Huge shop discount for the month of November!

What happened to you, Kate?

Let's get real, yeah? I haven't posted here in months, my Instagram went silent for 6 weeks straight and the Facebook and Twitter feeds are almost a ghost town. You might be wondering what gives?

I've been pretty quiet and there have been a few good reasons behind that. If you can indulge me, here are the main two reasons:

1. I got extremely burnt out with cross-stitching suddenly one day back in August. So I listened to my head and heart and stopped stitching altogether rather than hold myself to a standard that wouldn't be good for me.

   Yes, that meant I had to miss many deadlines of my Overwatch hero patterns. No, I'm still not happy I'm far behind my ideal "finish" date of completing all the current heroes by the end of 2019. But the alternative was that I quit stitching and pattern making altogether.

   Late September I slowly started to find my mojo again and slowly began stitching and designing (and brainstorming ideas for patterns) again. It's now the start of November and I have a new Overwatch hero ready for release, the next one being stitched as well as so many patterns under my belt.

   I'm very glad I stepped back and took a break. And I hope you're happy to see me back.

2. I've been unhappy with how I've setup shop. I have my own listings done through my website (which I use Gumroad as the payment application - which I love) as you know, since you're here reading this, but I also have my shop setup on Etsy where I have to conform with their restrictions, fees and other nuisance T&C.

   Right now, to my dismay, most of my sales come through Etsy. Customers -when found there- are fleeting. I am unable to easily aquire them (and anyway, I'd rather do that on here!), retaining them is nigh impossible (I add a "want to find out more?" PDF to my downloads so people know how to sign up for my newsletter. That's the only way to do it through Etsy's terms & conditions) and growing with a customer is just luck that they do decide to follow along with me. Not ideal, as you can see.

   So, I've been doing soul searching, brainstorming and asking people within the needlepoint, craft and pattern-making industry their thoughts. And I've decided to try something drastic for November.

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Enormous shop discount 😱

I have decided that I would rather see my patterns being made, word being spread and focusing more on the pattern making process itself than worry about figures, fees and advertising. So I'm making the majority* of my shop PWYW (Pay What You Want) for the next 30 days.

Yes, it takes me hours to design a pattern. Larger ones, days or weeks to get it just right. Yes, I value my time and effort and expertise. Yes, I admire and value other cross-stitch pattern makers and do not wish to devalue the hard work they also put in. Which is why this is a "here's a pattern I made, if you can or feel it's worthy, you can pay for it like usual" and absolutely not an expectation that any other professional should do the same.

I fully anticipate people can and will just take what they want and run. I do hope there aren't many of those. But I also know the community I'm a part of understand the hard work put in to making patterns like the ones I've got. And they will pay it forward when they can and want to.