It’s been a funny old week, and time to take a reflective pause. We’ve known for months that this particular part of the year was going to have a lot going on, with our son’s wedding next weekend, our niece’s three weeks later, and Norfolk Open Studios. And strangely several other invitations turned up – and had to be turned down – because they were all for things taking place during that exact period.
So it’s probably not the time to be making monumental decisions!
I started writing a blog for myself to start with. I certainly didn’t think anyone else would want to read it! And although I’ve read the articles, and joined in discussions on how to build a blog following, it has grown up organically over the last couple of years, and I’ve felt it a cosy place to be, with friends dropping in for a chat, an opportunity to share ideas and generally ‘spread a little happiness’ if I can. I started the Cotton Club idea because I liked the idea of sharing something I had found and really liked, and I’ve been amazed at how popular it’s been. I’ve been particularly surprised at how the Rainbow Mouse idea, the Wreath and the clock seems to have struck a chord, and it’s been shared on UK Handmade, and Pinterest, and Facebook and who know where else.
I have been happy to share the few patterns I have on Planet Penny too, as it’s been a thrill to see my design turning up as a make on someone else blog, and I also wanted to give ideas to the people who have bought the yarn..
But the World Wide Web can be a big scary place, and it’s all too easy to think you’re sitting in a cosy little corner sharing your stuff with a few chums as I found out this week. Imagine you’d invited a few friends round for coffee, and when you opened the door half the county streamed in, and started helping themselves to the soft furnishings…That’s how it felt on Tuesday, when someone, somewhere with a big following, I think I’ve narrowed it down, mentioned I had a free pattern for the Rainbow mice.
I had seven and a half thousand hits in less than 24 hours!!!
Thousands of hits on all the patterns, but obviously most of all on the mice, and it completely ‘freaked me out’ as they say! It felt like a smash and grab, or a raid! It has had some positive points, I’ve picked up some lovely new followers, who have said very kind things, and I do appreciate that. I really don’t want to make anyone feel unwelcome, if you are a returning visitor then this is obviously not aimed at you. But I feel the bulk of those 7500 hits won’t be repeated now they’ve gone through my assets!
So I’ve moved the Rainbow Mouse Pattern to my Folksy shop, where it can be bought, after Paypal and Folksy have taken their cut, for a nominal sum. I shall do that with future patterns that are in the pipeline too.
BUT….I still want to share things with the Planet Penny Cotton Club Members so the patterns will always be free to anyone who has bought the yarn already, or to future purchasers.
On a lighter note, I went to a Tweet-up this week! Several makers who Tweet together, but without necessarily knowing each other getting together for lunch, and a chat and a bit of a brainstorming session. I already knew Gabriella, of Moobaacluck who organised it, and Lisa of Bobobun, but I was also able to meet Penny of Penny Lindop Designs, Suzanne Lake who sells on Folksy and Jane Pennington who sells her jewellery here. It was so nice to put faces to Twitter names, and swap tips, ideas and horror stories over pizza and coffee!
Nearly all the creativity that’s been going on this week has still been of the secret variety I’m afraid, but I have had a play with the little flowers I made last week…
…and I think it’s something I’ll return to when things are a little quieter.
I’m hoping that qualifies me to join in with Handmade Monday again over with Wendy on 1st Unique Gifts where there will be lots of lovely things to see. Do go and visit…
In the meantime, see you soon …x
Edited to add: The mystery has been solved with an apology from an American TV Show ‘Knit and Crochet Now’ which had forgotten to warn me they were featuring the Rainbow Mice on their Facebook Page (which has rather a large following!) I’m glad I know, I can now feel flattered they noticed, rather than scared of the attention!
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Penny- lovely though it is to share designs for free, those designs are the result of hours of your creativity and effort.Nothing at all wrong with getting some financial reward for it, in fact, if your designs are popular, all the more reason for charging for them!
Oh what a week you have had almost seems so intrusive and like a plaque of ants in the kitchen, taking what they want then leaving you to clear up the mess. Well done on selling your patterns they are so good and should be paid for, just sorry you had to find out the hard way.
The flower wreath is so pretty and could be another pattern to your collection. Have a good week
Oh my lordy! I really do feel for you, I can’t imagine exposure of that level 🙁 only wish I’d saved the pattern on the day you first put it up now! (joking!) Xx
Oh, I love the sound of the Tweet-up. there are several Twitters who are very local to me, so might be a good idea to suggest a Tweet-Up to them – as you say, lovely to put faces to the names. 7.5 thousand hits – how amazing. The WWW is incredibly, although as you say pretty scary at times. I love what you have done with your flowers – they are gorgeous and your wreath looks lovely. Hope you have a good week.
Completely agree with the above comments Penny; hope your feelings of having been violated somewhat don’t last long, and you absolutely should be able to make a bit of money from your fabulous talent. Hope the Open Studios is as good, although you probably don’t want 7,500 visitors streaming through your doors….!
You sound as if you have had quite a week! We learn as we go and I don’t think that you should worry about charging for your patterns. You are obviously very talented (which we all knew already) and somehow became a victim of it. Love the wreath – great way to celebrate May day!
That amount of hits at once is amazing! If half the country turned up at your house, I hope they would remember to wipe their feet before coming in 😉
It usually happens that everything happens at once and all events clash so you can only pick one. Good luck with the Open Studios.
Well, that level of visitors just goes to show that charging for the pattern is the right thing to do – it’s quite obviously popular! I know it can feel intrusive, but you’ve learned from it and that’s good. The tweet up sounds fab! x
Penny I have to agree with the comments of my lovely friend Kate. You should be charging something for all your effort. I would have felt overwhelmed if that had happened to me. I hope that you are over the discomfort now?
Well darn. Guess I should have printed out that pattern when it was free. Great that you are having so much traffic though.
OMG! Not sure what I would do if I got that many hits at once! Hope you are/have recovered now. Just goes to show how popular those mice are. Now, quick think up another lovely idea… Oh you already did 😉 seriously, your flower wreath is adorable. Much nicer than bunting/garlands.
Wow! That’s a lot of visitors! You are obviously doing it right! Hope you have the same ‘footfall’ when you are charging for your patterns. You could retire early! Love the flower wreath too!
I’m pretty sure the rush began because of the Craftsy newsletter last week. It featured your mouse clock as a project.
I’ve had something similar happen to me on a smaller scale last year. I still have no clue what caused the rush and I agree, it’s scary to see so many new names without a clue why until you see one pattern downloading at a phenomenal rate. I would have been thrilled to bits if it had been one of my for sale patterns but it was a free one.
So I don’t blame you for moving that one pattern to your for sale list.
Good luck and I am one of those whose been here for a while happily reading your blog and rarely commenting. Yes I know, I qualify as those hiding behind the curtains 🙂
I’m here via Handmade Monday.I love visiting your blog and seeing your brilliant crafting.I can’t even believe to imagine what it felt like to have your site ravaged like that.I think it’s wise that you’re selling your future patterns.I follow your blog via Handmade Monday but admit to not being an official follower as I find it irritating to have to keep signing up and joining sites that I probably won’t use for other things.
Totally agree with your decision to sell your patterns, the things you create have had huge amounts of work put into them. If I want a pattern I have no problems paying for it. Hope you continue to enjoy blogging as your regular followers me included always enjoy your posts and makes.
Happy Crafting
Fleur xx
ps. I have a giveaway going at the moment you may be interested in xx
Think you made the right decision, but I really sympathise with how you felt over the whole thing.
Wonderful to meet up the other day. Must do it more often as I had a lovely time.
Love what you’ve done with the wee flowers, can’t guess what it is yet, but love the brightness of them all together.
Blog looks good too Penny, all spic and span. Loads of links for me to follow.
See you at Open Studios.
Lisa X
I understand where you are coming from – good idea to charge something for your patterns, even if it’s a nominal charge. Stops that manic, gimme gimme gimme response. I’d have felt quite uneasy and unhappy, if it happened to me.
I love your wreath – always love the things you make. They cheer me up. 🙂
I’m so glad you will now get a little something back for all your hardwork by putting the pattern on folksy, it’s a shame people have taken advantage. I just love the wreath, visiting your blog always cheers me up as it’s always so colourful! 🙂 xx
Drat! I’m another reader who wishes she’d printed the pattern out when she first saw it. Mind you, £2 isn’t much for Santa, is it? ;o)
I hope lots of others buy the pattern – it is beautiful.
Hi! I saw your site mentioned on Ravelry earlier today so dropped by. I didn’t take a pattern (I’m a knitter not a crocheter), but I did enjoy admiring your mice.I liked what I saw & added you to my favourites. I was so sorry to see your comments when I popped back – I’m sure you will have aquired many admirers & followers as part of that stampede – I hope that makes you feel better. I agree with previous comments that you are right to sell your pattern to people who are not otherwise your customers. 🙂 Good luck.
You are right to put the pattern for sale Penny – a lot of work goes into writing patterns. I love your flower wreath – really good way to use up little bits of the cotton yarn Mich x
I totally understand where you’re coming from re. the mice pattern Penny, I’d probably have felt the same way. And I love the idea of a tweet-up, what fun!
Hi Penny – sorry that you felt like you’d been steamrollered this week. Don’t be downhearted, though – there are lots of bloggers who appreciate the hard work and generosity of those who share their ideas and encourage creativity in others. xx
Well, the pattern is deservedly popular, but I do know what you mean. I had a similar experience last year and it freaked me out a bit too – all my traffic was coming from Russia for a few days, and I didn’t know what to make of it. (It soon passed.)
Good luck with all your activities this week!
It figures that I don’t think I got the mouse pattern printed. In one way it is good if someone gives you credit for something of yours that they made. But to get bombarded like that is crazy!
I love the flower wreath and am so pleased with my recent “Rainbow mice” purchase. I’m sorry to hear you’ve been a bit spooked by all the recent web activity. We’re not all like that.
Chris
xx
Penny, I know just how you feel, it is a difficult decision to make about sharing.
I love sharing knowledge with people but am a little miffed with a local shop who are using a design of mine (the wreath) and are running workshops using my tutorials but did not ask me if I would be interested. Still whoever is doing it does not use a pinking wheel so it does not look as good as mine! 😉
You will get lots of lovely followers from this, I am sure… thanks for being so generous. 🙂
Good heavens above, what an invasion! Hopefully lots of the visitors will be returning and becoming followers.
Have a lovely day.
Carol xx
I have this page through handmade monday and its fab! I must have been horrible to have people take advantage like that, I would have been furious. Your work is brilliant and it is only fair that you get something for all the hard work you have put in
Wow – what a tidal wave! I completely agree with others who have said that it is totally appropriate for you to charge for your fabulous pattern – your time, skill and creative expertise have gone into creating it and putting a price on it honours the value of these things.
I actually think many people feel more comfortable deep down when they are asked to pay for something of this nature as it is also an opportunity for them to demonstrate that they value your work too.
Your flowers look beautiful and make up for the current lack of Sunshine with their bright prettiness! 🙂
I love your blog, it is so bright and cheerful.
I hope you have lots of success selling you pattern.
LH
x
Goodness that is a huge number of hits. It’s a wonder your service provider didn’t shut down. Nothing wrong with charging for your patterns. I make raggedy dolls and have purchased my patterns from a lot of different people who only ever request that I mention them as the author of the pattern which I am happy to do. Your wreath is fab. Not seen one done in crochet flowers before. Hugs Mrs A.
Good for you Penny, that’s absolutely fair and right to charge for the mice pattern. Maybe it was a sort of giveaway that will lead to future patterns being bought, so you never know, something you feel a bit raw about might have wonderful repercussions. That’s an amazing amount of hits, fantastic! I bet a lot of them will return to you and your blog, especially if you carry on selling new patterns. LOVE the wreath, there’s another pattern to put on sale! Vanessa xxx
Glad you found out how it happened Penny. A very nice compliment, just think of all those mice scampering around America!
Carol xx
Hi Penny, sounds like a bit of an ordeal, but, as your other friends have mentioned, your patterns are really pretty and bound to be popular with anyone who sees them. Thanks for the time you spend on Planet Penny content which I always enjoy, and for my yarn which arrived safely this morning. It’s beautiful! xxx
I always try not to be too precious with the sorts of things I put out there on the internet but you do have to be careful!
Fingers crossed lots of those 7000 or so followers come back to you now you are charging for the patterns. It could be quite lucrative for you 🙂
OMG you poor thing,well at least you know why you had so many people visting.I myself am new to all this yarn and hooks and felt n things but i so love just visting your blog to see what you have been up to.And thank you for the visit to my blog.
Hopefully most of those followers will return! It must have been scary, but think of it as reaching more people!
Good luck with the wedding season!
As usual, a late comer to the party this week, and it seems like I’ve missed all the ‘fun’! I hope things have returned to an even keel, and that you can now enjoy your son’s wedding. So lots of good wishes are heading your way – and a sun dance!
Jo x
Just listing my owls on Folksy and I’m next to your mice on the newly listed!! Small world!
Jo x
Hello Penny,
Oh, dear. I’m afraid that I’m one of those who saw your adorable rainbow mice on Facebook (Vogue Knitting, I believe), and clicked away, albeit not 7,500 times! I am sorry that you felt overwhelmed and invaded.
I’m a lifelong knitter, and I have been inspired to learn to crochet with that project. I am actually interested in the kit which includes the pattern and the rainbow of yarns.
Glad the mystery is solved, and I hope I to continue reading your charming blog!
Cheers,
Elizabeth in Paris, France