Have You Bought A Knitting Pattern From Ukraine Today?

You don’t knit? That’s not the point.

Photo by the author

Many people are reserving bombed out Airbnb’s in Ukraine, not because they have a yen for vacationing amidst rubble with a side of air raid sirens. Scheduling a Ukrainian Airbnb you never intend to use is a way of putting cash into the pockets of the owners of the property, even if the Russians have destroyed the once-lovely accommodation.

Thankfully, the world has mobilized to respond to the crisis in Ukraine, but some of us in the West look to do more than post sunflowers on social media and donate to aid organizations, important as those symbolic and real efforts are.

We recognize that we owe a debt to Ukraine we can never repay in kind.

The people of Ukraine are sacrificial lambs held hostage by a ruthless tyrant who holds the threat of nuclear annihilation over us. Western powers cannot give him the smack down he deserves because of the type of ruthless and dangerous action he displayed this week. We are still reeling from his ploy of playing loosey-goosey with a nuclear power plant. That he would even risk firing on its administration building shows the risk involved in a no-fly-zone or boots on the ground response.

So, we must stand by and watch the slaughter in Ukraine that keeps the rest of the world safe but hugely unsettled and dismayed.

And don’t even bother complaining to me about your plummeting stock portfolio or pain at the pump. Tell it to a Ukrainian mother hoping she’ll make it to the border before her feet give out, her baby dies of exposure, or the Russians catch up with her.

So, about those knitting patterns on Ravelry and Etsy?

Don’t click on a different article because you wouldn’t know a knitting needle from a pogo stick. I’m not asking you to knit a sweater or sew on a button.

In happier times, many Ukrainians, like the rest of the entrepreneurial world, posted digital content, consistent with their long history of arts and craft.