The Durban Spice Girls one month Blockaversary!

( credit: Kathleen Sundby )


Hello, fellow Yarnies! I hope you are very well in your little corner of Crochetland?💖

Yes, it is true, time flies when you're having fun! An entire month has passed, to the day, that I released my first ever paid pattern, The Durban Spice Girls! And what a month it has been, In fact, it's hard to believe it was only four weeks ago! Someone asked me if I had imagined how many downloads there would be and I kid you not, 45 was the optimistic number in my head. I thought, well 45 is a good number, and I'll be more than happy with that. In fact, even 25 downloads would be awesome.😊

(credit: Raponsielief )

So you can imagine my utter surprise when the downloads just kept, well, downloading! First 10, then 25, then 55, then 120 and it just kept rolling. One month later and The Durban Spice Girls is close to 800 downloads, and still going! THANK YOU ALL for supporting the handmade revolution! 💖

I learned a few things too:

 A) Ravelry is AMAZING! All I had to do was upload the Pattern and a lot of nitty gritty was taken care of by the Ravelry fairies, who live in my computer.😊

B) Keep an eye on the % taken off by Ravelry, Pay Pal, and your bank. Your ching looks good but you still have to pay your dues.

C) EU customers pay tax ( shoowee, quite a bit too! ) which is tacked onto the price of your download, which you need to "pay back" to Ravelry. Yes. keeping EU tax is a criminal offense. Thankfully Raverly take care of this and makes sure the Taxes go to where they must go.

It's early days yet but quite a few Durban Spice Girls have begun to surface. I don't know what to say about the gorgeous colourways except, I stand in awe!!

(credit: 1djk1 )

(credit: Marieke Kok )

(credit: dbart )

I worked this one for the video guides that come with the pattern. 😊

Every day, these past four weeks, have felt like a celebration of sorts, a month long Durban Spice Girls party! Of course, there have been gifts galore and I have been gifting the pattern like confetti. Also, there is a competition ( details on the Facebook page, updated every Wednesday until the 22 August ).

( credit: Sandra Salas )

          (credit: Lindsay Shatto  above and below YogiBuBu )

As many of you probably already have, I too have a Wishlist board in my teeny workroom. Finally, I was able to wipe it almost clean. 😄

I bought a whole bag ( 18 balls! ) of Stylecraft Special DK! Rather than a precious ball or two. Yippee!! It's imported yarn here, so a little expensive for my usual budget. A few days later I bought a whole lot ( 8 balls ) more! I can't show you yet, but my NEW big, BIG Square is ALL Stylecraft Special DK and oh, how I am loving all the colour choices. Frankly, I am in Yarny Nirvana!

I also ordered two Crochet books I've wanted for two whole years. The Crochet Stitches Visual Encyclopedia by Robin Chachula, and  Around The Corner Crochet Borders by Edie! Eckman

If you know of any "absolutely MUST have" crochet books, be sure to let me know in the comments.

I'm already excited to release my next BIG square pattern ( and videos ) and I'm hoping it will coincide with the Competition draw on the 29 August, which happens to also be my birthday! 😵

In the meantime, I hope that you're enjoying whatever you have on your hook at the moment, and that life is being particularly kind, gentle and very generous with you.

Au revoir! And don't forget , I am always at my FB page if you need a quick chat or you want to post your finished Hooks 'n Tales squares for all of us to admire! 💕

Love,
Jen xxx