Crochet Addict UK: September 2012

Sunday, 30 September 2012

Giveaway Sunday Week 28

I hope your weekend is going well.

Giveaways I've Found:

Good Luck!

I have no affiliation with any of the giveaways.

These are just giveaways I've found

If you would like to link to any

giveaways you are hosting or you have found

please feel free:

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Saturday, 29 September 2012

Guest Blogger Week 32 Garden of Colourful Stitches

I would like to say a huge welcome

to Betsy

from Garden of Colourful Stitches

Never in a million years did I ever expect to be making crochet patterns and selling them on the internet. First of all, I thought making patterns was for expert crocheters, and second, I hadn't crocheted in almost 30 years.

It all started last year when I decided that after 17 year, I wanted to retire as a tax professional. Now what was I going to do with myself? I'd known about Etsy, but I didn't know if people really made money. I looked at some of the crocheters' shops and was surprised (and delighted) to see that some of them had a lot of sales. That's all I had to know to get started.

Initially, I crocheted items for sale such as, rugs, afghans, hats etc, but I quickly determined, living in a rural area made it difficult to do custom orders. The closest yarn store is an hour's drive and I couldn't afford to make the trip and still make a profit on the items I crocheted. That's when I decided that maybe I could sell patterns, after all I was creating my own patterns anyway.

Writing patterns is challenging. From start to finish it takes me about a week to create one pattern. First, I have an idea for the design, then I crochet it to see if it will work the way I envision it, then I have to write it down so it makes sense to other crocheters and finally, it has to be tested in every size.

I don't know if I'll ever put enough effort into this to make it a full time business, but so far, it's been fun and rewarding. And it's always a thrill whenever anyone likes my patterns enough to part with their hard earned money to buy one.