Instagram Part 2

Above: January 2022 Sunrise

In February this year (2025 if you’re a visitor from the future) I started making daily Instagram posts, I wrote about it in y previous Instagram post. Prior to that I had been a really intermittent poster, sometimes I only made one post in a month. When I first started on Instagram I was a daily poster but it just fizzled out, this is actually my second go at it, I cannot remember my first accounts details at all which is a bummer, I do have some pics from it though because it was before it started to get really difficult to get photos from an Apple device on to a Windows one. There’s some heavy filter use.

Above: December 2016 - A macramé collage and some mitts I was knitting.

May 2021 - Escaped sheep eating my grass. This is a surprisingly frequent occurrence.

Anyway, I started my current account in December 2016 which I only know because I just downloaded all my data, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

Above: April 2017 - I made a quill pen! A tam I was knitting and the blanket that has everything.

Above: May 2019 - Big pivot to cross stitch in 2019. Pic on right is Caernarfon.

When I stopped being a regular user was when the algorithm started being really weird and all the suggested posts and ads came in. I went back to it after reading a post on Buzzfeed about the "following feed" where you could just see posts from the people that you follow. That rescued Instagram for me. Apparently if you’re in the U.K. or E.U. they have to offer you a feed without ads and nonsense, I think it’s to do with GDPR but don’t quote me on that.

Above: May 2017 - Y Felinheli (sorry if you're using a screen reader, it's a place in Wales), another crocheted blanket and a sparrow feeding frenzy.

Above: November 2017 - My first ever sock! Some squares for yet another crocheted blanket, this one is still in hibernation and some new glasses.

Fast forward to now, I opened Instagram a couple of days ago and there’s a notice telling me that I have to submit to cookies and ads or pay £3.99 a month for an ad free experience. That is absolutely not happening, none of the above thanks. Which is how I came to download my data, I have hardly any of the photos that I have taken over the last five years or so because, firstly, my phone was saving them in a format that was not compatible with a Windows PC, secondly, after I sorted out the format, iTunes decided that it didn’t need to be syncing the phone with the PC any more because Windows has it’s own phone software and I should just use that. Have you used it? It’s shocking. Also the new USB-C data cable causes File Explorer to crash so that’s convenient.

Above: August 2018 - In 2018 I joined a lot of knit-alongs and crochet-alongs. L-R: a henley top I made for a summer garment knit-along, one the blocks from the block a month crochet-along and a knitted block from a blanket knit-along.

Above: October 2019 - That is a cracking mushroom/toadstool, I can't remember where I took that one (edit from the present: I just remembered it was in Menai Bridge).

What a trip down memory lane the data was (it was really quick and easy too, I thought they’d be a right pain in the bumbum about it), I have all my photos back and am peppering them throughout this post.

Above: November 2018 - Another tam, I recall this one was a bit weird in the decreases so I just bodged it, very comfy hat though, the hill I can see from my back door and another sunrise through the sycamore.

Above: August 2019 - A spot of colouring

To get back to the point, I am thinking of just binning Instagram and using this blog and my extremely neglected BlueSky account to share photos, so far the following feed on Instagram has no ads but as soon as it does it’s going in the bin. Though I will probably still share more photos on the blog (this post has been really fun), it will encourage me to post more regularly. Hopefully without being as rambling as I have here.

Above: September 2019 - I dyed my hair black! No idea what I was thinking there, what a nightmare to grow out that proved to be. Middle pic is my chickpea chopped salad which I ate all summer. Right is a lovely Frida Kahlo cross stitch, I got the pattern from Etsy in a bogof with the tea pattern above.

Above: September 2017 - I can't remember why I posted this, there must've been a hashtag. I do remember that I captioned it with something about missing summer already.

Above: May 2019 - a hole in the sky and getting arty with plants. I've always been like this, I don't know what to tell you.

I could literally sit here all day posting photographs but we all have things to do so I'll quit now. Well, for now anyway.....