Official CAL statement

This is a official CAL statement regarding the cancelation of this crochet-a -long project. In this statement I will give some explanation about this decision and how things will continue for everyone who already purchased something or was waiting to start with this CAL.

Let’s start by explaining why I came to this decision in first place. From the moment of the announcement of this project, it has been a continues flow of attention. Some good, but also a lot of bad and negative. Of course I was prepared for some negativity – you can’t make everyone happy and of course there would be some commenting or complaining here and there. To tackle this we (a team of 10 people) took months to prepare ourselfs for this and we wrote all possible information down in some files to tackle most of the simple questions relating to the CAL. From day one it was a constant flow of just asking away and almost spamming all channels with the most simple questions. Well, we expected that as people often first comment and ask before taking time to read something. So that was not the reason to cancel at all.

As said, from the moment the CAL is on, there is a HUGE load of negative comments. Most of them are received in my private communication portals, others were posted in the Facebook group. And with negative I don’t mean : “I don’t like it” or “it is all a bit confusing how it works” . No, there are a lot of other messages. And of course, it is just deleting and blocking, but in the end you see them all and it will be on your mind. And it just continues, how many you ignore, delete or block. It soon takes over the positive vibe a CAL has to bring and it ruins your drive to go on. To state some examples : in 4 days time I had to deal with 354 emails/messages which contained critics about me as a person, my gender, my sexuality, my language writing – native or not native, my crochet work which wouldn’t be good enough for a CAL, I did it to earn money, I would be a thief, I wouldn’t be honest and take provid of people, people find the need to send whole messages full of swear words…and I can continue for a while here. Besides that I’m not the only one inflicted by this all, there was also the need to argue with my testers/translators that their work wasn’t right. Posting photos of their work full of marked circles with correction options. First of all, how can you judge a design if you even haven’t seen a pattern yet, besides that…how do you think someone feels when her work is being exposured in front of thousands of people saying it sucks. That is just rude. Well I could continue on as there was many more…however I think you’ll have an idea now. And this is just a first week, how would this evolve when the CAL is actually running. Sorry everyone, but I’m also a human being with feelings and I draw a line here. I intended to host a crochet event, not pulling myself out there to let take away my dignity and selfrespect. If you feel like you need let some frustration go, just go outside for a good walk or shout it out on a place no one will see or hear you. People think they just can put down everything, scroll further along…but ever thought of the option that you actually saying something to someone on the other side and you possibly can hurt someone else.

As we already paused the Facebook group after laying down so many restrictions on different matters, people still continue with this kind of behaviour. In one weekend I again received 52 messages full of insults. Many of you commented with telling me to just remove or block the people who doesn’t behave, but this is not one or two and it is a full dayjob to moderate this. Explaining this all has made me decide to just cancel the entire CAL. Cancelation means the Facebook group will be deleted and the timeline of the CAL will be erased. So there will be no crochet-a-long anymore over ten weeks of time as stated. I designed this pattern as one of my best but it already has such a negative vibe that I can’t host it any longer with a positive intention. Only looking at my design makes me wanna throw it away. I’m done being used as a target to shoot on and this whole thing was meant to just create a beautiful event where we all could enjoy some happiness and creativity. But it seems this is impossible these days without having a online, virtual war against you. With people, stores and many more against you. And for those of you who think this decision is a bit dramatic, I am honest and not gonna lie on what you get when your expose yourself with something you did. But that doesn’t mean you have to just swallow it all and act happy. This is how things go and how wonderful the crochet community of which we often speak also can be. And it isn’t new, I have seen it with many events hosted for larger groups of crocheters/knitters, and I also have seen what it does to people. Well if I would just continue pretending this all isn’t happening I also wouldn’t take or teach a lesson from it.

Of course I realize this decision also delivers some inconveniance. But I have tried to create the best solutions possible. For everyone who purchased the pattern on Ravelry, you will receive the full pattern at once. I will send out an update with this information through Ravelry as well, but don’t worry….you receive the pattern for the fee payed. The same goes for everyone who liked to join with the free, English version here on the blog. In the menu on top of the blog you will find all parts of the CAL available from now on. The pattern on Etsy will be uploaded later around June, as there is so much negativity about this whole issue already selling it through Etsy, I don’t need any more of this for now. You can wait for some months.

Of course there are the yarn packs which you can order at different stores. Many of you ordered one and I would suggest just keeping it ordered and crochet the pattern once you receive it. The stores can’t help this and if you wanted to join the CAL in March, why still not make it. It doesn’t change a thing.

In fact I do hope many of you still will hold their own mini-CAL. Make it a tribute to my pattern. Maybe I myself have lost touch with it, you who intended to join still love creating it. Crocheting a part a week just for yourself is a good meditation and if you really need help you can always send a message through this website. I will try to help you where I can…on my time. But also respect my choice in this, it took a lot of courage to make this decision as I canceled a project of which I worked on for months and spend many hours, nights, money and effort in. And not only me, a lot of people with me. But I will not put myself out 8 hours a day besides a dayjob to just let people take advantage of me. Then you’ll have it and this is it. As this whole thing has left a real bad taste and feeling I intend to get out of the media for a while. I had a lot of new pattern work ready to be released already but I feel it is time to get off for a while. I’m sick of the world for now… I know there are some good folks around…but it seems there are even more negative people around. We were talking about a crochet thing here, why the need to judge someone personally and break down every single part of selfrespect and dignity one can have ? For all the ones who are responsible for this decision, think about that and the fact how you ruin the happiness of others….

Mark a.k.a. The Guy with the Hook