Subscribe

Saturday 11 July 2015

Pinterest Obsession and Etiquette



This is one of those times where I try to pretend I don't have an obsession with my phone and that pinterest isn't LOTS and LOTS of fun. Actually I'm not pretending really hard. I spend a little bit of time there browsing for thoughts and ideas.

MINI RANT

For a long time I didn't really like pinterest mainly because I went on there at first looking for cross stitch ideas and I realised how many people just share patterns on their without out thought for where they come from or if they should be shared. It made me kind of sad and it still does how many people don't pay any attention to what they pin or if they have the right to share it. I don't want to rant for a long time on this subject but it is a problem.

I love sharing crochet and knitting a lot because you can link to the patterns but more often than not the cross stitch you find on pinterest is stolen or illegally copied. Which I just hate because it takes so much from the designers. Please DON'T do this! Be aware of what you are pinning and make sure you're not pinning something that someone has just copied.

And if they're not sharing an illegal pattern they're sharing links to patterns that aren't a real link anymore OR it's to a random blog that doesn't link to the pattern either OR it links to the main page of the blog not to the post.

Raise your hands if you've tried to make something from pinterest and you can find no instructions because the link is a REALLY bad one and you can't find any instructions anywhere? That happens to me WAY too often.

PINTEREST RULES

So before I share some of the awesome stuff I've found on Pinterest I'm going to ask you all to be aware of what you share on pinterest and follow these rules.

1. Check that the link actually works and opens up to a page.

This happens more now I think because pinterest has been around for a couple of years and over time links stop working. It happens and it's a problem but just takes quickly checking if the links are still there.

2. Confirm you are linking to a pattern. If you aren't linking directly to a pattern know why.

Are you linking to a picture as inspiration?
Then say so. Say it isn't a pattern and what is cool about it. It is fascinating to know what can inspire people so share that it inspires.

Are you linking to someone who is linking to the pattern because you like their colours? Say so in the description so people know what they will find and that it isn't the original post/pattern but that they can find the pattern.

3. Make sure you link to the actual post NOT the front page of the blog. I get really annoyed at the amount of people who link to the main page instead of linking to the page and 1 year down the track you can't find the post or the tutorial that you actually wanted to know more about.

4. Particularly with cross stitch patterns but really with anything just have a read through to confirm that the person posting the pattern has the right to share it. Is it there own pattern? Have they asked the designer? It's usually really easy to find out whether it should be shared by that person and just takes some common sense.

If you follow these simple rules and really they aren't that hard to follow it means that everyone can enjoy your pins and get the same inspiration from them that caused you to pin them in the first place.

What's Trending This Week

So onto the pinterest fun. I have found all sorts of beauties around pinterest and facebook that I have been linking to and saving and I specifically want to share some of them with you. If you want to find me on pinterest it's HERE it's the only place where I am still called mangogirl88 I just can't work out how to change it to naughtscrossstitches. I have found a LOT more articles and pictures than I'm going to talk about here.

1. Oh gosh! I found this today! It looks absolutely amazing! It's a retro ornament crochet throw. It looks absolutely amazing and I really want to make one for myself. Check it out



It's by a lady called Jessie at Home and it's done especially for red heart yarns but I could see it looking awesome in anything. The picture has been taken from the page so all credit goes to her and I really want to make one now.

2. While we're on the topic of yarns I found a link to this pretty amazing website called Yarnsub. If you don't know what to replace a yarn with because you can't access it well here is a website to give you suggestions.

3. So I bought a new phone (actually my old one died so I upgraded my plan) and I have been thinking about phone cases. Oh gosh... search crochet phone cases and you end up in HEAVEN!!!! But there are a couple that really stood out. I am fairly obsessed with minions and with two young kids around the house the minions are really popular. Then I found this pattern for a crochet cover and SQUEEEEEEEE!!!!!!


Go check it out if you want to make it HERE

But I also found a couple more classy cases and some of them have really caught my eye as well.... They look nice without being boring. It's a design by moogly and just looks wonderful.




I don't know why but I really do seem to pin a lot of crochet stuff ... not sure why....

So I could keep sharing and sharing everything that I have posted on pinterest this past week but really go check out my profile for yourself. I share everything from various crafts to food to blogging and everything in between. I love crochet and have a couple of boards but I also have some cross stitch and other boards on the go. Just be warned... be prepared to spend MANY hours wandering the fields of cyberspace if you enter pinterest.

Happy Stitching,
Caitlin

4 comments:

  1. I truly had no idea. I have used Pinterest but had no idea really how it works. I love the crochet goodies you found. Went to see the Minions film today. ..that phone case is super cute. Bello!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I really loathe Pinterest! Partly because of the all thieves and pirates. But also because I like to find links to genuine freebies and include them in my blog. When I started blogging you could Google "free cross stitch penguin" and get lots of images which led to free charts. Now you just get pages on Pinterest links which are no good at all. If you are looking for a chart to buy and Google it's you get all the Pinterest links too instead of stockists. There should be a Pinterest filter on google searches,

    ReplyDelete
  3. Great tips and I hate pins that go to neverland lol

    ReplyDelete
  4. Part of me really wants to love Pinterest, but the Facebook-hating side of me won't let me join. Kate sends me pics sometimes of stuff and it will let me look at them for a minute or so without cutting me off because I'm not a member, but it's not enough of an annoyance to join. Pinterest is for crafty people and I'm not crafty (although I do want to be).

    I completely agree with you about copyright infringement and so many places have made it so easy that I'm always surprised by those that don't even realize they are doing something wrong because it's so common place, especially with Disney patterns. It what makes me leery sometimes about posting stitching progress because someone invariably asks me for a copy of the pattern I'm working on, even on stitching forums where most people should know better. I do believe there are exceptions, like gifting a chart you're finished with it and you give up all rights to it. But you can only do that to one person, not to the 20 who ask for it and then get mad when you gift it to someone else without giving them a copy first...or the worst, when you gift one and that someone gives it away like candy. It's the main reason why I rarely gift anymore. I have also been burned several times on eBay by buying fakes or copied patterns. Now I return them and report the seller, but I have some really old ones that I paid good money for and am kind of stuck with now. The cheap ones I threw away, but the expensive ones I had to keep. Lessons learned. Parts of it are a fine line, but most of it is not and one's general moral compass should be setting off red flags for more people than they do.

    Sorry! Got really preachy there for a minute! Great work on your projects!

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for your comments I love to hear from you.

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...