dear NPR

Dear NPR's Marketplace,

Imagine how excited I was yesterday afternoon when I heard a teaser for your upcoming segment on knitting. I thought to myself, alright they are finally getting it. I mean after all your show is about money and economics. Now imagine how disappointed I was to hear your little fluff piece. Mocking us as quaint. Your "reporter" missed the whole story.

While he was in Edith Eig's shop why did he not bother to ask her what her sales were last year? How about the value of her current inventory? Why did he not ask the people in the shop about their spending habits. Why did he not do some research on the number of yarn stores open today vs 10 years ago? How about online stores? How about artists making accessories and tools for knitters? What about the ad revenue from TV shows? Why did he not bother to follow up on the story of an online knitting blog raising over $120,000 for Doctors Without Borders in a matter of hours? What about Blue Moon Fiber Arts who had their bank reject 2000 credit card transactions for $210 each because they could not believe that so many people would join a club to knit socks. I expected him to run the numbers.

Knitters are not composed of the 68 people in Edith's shop. There are millions of us. We have disposable income and we spend it on knitting. We are business people and artists that would like to be taken seriously and given some respect for our economic might. There is a story here and you missed your chance.