Always Download and Make Backups

[UPDATE: 1-17-19]

I want to emphasize that I like Sally and I do understand why she did what she did but I don’t agree with her. I am not spewing hate as I’ve been accused of by some of her followers. I am simply stating why a customer who purchased a pattern in a shop that had the feature of retaining a forever copy in that online venue is upset at having the pattern they purchased gutted because the designer was leaving that venue. Also… I am not defending Sally as I’ve also been accused of by some. I understand why Sally gutted her patterns instead of leaving them for Blueprint (former Craftsy) to manage. I understand but I don’t agree and I can say that because I too was a designer who had a shop in the Craftsy venue, and I didn’t do that to my customers. I must also say that I didn’t have anywhere near the sales and customer base as Sally. Compared to Sally I am a hobbyist. I like Sally, I think she is a talented designer, and so did all those who voted for Sally to win the Designer award for Bionic bag design in 2014 on the Craftsy platform. I will probably buy patterns in the future that Sally designed so long as they are available on a one by one basis that I can download and walk away with. And…. I definitely will be sure to download it immediately and keep a backup offline.

[Article below was originally published 1-16-19]

RipStitcher won the 2014 Best Pattern Design Award for her Bionic Gear Bag https://shop.mybluprint.com/a/article/pattern-design-award-winners/

Blueprint, the rebranded Craftsy closed the Ripstitcher shop Dec 28, 2018 –

I bought the Ripstitcher bionic gear bag pattern and had it in my Craftsy library… glad I download all of my patterns and classes because the 82 page pattern updated to 4 pages due to designer’s last minute update before her shop closed.

I bought patterns at Craftsy because of the feature of having the library with the patterns/classes there online for my backup in case something happens to the ones I downloaded, such as a computer crash or corrupted files. I also have patterns/classes at Patternfish, Ravelry, and Etsy [CORRECTION: Etsy doesn’t have online library, nor does it have any way of updating and alerting buyer an update is available except for manual one by one message within the Etsy message system]  for the same reason; all of those businesses have the same feature as Craftsy, the online library with a copy safe and secure in case something happens to the copy that I downloaded. All of my patterns/classes that I bought over the years at Craftsy were all left intact by all of the designers with one exception, and that is the RipStitcher patterns that I bought from Sally.  I like Sally and I understand why she decided to do what she did to her patterns by updating her contact information to let her customers know that Craftsy closed her shop and to let them know where to find her, but I don’t agree with removing most of the pattern in that update which did wipe out the original version in every customers account, including mine. I had downloaded mine when I bought it so I have the full 82 page Bionic Gear Bag pattern that I bought. I keep all of my patterns backed up on an external hard-drive offline but I bought the patterns at Craftsy so that I would also have them online at Craftsy when I log in. I too am a designer and Craftsy closed my shop too. I did an update to all of my patterns to correct my contact information because I had closed down a website and changed my phone number last year.  I had about 27 pattern/tutorials in my Craftsy shop that I updated and sent out notices to all my customers of the update. I did this update around December 10^th, before I had been notified about shop closing. I opened my shop in Craftsy in 2012 so I had a lot of history and customers records to go through. I wasn’t happy about Craftsy closing my shop especially with about one week notice. When I was notified on December 19^th that they were going to close my shop I thought about how I wanted to be able to keep in touch with my customers and I was worried what the owners of Craftsy would do with my patterns/tutorials because they are all my own original designs. In the end I left my patterns/tutorials completely intact; I want my customers to have what they paid for, I don’t want to punish my customers by taking back what they had bought from me and I knew that they would want to have the pattern/tutorial remain in their library on Craftsy just the same as I want all of the patterns/classes I had bought over the years to remain in my Craftsy library. As I said, I like Sally and I understand she made a decision in the heat of battling an unfair deadline imposed by Craftsy, but I don’t agree with the gutting of her patterns on Craftsy. It isn’t the matter of charging ONLY 88 cents, it’s the principle of the matter that something that was already paid for by a customer is no longer in their library at Craftsy which is part of the reason they bought it in the first place. It has enraged many customer’s sense of fair play, and I think that many customers who would have followed Sally to her new website and spent lots of money at Sally’s new website won’t now because of the fact that they don’t appreciate having what they purchased in good faith taken back in such a manipulative way.

 

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HandCrafter Maggie Fibercrafty Store Opened Today January 15, 2019

I finally did it, I opened my HandCrafter Maggie Fibercrafty store today. You may remember the article I wrote on January 31, 2018, in that article I wrote about the new online shop that I planned to open, I wrote, “The NEW storefront will have totes but the totes in that storefront will be predominantly made from new fabric, and many will be designed for the fiber artist, including the knitter, crocheter, weaver, spinner, felter, and dyer.”  The “totes” that I mention in that article are also called “project bags.” To read the entire article it is here: Happenings in 2018

I intended to open my Fibercrafty shop in the spring of 2018, but spring came and went and I wasn’t ready. I had too much going on to think of opening a new storefront because a Dollar General developer began the negotiation process and a procession of offers to buy my property continued through the summer; eventually I turned them down. The experience changed my life and detoured my plans to open the new storefront. I began to plan for moving even though I turned down Dollar General there will soon be other developers making offers because Dollar General is building across the road from me and the area all around is growing. I spent summer and autumn sorting belongings and planning for when I do sell.  My property is on a corner which is why I originally branded maggiescorner but I decided I wanted to rebrand to a name that would be more descriptive of what I do, and not be dependent on a location; I rebranded as Handrafter Maggie. The rebranding was time consuming and before I knew it 2018 was over and I still hadn’t opened my Fibercrafty shop. Last year was the year of change. I closed my website maggiescorner.org and I accomplished the task of rebranding all of my online platforms to HandCrafterMaggie. I also had several unexpected things happen that took up my time; one in particular was Craftsy giving one week notice just before Christmas that they would be closing my shop because they sold out and were changing directions with their designers. See more about that here: Craftsy sold out to NBC Universal.

Today was a long time coming but I finally did it, I opened my storefront. I don’t have any project bags or other stock made for the storefront yet but the main thing is that I got it set up and even if I don’t have anything made for my storefront I do offer custom orders in my https://handcraftermaggie.fibercrafty.com/ storefront so I hope visitors will visit often to see what I add over time. Come see me at Fibercrafty and let me know what you think.

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s Been Happening with my Flickr Account since SmugMug Acquired…

I joined Flickr in 2013 as a free member and I’ve enjoyed having a free account. I had upwards of about 1500 photos in my Flickr photostream. I had many albums that I organized the products I make and sell. Last year Flickr sent emails letting me know that they were being sold to SmugMug and that changes would be coming. I marked my calendar with reminders of when the transition would take place. See my Flickr page here: Maggie’s Flickr Page

Unlike the sell out of Craftsy, Flickr gave members plenty of warning and Flickr didn’t kick us out. Flickr wrote in the email sent in 2018 that free member accounts would be limited to 1000 photos after a specified date in 2019. Flickr explained that after the specific date that they would begin deleting photos to achieve the 1000 photo limit.

After receiving the email from Flickr I began downsizing the photo albums and photos, a little at a time, that I have in my photostream on Flickr. It has taken me a couple months of paring down my photos but it wasn’t all that bad because Flickr and SmugMug gave me plenty of notice and so I could do a little at a time. I am also thankful to Flickr for not kicking me out the way that Craftsy did.

I now have downsized my photo stream in Flickr to 995 photos. I did it in sessions of paring down, culling pictures that were very similar to other pictures. I also want to say that I have the original photos in my own offline storage so deleting them on Flickr really wasn’t that big a deal because I still have the pictures. I found that over time each time I returned to Flickr to cull more photos it got easier each time and I actually found myself enjoying the process; it induced a strangely freeing feeling in me. Now if I could adopt that attitude in my garage to downsize all that stuff I will have to move when the day comes that I sell my property, which hopefully will be this year!

Below are some articles relating to Flickr being sold to SmugMug incase you are interested.

SmugMug + Flickr  

USA Exclusive on Sale of Flickr to SmugMug

TechCrunch article on acquisition of Flickr by SmugMug 

The Guardian article on Flickr bought by SmugMug 

Craftsy Sold Out to NBC Universal – They are Closing My Craftsy Tutorial Shop as of 12/28/18

I found this article about the buyout of Craftsy by #NBCUniversal while I was searching for help regarding the shocking news that Craftsy is closing of my Craftsy Shop. I received an email today telling me that as of 12/28/18 my pattern shop will be removed from Craftsy. It says I can still access for administrative purposes but I am shocked and dismayed at #craftsy because I was taken totally by surprise on this closing. I have link to my shop in literally thousands of places and here we are going into the week of Christmas and I will have to begin the tedious labor intensive task of changing all of my marketing posts and all of my literature and reprint documents and PDF files and so many places I can’t think of all the places at the moment because I am so overwhelmed thinking of this monumental task ahead of me. Not to mention worry about what #craftsy and #blueprint may do with my patterns that are remaining on their servers to be available to my customers who already purchased my patterns. I must say this has given me an entirely new appreciation and perspective on #etsy and I am feeling thankful for Etsy where I still have a pattern shop. Craftsy could have went to a similar platform for pattern designers on their platform but instead they decided to close many pattern designers’ shops.   The article mentioned above address is https://craftindustryalliance.org/bluprint-and-other-changes-at-craftsy-have-eroded-instructors-faith-in-the-platform/

In the article quilter Joe Cunningham sounded familiar and when I looked him up I couldn’t believe what a coincidence because I just watched one of my old DVDs that I recorded about 10 years ago of Sewing with Nancy and he, Joe Cunningham was a guest on her show in the episode I recorded and just watched. Here is his website http://www.joethequilter.com/   and in case you don’t know Nancy passed away recently, I’m so glad I have many of her shows recorded and her website still has her videos available to watch for free at https://wpt4.org/wpt-video/sewing-nancy/

I am glad I updated all my patterns recently on Craftsy and Etsy because I clicked “notify buyers” when I updated and so they all received a notice from me with my updated contact information. I spent many hours this month updating all my patterns that I have online because the old version still had my old website and phone number that I closed out earlier this year.

It really sucks too because I just used up all of my high speed for the month updating and uploading all my patterns on Craftsy to reflect updated contact information which is a good thing that my customers will have that information but now my hotspot is throttled down until renewal next month, so it will take me 5 times longer to make the many link updates in all the many platforms I have online.

I am a pattern designer. I publish pattern tutorials for my original designs. I’ve had my Craftsy shop since 2012. My tutorials are mostly sewing tutorials of the items that I actually make and sell in my Etsy shop. I also have a tutorial shop on Etsy but I promote my Craftsy shop instead of Etsy tutorial shop because of the fact that Craftsy didn’t charge a transaction fee nor a listing fee. I wish they would have given more warning about what they planned to do instead of bombarding me with emails trying to get me to join Blueprint. I have no interest in paying $14.99 a month for a service. I don’t pay anything for my Etsy shop except a very reasonable listing fee and transaction fee if I sell something. I would have understood if Craftsy would have went to that same sort of platform but instead they are just closing my shop here at the end of the year as we go into Christmas week. I am very disappointed in the way they have handled this takeover transition period. 

Last but not least below is the letter they sent me that I received this morning.

“Hi Designers,

As we near the end of 2018, we’re looking forward to the new year and how we can continue to create exceptional experiences for our customers and our talented pattern designers. Over the years, we’ve received many suggestions for improvement from designers and members alike, and we are taking the first steps in re-shaping our marketplace now. While we do so, we will be significantly reducing the number of stores and patterns available on our site at the end of this year.

On 12/28, your pattern store will be removed from Craftsy. You will still have access to your dashboard for all financial reporting after that date. We have enjoyed supporting your pattern business and look forward to sharing more as our marketplace evolves later on in 2019.

You can read more in our help center right here, or reach out to our team here anytime.

Thanks again from all of us for sharing your designs with our community.

Warmly,
The Craftsy/Bluprint Team”

This is the help page they linked in email letter. https://www.craftsyhelp.com/hc/en-us/articles/360020912032

A New Page to Explore

[December 16, 2018]

I realized today that although I’ve been culturing food for a few years now I had not added a fermentation of food section to my recipes on my blog, so I’m doing that today.

See below the information and pictures that I have on a page that I just made. You can find the page at Fermented (Cultured) Foods Information Page

I will be adding to the page over time so bookmark and check back often. Subscribe to my blog to receive an email when I post so you never miss a post.

This is what’s left of my kimchi inspired spicy cultured chow-chow type of food accompaniment made with bok choy, shallots, scallions, turmeric root, daikon radish, and other veggies – no animal products in any of my cultured foods.

Beets with onions, garlic, and – Cut Long Beans with onions, garlic,, the top area has some napa cabbage leaves to hold the beans under the brine, there is a glass weight on top of the cabbage leaf., and on top of the beets.

Cabbage and garlic. I was checking pH to be sure the level was still good.

Testing the pH of various cultured veggies. I do this periodically to be sure the veggies are still in good condition. Most of my fermented veggies range from 2.7 to 3.8 and all veggies are crisp. I toss out in compost if any veggies start to soften or obtain a pH higher than 4. As you can see I have a digital pH meter. I also have the test strips that I use to occasionally to compare the reading of the meter. I can’t use test strips for brine that is colored such as red cabbage and beets because the color skews the color of test strip.

This page is a work in progress, check back often for updates. I’m including some updates below that have links to sources of the science behind fermentation of foods, and the health benefits of the foods that are fermented.

Also check under the menu drop-down for Maggie’s Kitchen Tested Recipes, Fermented Foods Parent Page for more pages I will be adding for the various foods that I culture in my kitchen. My favorite fermented food is one that I created that is a kimchi inspired spicy cultured chow-chow type of food accompaniment made with bok choy, shallots, scallions, turmeric root, daikon radish, and other veggies – no animal products in any of my cultured foods.

UPDATE 12-16-18

Hello reader, I’m Maggie and I’m glad you found this page. I’m always looking for better ways to explain the process of fermentation of vegetables and this article explains it much better than I can, The author i a microbiologist. This article explains the science behind (cultured) fermented food such as sauerkraut. “The first stage of sauerkraut fermentation involves anaerobic bacteria, which is why the shredded cabbage and salt need to be packed in an airtight container. At this stage the surrounding environment is not acidic, just cabbagey. The bacteria, mostly Leuconostoc species, produce carbon dioxide (replacing the last vestiges of oxygen in the jar) and lactic acid, which is a natural byproduct of anaerobic respiration. Eventually, the conditions within the jar become too acidic for these bacteria to survive and they die out, replaced with bacteria that can better handle the acidic conditions such as Lactobacillus species.” That was an excerpt from an article, you can read entire article in the publication Scientific America written by S.E. Gould, A biochemist with a love of microbiology: The Science behind Sauerkraut

Also “The beneficial effects of probiotic foods on human health and nutrition are increasingly recognized by health professionals. Recent scientific work on the properties and functionality of living micro-organisms in food have suggested that probiotics play an important role in immunological, digestive and respiratory functions, and that they could have a significant effect on the alleviation of infectious diseases in children and other high-risk groups. In parallel, the number and type of probiotic foods and drinks that are available to consumers, and marketed as having health benefits, has increased considerably.”  read entire report, and/or download the pdf at: The World Health Organization Probiotics in (Cultured) Fermented Foods

UPDATE 8-12-18 Hello reader, I’m Maggie and I’m glad you found this page. I am updating some information today. I want to add a link to a resource about fermented foods. I will add it here at the bottom of the article. This link is  U. S. National Library of Medicine National Health Institutes of Health article on Inclusion of Fermented Foods in Food Guides around the World:  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4303846/

December 2018 Holiday Season Updates

Seasons Greetings! I hope you all are enjoying the 2018 holiday season.

Click this link to see My Retirement Dream – the Journey with Updates 

Update on a personal note:

I can’t believe it’s already December but I must admit the hot, humid, rainy, summer seemed to drag on forever! I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of Autumn. When October finally arrived I found myself wishing that I could be in New England to see the leaves turn yellow, orange, red, and brown, and to enjoy the cool weather. I thought of a future when I will be able to travel and go to visit relatives and friends that I haven’t seen for many years.  Alas, I am still struggling to pay mortgage and utilities each month at my homestead in Florida because I still haven’t sold my property. The developer for Dollar General made a deal with my neighbor instead of me. The neighbor’s property is already zoned HCD – Highway Commercial Development. I will have a Dollar General next door to me before long and I am looking forward to that happening because I have hope and faith that the Dollar General development along with the completion of the four-lane highway and new bridge will bring other offers from developers wanting to buy my property. I just need to keep hope and faith alive while I continue to sort things out. I been selling my stuff each month to supplement my social security to pay the mortgage, utilities, insurance and those living expenses that we all have. I plan to continue to downsize my belongings so I won’t have so much stuff to move to my new homebase and maybe get enough money to catch up on past due bills.

Happy Holidays! I hope you all are enjoying a happy peaceful holiday season enjoying your own special traditions. I love this time of year, Autumn is my favorite time of year and the holidays are the icing on the cake! I love the decorations, lights and festivities. I grew up in a household where we celebrated Christmas, it was wonderful, it was the best time of the year for me, it was even better than summer vacation! I grew up believing that the spirit of Christmas is all about believing in miracles and having faith in things that I can’t fully understand at the time they happen but knowing in my heart and believing that everything will work out for the best in the long run. I have faith and trust that all the things I’ve been planning for and dreaming about for many years will come true. I believe as mama did, everything happens for a reason and to always have faith that there is a silver lining no matter how bad it seems at the time.

I believe that even though things don’t always work out exactly as I had planned I keep the faith and hope in my heart that whatever does work out will be better than I had imagined. So that is what keeps me going, the believing keeps me going, having faith in miracles is what keeps me going. Christmas is a time of renewal of hope and faith in miracles, keep your faith and hope alive.  Merry Christmas, Seasons’ Greetings, and Happy Holidays everyone!

Update on my Handcrafting Enterprise:

Happy Holidays! My digital storefronts are still open during the holidays.Check out my Craftsy Storefront where I have tutorials that can be downloaded in a pdf. I have some that are FREE tutorials this month.https://www.craftsy.com/pr…/maggie-s-corner-original-designs

My online Etsy Storefront will reopen in January 2019. All items I make are custom made to order and take 2 to 3 weeks to process so that’s why I close my online store. You can sign up for notification when shop reopens by visiting https://www.etsy.com/shop/HandCrafterMaggie

#shopping #handmade #recycle #upcycle #holiday2018 #holiday2019#farmersmarket #farmmarket #totes #DIY #handcrafter #sewing #tutorials #freetutorials #freepatterns

Lefty, Righty, English, Continental, glad I’m Ambidextrous!

Wow it’s almost the end of November! I been doing some holiday knitting and crocheting and being thankful I am ambidextrous! If you are also ambidextrous I’d enjoy hearing from you to compare notes because I feel like the lone wolf at times and it would be great to find others like me out there in the world. I don’t watch tv, don’t have one anymore either, but I do watch a lot of YouTube videos while I’m knitting and one I recently watched reminded me of the Great Debate between the Lefty camp and the Righty camp when it comes to methods, as well as the differences in the English and Continental styles. In case you are lost as to what I’m writing about, I’m talking knitting and crocheting! I published a page on my blog this morning called “The Great Debate: Lefty-Righty, English-Continental.”  click on this link and you can see the page which I will be adding to as time goes by with related matter and links to groups and websites that address this debate. You can see below the particular information that I included today.

“The Great Debate: Lefty-Righty, English-Continental.” 

This particular page is about a debate that has probably been going on since someone first twisted yarn together into interconnected loops to make clothing which most historians agree dates back to at least the 11th Century. The debate is about left-handed and right-handed person’s method of knitting or crocheting. I am ambidextrous, since childhood I have made sure I can do the same things with my left hand as I do with my right hand. I have found that when performing a new task using left hand or right hand that it’s important to let my hands take over and not think too much about how I should be doing the movements but rather let my hands act naturally and then it seems without having to think about the movements that my hands know the movement at a subconscious level. That’s me though and I’m not sure if everyone can do the same. I reckon some people are either left-handed or right-handed and so the debate about which way someone is knitting or crocheting revolves around terminology. Left-handed is sometimes referred to as “mirror” knitting, but I don’t like that term because if you are mirroring the right-handed method then that implies that the right-handed method is the correct method, and that is faulty thinking. I have seen some well intentioned teachers of knitting giving very confusing information about left hand knitting. I’m beginning to think that a teacher who is a righty doesn’t seem to be able to think as a lefty thinks and so they give a lot of faulty instructions. I am ambidextrous; I don’t know if I think right handed or left handed, my thinking is duplex thinking when it comes to a task because both of my hands usually have a role to play in performing the tasks. If you are also ambidextrous I’d love to hear from you! I feel like a lone wolf sometimes because it seems I’m neither a righty or a lefty.

 

Moss stitch is same on both sides, my favorite stitch. In this particular picture I was knitting the row left-handed.

Moss stitch is same on both sides, my favorite stitch. In this particular picture I was knitting the row right-handed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

True left-handed knitting and crocheting moves from left to right transferring the yarn from right needle to the left needle. I am ambidextrous and I do both left-handed and right-handed knitting and crocheting. I switch back and forth between the two methods with ease. True left handed knitting should be described as such. Left-handed, movement is left to right transferring the yarn from the right needle to the left needle, and with Right-handed knitting the movement is right to left, moving the yarn from the left needle to the right needle. If you get confused stop and imagine your hands holding the needles, see your right hand motioning “come to me” and see the yarn transferring to the right needle as you move across from right to left as you knit each stitch onto the right needle. With left handed method imaging holding the needles and the left hand motioning “come to me” as you move from left to right knitting each stitch from right needle onto the left needle. Then there is the matter of the English and Continental style of knitting which involves how one hand or the other hand holds the yarn to handle and tension the yarn.

The English or Continental styles involves how one hand or the other hand holds the yarn to handle and tension the yarn. A true left-handed knitter knits from left to right, transferring the yarn from the right needle to the left needle (LEFT HANDED,) we handle/tension our yarn in our left hand which is knitting English style, and when we use our right hand to handle/tension the yarn then we are knitting Continental style. The same is true of those that knit from the right to left, moving the yarn from the left needle to the right needle (RIGHT HANDED) when knitting true right-handed, if we use the right hand to handle/tension the yarn then we are knitting English style, and when using the left hand to handle/tension the yarn we are knitting Continental style.

I will add to this page as time goes by with links to groups and websites that relate to this debate, so check back from time to time.

#righty #lefty #knitting #crocheting #knit #crochet #ambidextrous #english #continental