Your regular reminder that any actually crocheted items you see in stores like Target are 100% being made for terrible wages even taking into consideration average incomes in the countries where these things are made. This bag is 14 rows of plain double crochet, 22 (I think) rows of double crochet, ch 1, double crochet, 2 more rows of double crochet at the top, then a strap that Target calls "braided" but looks to me like double crochet and slip stitches.
Absolutely 0% of this bag can be made on a machine. So, this was hours of work of someone only using their own hands and body to make a bag. This was NOT someone being able to set the rules on a machine and let it run with minimal physical work on their part.
So, $30 is a fucking travesty.
BUT WAIT. THERE'S MORE!
WHAT'S THIS?!
I've never heard of Nest. Let's go to their website! Oooh, what a pretty non-profit website about helping handcrafters make real wages! What criteria must a company meet to get the pretty sticker???
OH! THERE'S A VALIDATION PROCESS!
Who's doing the validating?
"...validators independently conduct validation of their production process and receive confirmation of handcrafted."
So....the companies seeking to claim their products aren't produced in horrendous conditions for sub-par wages are validating their own products are totally handmade and that their employees are totally not being exploited?
And this bag that would take several hours (I stitch faster than you; it takes several hours) still only costs $30???? REALLY?!
Oh, but here's a whole explanation of how Nest identifies handcrafted items, including lists of tools that may be used.
Let's see what they say about knitting/crochet:
Oh, wow! A whole list of supposed crochet machines! That could, if real, benefit crocheters by allowing them to create crochet with the use of a machine that would take some of the stress of the artform off of their bodies! That's neat! Let's duckduckgo these, shall we??
The Crochet Galloon Machine patent info. Which does not describe crochet. Nothing described here is crochet. It's just using hooks to pull yarn where it wants. That doesn't make it crochet. This is a knitting machine creating knit warp (or warp knit? I'm not sure on the lingo, I admit).
Okay, let's try this "Multi-Needle Crochet Machine." First link is an amazon listing for "crochet machine":
The crochet hooks ARE for crochet, but everything else is a knitting machine. So, NOPE!
For the Raschel Crochet Machine? How about this blog debunking that it crochets at all. Whoopsie, doodle. An excerpt:
"Hereâs the short answer: there is still no commercially deployed, fully automated machine that makes hand-crochet stitches the way a human does, stitch by stitch, with one active loop and a single hook. The fabrics you see marketed as âmachine crochetâ are almost always warp-knitted on Raschel or crochet-galloon machines, or theyâre other kinds of needlework (like chainstitch embroidery) that visually imitate crochet. They are not hand crochet, and the stitch geometry (the topology of the loops and their interlacing) is different."
This is important because the point is that to get ACTUAL HAND-CROCHETED ITEMS LIKE THE BAG AT THE TOP, YOU CANNOT REPRODUCE THE LOOK WITH A MACHINE.
So, again, $30 for a supposedly ethically sourced tote that takes hours of work to make with ONLY YOUR BODY.
Moving, on the embrodiery-crochet combination machine?
None of these crochet. And, if you go back to the previous link about the Raschel machine, that post includes an explanation of how embroidery machines can make stitches look crochet-ish but aren't actually crochet at all.
We all know how this is gonna end, but let's see what lace crochet machine brings up:
Knitting. Knitting. Lace maker that is NOT duplicating crochet lace. Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
Lastly, let's look at what Nest considers to be non-handcrafted crochet items:
::seventeen minute sigh::
Let's just start with if you use a knitting machine, then it's not crochet, so that takes bullet point 1 and 3 off the list.
And now let's remember none of these so-called crochet machines Nest has listed actually crochet or even come close. So, that's 2 and 4 removed as well.
So, in short, Nest knows nothing about crochet and appears to be making bank allowing companies to greenwash their terrible labor practices by letting them or their suppliers be their own validators on whether or not their work is 1) handcrafted and 2) done in a way that does not abuse the skilled laborers who are making them.
600+ bags bought, if you look at that first photo again. Each bag crafted by hand by a person who cannot use a machine to lessen the amount of work/effort/stress on the body to create it. For 30 fucking dollars.
Fuck Target and every other fast fashion place that does this shit knowing full well they're harming workers and trying like hell to cover it up with a sticker from a non-profit that clearly doesn't care.
