New year, new listings....
Hello and a very happy new year to everyone! 😄
Today marks the official start of (I hope) regular posts about what's going on here at StarfishHQ, including new items for sale, side projects I have going on, new services etc. I say official because I intended to start these posts now, but then I ended up making a post at the end of last month about a custom colourway/baby booties because of unexpected new blog enthusiasm. It doesn't matter really, but today is officially the first official blog post, so.. I dunno, imagine me waving some pom poms while you read or something!
Now that 2017 is done I can reveal how it was. It was meh. My Etsy shop stats are a slight improvement over 2016, but otherwise it was meh.
I made a business decision in May which resulted in a huge drop in income...and also a huge improvement in mental health. Sometimes these things are necessary, even if it means fewer pennies. Despite knowing this was the right thing to do, there's always a certain process of adjustment after such a big change - letting go of stress, mourning the things that you did like, second guessing and then reaffirming your decision, acceptance and moving forward. Much of the rest of the year has been tinged with this process.
So once again, I'm in the position of envisioning a better year than the previous one, and to that end I've several ideas in the pipeline for improving my crochet business, and targets that I'm pushing myself to achieve. One of the things I am planning to do is list a brand new custom listing every month.
Now, that doesn't sound like much, but I am quite aware that sometimes we make plans and then life gets in the way, we have memory lapses, internet troubles, technology failures, family stuff that has to take precedence.... so I'm setting the bar low. I can always increase it later on in the year if I feel that that is feasible.
In crochet there are two main ways of forming ribbing; blo, and fp/bp. If you don't know anything about crochet, don't worry, the methods themselves aren't important. What's important is that these patterns use blo, which I confess to not being overly fond of. I prefer fp/bp and try to avoid blo if I can. Hence, they've been sat, unused and unloved, in my library of patterns ever since.
What changed, you ask? When visiting a friend of mine for dinner in November, she gave me 60g of handdyed DK yarn that she wasn't using and wanted shot of, and my eldest daughter... well, if you picture the emojis with the hearts for eyes that should give you a fair impression of her face when she saw it. She asked for gloves. Except there wasn't enough for full gloves and she has incredibly long thin hands that would be marvellous for playing the piano but are a right pig when making gloves or armwarmers because all the usual patterns just don't fit properly. I wondered if the Brooklyn ones might work, and dug the pattern out to have a go.
It was quite easy to adjust to her narrow hands, and I simply changed where the thumb hole was to allow for her super long fingers.
She was so pleased she immediately commissioned a second pair...
...and I decided I liked them after all and set to work making some in-stock pairs to list on Etsy.
When making to order you have to make at least one of an item (and several is better to show different options) in order to photograph it; while designers may give permission to use their patterns they, quite rightly, don't extend that to their photographs. And so, these three pairs are available to purchase alongside the new custom listing (shop links below), which is officially being designated the new listing for January.
I may add another in-stock pair in a hand dyed colourway but I am working on some different projects right now so they will have to wait for the moment.
Today marks the official start of (I hope) regular posts about what's going on here at StarfishHQ, including new items for sale, side projects I have going on, new services etc. I say official because I intended to start these posts now, but then I ended up making a post at the end of last month about a custom colourway/baby booties because of unexpected new blog enthusiasm. It doesn't matter really, but today is officially the first official blog post, so.. I dunno, imagine me waving some pom poms while you read or something!
New year
Last year I made an overly sappy social media post about how I had had a good 2016 from a business perspective, and was looking forward to a great 2017. If you feel so inclined you can read it here.Now that 2017 is done I can reveal how it was. It was meh. My Etsy shop stats are a slight improvement over 2016, but otherwise it was meh.
I made a business decision in May which resulted in a huge drop in income...and also a huge improvement in mental health. Sometimes these things are necessary, even if it means fewer pennies. Despite knowing this was the right thing to do, there's always a certain process of adjustment after such a big change - letting go of stress, mourning the things that you did like, second guessing and then reaffirming your decision, acceptance and moving forward. Much of the rest of the year has been tinged with this process.
So once again, I'm in the position of envisioning a better year than the previous one, and to that end I've several ideas in the pipeline for improving my crochet business, and targets that I'm pushing myself to achieve. One of the things I am planning to do is list a brand new custom listing every month.
Now, that doesn't sound like much, but I am quite aware that sometimes we make plans and then life gets in the way, we have memory lapses, internet troubles, technology failures, family stuff that has to take precedence.... so I'm setting the bar low. I can always increase it later on in the year if I feel that that is feasible.
New listings
Some time ago I was looking for boot cuff patterns, which I could make in addition to my own designs (more of those another day). I came across one by Crochet Dreamz: the Brooklyn boot cuffs. I downloaded the pattern, and the one for matching fingerless gloves, but I didn't actually make them.In crochet there are two main ways of forming ribbing; blo, and fp/bp. If you don't know anything about crochet, don't worry, the methods themselves aren't important. What's important is that these patterns use blo, which I confess to not being overly fond of. I prefer fp/bp and try to avoid blo if I can. Hence, they've been sat, unused and unloved, in my library of patterns ever since.
What changed, you ask? When visiting a friend of mine for dinner in November, she gave me 60g of handdyed DK yarn that she wasn't using and wanted shot of, and my eldest daughter... well, if you picture the emojis with the hearts for eyes that should give you a fair impression of her face when she saw it. She asked for gloves. Except there wasn't enough for full gloves and she has incredibly long thin hands that would be marvellous for playing the piano but are a right pig when making gloves or armwarmers because all the usual patterns just don't fit properly. I wondered if the Brooklyn ones might work, and dug the pattern out to have a go.
 |
| Success! |
It was quite easy to adjust to her narrow hands, and I simply changed where the thumb hole was to allow for her super long fingers.
She was so pleased she immediately commissioned a second pair...
...and I decided I liked them after all and set to work making some in-stock pairs to list on Etsy.
When making to order you have to make at least one of an item (and several is better to show different options) in order to photograph it; while designers may give permission to use their patterns they, quite rightly, don't extend that to their photographs. And so, these three pairs are available to purchase alongside the new custom listing (shop links below), which is officially being designated the new listing for January.
I may add another in-stock pair in a hand dyed colourway but I am working on some different projects right now so they will have to wait for the moment.
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