Well the other day was a shock for some Craftsy designers. I have received emails, from designers I follow, that Craftsy is changing the structure of the shops before the end of 2018. Craftsy sent emails to the designers telling them if they were some of the fortunate ones who will keep their Craftsy shops, or if their shop would be discontinued. Those who will keep their Craftsy shops will have limits on the number of patterns they can list.
One Craftsy designer, who I have obtained patterns from, sent an email to those of us who have her Craftsy patterns telling us to download all our patterns and save them on our computers. The reason for this cautionary download is that no one really knows what is going to happen. Craftsy says customers with a Craftsy account and a Pattern Library will still have access to patterns in their libraries; but will that include patterns from designers who will no longer be able to have a Craftsy shop? One concern from designers who no longer have shops, is that updates to their patterns cannot be uploaded. And customers will not have access to those updates.
There is an article from Craft Industry Alliance HERE, and presently open to the public to read.
I have yet to see an email to the Craftsy customers, telling us of what is happening. That means some of us will be surprised if we can't find our favorite designers' Crafty shops the next time we look. As a precaution, I connected my external hard drive to my laptop and am downloading my Pattern Library, one pattern at a time (since there is not an easier way). While I have downloaded most of my patterns, I am not sure which ones since I have them in different folders. I created a folder called Craftsy Patterns just for this. I have over 500 patterns in my Library. It will take some time, but I don't want to lose anything I have.
We can only wait and see what happens from all of this. It sounds like the designers are scrambling to find another method of pattern sales and distribution within a short period of time.
