Stitch and Bitch

I'm sure most of you already know the little knitting brouhaha. Sew Fast; Sew Easy clearly (and quietly) trademarked the name Stitch and Bitch Cafe. OK. They did it. But now they claim that they were the first to use the phrase -historical evidence notwithstanding- and they are suing Debbie Stoller, author of Stitch and Bitch and Stitch and Bitch Nation. They have also gone after small, purely social gatherings of knitters who refer to themselves as "stitch and bitch" groups, in spite of the fact that there is no commercial risk to their trade name from these groups. Moreover, they have an open letter to the crafting community in which they refer to Stoller as "Debbie Stole-it" and claim that she gives feminism a bad name. (Do a google search; you'll find it. If I post a link, it will artificially raise the standing of their blog on RSS feeds.)

I was sort of vaguely amused that knitters could be so riled up over the Stitch and Bitch name. I mean, honestly... people are starving to death, and knitters are getting up in arms over the right to call themselves bitches. Perspective, if you please. But now I'm irritated. Surely Sew Fast; Sew Easy can do better than name-calling and having a (male, by the way) marketing executive claim to be the arbiter of what constitutes legitimate feminism.

As Franklin says on his Cafe Press shirts, "I have two needles. You have two eyes. Don't mess with me."

And you really might want to listen to Brenda Dayne's podcast from last week, Bitch and Bitch. She has a great essay on just this subject. Follow this link: Cast-On.