Aaaargh

So it appears that it is that time of the year again. Luckily this doesn't happen too frequently, but when it does I feel I must rant at least a little. When you use one of my free patterns or purchase one from my etsy store, I request both in the listing and on the pattern itself that you please use them for personal use or offline sale only. This is of course because I sell my own pieces online and I don't want to compete with my own designs. I know that not every designer feels this way, but many do and even though this is not a legally enforceable mandate(who can honestly afford trademark or patents?), most people comply, I assume out of common courtesy or respect. Every once in a a while though someone fights me on it. Yesterday was that day. I fought a seller on esty whom I had asked to remove the listings made with  my patterns. In the end it appears courtesy lost and she refuses to remove the listings. I of course have no recourse and the worst part is that when some people see those listings they will assume I gave permission or that is is fine for them to do it as well and I won't be able to stop the bleeding.

Okay, I may be being hyperbolic, but these events always cause me so much stress. This one even had the added bonus of a bad review for a sale pattern that called out this policy and then stated that they didn't even need the pattern because they could see how to make it anyway. It's everything I can do to keep myself from pulling down all my patterns and never listing another to avoid this in the future. It really is a lot of stress. I mean I get a nervous stomach just sending the messages. I didn't even find the listing myself, but someone had asked if my policy had changed because they saw the listing and so I had to send the message. I know that most people who use and buy pattern have no interest in selling and that to pull them down would be an overreaction, but I still just want the stress to stop. Anyway, I think it's mostly out of my system now, provided that no more of it rears it's ugly head anytime soon.

So back to making things. It was hard to get through any oya yesterday as I kept getting distracted and then shaky from the afore mentioned drama, but I did get some done. This first one here is called the basket stitch in the book I'm using. I like that it looks like little stars after the third row is done. I also like that I don't have any ends to hide when I cut off the threads with this. The knots are so tight, I can't seem them unraveling ever.

This next one is my favorite so far. The book refers to it as a pine cone and adds a tassel to the end. This is the first bit that I can imagine as a piece of jewelry. In fact I may try it out with thicker thread and see how it looks today, provided that I'm not distracted again. Oh, how I hope that drama is all done for now. Sorry, I know, I thought I was done too. Here's hoping today is better and thank you to everyone who does understand and respect my request. Thank you to all of you who support my work and give me confidence to learn new things and occasionally design new things. I need that more than you know.