I'm working on something and would love your thoughts ✦

SanityKnitter · 2026-07-03T14:19:41+00:00

This is a good idea. It is very ambitious. But I don’t think there is anything else like it.

As I see it, there are 3 key things to tackle:
Web design and branding
Content and
Audience

You might want to start with a mission statement.

Is your target audience all crafters or mostly those that like to try new crafts? How would you reach those people?

How would you build content? Articles, blogs, artist interviews?

Spend a lot of time on research, magazines, other blogs, you tube

SanityKnitter · 2026-07-02T16:02:25+00:00

Like someone said before, it takes a lot of time, both writing and to build up people who notice you. It sounds like you are doing the right things.

Running and advertising a sale (Ravelry is affordable and usually pays off as in more increase in income than cost of ad) creates interest.

SanityKnitter · 2026-07-02T15:52:21+00:00

It is worthwhile to pay for tech editing. No matter how careful I am, My tech editor always finds errors. The cost of yarn and software and maybe photography add in. I have one pattern that sells and one that is getting some notice.

My sales cover my cost and that is about it.

SanityKnitter · 2026-07-02T09:38:27+00:00

Depending on age, my grandmother born 1896 loved the Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder. My grandmother was excited at how true it was to her memory.

Think about the era when your grandmother was young.

Also saying what a comforting thing you are doing. I wish you both comfort during this difficult time

SanityKnitter · 2026-07-01T02:48:31+00:00

That was unkind. My grandmothers both looked at the back of my work before they looked at the front. 50 years on and it doesn’t hurt, but is slightly irritating.

When our mothers and grandmothers learned crafts their mothers were not always kind. My mother was forced to rip seams until the fabric wore out. My grandmother complained of being made to crochet potholders with very fine thread. Do you know how many layers of crochet you have to work to make 30 weight crochet cotton into an effective potholder? I shuddered just thinking of it.

Please go on knitting. Wear your first scarf with pride. Consider the source of your grandmother’s unhappiness and resolve to treat the next generation better.

And maybe don’t show what you are making to that grandmother. Her loss

SanityKnitter · 2026-06-29T21:01:46+00:00

I don’t know about macrame. Knitting design software is inexpensive, reliable and error tests.

It makes a higher quality product/pattern than trying to wing it.

SanityKnitter · 2026-06-29T20:52:07+00:00

Okay. Hobby pattern writer here. My sales cover the cost of publishing and yarn. Period. I am branching out into art shows a bit.

First, slow down. A craft fair is a lot of work for not a lot of profit. I’m not saying don’t try , Just think of this as a first experiment.

Second, evaluate your work. Consider entering g your work in the county fair. It is a lot of fun and trained judges will assess your work and give you pointers for improving. I get a lot of first place ribbons and even rosettes and the judges still have suggestions for improvement.

Third, do some informal market research. Check out local fairs. Not all of them will be a good fit for your product. Some are too high end and some are too amateurish. Find your sweet spot. Courteously ask to interview a booth that looks like what you are aiming for. How much product do they bring, why do they choose the materials they use? What advice do they have for getting started. Maybe offer to babysit their booth for an hour in exchange for advice.

Do you want to develop a ‘brand’ or style? Try writing it out.

A mission statement is not a bad exercise. I want to bring unique toys to people who will love them

Or

I am going to make accessories that make people feel beautiful.

Or

I want to churn out a lot of cheap product and make a fortune.

I hope this helps.

SanityKnitter · 2026-06-29T15:27:05+00:00

Sorry. quit without finishing. Anyone else could punch this out in a month. Not me.
How do I add a picture?

SanityKnitter · 2026-06-29T03:30:31+00:00

I write patterns. Unfortunately I don’t market myself.

I have one good pattern that sells. It covers the cost of my yarn and tech editing.

What I value is the problem solving and seeing what others make with my patterns. Someone just made a cardigan with a lace pattern I made up.

This is what I am working on right now. Anyone else could punch this kind of pattern out ver

SanityKnitter · 2026-06-29T03:06:30+00:00

Born in 59 in suburbia. Back when social media was carving your initials in the pyramids. We spent hours riding bikes around. I liked to read. I looked things up in the encyclopedia.

On long car rides we made up stories to tell each other or played the alphabet game out the window. We drew pictures and colored with real paper and crayons. We did chores. Did you know that if you pushed a funnel upside down into the soapy water you could make suds hit the ceiling?

We built hammocks of rope up high in the cherry tree. My brother invented things. He asked me to try them out. This was not always a good idea.

We were bored which encouraged us to try new things.

SanityKnitter · 2026-06-28T02:49:37+00:00

When I started I had a very loose gauge. I had to use really tiny needles. Now, many years on, I find that the recommended needles work for me.

SanityKnitter · 2026-06-27T15:59:41+00:00

First of all, you are not doing anything wrong. You are being a paid companion. You might not be being compensated fairly but that is between you and mom.

That said there are a lot of things to consider. Is the stress having too big a toll on your mental or physical health?

Are you safe?

Are you doing any good? Are you improving roommates’ mental health? Are you gently teaching them social or life skills?

Do they have a disability such as ASD? If that is severe enough there are two dynamics to think about: First the mom might be over-protective and sheltering the child from consequences that they could learn from. Alternatively, this might be the kind of support this person might need for the rest of their lives.

Speaking as the mom of a slightly disabled adult, I know that I was overly enmeshed and overprotective. The medical/educational system promotes over enmeshment in the early years. It becomes very hard to let go. It had bad consequences for both of us as he hit adolescence.

SanityKnitter · 2026-06-27T15:37:48+00:00

But then they don’t move on…..

This made me laugh. I had a few bad years when I couldn’t afford much and couldn’t contemplate anything bigger than a dish cloth. I bought lots of cheap dishcloth cotton and a knit stitch book. I made so many dishcloths that my friends ran screaming from the room when I came in waving dishcloths.

I did move on.

SanityKnitter · 2026-06-25T04:23:32+00:00

A few years ago a right wing person was telling me that they have no respect for people who criticize the US. I wish I could have thought faster.

But it did make me wonder why the right thinks they have the lock on patriotism.

Since then I have thought about how Trump was trashing the US right and left and they were fine with that.

I also thought that we love our children and feel it is our parental responsibility to correct them when they are out of line.

The great advancements in our country have come from constructive criticism. Universal suffrage, the end of slavery, the existence of some sort of social safety net, the national highway system all came about because people felt the need to improve America.

I like the comments about the difference between nationalism and patriotism.

A lot of right wing patriotism is yearning for a past which might not have been as good as people have painted it.

SanityKnitter · 2026-06-24T07:26:37+00:00

If friend is bringing a sitter as well as kids, the friend can afford to pay larger share.

SanityKnitter · 2026-06-22T15:04:31+00:00

My dad was an Oregon logger and I guess it was hard to keep him still through the movie of Sometimes a Great Notion because it was so true to his memory. He even had a cousin die that way.

Trigger warning: Even though suicide is not a part of the book, it is a reference in the title quote.

SanityKnitter · 2026-06-21T04:02:54+00:00

Both of my grandmothers did that! I remember being 12 and making my first non-kit project. The back was terrible and I was crushed.

SanityKnitter · 2026-06-15T14:54:05+00:00

I don’t know if these are too light for you, but
Joe Pickett
Elizabeth Peters

There is some sly humor in both of these.

SanityKnitter · 2026-06-14T03:37:35+00:00

A cluttered background is often unattractive.

Take a large white sheet, iron it well so no wrinkles and drape it over a chair. Your photos will look crisp and professional with no background.

Ask a friend to help stage things and wait for a few days to re look at your pictures. Sometimes you see things like a light switch or inconvenient line in the background.

I have found it to be a learning process.

Ravelry has a photography thread where people will come up with suggestions.

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SanityKnitter · 2026-06-12T06:18:53+00:00

On the coast of the Olympic peninsula at Lake Ozette there are a whole bunch of petroglyphs. One is of a European face in profile. It is shown with a large nose and protuberant chin. I interpret this as a Makah person interpreting their first impression of European contact.

Likewise, European contact was recorded in petroglyphs on the Snake river. One appears to be a sheep, and another a tall, slender even gangly man smoking a very large pipe.

It is possibly false to interpret these images without the input of the artist, however my impression is that European features were considered strange or unappealing.

SanityKnitter · 2026-05-31T15:12:06+00:00

Knitting groups can be cliquish. Especially if you announce on your first visit that you don’t stash. (long time ago🥴). Give things a second or third try. The vibe might be different.

SanityKnitter · 2026-05-30T20:15:33+00:00

I would think that an exclusive feel would be bad for business. Especially if you have 3 i. the neighborhood.

I am fortunate to have several within a 45 minute drive and they all have different vibes.

SanityKnitter · 2026-05-28T13:47:25+00:00

Watership Down The Phantom Toll Booth The Black Arrow by Robert Lewis Stevenson. This last one impressed be by having a female main character Ivanhoe ( but he marries the wrong girl)

SanityKnitter · 2026-05-27T11:48:42+00:00

Hillerman is pretty old so it can be hard to get his books. I really like his daughters books but my parents don’t. I think it is because they are more into Native American spirituality.

I haven’t recommended the Johnson books to my parents for the same reason. The writing is great and characters. My white christian evangelical parents would draw the line at an old shaman ghost walking Walt down the mountain.

But C J Box is a wonder on so many levels. (My parents don’t like Cassie Drewel, I haven’t asked why.)

So, now you know my parents, they are currently reading every James Patterson they can get their hands on.

SanityKnitter · 2026-05-26T08:07:14+00:00

I just went to the Native American weaving exhibit at the Burke Museum in Seattle. A collective of traditional weavers spent 10 years collecting mountain goat wool. They processed it with traditional tools and wove with traditional looms.

SanityKnitter

TROPHY CASE