New website and forthcoming changes

I don’t yet have a date for the new website launch, but I promise as soon as I know, you’ll know. I know folks are waiting on it and I’m loathed to keep folks waiting. But at the same time, we’re putting in a heck of a lot of work backend and it’s only going to be better than it was.

I’m treating the new site build as a way to put right a lot of things, as a clean slate. There’s lots of things I’ve wanted to change or provide but have never had the means or ability. Now that it’s being coded in a very different way, we have this chance. And as you’d expect I’m piling up the workload in the want to get it all done!

eta/ there’s a follow up blog post further explaining some of these changes and you can find it here.

One key area that’ll be changing is how I provide the free patterns and tutorials.

In the early days, when knit blogging and indie design was still so fresh, I’d put free patterns and tutorials up as blog posts. Then, about 10 years or so ago I started to convert everything to downloadable PDFs. As someone who’s had the shittiest of internet connection over the last 15 years, running across tutorials that were only available as blog posts, or worse, youtube videos, was a constant exercise in frustration. So I set out to make everything in PDF format so that folks could access, download, and use when it suited them and not rely on an internet connection.

This, though, has worked against me. Despite constantly asking folks To Not link to my PDF files, they did, and drained my bandwidth. This is mighty frustrating as it’s my copyrighted stuff and asking folks to visit my site to get something isn’t such a tall ask. Not to mention that heavy bandwidth use can come at a cost, and I’m not that flush.

Then, the internet crawler bots switched tactic and started linking to stored PDF files that weren’t behind a paywall or password in internet searches. And stopping that has been mighty difficult.

I’ve tried various options, or at least the options that I could code and implement, but no joy. I didn’t want to remove the PDFs as that felt like punishing folks who needed them for other folks’ shitty behaviour. I’ve no doubt the folks who link to my files aren’t aware of the issues they cause, or think it’s no big deal, but those things soon add up.

And of course… having folks coming to my site has other benefits, like website traffic rankings. External link pointing. Blog posts also provide space to offer support and answer questions.

It’s this last point that’s been the biggest factor in changing how I do things. With Raverly inaccessible to many, and with them continually silencing folk who try to speak up about how they’ve marginalised disabled folk and their silence on the whole thing, many of us are rethinking how we provide patterns, tutorials and support. And honestly, I don’t think that’s a bad thing. I’m proper kicking myself for not being able to build my own forum over a decade ago.

So. This is how things are gonna change.

I’m currently converting tutorials and free patterns back to blog posts. Over the next few weeks, those downloadable PDF files will slowly disappear. Once I have everything in blog posts I’ll delete all the stored files so if you’ve linked to them those links will be broken. Sorry about that, but I did ask you not to do that.

All links internally, and from places like Ravelry, will then link to the blog posts - I can manage some of this but external sites are gonna have to switch things over themselves.

If you need help with a free pattern or tutorial, you’ll be invited to leave a comment and I’ll be able to help right here! I’m looking forward to being able to help folks here again, instead of sending them off to Ravelry.

This isn’t the end of free PDFs, though.

Going forward, all new free patterns and tutorials will still be offered to members of The Woolly Hat Society and Patreon supporters for a short exclusive period.

The Woolly Hat Society is free to join. I do clean the list regularly, as I can’t afford to pay for folks who don’t open or read the newsletters for months on end, but that’s all you need to do to maintain membership - open and read the newsletter! It doesn’t matter if you never buy anything.

Patreon support starts at $1 per month, or there’s a 15% discount if you buy a year’s membership at a time. Patreon supporters get a whole host of other benefits, including exclusive discounts and behind the scenes goings ons. But I know not everyone can afford that, so joining the club is recommended.

Going forward (so, so many changes going forward) the tutorial PDFs will also be linked within premium pattern PDFs for support. For a whole host of reasons I’ll be dropping the illustrated tutorials from patterns and after much thought and discussion, have decided that the best way to replace them is to have links to PDFs within the pattern that you can download if you need to.

This isn’t going to be a small task, but the illustrated tutorials will remain in the premium patterns until I switch them out. In the transition period, if you need extra help beyond those pattern tutorials, you’ll find what you need on the website - I’ll be changing the links in the Tutorial pages so that they point to the blog posts.

As I say, the reasons for this are many. I’ve primarily been looking at ways to reduce the file size of my patterns. As they are now, they’re formatted for when I offered print wholesale. Including the illustrated tutorials meant I could offer a neat package of pattern+technical support.

I don’t offer wholesale anymore, which means my DPI, page count and space constraints have gone.

The tutorials I offer here have always been more indepth than those in the patterns (‘cos space) and they cover a wider range, too (‘cos logistics). And I’ve heard from many folks to say that a) they either know the technique well because they knit a lot of my patterns so don’t need it or b) they pop to my website or search the internet if the included tutorial doesn’t answer their question.

So… the illustrated tutorials for the most part are no longer serving their purpose. Patterns will still include support, that’s not going away! It’ll just be done differently.

And that’s ok. It gives me a chance to think and adapt. Things change.

In summary…

• Future free patterns and free tutorials will be available in PDF format for a period of exclusivity to members of The Woolly Hat Society and Patreon supporters. When that exclusivity period is over, they’ll be available on the website as blog posts.

• Premium patterns will all be updated to include direct download links to tutorial PDFs. This will be the only way existing tutorial PDFs can be accessed after the next month or so.

• The current PDFs - free patterns + free tutorials - will be disappearing from this website in the next few weeks.

Right, that’s me done I think? If something’s not clear, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.

I’m off now to make something of new years’ eve - take care out there!