I am very stressed, and this evening I took a short period to zone out, and as I often do, I looked through Ravelry’s index of “Hot Right Now”, defined as “designs with the most visits in the last 24 hours”. I have commented here before about the need for more diversity in knitting, and have occasionally pointed out companies and designers who are using more diverse models. Very slowly, we are seeing an increasing use of models of colour, and also an increase in age and size diversity. Today, however, I was really struck by the lack of black models in the patterns that are hot right now. Not all of these patterns have models, by the way, but I think the facts still speak for themselves.

The first black model was on the 144th most popular pattern (patterns change position constantly). Of the top 500 patterns, there were 9 with black models (3 of them the same model, with the designs all from the current issue of Pom Pom magazine, as pictured below).

Of the top 1000 patterns on Hot Right Now, there were 23 with black models (6 of them from Pom Pom Issue 36, featuring the lovely model above).

Of the top 2000 patterns on Hot Right Now, there were 34 with black models. That’s 1.7%. If we discount that one issue of Pom Pom, it’s 1.4%.

Food for thought, no?