the public is educated on the topic of trans and queer mental health, and the importance of helping all young people to feel safe.
“As business owners, the way we can help the most is by showing support—leading by example,” Rayot says. “Make sure that everybody knows you are a place everyone is welcome to be who they are.”
Proceeds from the Amy Snell Pride Pattern will go to several LGBTQ+ supporting organizations.
Amy Snell, Devious Knitter
2024 will be the fourth year that knitting designer and instructor Amy Snell is offering a Pride pattern. This year proceeds from the sale of the pattern will go to The Trevor Project, the Human Rights Campaign, and Knit the Rainbow.
She made the decision to bring her allyship together with the knitting world when she lost someone close to her due to suicide. She decided she wanted to be “really clear about who I am and who I support”.
Snell promotes her pattern throughout the month to her mailing list, on social media, and on her website. Although in past years she may have lost a few followers who wanted her to “keep it to the knitting”, she says most people are fine with her speaking up. Through these projects she has made connections with others in the knitting world, including collaborating with dyer Purly Shell Yarn for the 2023 Pride Like the Wind pattern.
Snell emphasizes that “when you see a someone doing something you believe in, …[especially] when it comes to trying to live by their principles, you should do what you can to support that business” by buying from them.
The cowl kit fundraiser benefits the Gender Affirmation Project.
Woven Art Yarn Shop
Woven Art Yarn Shop, across the street from the Michigan State University (MSU) campus in East Lansing, Michigan, has prepared a cowl kit fundraiser for Pride Month.
Meg Croft, owner of Woven Art, has a special interest in community mental health. After the shootings at MSU, the store offered free knitting and crochet classes to the MSU community as a way to deal with anxiety and as an outlet to get together outside class or their own smaller social circles. Croft sees Pride Month activities as just one more aspect of her year-round support of ensuring mental health support to everyone in need.
Croft chose local charities to be recipients of the fundraiser proceeds. $10 of the purchase price of the kit will go to the Gender Affirmation Project, a local organization that helps improve access for Lansing residents to change their legal name and gender markers on official documents. She also has a year-round fundraiser kit with $10 from each sale going to the Salus Center, a local gathering space for the LGBTQIA+ community that offers free counseling.
By choosing local organizations, Croft says that she can “have an immediate impact in [her] community in a way that could impact someone’s life dramatically.”
Mathew Boudreaux, Mx Domestic
Designer, sewing instructor, and influencer Mathew Boudreaux has created an inclusive community around their brand, Mx Domestic, where “everyone is legit welcome” all year long.
For Pride Month Boudreaux has designed craft-themed t-shirts in the Progress Pride flag rainbow so you can show your support while expressing your crafty identity at the same time. Shirts come in “quilter,” “sewist,” “knitter,” “crocheter,” and “crafter” and come in a wide range of sizes from XS to 5XL.
Boudreaux has designed an assortment of thematic fabrics including Love is Love which is a black and white outline print that could be colored or embroidered, a repeating print of pronoun badges, and Family Circles which represents various family make-ups and that no family looks the same.
Pride Month Spurs Year-Round Inclusion
All of the business owners interviewed for this article mentioned the increasing rates of suicide and the worsening political climate for members of the LGBTQIA+ community. They stressed the importance of supporting mental health for all and offered suggestions for other businesses to consider.
All year long, day-to-day actions can send a powerful message. Educate yourself by reading resources from PFLAG and other support organizations. Bring queer members onto your team. Be sure to use gender-inclusive language and ask for an individual’s preferred pronouns when signing up new newsletter subscribers, for example.
In certain parts of the country, customers might object to any recognition of Pride Month; consider whether a vocal subset of customers who object might not actually be your target customers. This was borne out by Croft. Last year when she compared the individuals who unsubscribed to her newsletter in response to a Pride Month project against her point-of-sale system she found that none of them had ever purchased from her.
Businesses can go a long way toward making sure that every individual who interacts with that business feels safe and welcome. This can — and should–happen year-round.
Edie Eckman
contributor
Edie Eckman is a knit and crochet author, designer, teacher, blogger and technical editor with more than 25 years of experience in the yarn industry. Find her at www.edieeckman.com.