I was first taught how to crochet a double-crochet stitch by one of my sweet mommy’s aides. A lovely woman, named Gisele, who took such excellent care of my mother for around two years, right up until Covid hit. From there, I taught myself how to crochet by watching YouTube videos, I kid you not. You can learn just about anything you want from YouTube videos these days...having to go to the library to find a book on how to crochet for beginners, days long gone by…I took up crocheting as a means to deal with stress.
The level of stress that I have lived with as my mommy’s full-time caregiver for the last ten years of my life (until her recent passing this past March 12th, 2023) was described to me by my friends, by the medical professionals that I regularly interacted with on a regular basis on my mommy’s behalf, to my academic advisors and professors at Penn State University World Campus, as too much for one person. I was regularly asked, “How do you keep going?” My reply was inevitably the same, “I keep going because I must.”
The brilliant thing about crocheting for me, was that as it required all of my focus on what my hands were doing, and engaging multiple parts of my brain, while following a pattern and counting stitches, it was really the only way that I could have a mental break from the strain and stress of the weight of the responsibility I carried. That plus, I would make something that someone could use (or not).
You might be saying, why is this person writing about crocheting on DailyKos, well you may very well ask.
If you’ve ever signed up for a newsletter for anything, you know that in the newsletter, especially for some sort of commercial enterprise, there might be advertising. Advertising that as one might expect, is geared towards the interests that are germane to the subject matter of the newsletter.
However, recently I have been receiving newsletters (that I have long been subscribed to) for the latest in crocheting news, that have contained political ads. Aside from the fact that I crochet to manage stress, I was irritated that now, suddenly I was being bombarded by political ads for an arts and crafts-themed newsletter, and to add insult to injury, they weren’t even geared towards my political leanings, quite the contrary. (Where are the search algorithms when you expect them?)
There is a time and a place. My point to all this is, that Republicans are now going further into the mundane to get their message across by buying advertising space for a crocheting newsletter!
So, I unsubscribed (which sucks really, because the free patterns are great!) but I didn’t feel that was enough, because I didn’t get the option to tell them why.
The company that publishes my (former) crocheting newsletter is Prime Publishing LLC.
From their own website under the Advertisers tab, they proclaim:
About Prime Publishing LLC
Prime Publishing, LLC is a women’s lifestyle content publisher of DIY, Craft, and Recipe websites, eNewsletters, magazines, and social media. Clients use our media to drive traffic to their sites, sell product, and generate brand awareness. We look forward to helping you reach our millions of passionate and engaged site visitors, subscribers, fans, and followers.
So I filled out their comment form with the text below.
To Whom It May Concern:
I originally signed up for the AllFreeCrochet.com newsletter to have access to the multitude of free crochet patterns and the like. I appreciated the newsletter for quite a while, until recently.
I crochet to manage stress; the last thing I want to see in a newsletter about crocheting is a political advertisement. Political ad placement in an arts and crafts newsletter begets the question, is there nowhere one can be free from political muck?
I understand and appreciate that ad revenue is vital in order for the site to continue to exist and be free, but political ads? Aren't we already oversaturated by every form of media with political mudslinging back and forth? Do I really have to see it in relation to the very activity I turn to to deal with stress?
If you need to place ads in your crochet newsletter, consider selling ad space advertising, oh, I don't know, maybe yarn.
Just a thought.
Sincerely,
A former subscriber
Oddly, I feel violated somehow. Because I signed up for crochet patterns, not political propaganda, and they are taking ad dollars and placing political propaganda (and not even doing any research to determine their demographic) in my crocheting newsletter, it just goes to show me, how there is nowhere that politicos aren’t willing to go. So call it a rant, call it a complaint, call it whinging, call it whatever you want, but if unsuspecting voters are getting political messages like this in seemingly innocuous crafting newsletters...all I can say is that the Dems need to kick it up a notch or six.
Thank you for reading.