Introducing the Pattern Archive Restoration Project : aka the story of how I lost and found my crafty goodness

Here is the short story: Craft Leftovers was hacked shortly after Mend it Better was released, Jason (partner) found back ups 7 years later, we are rebuilding the archive, re-releasing patterns every Thursday.

The Long Story

Back in 2013 shortly after my book was release and when I was very pregnancy with Lucy, Craft Leftovers was hacked and it sucked, but we rebuilt it.

Then it happened again (2015ish, I’m hazy on this point). But this time it was cruel. They deleted everything on the server: patterns, images, posts, templates, my online store. In the meantime my computer hard drive + my external drive with my backups and original design files also bit it.

And then my studio flooded.

And my handmade clothes were wrecked by a cat and an accidental felting incident.

And I had an all consuming new job as a curator at an art center.

And a toddler. (you can read the intensity, joy, sleep deprivation, and desperation in my words here, which is awesome that I have that peek into my new mom self. I’m a less selfish crafter now (8 years later), for the record. I’m currently crocheting Lucy a blanket)

Long story short, all this = l fell off the craft train. It was… derailing.

Craft for me definitely has equaled joy all my life. Using what’s on hand, always inspiring. It was only a matter of time before I found it again. And really. It was Lucille (aka Lucy), that rekindled it. My kiddo is a creative dynamo and many times I’m just trying to keep up with her prolific output of creative everything.

Time and life has a way of looping you back around to things that bring you joy.

I’m making all these crafts with Lucy, feeling a bit nostalgic about the craft career I left behind. And Jason surprises me with this. The Craft Leftovers website restored. Almost every single post, photo, pattern, etc right up to about 3 months before the hack. He was able to restore it all. Love him. But, well, you can’t reboot 9 years of content without there being some issues. The main one was that any pattern that had a pdf had to be manually reset. I have over 100 free patterns in the archive. It’s a lot of work to redo those. But it will be worth it.

Christmas 2019 Jason surprises me with this: The Craft Leftovers website restored. Almost every single post, photo, pattern, etc right up to about 3 months before the hack. He was able to restore it all. Love him.

I’m going to go ahead and take the time to put all the patterns directly into the posts so they will still be available for free, create new pdfs for each pattern, and then make them available on etsy and raverly. Why are the pdf’s paid? Well, to pay my studio assistant who is helping me with this process.

Helen is amazing. She’s already added all my back issues of Craft Leftovers to the Etsy shop. And she scanned every single one of my zines (over 50!) so we can make them available as digital editions… because yep, those were on that external hard drive too. Anyway, so this helps pay her so we can get this done while I continue to create new content for Craft Leftovers (new zine coming out very soon!) and more work on Junk Mail Migration series and Backyard Botanicals.

I’ve already started. Last week I released the Knit Tea Cozy Pattern. This week was the super cute Knit Cherry Chirp.

Every Thursday, now until it’s done, a pattern from the archive will be edited, updated, and made available for free in the original post and for a fee as a PDF on ravelry and etsy.

How do I determine which pattern to do next? I don’t, you do! Leave a comment, send me a message (Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter), I’ll put that pattern on my do next list.

Honestly it’s you folks all sending me notes over the years that inspired me to embark on this project. You helped me see that my patterns are still relevant and still inspiring a new generation of resourceful crafters. (thanks!)

Until Next Time!

Kristin