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Downloading and Downloading

One lesson I hope I’ve learned – never leave so many files, whether it be pictures, patterns . . anything, in the hands of someone else.

I have 48 pages of patterns on Ravelry, about 90% of them are purchased patterns (vs. free patterns). There is no way anyone seems to have found to save these files other than to download them individually. There are between 55 and 60 patterns per page. That’s a whole lot of downloading. You can see that so far, I’ve done four pages . . only 44 more to go.

I started downloading the files into Knit Companion. My plan was to download the files there that I plan to make relatively soon . . probably within the next few years. I don’t have enough storage space on my iPad to download all my files. After downloading a dozen or so patterns there, I realized that wasn’t really a feasible way to do this. I began downloading them to my Google space but Vince said “you may end up being no better off there than you are now!”

There’s an app at Love Knitting and supposedly you can transfer your Ravelry library to the Love Knitting library but it only seems to work with the IOS platform. Again, I’m doing a whole lot of work and still leaving my patterns basically under someone else’s control.

This morning, Vince said . . just put everything on an external hard drive. Get it on there and and we’ll copy it onto another hard drive or even a third one and have multiple copies. Give one to Chad to keep; we’ll put one in another location . . whatever makes you feel more comfortable. Basically, I’ve started over now three or four times.

I will get this done. There are quite a few “what was I thinking” patterns so I’m not saving those. Sometimes when designers first release a pattern, they offer it free or greatly reduced and I’m guessing that’s what some of those were.

Right now, I’m very thankful that I have more yarn than I’ll ever use; more patterns than I’ll ever make and there’s a good chance (at least at this very moment) that I’ll never buy another pattern or yarn again. Let’s hope.

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Comments

  2. Well worth the effort, Judy! Hoping those that shall not be mentioned go down in flames!

  3. Me too! 2½ days of solid work and I’ve emptied my complete Ravelry files. Believe me I had a drop in the bucket compared to you. haha And when I pushed that button to DELETE my account it felt soooo good. Not that they will care but I know what I’ve done and I’m going to be better for it. I did do a lot of downloading and also used Pinterest for a lot of the patterns that I liked. And like you many were dumped. The only thing I need to figure out now is how to track my (small) stash. I’ll use you as my inspiration and see if I can tweak it to fit me.

    • Where is the delete button I can’t seem to find it….and I want to delete my account.

      • I did the same. I have way too many patterns that I’ll never get to so I downloaded what was in my account and then closed it. I’m also taking the extra step of choosing to not purchase from designers who found it necessary to post “I stand with Ravelry” on their other social media accounts. Just my choice and not anything I expect others to do.

  4. I have an external hard drive that I use for backups. Mine has plenty of room to store patterns too…

  5. Fortunately, I have been downloading as I purchased–I had even printed quite a few, which I am very happy about now. I was able to make a quick exit. You’re right–it’s a bigger lesson in this computer age to never leave all your stuff in someone else’s hands. I learned that with all my purchased music, too! They have ways of letting you “buy” it and even download it–without letting you really own it and do what you want with it, like transfer it to different mp3 player. Crazy!

  6. I just dumped my entire account. Did the same thing when Craftsy was taken over.

    I have more patterns, magazines and books than I could ever use in my lifetime so anything that was saved I just dumped.

  7. I was going to say to put them on an external HD but Vince beat me to it! I live near tornado alley so I keep everything on Dropbox as well as on my computer and try to back up to an external HD, but if my house blows away or burns down while I’m somewhere else the computer & the extra HD would be gone. So, Dropbox. I did a LOT of downloading when I had to get a new laptop and the old one was in such bad shape that I couldn’t get anything saved to the external HD, then to the new computer. Our Internet plan lets us have 350GB worth of use and after that it’s $3.50 per 10GB. It wound up costing me an extra $46 to get my files onto the new laptop and took almost two weeks to accomplish. Sure hope I don’t have to do that again any time soon.

  8. I am with Vince! Get one of those inexpensive external hard drives from Walmart and download them there. That is what I download my photos to from my laptop. The laptop could go at any time, but the hard drive should last for a long time!

  9. It seems we are all in the process of doing the same thing. I didn’t ally have all that money that many patterns to download so I’m almost done and then I, too, will be hitting that delete button to get rid of my account. I’m certain they won’t miss me, but I feel much better without them.

  10. I have saved my files to my hard drive and printed what I need when traveling. Unlike most we pay a premium price for internet so the cloud is not really an option. I am staying on Ravelry, but as a Canadian my views often go against the “hive mind”.

  11. I’ve been doing this also, have become more selective about what to keep. Like you Judy I’ll never live long enough to do all the ones I’ve saved.

  12. I’m downloading too… on my computer hard drive, then copying to an external hard drive. Then maybe to a flash drive as well. We’ll see.

  13. Love Vince’s idea – don’t know why I didn’t think of it. I’ve stored all my photos on a memory stick, could do the same with the patterns. Some I’ve already stored on Dropbox – it’s a long process.

  14. Ugh, that doesn’t sound like any fun at all. You need an export button! =)

  15. YOU CAN GET A TERABITE STICK AT AMAZON FOR ABOUT $30…. JUST SAYING!!

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