Other places to visit

Order Form

Woolly Thoughts Home

The World of Illusion Knitting

©Woolly Thoughts 2019          Contact Us          

PICKING UP THREADS

This was written in
2007
so is now very dated

By this time we had become ‘a dot com’ – www.woollythoughts.com. Computers and the internet had continued to play a huge part in all that we did. We had had a web site for many years but now the World Wide Web was beginning to take off and we embraced the changes in technology. Ben had jut completed a degree in Physics and knew far more than we did about things scientific and technical so the web site became his responsibility. He taught himself two new computer languages and added such things as the Afghan Pattern Generator which uses our old favourite half-and-half squares and enables anyone to create their own designs on line by rotating individual squares. (He later added a version which could be downloaded to any other computer and which was much used in schools.)  The result was fantastic as it meant that anyone with access to a computer, anywhere in the world, could see what we had created. It has led to some amazing ‘meetings’ with people who have contacted us with comments, questions and information. We now have friends all over the world – some of whom we have since met in person.

Ben also wired three out of the four floors of our house so that computer equipment could be used  anywhere. At one stage I think we had six computers, plus all the accoutrements, in the house at one time. That wasn’t so very long ago but it is all completely different now. The wiring became redundant. With the increasing popularity of notebook computers and wireless broadband internet connections everything is very much simpler – and BT had once told me that private individuals didn’t need modems!

Not only could we communicate with anyone, anywhere but they could now also send us money. Receiving payments for books, from abroad, had always been a problem. The bank we were using at the time wanted to charge us £8 for every foreign cheque we banked - which was sometimes more than the value of the cheque itself. We could not expect customers to add that amount to their purchases. We weren’t really selling booklets to make money. They were to satisfy a demand and inspire others. It seemed silly that the bank should be the only people making a profit.

We investigated offering a credit card facility for payment but, again, the costs were prohibitive.

A friend opened a US bank account for us. She had Power of Attorney over that account so she could pay in cheques and, every so often, send us one larger cheque, so that we only paid one charge at this end. In theory it was a good plan. In reality it didn’t work so well. Matching up orders that came to me, by email, and cheques that went to her was extremely difficult but we struggled on in that way for a year or two.

Then came Paypal. I was originally very sceptical. It was little known in US and almost unheard of in UK. Paypal enabled anyone with an email address to pay anyone else with an email address. I reluctantly enrolled  and accepted my first payment. It was slightly complicated because everything worked in US dollars but it was infinitely preferable to any other method.

In those early days there were incentives for introducing new members. I suspect they only applied to US as I never actually got any money but I was happy to have a system that worked and was gradually being taken up in more and more countries. It spread like wildfire.

Eventually we were able to open a Sterling Paypal account and another in Euros. We still have all three accounts but they are no longer needed as invoices can be sent anywhere in Sterling and Paypal does the magic of taking the money from the customer in his own currency.

Of course, the Paypal organisation (which is now part of Ebay) has to make its money by charging fees on each transaction but the system is so easy I think it is worth it. It is easy to receive money and also easy to make refunds which we frequently need to do as many customers work out their own postal charges by adding together the charges for each individual item. We always send as much as possible in one package so can frequently refund some of the postage. On the other hand, some people completely forget about the post and it is equally easy to send back the first payment and start again.

We still continue to accept foreign cheques as the wonderful Bank Manager at our local branch of Barclays told us of a system whereby we can pay in cheques in any currency and pay no fees whatsoever. We still get a few US cheques but I guess they are probably for only about one in thirty transactions.

UK has been slower, perhaps more suspicious, to accept Paypal as a realistic alternative to cheques but the vast majority no longer send cheques.

20a. THE WORLD WIDE WEB OF KNITTERS