I’ve become quite addicted to my stat counter. It provides me with, er, minutes of excitment each day. It not only shows me how many page loads are made of my site, but whether they’re from new or returning visitors.

It seems I get lots of new visitors, but only a handful of regulars. I have to wonder why anyone ends up here if they haven’t been here before. The answer to that is in the keyword analysis section. Aside from the one bizzare case where a search engine led someone here after they typed in “beaton up supermodels” (!!!!) it seems a lot of people are looking for ipod nano cosy patterns, knit or crochet. (Makes me want to design and post a pattern for them.) Or else they’re searching for other entries about Knit From Your Stash.

Which brings me to my first controversy.

I’m rather amused at the small backlash to Knit From Your Stash that surfaced in the comments on Wendy’s blog. It seems some people are worried it’ll put yarn stores out of business. I find this hilarious and a bit disturbing. Hilarious because I doubt enough people have ‘signed on’ to the idea to have any effect, or that the majority will stick to it anyway.

Disturbing because many people choosing to knit only from their stash may be doing so because they really need to. Perhaps because they don’t have the room. Perhaps because they’re short on money. Perhaps for the benefit of their family or relationship. So saying they shouldn’t take control of their own stash/money/space for the sake of keeping yarn stores in business is a bit like saying someone who is worried they might be, er, a chronic gambler shouldn’t try to limit their gambling because casinos, pokie machine makers and such might go out of business.

Okay, that’s not a great comparison. A yarn store is a much more ethically sound place than a casino. But I sure hope yarn stores aren’t relying on exploiting the weaknesses or irresponsible behaviors of some customers in order to survive.

The other favourite function of the stat counter I love is the “Came From” page. It tells me where visitors came from. Today, to my surprise I discovered that there was a link to my site in an entry of the Yarn Magazine blog. It links to my entry encouraging people to sign the Knitpicks petition, and raises an interesting issue about bad press. When is bad press beneficial and when is it maliciously destructive? Should bloggers voice their opinions or abide by the “if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all” rule?

As a writer who gets feedback – both good and bad – on a daily basis I know there’s not much chance of the latter! People everywhere love to voice their opinions, and an awful lot of them have no idea how to express themselves in a considered and well-mannered way, so if you’re in the business of producing anything you’ve got to have a thick skin.

Not that I’d advocating being rude. As we say in the writing business, just saying something is cr*p is rude. Politely saying why you didn’t like something leaves room for improvement.