Starting over

It’s been a few months since my last update on the progress for the new website. You can read it here, so I won’t repeat it all! You can also learn more about the new website via the blog categories and read the website aims here.

After much thought and discussion, I decided to continue with the original developer despite all the delays. Some progress had been made, and with the budget concerns and my own personal challenges, it made sense to try and move forward. Until it didn’t. As I said before, this is nothing malicious, no intent to string us along. But all said and done, we've been left hanging again.

To be totally honest, I'm gutted that we’ve reached this point and there still isn’t a shiny new website. Everyone in the team has worked hard to try and get this done, whether it be yet more project management meetings or organising and reorganising the pattern data. I've worked incredibly hard on reformatting each and every pattern, getting fresh pattern photos, developing new tutorials and improving old ones. My translators have been doing a fantastic job and many patterns are ready to go in several languages. We’ve made the most of the delays to optimise everything, and all of the back-end work is done and it's looking mighty fine, but I can't share most of it until the website is finished. And we're all incredibly disappointed that we, as a team, and you, my brilliant knitters and supporters, have been let down so much. I am so sorry that we've not been able to deliver the promised shiny new website by now.

I've talked about this before, how the new website is critical in being able to launch the updated patterns and translations. This is especially true because of the way tutorials will be structured, which means I can't properly share the updates and translations until the website is done.

It's impacting print wholesale too. My wholesaler, Deep South Fibers, have been asking for my single patterns to go into print for a long time, and I'm really keen to do that! I've got a clever alternative solution for including tutorials in the print patterns, but again, I need the new website for those.

A lot of planning has gone into all of this and we’ve used the extra time to refine and streamline as many things as possible. I’ve relied heavily on 3rd party services and platforms over the years and at this point, with so many books and patterns published, the admin has become unmanageable. Hosting everything myself, on my own website, not only reduces direct costs going forward but it’ll save me on indirect costs, time and brain bandwidth, all of which are in short supply!

So, the time has now come to start again with a new developer, as things can't go on like this any longer. You need a proper functioning website and we need closure on this project. The good news is that I do now have a new developer lined up! They came recommended and building accessible websites sites is their specialty.

As I mentioned in the last update, the quote from the new developer is understandably higher than the original quote - it's pretty close to double. And unfortunately, the delays have come with a number of hidden costs. I have the amount for the original quote, less the deposit paid - which I hope to get back! - parked safely. Yet the extra things - such as monthly fees for services I should have been hosting on my own site, not to mention costs in project management, lost time that could have been spent on new designs, loss of sales and lower website traffic - have chipped away at funds that were reserved for pattern translations and creating more accessible patterns.

Getting the new website back on track will help ensure that I can continue to have patterns translated, and more importantly, give me the space I need to host them and make them available. And to get the website over the finishing line, I need to boost the budget.

So how about a special sale to cover the extra needed to finish the site?

The code BuildIt has been created to give you 50% off between now and 16th March on everything in my Payhip, Ravelry and Etsy stores! There's no limit to the amount of times you can use the code, so go for it. And please feel free to share, because getting the new accessible website finished, with its native teaching platform and multi-language options, is long overdue.

Payhip have recently introduced the option to send a pattern or eBook as a gift, while also allowing promotional codes to be used at the same time, which is fantastic - that means you can send your friends a pattern and still benefit from the sale! So if you'd like to share the joy of a Woolly Wormhead pattern with a friend, whilst also getting a bargain and helping me get the new website built, Payhip is your best bet.

If you're thinking of other ways to support the website build, translations and accessible patterns, then Patreon might work for you - membership starts from $10.60 a year and you get exclusive year-round discounts and behind the scenes insights. And there's always the donate button, if that's your preference.