My, How Times Have Changed

I’ve been spending a couple of hours every morning working on the new Big Sky Knitting Designs website. The upgrade isn’t difficult, just time consuming. When I got this new Mac back in December, I chose not to have my computer guy clone the existing hard drive as he had done previously. I wanted to start with a clean hard drive and copy over files as I needed them. I have most of the BSKD files, but I’ve had to go searching for a few on the old computer.

The difference between setting up a store on the old and new websites, though, is astonishing to me. The interface and features are so much more robust. All the website coding tasks I had to do before, either manually or by cascading style sheets, have been integrated into the template. This morning, I decided I wanted to change the product format and literally, all I had to do was go into the interface, uncheck one button, and poof!—the change was made for me.

Looking back, I remember that having to manage all the non-knitting related tasks of running a business—website maintenance, social media, etc.—was part of what led to the burnout I experienced. I learned CSS because I had to at the time, not because I wanted to. And I resented that those jobs were taking time away from what I really wanted to do, which was design and knit. This is so much easier.

I am pleased with the progress so far. I started with a minimalist e-commerce template and I’ve been tweaking the design as I go along. My plan is to get the Twists and Turns back issues, the most popular individual patterns, and the books listed for sale and make the site live. I’ll continue to add patterns after that.

I’m also waiting to hear back from Ravelry; I keep getting invoices for pattern sales despite—I thought—having closed my store. As I did delete my account successfully, I have no way to get back in to pay their hosting invoices. If they want their money, they are going to have to communicate with me. I will pay my bill, but I want my Ravelry store taken down once and for all.

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I did the first pass (of many, no doubt) through the raspberry patch yesterday:

The bottom of this bucket was covered, but the husband loves raspberries for breakfast and he hoovered most of them down. In years past, when we had pigs, he would let the pigs out in the morning and then head over to the raspberry patch to eat a couple of handfuls.

I’m still working on peas. We have quite a few baby zucchinis, and with 90-degree heat predicted for most of next week, I am sure there will be more. For the moment, it is still cool and showery. I’m going to sew this afternoon, completely guilt free because I can’t do anything outside.

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We had a meeting last night of our old church council and our new leadership team so that we could pass the baton. I am officially relieved of my leadership duties and website maintenance duties. I was church council chairman, elder, and then church council chairman again, so this will be, probably, the first time in about 12 years that I won’t be in charge of something other than being pianist on Sunday (which is a big enough job in itself). Whew.

Although I am not playing for summer services, I will be playing for a memorial service on Sunday night. One of the oldest members of one of the founding families of our church died last month. That family—which now numbers in the many hundreds—has a biennial reunion here in Montana in odd-numbered years. The memorial service was planned so that it would happen at the end of the reunion weekend. While it’s a sad occasion on the one hand, I’ll also get to see many people I haven’t seen in a while, including Margaret! She’s a member of that family and will be here for the reunion.