This story sounds too weird to be true, and yet I have a feeling it is true.
It concerns knitting. It seems that knitting has become an increasingly popular hobby among a large slice of middle- and upper-class American women. We here at Freakonomics are not unfamiliar with this phenomenon: Levitt’s sister runs Yarnzilla, an online and brick-and-mortar knitting emporium; and my wife has recently become a knitting zealot enthusiast. (I am always intrigued that so many people have embraced menial tasks — knitting, cooking, gardening, e.g. — as high-end hobbies, but that is a whole ‘nother story.)
So when the following e-mail arrived, I read it with interest. To summarize: a yarn company gets so successful so fast that its bank suspects it is a front for something illegal and shuts down its credit-card operation. As I said, sounds too weird to be true. Judge for yourself.
Dear S&S,
I’ve gathered from reading the Freakonomics blog that at least one of you lives in New York, so you are no doubt aware that in the last few years knitting has become pretty hip. The knitting community is large and rich (Stephanie Pearl-McPhee’s blog, yarnharlot.ca, raised over $120,000 for Tricoteuses Sans Frontiers in less than three days, this Christmas), so it’s surprising that we are still so socially invisible. Maybe $120K isn’t so much, on the scale of the entertainment industry. But here’s the interesting part:
This morning, one of the most popular producers of hand-dyed sock yarn, Blue Moon Fiber Arts, announced that they were making so much money on their sock yarn that their bank managers decided it must be a front for something illegal, and shut down Blue Moon’s credit card system, and refunded all of the money for the 2007 Sock Club!
Blue Moon has found another bank that is happy to take knitter’s money, no matter how much of it there is, so all is well again in the knitting world. It does seem, however, that this gobsmacking development deserves to be known outside the knitting community-and must be of some kind of interest to economists.
The incident has been blogged about by the Yarn Harlot. And also by one of Blue Moon’s biggest fan-blogs, January One.
Sincerely,
Katrina Triezenberg, Ph.D., sock knitter
and 
. You can also watch it on 
I swear to goodness my mom started this trend. My wife and I were just last night trying to approximate how many afghans she has made over the years, we have maybe 20, she gives them to my friends (and undoubtedly everyone else she knows) when they get married or give birth, she’s given them to homeless people or strangers who appear to need a pick-me-up. I know this is not technically knitting–it’s crocheting–but it’s two pointy things and a ball of yarn. She says it’s very therapeutic, I worry about carpal tunnel.
I swear to goodness my mom started this trend. My wife and I were just last night trying to approximate how many afghans she has made over the years, we have maybe 20, she gives them to my friends (and undoubtedly everyone else she knows) when they get married or give birth, she’s given them to homeless people or strangers who appear to need a pick-me-up. I know this is not technically knitting–it’s crocheting–but it’s two pointy things and a ball of yarn. She says it’s very therapeutic, I worry about carpal tunnel.
It is true – it’s been a massive kerfluffle in the knitting world. This thread on knitters review has all sorts of speculation on why a bank would shut down a merchant account.
http://www.knittersreview.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=71154
I’ve been trying to say for awhile that knitting and knitting blogs are way, way under the radar, as far as popular culture goes. When people talk about the blogosphere being primarily male, its as if they can’t even see the massive knitting blog community.
It is true – it’s been a massive kerfluffle in the knitting world. This thread on knitters review has all sorts of speculation on why a bank would shut down a merchant account.
http://www.knittersreview.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=71154
I’ve been trying to say for awhile that knitting and knitting blogs are way, way under the radar, as far as popular culture goes. When people talk about the blogosphere being primarily male, its as if they can’t even see the massive knitting blog community.
Credit card companies are paranoid, out of self preservation. My company releases computer software. We sell it directly. When we have a new software release, our sales go from $5000 a week to a $200,000 a week for just two weeks. Guess what the credit card processing company does? Yep, they freeze the deposits in order to check for fraud. A 3 month freeze. And this is for a company that we’ve been using 10+ years, and with surges that happen every year or two! And no, other credit card processors aren’t any better, they’re all this paranoid. The economics are easy to understand: Angry customer
Credit card companies are paranoid, out of self preservation. My company releases computer software. We sell it directly. When we have a new software release, our sales go from $5000 a week to a $200,000 a week for just two weeks. Guess what the credit card processing company does? Yep, they freeze the deposits in order to check for fraud. A 3 month freeze. And this is for a company that we’ve been using 10+ years, and with surges that happen every year or two! And no, other credit card processors aren’t any better, they’re all this paranoid. The economics are easy to understand: Angry customer
I genially object to categorizing cooking as a menial task!
I would argue that the three examples you gave (knitting, cooking and gardening) are not menial at all, if you define menial as “unskilled work”.
Doing laundry or housecleaning would be menial tasks.
Knitting, cooking and gardening — there can be a bit of artistic endeavor there, so it’s no surprise that they should be popular hobbies. Knitting today is yesterday’s painting…
I genially object to categorizing cooking as a menial task!
I would argue that the three examples you gave (knitting, cooking and gardening) are not menial at all, if you define menial as “unskilled work”.
Doing laundry or housecleaning would be menial tasks.
Knitting, cooking and gardening — there can be a bit of artistic endeavor there, so it’s no surprise that they should be popular hobbies. Knitting today is yesterday’s painting…