Hey everyone!

I finally made up a new pattern last night and it seems to have turned out alright. I stitched it in about 40 minutes without a background pattern. I will upload the finished pattern when it’s done.

If you make this bookmark I would love a link to your finished project for my Fan-Art pages! Either put it in the comments or Email Me.

So I found out last night I made a mistake on all my download links! They are fixed now and you should be able to download all the PDF patterns again. Please Email Me if you find any errors or what not.

All in all the migration of the site went pretty smoothly. Disqus is still munching on my comments though, hopefully I don’t end up loosing them in the move :/

Anyways, here is a pic of the pattern (simulated). You can download the PDF below as well.

Mario & Luigi Hanging (PDF)

Till next time, Happy Stitching!

…and goodbye to Wordpress.

I have always found Wordpress to be overly bloated. Using it is always a pain, and I lose interest in my new post the second I get into the WYSIWYG editor.

There are alternatives to Wordpress. Drupal and Joomla to be precise, however I loath them both.

Why i moved to Octopress:

• Performance : My entire blog is static HTML pages and the site loads in ~1 second.
• Rails : Octopress is built with Jekyll and it’s innards runs on Ruby, such a beautiful language.
• Markdown : All my blog posts are plain text. I don’t have to spend 30 minutes moving pictures around or messing with HTML tags or formatting.

As a systems administrator I spend all day on a command line. I wrote this post, published it to Heroku and committed my changes to my git repository without leaving my console. Ease of use is a major plus.

This site used to run on a VPS server, I had to update plugins, ensure there was no security issues, etc, etc. Dorkstitch has a brand new bag now.

Current Dorkstitch.com Setup

• Blog platform is Octopress.
• Runs on Heroku cloud appliance.
• Static content is hosted on the Amazon S3.
• All blog content is version controlled on my own git repository running Gitlab.

All in all, I am mighty impressed with the results. I was able to migrate all my posts using a ruby script I wrote, imported all my comments to discus and all attachments hosted on S3. Hopefully this will allow me to make up some patterns without hesitating the grueling process of posting it here.

Till next time, Happy Stitching!

UPDATE: All of our DMCA complaints were heard and the site is now down. Nicely done everyone!

Hey Stitchers,

Another misguided person has decided to exploit the hard work of myself and other fellow crafters by selling our free patterns. I just wanted to put this out there that I know about it and have served StableHost (Their website hosting provider) with a DMCA take down notice.

If your work has also been infringed by this person/website (Los Angeles Needlework), I highly suggest you submit a DMCA takedown notice.

As outlined in StableHost’s Terms of Service

Repeat DMCA complaints will be met with account termination.

So the more people that send one in, the better our chances are they will be terminated.

I have provided a Template for a DMCA takedown in the link below. Please ensure you change all the placeholder fields in the form and you hold the rights to the work before sending it. If you file a false DMCA claim, it is not good.

Sample DMCA Takedown Notice

Edit: Sonja has a great writeup on a DMCA she and her husband sent in as well. Worth a read before you send yours in, you can read more at her blog at Pattern Theft!!.

If anyone has any questions regarding this, please let me know by contacting me.

Guess who got a new addition to the family? I see a little stitcher here who I cannot wait to teach. Chloe was born on the 17th of December and is healthy as can be. Hopefully I can get some projects going now that she is here and snuggling.

In other news, Bones broke a nail and bled all over our house. She had to get bandaged up, and that lasted all of about 30 minutes before it was flopping off her foot. She seems better now though.

I have a few new patterns sitting in my outbox to stitch, and a few people have hinted at a giveaway. I may have to stitch a few of my favorites and give them away and clean up my art drawer. Stay tuned and happy stitching.

Hey everyone, I have a confession to make… I am a terrible blogger and an even worse writer.

I am in the process of fixing the files on the site to make it a little easier to find stuff in the future. It will happen sometime this week, hopefully… oh bother. Looking at all my old patterns; it seems that I changed programs way too many damn times. I think I shall just convert them all to PDF’s to make it easier on everyone, and if for some reason you want the editable version you can just ask me for it.

So last week I was randomly browsing on Etsy and I noticed that someone was selling my patterns on their store. Not cool at all.

I understand some people make a living or side-living from making patterns and that’s great for them (I have bought at least four patterns myself from weelittlestitches) but I have chosen to make mine free. It just floors me when someone has the audacity to sell something I gave away for free.

Maybe i’m just being melodramatic… C’est la vie.

Anyhoo, just letting you all know I’m still alive and plan on posting some updates soon. I really don’t post like most crafty people where its all quantity over quality. I only post things that I have made myself, which is really why you don’t see much up in here.

Anyways…. Keep on stitching and let me see your finished products!

Hey stitchers!

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and the new year is treating you well. Santa brought me lots of snow and -20c weather, so we have that to deal with here.

Trying to catch up on all my emails, I noticed that several kind people reported that my old layout did not play well with Internet Exploder 8. While I do not use this monstrosity of a browser, I am in no place to tell people to use a certain browser on this site. I personally started using Google Chrome about 2 years ago and have never looked back, which is what I do my testing in.

However…. as you can see the site has changed! I have always been a fan of minimalistic sites, and hope you all like it as well.

Two stitchers sent in their work of the Darth Cookies piece, Come to the dark side.. we have cookies!

The first was from Karma-Pudding at Deviantart with an awesome frame around it.

The second was from Lesley and you can view that one as well as other works they did by clicking the image below.

So thank you to you both for sending those in, very cool stuff.

Well, I guess its about that time. Till next time, happy stitching!

Hey everyone. Somewhat finished the iPhone case from my last post, I opted to stop the background cause my fingers were killing me. This case is hard to stitch through. I should have just made a few yellow coin blocks or something… whatever, looks OK to me.

I know I promised some new patterns, but I have been pre-occupied at work. Then on my days off all I want to do is sleep. Hopefully if things go well, I will no longer work 12 hours a day.

Till next time, happy stitching!

Hey everyone! I found these neat iphone cases with holes on the back made by a Korean company named Connect Design. You can buy your own at iPhone DIY case.

I haven’t stitched in so long, my fingers are killing me. No pain no gain I suppose…  anyhoo here is a WIP for it.  

Expect some new patterns up soon, even though I keep saying it, I really mean it this time.  Minecraft has taken a hold of me lately, not to mention the working 12 hours a day. However I shall find time!

If anyone has any suggestions for patterns, please let me know. Till next time, Happy Stitching everyone!

Hey everyone! So I promised a Jenn pattern. This one was hard for me, the colors were not agreeing with me. Anyways, here she is.

Till next time, Happy Stitching everyone!

IT Crowd - Jen (PDF)

Greetings stitchers!

Recently I let my Roy and Moss piece go to a good home, and he was nice enough to send me in a picture of it! You can still stitch your own by following the link to the pattern above.

Roy And Moss Geeking in a Cubicle

In other news, I have brought all my stitching gear back out and attempted to draw a new bookmark pattern. You should see some new stuff up soon. In the meantime, let me know if you have any ideas for patterns! I would love to do some requests.

Edit: I have one request I am working on now, adding Jen into the Roy and Moss pattern. This should be up this week sometime.

Till next time, Happy Stitching everyone!