...(not) to protect the innocent, but rather to reflect that I am moving in a new direction. The CraftyCripple has had her surgery and is now Stitched Together! If you visit the blog rather than reading your posts in a feed reader you will have noticed the new header and possibly the new web address. You will now find me at www.stitchedtogether.co.uk. Yes, I splashed out and bought a new domain name. I have not changed hosts, however, so if you have subscribed to this blog at www.craftycripple.blogspot.com, you will still get the same posts you always did.
At the same time as updating the website name I have tried to update most of my online names but have failed miserably, in a few places, namely Twitter and Ravelry. The following are the places you can find me online, which shouldn't require you to make any changes to existing links, but you never can tell:
Ravelry (individual) - Stitched-Together
Ravelry (designer) - Stitched Together Designs
Twitter - CraftyCripple
Facebook - Stitched Together
Flickr - Stitched Together
Email - stitchedtog@gmail.com
I have been unable to change the name on Twitter, as yet, but I'm sure most people won't notice the name change very much, but I did feel it was time for a bit a re-branding exercise.
Up until recently I couldn't think very cohesively about where I wanted to go with my blogging and designing because I was too bound up in just getting through each day the in the best way that I could.
Since my surgery, my pain levels have dramatically decreased and freed up some capacity from the "ow it hurts" part of my brain. This spare capacity has made me think that I should be designing more knits again and also start working on drawing up some of the sewing patterns I have developed for making bags and purses. As I have become less crippled by my pain, I have found that I want my online identity to reflect that fact.
The name The CraftyCripple was chosen in 2008, when I was just beginning to knit and crochet and all the name had to do was reflect me as a person. Since that time I have become a blogger, a tweeter, a knitting designer and now I am branching out into sewing patterns. Those things are not just about me as a person but also about a "brand". I know that The CraftyCripple as a name has caused some negative reactions, which I don't care about as an individual, but I SHOULD care about it if it puts people off using my patterns. I don't write the patterns to make vast sums of money, but it would be nice if they reached a wider audience than they already have. This is even more important if I want to design new patterns as well.
The new name I have chosen - Stitched Together, I hope, reflects my love of all stitching be it knitted, crocheted, embroidered or machiine stitched. I also hope it reflects that this kind of stitching has held me together until the surgeon's stitches had a chance to work their magic. It's a name that refers to both the crafts I am hoping to write more patterns for, and also the state of my health. I am also pretty sure that this new name, while reflecting that I am literally Stitched Together, won't create such a visceral reaction when it is first seen.
Over the next few weeks I intend to update my older knitting patterns and unify all the formats and layouts I have used over the last few years, so everything is clear and they all have updated contact details on, that reflect the name change. After that I really want to start exploring all the design ideas I have sketched out over the last year or so.
Thank you for sticking with me over the last few difficult months, it meant, and still continues to mean, a lot to me, that people were interested in the things that I make. I have had such supportive comments and messages that at times I got a teeny bit emotional. I hope that you continue to stick with me as I (hopefully) become slightly less whiny and grumpy!
