lulu issues, again

We just realized that the Lulu pattern store is not working, so don't go there for patterns. If you're looking for something, please use Etsy or Ravelry. I know I don't have all my patterns there, so I will add a few others to the Etsy store for now. I also have a few printed copies of the books to add. Hopefully things will be fixed soon!

birthday sale

Sorry for the grumpiness earlier. Stuff like that gets to me, but it's resolved now, sort of... I'm still not happy with Lulu, and there are discussions going on about different options for my patterns and books. I'll keep you updated as we figure out the best plan for a new shop.

I have a special day coming next week - it's my birthday on May 19! I don't have much planned, except to see the new Star Trek movie. I've been looking forward to seeing it for something like a year now (I'm a big Star Trek geek, what can I say?). Anyway, I wanted to have a special promotion that day, as a birthday gift to all my wonderful customers. Everything in my Etsy store will be 10% off that day! The sale will start from the morning when I can get all the listings updated with the discounted price, to the next day around the same time. I might add some of my other patterns too, so there's lots to choose from.

Anyway, have a great weekend everyone!

boo lulu

We're all moved in and loving the new house! Not too many hidden surprises so far, and I hope it will continue that way. We're only about half unpacked, so I think I'll wait to take photos until we're all done. My new studio is nothing but a messy pile of boxes, so I haven't done any work yet! Too many other things to do, really. In fact, the last couple days I've put off unpacking so I could get moving on the veggie garden. Planting time is swiftly approaching, and I don't want to be too late!

Something super aggravating happened in the last couple days too, and I wanted to write a bit about it. I didn't know that my pattern books were available on Amazon (sort of - Lulu sells them through Amazon, and they show up when you search there). This would be fine, except they were selling the original version of Festive Knits, which is just Fuzzy Knits with a different cover because we changed the name about a month after we first published it. The original Festive Knits is still hanging around on Lulu, but it should never have been for sale anywhere. So not only was it confusing that there were two different Festive Knits for sale on Amazon, but the original one was being sold at cost! I don't even know how long this was going on.

So far I've only had one customer coming to me confused as to why her 'new' Festive Knits book was just the same as her copy of Fuzzy Knits. I hope there are no more, or it could become a real problem! Hopefully Lulu has some explanation for me. I'm getting really fed up with the problems they've had over the last year.

baby penguin

So having a baby seems to make you a little late for all kinds of things. This bugs me a bit, since I'm a very punctual person, but I suppose I have more important things to worry about, like when he'll be hungry next, whether I can make it through the day without a nap, and if it's worth staying up an extra half hour to get a shower :) Honestly, though, I'm late because yesterday was the last day of my mom's visit and we were trying to fit in as much stuff as possible. So, the Baby Penguin pattern sort of got forgotten...

Anyway, it's all done and ready for you. There are three (yes, 3!) places you can buy it: Lulu, Etsy (which is open again), and Ravelry. I've had the Ravelry store for a little while with some free patterns in it, but we just decided to see how we would do selling patterns there. I missed my Etsy store, since it was my first and lots of people still find me there. I will try my best to send out patterns every day, but I won't ever take longer than 2 days to get back to you (I should be able to take care of any baby issues in that time).

As some of you may know, Lulu has been a bit sketchy lately. For some reason, the occasional person can't download the patterns they buy (about 1% of my customers). We've complained, my customers have complained, and all they say is that they're working on the problem. Except, it's been happening for 3-4 months, and I don't really believe them any more. Sadly, there's no better place to publish my books at the moment, so we'll have to stick around and hope the problem gets solved eventually. If it happens to you, I need you to email me a copy of your receipt (because Lulu doesn't show me who buys what) and I'll email the patterns to you.

I have some fun stuff to share with you later this week, like a toy swap I'm participating in, my lovely noro socks (half done the second one already!), some thoughts on a new toy design, and some super cute baby videos.