Elaborate Yarn Scam

January 11, 2007 1:05 PM

Blue Moon Fiber Arts, an independent Oregon-based online yarn store, has a sock yarn club that knitters can join and receive a bimonthly shipment of sock yarn and other goodies. They have run it before with great success, and it has grown in popularity to the point that they have a waiting list to get in. When they started it up again for the new year, their bank decided they were running some sort of scam because that many people couldn't possibly be interested in sock yarn. Wrong. You don't mess with knitters. This is a group that has raised over $275,000 in the past year for Doctors Without Borders just because a popular knitblogger asked them to. Not surprisingly, the knitbloggers are pissed. There's already a knitalong underway in protest.
posted by booksherpa (22 comments total)

My wife's been thinking about Yarn Club for two years now. She got momentarily excited about this news, because it looked at first like they might re-open registration. (They aren't, as far as I can tell.)

Hopefully, they have a new bank.
posted by ivey at 1:48 PM on January 11, 2007

I love the Yarn Harlot's take on this. Stephanie is such a funny writer that even my husband has read some of her stuff. And the attitude of thinking that there can't be that many people who are interested in knitting socks has been proven wrong so many times on her speaking tours.
posted by saffry at 1:51 PM on January 11, 2007

ivey: There's a waiting list for spot that's still availible. I know I don't have the money this year so I haven't clicked through the entire thing, but it looks like it's still working.

They do have a new bank, but their web order system is down until they can get it set up.
posted by cathoo at 1:56 PM on January 11, 2007

Wow. What's particularly amazing is the part where the bank actually called to clarify this with the company, went away and had a meeting about it, and then decided that it was a scam and/or a Dangerous Money-Laundering Operation: this wasn't a hasty over-reaction to the possibility of fraud.

Daily Show? Please?

Thanks for the post!
posted by thehmsbeagle at 2:17 PM on January 11, 2007

Sometimes it hits me just how nerdy knitting can be. I mean, props to everyone for the whole Doctor Without Borders thing, but dude. Online knitters bug out at the drop of a hat.

It seems like everything got resolved, so I'm not sure why the extreme outrage.

"HOW INCONVENIENT THAT MY MONEY GOT FULLY REFUNDED DUE TO A BANK'S CONCERN ABOUT UNUSUAL ACTIVITY IN AN ACCOUNT!!!"

Sure, the bank acted dumbly, but it's not like they were punching kittens or anything.

Sometimes I think knitters need to put the pointy sticks down and take a walk. Including myself.
posted by mckenney at 3:01 PM on January 11, 2007 [1 favorite]

I don't know... it seems pretty crazy to me that the bank just cancelled it. Apparently they don't have any knitters on their board.

Thanks for the post.
posted by pril at 4:47 PM on January 11, 2007

The bank was way out of line. They didn't do any real research between noting unusual account activity and taking unilateral action to refund all the money. If they'd bothered to Google the sock club, they would have found tons of references to satisfied customers from last year's iteration.

I wish that BMFA had published the name of the offending bank. I sure would not want to do business with such a shoddy company.
posted by rhiannon at 4:59 PM on January 11, 2007

What a marvelous post! I'm sorry the knitters were doubted by the bank but what an interesting story. Some of the knit-bloggers are very funny. I like Tsock Tsarina's site among others.

The science knitters are cool too, Crocheting the Hyperbolic Plane. Sock it to me: Socks for the Exploration of Black Holes.
posted by nickyskye at 4:59 PM on January 11, 2007

PS there're also graffiti knitters, the Knitta crew goes global.
posted by nickyskye at 5:24 PM on January 11, 2007

I got into knitting a few years ago, and every year I knit quite a few gifts for the holidays. For I while I checked out some of the online stuff, and trust me, these posts give barely a hint of the creepy psychopathology one encounters upon engaging with elements of the knitting community. I mean, really, I would sooner seek pals in hardcore porn or prostitution. I don't mean to generalize, but really these people are nuts. What I love about this story, first of all, is the level of indignation at the idea that bankers know nothing about knitters (lucky them), my favorite being this comment:

I ask, would it have happened if they weren’t selling a product primarily used by women?

On top of that, the whole online drama seems to originate with an email from the yarn company about credit card transaction processing. (Which states, interestingly, "Do not panic!" and then proceeds to turn the knitting world upside down.) Of course, presented is only one side of a story about what happened with the bank; I'm more inclined to believe that the bank got fed up dealing with crazy yarn ladies, or that the yarn company overdrafted its account one too many times by overspending on gin and valium. Really, I cannot overstress the degree to which these people are nutcases. If the government knew, they would again prohibit knitting needles on planes. Not kidding here. If Doctors without Borders has dealt with them, don't be surprised if they start to become Doctors Who Think Borders Maybe Aren't Such a Bad Idea.

On the fun side, there's the exploration of the truly tacky and any of an infinite number of blogs in which knitters force unsuspecting children/husbands/dogs/soldiers to model their creations.

Knitting is really cool and creative, and I love spending time making personal gifts, and people really appreciate them. (I can't tell you how much action I would get from the ladies of I were straight--a simple fashion scarf goes a long way.) It is a fun solitary activity. If you want to learn, find someone to show you the basic stitches and then explore some projects on your own. But if you go to the local knitting store, at all costs avoid making eye contact with anyone within; select your yarn and go--or better yet, order online. Protect yourself.
posted by troybob at 1:44 AM on January 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

The bank pulled that crap, and you say the knitters are crazy? I hope the company can take a civil suit out over this. It's totally outrageous. The bank needs a good 'spanking'.
posted by Goofyy at 2:56 AM on January 12, 2007

More simply: I'm saying knitters (or organized groups of them) are crazy no matter what the bank did or did not do. And really, the hissy fits over this are way overdone, particularly if one considers that banks don't routinely go out of their way to alienate successful customers based on unconfirmed suspicion. I'm betting there's an important part of the story we're not getting here, and that in the end it probably has nothing to do with some kind of organized anti-sock-knitter discrimination, despite the apparent joy these people are taking in claiming such victimization.
posted by troybob at 3:17 AM on January 12, 2007

I checked out the links thinking of buying a couple yarn club subscriptions as gifts. I misread the FPP and expected the Blue Moon sock club to be a fundraising tool for Doctors Without Borders, but no, it's just a small for profit business. And while it's highly commendable for YarnHarlot to rally donations to DWB, the $275,000 number is self reported and unverifiable and wholly unrelated to this business.

It's scary to see the lack of any skepticism of this small business' story from the knitters. If Blue Moon is telling the complete truth, why are they afraid to name the bank? Why would a bank open itself up to the liability of damaging Blue Moon's business unless doing so mitigated some risk which outweighed the profit? YarnHarlot and many others are fanatical about their product, but just because you can spin a good yarn, it doesn't automatically follow that you can run a trustworthy business. I wouldn't trust Blue Moon with my CC# until they are more forthcoming about such a major problem.

If YarnHarlot or the Knitting Cabal is reading this, please consider offering a project kit or club like this as a benefit for Doctors Without Borders. If most of the proceeds went to the charity directly, I would not only throw down the money, I would be turned into a fanatic too.
posted by roboto at 5:09 AM on January 12, 2007

Any group joined by common interest is going to exhibit a level of loyalty and passion that the outsiders just don't get. There's no need to go after knitters with such venom. And you really cannot argue against the fact that when knitters unite, it's toward a positive cause. Sure, some members take to extremes but that's human nature and they're the minority so to class the whole lot of them as nutcases is just immature. I happen to personally know the people running the sock club and your comments insinuating it was their fault for being dropped is flatly insulting. The bank fed up with dealing with thousands of dollars worth of transactions? Riiight.

And take away my knitting privileges on a plane? Honey, knitting is the thing that is keeping me sane when all I am faced with is 10 hours in cramped quarters and nothing but the Devil Wears Prada to amuse me.

But oh well, as I'm a knitter that happens to like dropping in on knitting groups (and knitting in public! CRAZY!) you can just label this as psycho babble if you'd like (which I'm sure you will). I'm certainly beginning to think I'm crazy to be falling for your trolling.

I don't think there was any subversive "knitting prejudice" at the bank, but there was clearly a lack of due diligence. I'm not so much offended but actually a bit amused that a bank would think "sock knitting club" to be a front for a scam. Perhaps the problem wasn't not enough imagination, but too much.
posted by like_neon at 5:25 AM on January 12, 2007

Roboto, all that Blue Moon is responsible for is good customer service. Just like the bank is responsible for taking care of their own customer, Blue Moon. I would actually think it tacky for Blue Moon to rely on their customers to launch some sort of attack on their behalf.

And as far as knitting for a cause is concerned, there are a TON of charity oriented knitting campaigns to choose from if one were so inclined. For a start, check out the Red Scarf project and Dulaan. It's not necessarily evil that Blue Moon doesn't have a charity project. They're just another private company with a lot of loyal customers.
posted by like_neon at 5:34 AM on January 12, 2007

If Blue Moon is telling the complete truth, why are they afraid to name the bank?

I imagine it's because they are examining their legal options, and their lawyer has told them not to name the bank. That's certainly been the indication in some followup I've seen. I posted the bit about Doctors Without Borders because it related to the power of the online knitting community, which was as much the point of my post as the bank thing.

I must admit to being a little surprised by the "blame the victim" mentality being expressed by a few. This bank contacted the yarn company, had the club explained to them, held a meeting to decide what to do, and STILL shut it down. To me, that's a pretty high level of incompetence. I also don't think it's unreasonable for practitioners of a mostly female hobby to look at the mostly male banking industry and wonder if sexism might perhaps be involved. Troybob, I'm sorry that you met some crazy knitters, but perhaps you're letting it color your opinion a wee bit?
posted by booksherpa at 8:09 AM on January 12, 2007

Surely the first rule of Yarn Club is that "You don't talk about Yarn Club".

I'm sorry.
posted by alby at 9:17 AM on January 12, 2007

Ignore me at your peril. Nothing I've said cannot be verified by a casual perusal of the blogs linked in the FPP. There are people pulling their hair out and rending their garments over what is, at its worst, a business error. By stroking its customers' (apparently highly volatile) persecution complexes, this yarn company appears to have spun a business glitch into marketing gold. Given their ploy of clearing yarn remainders by inventing an 'exclusive' club (really, waiting lists?), I'm tempted to think this entire story is an invention.
posted by troybob at 9:58 AM on January 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

troybob, I can only assume at this point you're trolling.
posted by ivey at 10:00 AM on January 12, 2007

Having received a pair for socks from sock club from a friend as thank you gift I can assure you that this is not remainder yarn.

And so for craziness, I agree with like_neon. My mother is an equestrian and I used to joke that it was really cult. When you think about the money and time spent, not to mention how elite of a group it is-it seems cultish and crazy to anyone on the outside. It does, clearly, provide my mother with a great release from the stress of her job (CEO of a hospital). I find the same stress release in crocheting, which could also be seen as culty and crazy, but prevents me from throttling the more rude and obnoxious passengers on the 6 train.
posted by miss-lapin at 12:47 PM on January 12, 2007 [1 favorite]

Surely the first rule of Yarn Club is that "You don't talk about Yarn Club".

That's the Quilting Society.
posted by homunculus at 1:42 PM on January 12, 2007

Nothing I've said cannot be verified by a casual perusal of the blogs linked in the FPP. There are people pulling their hair out and rending their garments over what is, at its worst, a business error.

That actually assumes that what people type is a reflection of their emotional and physical state of being at the time. That is unknown except to the people typing. A lot of "anger" and "crazy" that comes across in text may largely be the result of the fact that people that express themselves online are not professional writers by any stretch (Yarn Harlot and Crazy Aunt Purl aside) and they type what comes to mind. My guess is that most people are calmly typing their "outraged" emotional state while sitting at their computer desk or couch with the laptop with hardly a drop of blood boiling and mostly with incredulity at the bank's lack of the aforementioned due diligence. Remember, there are wine clubs, beer clubs, figurine clubs, etc. ad infinitum. The bank over-reacted, and Blue Moon smartly knows better than to name the bank from a PR standpoint and a legal standpoint. (Oh, yeah, I live with a crazy knitter who is working toward opening her own store.)

Honestly, I think it was less sexist and more cultural ignorance that led to the situation. Outside of the knitting community, when I talk to people and tell them my wife is a knitter they often say "Oh, how quaint! I didn't think anyone did that anymore." Well, uh, wow have you not been paying attention. When I mention my wife is working toward opening a yarn store it's a similar response: "Really? Is there a still a market for that? I didn't think anyone knitted anymore."

This is also largely age related. Many women in their 50s and 60s that grew up as adolescents and teens in the 60s probably never learned to knit because it was seen as a "women's work" activity which they were largely trying to abandon at the time. I suspect the bankers just don't really know their ever changing marketplace as well as they think, which leads to a whole set of other eyebrow raising questions about how they make decisions regarding business loans and other day-to-day activities.

but that's just me kind of mulling it over.
posted by smallerdemon at 12:27 PM on January 15, 2007 [1 favorite]