The jumping spider is back!
The very first free tutorial I made was of the In-the-Hoop Jumping Spider plushie. A problem with having old freebies out there is that people might assume that’s the quality of your paid designs which, uh, no. I very much was in the mindset of “you’re not paying for this so you get to do some of the work of figuring it out, I don’t have time to re-do it and take pictures.”†
Since starting the Ko-Fi, I’ve been putting together the same tutorials for freebies as I have for paid designs. The difference is subtle.
Free designs should have black borders on the pictures and black headings. Paid designs should have colored borders and headings. (Of course that assumes I don’t forget to use the right template, but that’s a whole ‘nother issue.)
All of which is to say: the Jumping Spider has been modernized, and split into a free and paid version. The free version hasn’t changed other than the detailed, pictures-for-every-step instructions, but the paid version now has more eye types, two sizes, and proportionately longer legs (though you can still mix-and-match the sizes to get the original proportions).
The paid version is free for the free-design tier of Ko-Fi supporters; usually that’s one free design a month, and to be clear, that’s not just because I usually only manage one major design a month. But the Jumping Spider is kind of an outlier, being just an update to a freebie. Like all the free-to-member designs on Ko-Fi it’s pay-what-you-want, so if the second design hurts your conscience or something go for it. But mostly the PWYW is for when designs roll over to free-to-everyone, and you should not view it as an obligation if you’re a tier member.
Toss a coin to your stitcher! (Ko-Fi)
[[Jumping Spider - Expanded]](/shop/in-the-hoop-jumping-spider
† Taking pictures seems low-effort but let me tell you, it eats up the time. Especially when you discover that none of your pictures of that one step are usable and you have to re-do a whole project to get the shot (and hope that the slight change in lint-patterns-on-the-hoop or whatever isn’t too distracting). Or speaking of distractions: sometimes ADHD means getting distracted and forgetting to take pictures at all for certain steps, or of leaving out steps because you’re focused on getting pictures. Anyway, not complaining, just explaining.
