Monday, June 9, 2008

Sharing

Mr. Mitten here, filling in for Barbara, who is a bit under the weather. I mean that both literally and figuratively -- our current weather is better suited for North Carolina than for Quebec. I should know -- I spent ten years of my life down there. :) It's been really hot and muggy, and now we're told it's a "movie trailer" for what the weather is going to be like for the rest of the summer. Great.

Anyway, Barbara is looking over my shoulder as I am typing this -- she's too pooped to do it herself (or so she claims). :) I'm going to use this opportunity to make a small announcement, while I have the microphone under my control.

We would both like Fuzzy Mitten to be more open about sharing. It's quite frequent that someone asks if it's okay to sell toys made from the Fuzzy Mitten patterns, and though the answer has always been "yes, of course," we'd like to make it more official. The toys that you make from our patterns are yours -- if you want to sell them or give them away, that's perfectly fine with us! There's only a couple of small caveats, described on our new Sharing and Selling page.

We would also like to encourage everyone to share our patterns among your friends. All of the following is perfectly fine:
  • making copies of the pattern for your knitting buddies
  • bringing the patterns to your knitting group (and making enough copies for everyone who wants one!)
  • emailing the patterns to your knitting friends

Everyone does that already, so please do not feel guilty if you have done it before. ;) Most of that falls under fair use, anyway.

However, we still ask you not to do any of the following:

  • please do not put the patterns on a website where anyone can download them (unless it says otherwise in the pattern itself)
  • please do not sell copies of the patterns (but if you are interested in selling them, we can easily arrange that, too!)
We discussed this quite a bit before deciding to go ahead with the plan, and we both think it's an excellent idea. All knitters are part of a larger knitting community -- sharing, openness, and willingness to work together is only going to foster it further, bringing in new talent and encouraging creativity.

We've set up the sharing and selling page with all the rules, and the link to it is on the front page of fuzzymitten.com. We'll be slowly going through the patterns to add a note about sharing there, too, so look out for that in the future (might take us some time).

Let us know if you have any comments!

Cheers,
-Konstantin and Barbara

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Feel better soon Barbara! Get some rest :)

Munkeh said...

Howdy Barbara's hubby.
Hope you are feeling better soon Barbara!

Thank you so much for letting us know that it is OK to share your wonderful patterns with our friends. It is so very kind of you!

Please take care and we look forward to more new patterns in the future.

Anonymous said...

I try to be scrupulous about copyright, it is extremely kind and generous of you to share.

PS I am making a ballerina hippo.
PPS Feel better!

Catie said...

I hope you feel better soon Barbara, and I hope that the weather doesn't get as hot as they are predicting. We are currently getting a lot of rain here in Calgary (today's high was 14 degrees, and that was to be the high for the week). Not complaining - it sure is easier to put on another layer of clothing than it is to take off a layer of skin. Thank you so much for letting us share the patterns with our friends and family. It is very generous of you.

sweetp said...

Wow that is very generous of you. Hope you feel better soon

Anonymous said...

Wow. Thank you very, very much for this! I've been wanting to email you asking exactly this for ages (because people had been asking me if I wanted to sell some of the bunnies I made from your wonderful patterns), but I was a bit too pooped myself. :) Thanks again!! And Barbara: get well soon!

Lucy said...

Dear Barbara

Get well soon!! I also look forward to some more of your delightful patterns when you are feeling better - it is cold here Downunder - I wish I could send you a cool breeze!! Take care

Cheers Lucy

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot.Sometimes I want to sell some softies for charitiy projects and I think your animals will be great for this purpose.
I hope, you will feel better soon.
claudia

Anonymous said...

Hi Mr Icon. Sorry to hear Barbara is not well. I hope she feels beter soon. I'm sure you will take good care of her. Thank you so much for the sharing idea. It will be much appreciated. The weather in Somerset is very warm at the moment. We are enjoying it while it lasts!

Anonymous said...

Get better soon, Barbara! Gosh, it's awful being sick as a "grown up," isn't it? I hope Mr. I is taking good care of you.

As for your GENEROUS gift of pattern sharing, you are amazing! Your patterns are completely gorgeous and the fact that you are so open about sharing your gift just goes to show your true spirit. Thank you so much. As soon as I get better at this knitting thing, I'm casting on for my little lamb. Of course, I'll wait for the day when you add a goat to your family, but I'm a very patient girl so take your time. :)

Now go REST!
Blessings,
Leslie

becky said...

Thank you ,hope you feel better soon.

Anonymous said...

Thanks for the permissions. Im making the rabbits as Christmas presents, and showed a friend the other day, she asked for a copy of the pattern and I "forgot" to give it to her.
I really try not to send copies to friends of stuff I have bought. I have noticed that the pattern hold less value to me an Im less likely to make it if it is free. I thought that was interesting! Its like Im trying to get mymoneys worth by knitting up the patterns I paid for!!
Thanks for the permissions though.

Anonymous said...

Wow - so very kind of you. The whole idea of sharing is so knitterly. This makes me want to buy more of your patterns!

I hope that whenever possible, people try to send "business" your way and encourage others to purchase your pattern so you can continue to create such wonderful critters. You've done a very positive and generous thing and I hope the universe and all those knitters out there return the favor.

Thanks and I hope you feel better.

Also - since you shared your gingersnap recipe with us - I found an amazing lemon, crystalized ginger snap recipe - I'll try to get that to you.

Mare said...

This is so refreshing and very very generous of you! I hope you are feeling better by now...

woolies said...

Even though you had told me it was ok to sell toys made from your patterns, I've always felt a little guilty. Thank you, Thank you, for this.