A Rose is a Rose

As some of my friends and readers are aware, I am not the only Fearless Knitter out there. I am not speaking metaphorically or talking about attitudes regarding knitting.

Before I started my blog The Fearless Knitter I did a search at the United States Patent & Trademark Office on the name "The Fearless Knitter". The only thing the search turned up was "Fearless Knitting" which had been registered by someone from York, PA for a line of hand spun yarn. So, I headed to Blogger to start a second blog related just to my fiber pursuits.

I wanted 'fearlessknitter' to be the address. Turns out that it was already taken. The actual title of that blog, however, is The Fearless Travel Writing Knitter. This blog is really a general blog, about anything and everything the writer does. Quite a bit different from what I wanted to do.

My next thought was 'THEfearlessknitter' because this was really closer to my thinking. I am THE fearless knitter. And, yes, I realize that I am not alone in the way I approach fiber arts or in my ambitions or aspirations. But it's how I think of myself. Turns out 'thefearlessknitter' was taken too. In this case, though, nothing had been published to it for over 3 years.

So, I decided on a compromise in that 'fearless-knitter' was available. I worried about the technicality of that hyphen but wanted the name badly enough to decide it was worth it.

I started my new blog at 'fearless-knitter'.. I set up the e-mail address of 'thefearlessknitter' with gmail. I started my twitter account under 'fearlessknitter'. I opened my store on Etsy as 'fearlessknitter'. 

I went to join Ravelry. The name 'fearlessknitter' wasn't available. I chose 'fearless-knitter'. It matched my blog address so that was OK. I was busy getting all of this stuff up and running and didn't give it another thought. I changed my profile name on Flickr to 'fearlessknitter'. 

I went to some domain name registry site and did a search on 'fearlessknitter'. It was available. I needed to pay with PayPal as that account had funds available whereas my bank and credit cards did not. There was a glitch between the registry site and Paypal. I spent over an hour trying to get everything to work but finally quit in frustration. It was one of those tech things I would have to revisit.

In the meantime, I started tweeting. I put my first things up for sale. I started blogging more frequently. I found people to follow. I had my first sale on Etsy. My number of followers started growing. I had my first international sale. I started my first 'line' of products (High Society Sock Yarn). I decided to get more involved in Ravelry so I started a group (PA Olympic Knitters).

I fell in love with Twitter. I continue to find amazing people to not just follow but to get to know and become friends with. I continued to have sales at my Etsy shop (thank you to everyone who has ever stopped in for a look at my products). I had my first repeat customer which just so happens to also be an international sale so it was extra special. My number of twitter followers continued growing. My blogging increased (posting to both blogs with more regularity).

So, when it comes to the internet, I have multiple personalities. 'THEfearlessknitter' is only out there once, as an email address. 'Fearlessknitter' is out there twice. But, these two sites are the most important to me (Etsy and Twitter). And, 'fearless-knitter' is also out there twice (Ravelry and my blog address).

Remembering that hyphen in the blog address is becoming problematic as I am so used to just entering 'fearlessknitter' as one word. A couple of days ago I got a friendly comment on the 'fearless-knitter' blog from the owner of the 'fearlessknitter' blog letting me know that a follower or two of mine had accidentally linked to or commented on her blog instead of mine because of the missing hyphen.

So, I decided to finish what I had started in late Dec/early Jan and buy the 'fearlessknitter' URL. Now it isn't available. What? WTF? Turns out that the owner of the 'thefearlessknitter' blog bought the damn thing in mid January (shortly after I had tried to buy it unsuccessfully). Seems that she wants to pick back up 4 years after last using the name. I checked on 'thefearlessknitter' and it is also unavailable.

Since I am the first to admit that I was NOT the first one to this fearless name party I will be renaming EVERYTHING. 

In some cases (Ravelry, Flickr, and the blog) this will be a relatively simple change. As for Twitter, I am researching migrating from one name to another. Etsy will be the hardest of all but I am working on it.

I have decided on a new name but don't want to reveal it until I have made sure that everything is in place for it. So, if you suddenly don't hear from me I may be in transition. I will do everything possible to get the new name out to everyone. One of the things I always loved about 'fearlessknitter' was that it was fairly easy to remember. The new name is going to be a bit different but hopefully memorable as well.

Thank you for your support as I figure out and straighten out these issues and get the fix up and running. 

In the immortal words of Bill Shakespeare:  "What's in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet."