You Can't Make A Living As A Crochet and Knit Designer?!

There is no easy way to say this. I feel really bad about having to be the one to tell you. So, I am just gonna come right out and say it...running a knitting business is hard work and worst, your family and friends won't understand what you do. And that can be the biggest factor to your failure if you really let it happen.

So, you want to be a knit and crochet designer. You have great ideas. Magazines and yarn companies are really digging your submissions. You're really killing it! But your full-time gig is really cramping your designing aspirations because it doesn't leave you with enough time or energy to pursue all your ideas and submit as much as you'd like. You think you can really make a go out it, if only you had the time to be able go for it. You have done your homework. You can really make a living at this.  You are ready to leap in.

You will hear all sort of stupid comments from the people you love that will make you just want to scream, such as:

• You're just sitting on the couch  knitting and crocheting all day, how is that a job, let alone, a career?
• You will never make it anywhere doing that!
• How can you making money doing that? Your job as an Administrative Assistance was a great job with a future, where can this knitting thing get you?
• So, that 4-yr degree and the huge debt you're still paying off was for this? And the debt, what was all that do?
• This is too risky and not a grown up thing to do.

 

So, you've heard that one?! Stop me when you've heard enough; I have a million of 'em! But, you're a realist. You know what you're in for and your ready.

 

None of that matters!

The bottom line, as long as your spouse and kids understand, you know, the only people whose lives are actually directly affected by your decision, is all that matters. So what your father doesn't understand how you get your ideas in that magazine last fall. Who cares if your sister-in-law looks down on you for not being a full time stay at home mom like she is, consumed completely and wholly by her kids, because a mom's real obligation is to her kids and husband.

 

You don't have to explain what you do in simple terms.

 

You don't have to explain yourself at Thanksgiving dinner about what you do that makes you happy and how much money you make.

FOLLOW WHAT MAKES YOU TRULY HAPPY!



Freeport Cardigan

Candeo Shawl

Go, check out the Pattern Page to get your copy here:



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And the winners are....Fall 2015 Design-A-Long Yarnie Giveaway

The Fall 2015 Design-A-Long Hat was such great fun! This was truly a Choose Your Own Adventure knitting project. Read more about the Design-A-Long here.

For 4-weeks, a clue for each section of the Hat was emailed out. Each clue contained 3 options with pictures of what option look like, from which to choose. The knitter choose the option they wanted based on their own aesthetics.

 

The Fall 2015 Design-A-Long Hat

There were 11 project pages in Ravelry, and 6 projects marked "Finished" with photos. Originally, there were to be only 2 winners from the "Finished" projects, but in the last week of the Design-A-Long, I was having so much fun talking with the knitters and seeing their progress, I found it hard to leave anyone out, so I decided to add a few more yarnie prizes. (In Oprah's voice: Everyone get yarn! You get yarn, and you get yarn!)

So, names of each of the 6 FOs were placed in a hat (yep, one of the hats I completed for the Design-A-Long, and drawn at random for a yarnie prize. Below are the prizes lined up in order.

Aren't they all so pretty!

 

And the winners are....

mlritchie - Anzula Cricket
Deevena - Fiesta Yarn Boomerang
GamerBaberKnitter - Ultra Alpaca Light
Renrat - Universal Yarn Cotton Supreme
asumplehomestd - Berroco Weekend DK
Andrealea - Valley Yarns Colrain

Thank you all for participating. I had a ton of fun putting these clues together and hope you found the experience as fun. Email me with your complete mailing address and I will get your yarnie prize in the mail ASAP :)

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Harwinton Easy Lace Boomerang

2 Color Sampler Cowl

Just Hit Send...Knit & Crochet Design Call For Submission and Yarn Support

It's one of those things, where the initial idea is amazing. The swatch is beautiful, but as the sketch progress, doubt creep in. Is this good enough? Is the idea being conveyed well enough? Then the worst kind of doubt rear it's head: Am I good enough?

We have all been there. No matter how many emails I receive that a design was accepted, the doubts and fears still creep in. I am plagued by inferiority and feelings of personal judgment. The bottom line is that these editors are looking to say yes. I need to make their lives easy by being clear and leaving little room for guessing at my intentions.

I've been listening to Tiffany Han's podcast Raise Your Hand Say Yes. I was first introduced to Tiffany this summer during her CreativeLive classes. Her class, The Easy Yes: How to craft an effective pitch, is my all time favorite because from it I gain so much confidence to pitch my ideas to yarn company for yarn support and design opportunities. There is something about Tiffany; the way she breaks things down and made everything seem doable was inspiring. Something she says a lot that sticks with me is: You will figure it out. You are the type of person that figures things out. And that's true for many of us.

We can figure it out!



KnitDesigns by Tian Newsletter

This weekend, I had to dig deep within myself to reach that person in me that figure things out for a couple emails I had to send. These were not life shattering emails in the grand scheme of the world but in my world, trying to make a living doing this fiber thing, these emails were nerve racking.

One email was for yarn support from a yarn company I've have admired for a really long time - a giant in the fiber industry. This was scary because I fear they might remember me. I've submitted design proposals a couple times for their Call for Submission and have been rejected. Those rejections hang over me as I type the email. Will they remember my submission and reject my request because of my rejected design ideas?

Sure, you read on the Ravelry designer forums that a rejected design is not a rejection of you... your design just wasn't a fit for the collection. Yeah, my head gets it, but my heart bleed every single time those rejection emails come through - it's getting a little easier to separate myself from the design, but they are sort of my babies. I feel as if I am being rejected!

So I hit send. I close my email. I close my laptop. I walk away... and wait, trying not to restart the computer, open email, and hit refresh over and over to see if they've responded in the 5 minutes since I hit send.

Right now, Tiffany is running a year long coaching program, 100 Rejection Letters 2.0, starting October 2015. This has inspired me to take up the challenge of getting 100 Rejection Designs in 12 months, starting right now!

Will this be scary? ABSOLUTELY. But it's just emails. I know I have what it takes to create beautiful knit and crochet designs. I just have to be brave and JUST HIT SEND...

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Harwinton Easy Lace Boomerang

2 Color Sampler Cowl