To Etsy or not to Etsy....that is a Question.

After almost 6 years of being a Stay-At-Home-Mom, or perhaps the better description is a Work-At-Home-Mom without a salaried gig, I am once again back among the ranks of the worker bees who go to their place of employment Monday through Friday for 8+ hours a day.  Hubby, only half joking, refers to this as being a mouse trained to push the food pellet button everyday.  So now my kiddos will be in daycare outside of their school hours.  I am not sure who will have the tougher time acclimating, them or me.  I start this Monday and I am both excited and sad to be entering this new phase of my life and my children's lives.

I like what I do for the most part and my new employer is a decently large company with little chance of being put out of business anytime soon.  The fact that I was hired while they were technically amidst a hiring freeze makes me feel pretty good about not getting laid off anytime soon.  So, yeah...  now that we have a second steady income, we might be able to get out from under a car loan, to replace my aging/high-mileage-doesn't-start-in-winter car, to put more money into college funds, to work on paying off the house early, and to retire (hopefully) before we are 70. 

It also means that my crafting time just became much more limited.  So now I am wondering if I should keep up with my Etsy shop or not.  It is not as though I am doing volume business there.  I enjoy creating and crafting.  Marketing and selling are just not a part of my bliss.  I like coming up with new patterns and putting them out there for people to try.  I like making things that make my kids and friends smile.  The Etsy shop was my attempt to justify the time I put into crafting and the different things I wanted to try and make.  I will admit to a euphoria when someone likes my crafts enough to buy something.  It's a nice validation that what I've done is worth something to someone other than myself, but I might be able to get that same validation by donating stuff to children's hospitals and troop support groups as well as making gifts for friends and loved ones.  So where does that leave my shop?  Should I keep it?  Or should I let it go?  I am still pondering.  I'll have a better feel for things after the first couple of weeks I think.  The shop will stay closed until I make a final decision. 

I will still keep up with writing this blog and The Midwest Texan.  I like writing and it's a nice way to journal things for myself, friends, family, and whoever (if anyone at all) actually finds me or my creative processes interesting.  But the Etsy shop....  I just don't know what it's fate will be.  Time just became a lot more precious to me and something... my crafting extra curriculars... will have to give.  

Testing Patterns and Products

Original pattern had velcro closure

I have always been a Do-It-Yourself (DIY) kind of gal. Mom started teaching me to sew and to use her sewing machine when I was around 8 years old. I started with doll's clothes and progressed to making clothes for myself. My knitting was a nice augment to my sewing. Variety is a good thing and this is a useful skill set.

Now I am beginning to branch out from using other people's patterns to making my own. I started by tinkering with existing patterns to modify them to my style and preference. Now I am starting to simply make a sketch and then pull out my calculator to figure out the number of stitches I need to cast on my needles or the yardage of material I'll need. The first few times I did this I was a little nervous about wasting my time and materials budget on something that might not work out. So I started out on things that were for use in our home: curtains for my sons' rooms, EVE pillows for Christmas, and a new sweater for an old Pooh are good examples. Every time I look at these things I see what I would change or do differently the second time around - but that is just my design process.

A new sweater for an old Pooh





There is something incredibly liberating about crafting 'without a net' and on the fly. So what if I screw up, I'll just take it apart and start over. So what if some material gets mucked up, I just add it to the scrap bag and it will get used by another project. The hard part now is to remember to journal what I do so I can write down the pattern and instructions to improve or reproduce the product. Some of these on-the-fly patterns are very spur of the moment, like my Bottle Cozy pattern, or simple experiments in texture and materials like The Ashton Hat or Lorica's Toque. However, judging from the number of hits that those particular blog pages get and the fact that some other pattern sites are beginning to link to my blog, I think I am having some small successes.

EEEVAH! for Xmas

Improvement and reproduction is the kicker in pattern development, particularly if I want to publish the pattern or a tutorial as a freebie on the blog, or maybe even begin to do pattern sales via Ravelry and Etsy, one of my goals. How many times do I need to test knit something and in how many different sizes before it's good enough to put out there for other people to use? How will my product hold up to use and wear? How much testing should I do before it's something worth selling? It's one thing to make something and give it away. It's something else entirely to sell it. I want people to get their money's worth. Then there is money itself. How do you place a value on your development time and production time? These are just a few of the cares and worries I have in selling my work and making things available on my blog.


So far, with my free patterns, I have done the test knitting myself. I would love to have a friend or family member test knit them as well but I don't see that happening in a timely enough fashion to make it a viable form of proofing prior to posting. When I get to the point of selling patterns, I'll pay for a professional technical proof reader. However, while my patterns are free, I just can't swing that; but, if I get useful feed back regarding these patterns from other knitters, I will definitely incorporate it.

Product testing is tough for me when it comes to baby things because I don't have babies any more. I do gift things but I always take any feedback I get about these gifts with a grain of salt because most people are loathe to criticize, in particular, handmade gifts. However, experience as a mom and with knitting in general has given me a good feel for what works versus what doesn't. Still, feedback is nice.

Cotton-hemp soap sack in beta testing now

Lately, I have been experimenting with non-clothing items such as reusable produce bags and home spa products. These require more product testing. I have to make sure my produce bags can be ultra light weight and still stand up to holding a bunch of broccoli. My family and I have been and will be using these beta models for awhile before I make them publicly available. I am probably going to send my cousin and my mom a couple of things to try for a while too. Product testing is a definite kink in my product release schedule of late but, hopefully, it makes for a better product.

Homemade Hat Models

I have learned a lot since opening my Etsy shop.  Things are off to frustratingly slow start. The search for sales has lead me to reading and research on how improve my shop.  My cousin, whose Noodles & Milk shop has been quite successful, has been a great help and so has the Etsy seller's forum.  So I am pecking away at my improvements and knitting to build my inventory.  The theory is that if you build it, the sales will come...eventually. 

A large part of my learning curve deals with improving my product photos.  Pictures are extremely important when trying to sell something via Internet.  Lighting, backgrounds, and angles are everything.  I have been experimenting and learning a great deal.  You can see, or at least I can see, a marked difference between my early product photos versus those that I take now.  I am continually trying to improve.

One key aspect is how the product is modeled.  I make a lot of infant's and children's hats for my Etsy shop.  They are fast knits and I am trying to build up some inventory before branching out into longer term projects like sweaters and blankets.  Right from the start, I have had a dilemma in how to model my knitted hats for photos such that they look nice.   A picture of a knit hat laying flat on a table just doesn't quite do it.  For the best results, you really need to find a way to pose the hat such that it looks as though it is on a head. 

Initially, I approached the problem creatively. I tried using balls of yarn, dolls, teddy bears, glass vases, and anything else I could think of to try to achieve a head-like shape.  The vase and the yarn balls worked the best but they were still just off enough that I was unsatisfied with my results.  I am able to get my kids to model some of my hats.  However, as most parents can attest, it is tough to get preschool age children to stop moving and smile long enough for a good clear picture.  Also, this does not solve my dilemma for baby hats and little girl's hats.  (I am blessed with little boys.)
 

I decided what I needed was a mannequin, or rather several mannequins in different sizes, preferably gender neutral for maximum usability.  So I did a little Internet surfing for infant-, child-, and adult-sized mannequins and discovered that they are expensive.  If I had a brick and mortar store, then it might be a good investment but for a cottage industry, Internet shop, I just cannot justify that level of capital outlay yet.  So then I searched for just head forms.  My grandmother gave me a Styrofoam head form upon which to store my favorite fedora hat when I was in junior high.  I thought, perhaps, I might be able to find those in assorted sizes.  Well, you can't, or at least I can't.  I have been able to find them in adult sizes but evidently they don't make them in child or infant sizes. 

Then one day I am walking down one of the arts and crafts aisles at Walmart when I see a potential solution - Styrofoam balls of assorted sizes.  You know the kind; you paint them and string them together to make solar system models.  So I picked up two, one that seemed approximately 4 year old head sized and another that seemed approximately baby sized, and brought them home for about $5. 

When I got home I discovered that I still had a bit of a problem, Styrofoam balls are round and a human head is not.  My hats just did not fit on the balls very well.  So with not much to lose, I measured my oldest son's head, got out a steak knife, and began shaping the largest Styrofoam ball to match the measurements.  The whole process was horribly messy but  the serrated edge of my steak knife allowed me to shave off small increments for gradual shaping.  I took my time and eventually created a child-sized, head-shaped, hunk of Styrofoam in the the measurements I wanted.  Then I dug some unbleached muslin out of my fabric stash.   Using straight pins as anchors, I covered the newly carved Styrofoam head in fabric.  It turned out much better than I had hoped.  Thus encouraged, I grabbed the smaller Styrofoam ball, carved, and covered it as well.

Homemade Head Forms

Modeling Child- and Infant-Sized Hats

I have since added two ready-made adult Styrofoam head forms to my collection as well.  One of these is second hand and has been "decorated" by a child so I plan to cover it with some of my left over muslin before I put it to use.  You can pick these up new at Sally Beauty Supply, or some other similar such place, for about $4 each.

At some point a better method for modeling my smaller hats will present itself. Until then, my homemade, muslin covered head forms will do just fine. Now, perhaps if I am a really, really, good girl and pinch my pennies till they scream, Santa will bring me a  really nice 35mm digital SLR camera.  Well that is not really in the budget for this year, maybe next.

Lorica's Spring Toque

This is a variant of a hat I came up with several months ago.  I like this version much better and it's drawn some immediate interest on Ravelry so I am feeling pretty good about it.  The inspiration for this design came from my cousin's two little girls, who both love pink and purple and all things ruffly, lacy, and girly.  They've just moved to the Las Vegas area so cotton seemed the best choice of yarn.  It does get cool enough in the evenings in the desert to warrant a light weight hat during the winter months so I am hoping these do the trick. 

I used a Peaches & Creme ombre to make these and I just love how the yarn's color pooling worked out into a candy stripe effect.  I did one in pink and the other in purple.  The girls can, or perhaps my cousin should, decide who gets which color.  For those who are interested but don't knit, I will be making more of these for sale in my Etsy shop but I am certainly able to take custom orders for color requests. 

Note: I have test knit this pattern 3 times; however, I have not had a second set of eyes or hands review or test knit it yet. So if you find an error or if something is not clear in the instructions, please let me know so that I correct and/or improve the pattern.

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Lorica's Spring Toque

You will need:

• 29-in circular needles US #7 (or size to obtain gauge)
• 16-in circular needles US #7 (or size to obtain gauge)
• Set of 4 DPNs US #7 (or size to obtain gauge)
• Yarn needle
• Stitch marker

Yarn:  Worsted weight yarn (~150 yards) Samples pictured here were made with Peaches & Creme #183 Lilac Ombre and #144 Strbry Cream by Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing Co., Inc. - 100% cotton)

Gauge: 4 1/2 stitches per inch in stockinette stitch on US#7 needles

Size: 0-6 months (6-12 months, 1-2 years, 2 years+)

Pattern:
Beginning and Ruffled Brim:

Cast on 256 (288, 320, 352) stitches using the 29-inch circular needles.  Mark the beginning of the round with the stitch marker and join the ends of the round, being careful not to twist the stitches.

• Round 1 - K2tog to the end of the round. 128 (144, 160, 176) stitches remain.
• Round 2 - Switch to 16-inch circular needles.  K2tog to the end of the round. 64 (72, 80, 88) stitches remain.



Close-up of the lace pattern

• Round 3 - Knit all stitches.

Lace Pattern:

Begin the lace pattern knitting as follows:

• Round 4 - *YO, K2tog, repeat from * to the end of the round.
• Round 5 - Knit all stitches.

Repeat Rounds 4 and 5 until piece measures 5 (5.5, 6, 6.5) inches from the start of the lace pattern knit.

Decrease Sequence:
Begin decreasing as follows:

• Round 1 - *YO, K2tog, YO, K2tog, YO, K2tog, K2tog, repeat from * to the end of the round. 56 (63, 70, 77) stitches remain.
• Round 2 - *K5, K2tog, repeat from * to the end of the round. 48 (54, 60, 66) stitches remain.
• Round 3 - *YO, K2tog, repeat from * to the end of the round.
• Round 4 - Knit all stitches.
• Round 5 - Switch to DPNs.  *YO, K2tog, YO, K2tog, K2tog, repeat from * to the end of the round. 40 (45, 50, 55) stitches remain.
• Round 6 - *K3, K2tog, repeat from * to the end of the round. 32 (36, 40, 44) stitches remain.
• Round 7 - *YO, K2tog, repeat from * to the end of the round.
• Round 8 - Knit all stitches.
• Round 9 - *YO, K2tog, K2tog, repeat from * to the end of the round. 24 (27, 30, 33) stitches remain.



Close-up if finished decrease sequence

• Round 10 - *K1, K2tog, repeat from * to the end of the round. 16 (18, 20, 22) stitches remain.
• Round 11 - K2tog, repeat to the end of the round. 8 (9, 10, 11) stitches remain.

Finishing:

Cut yarn leaving a 5 inch tail.  Thread tail onto yarn needle and pull it through the remaining stitches.  Pull tight to close ring completely.  Thread the tail to the inside of the hat and weave the end.  Weave the end at the cast on edge.

The Ashton Hat

My cousin is pregnant with her second child, a little boy this time.  I am very happy for her. Watching her prepare, via blog, for the new little guy has been fun. She is a very creative and talented woman and I am very proud of her.

My own kids are now past the baby stage so knitting tiny clothes is no longer something I can do for them. I just love knitting baby things though, so I try to do gifts for friends. My cousin's new baby has given me an excuse to test knit my Bottle Cozy pattern; a chance to begin experimenting with knitted bibs; and a reason to design a new baby hat pattern.

I elected to make this one 100% cotton because my cousin lives in Texas and it just doesn't get cold enough for wool there. I used a Peaches & Cream blue ombre that I already had sitting in my stash and I love how the color pooling created a striped effect through the seed stitch portion of the pattern. I will have to make a second hat with this yarn to see if it will pool that way again or if I just got lucky. Regardless, I love how this hat turned out! It's very cute and fast to knit and the textures are great.

Note:  I have not had a second set of eyes or hands review or test knit this pattern yet. So if you find an error or if something is not clear in the instructions, please let me know so that I correct and/or improve the pattern.

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The Ashton Hat                            

You will need:

• 12-in circular needles US #6 (or two sizes smaller than size to obtain gauge)
• 12-inch circular needles US #8 (or size to obtain gauge)
• Set of 4 DPNs US #8 (or size to obtain gauge)
• Yarn needle
• Stitch marker
• Worsted weight yarn (I made the one shown here with Peaches & Creme #133 Shaded Denim Ombre by Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing Co., Inc. - 100% cotton)

Gauge: 4 stitches per inch in stockinette stitch on US#8 needles

Size: 0-6 months (I have yet to pattern test for larger sizes)

Pattern:

Beginning and Rib Cuff:

Cast on 64 stitchs using the small circular needles.

Mark the beginning of the round with the stitch marker and join the ends of the round, being careful not to twist the stitches.

For the first 1 1/2 inches, knit using K2, P2 pattern (2X2 Rib).

Seed Stitch Section:

Switch to larger circular needles and begin Seed Stitch pattern as follows:

• Rnd 1 - K2tog, *P1, K1, repeat from * until 1 stitch remains, K1 (63 stitches remain
• Rnd 2 - *P1, K1, repeat from * until 1 stitch remains, P1
• Rnd 3 - *K1, P1, repeat from * until 1 stitch remains, K1

Continue in Seed Stitch pattern by repeating Rnd 1 and Rnd 2 until piece measures 4 1/2 inches from cast on edge.

Stockinette Section:

Begin Stockinette Stitch pattern as follows:

• Rnd 1 - Increase in the first stitch by knitting in front and back of the same stitch, knit to the end of the round (64 stitches)
• Rnd 2 - Knit to end of the round

Continue Stockinette Stitch pattern by repeating PatRnd 2 until the piece measures 5 1/2 inches from cast on edge.

Decrease Sequence:

Begin decreasing as follows:

• Rnd 1- K6, K2tog, repeat to end of the round (56 stitches remaining)
• Rnd 2 - K5, K2tog, repeat to end of the round (48 stitches remaining)
• Rnd 3 - Knit
• Rnd 4 - Switch to DPNs. K4, K2tog, repeat to end of the round (15 stitches on 1st needle, 15 stitches on secnd needle, and 10 stitches on third needle - 40 stitches total remaining)
• Rnd 5 - Knit
• Rnd 6 - K3, K2tog, repeat to end of the round (32 stitches remaining)
• Rnd 7 - Knit
• Rnd 8 - Knit
• Rnd 9 - K2, K2tog, repeat to end of the round (24 stitches remaining)
• Rnd 10 - Knit
• Rnd 11 - K1, K2tog, repeat to end of the round (16 stitches remaining)
• Rnd 12 - K2tog, repeat to end of the round (8 stitches remaining)

Finishing:

Cut the yarn leaving a 5 inch tail. Thread tail onto yarn needle and pull it through the remaining eight stitches. Pull tightly to completely close the ring. Thread tail to inside of hat and weave end. Weave end at cast on edge.

Hat can be worn with ribbed cuff up or down.

My First Sale

I have made my first sale from my online shop, Hynek's Handmade. A wonderful woman (she must be wonderful because she liked my product) from Elgin, Illinois purchased a little boy's layette, which I had dubbed 'Weigh Anchor'. She made her purchase via PayPal last Friday afternoon, an event which left me momentarily giddy and had my 4 year old son saying, amidst hugs and kisses, "You did it, Mommy! You did it!" Thus, begins my crash course in the nuances and technical requirements of selling and shipping from a web based store.

I use PayPal so as to entertain credit card purchases. I have used PayPal to make purchases for a couple of years now but this is the first time that the money flow has ever been incoming. I discovered Friday afternoon, after the bank had closed it's books for the week, that you have to be a 'verified' PayPal customer to receive payments. This is a process which requires a test 'handshake' between PayPal and your bank account. Thus, I was not going to be able to claim my payment from my first sale until the handshake posted this morning. Already, I am three days later than I prefer in completing my end of the transaction and shipping the product. Not the most auspicious start; but I figured hey, I am new at this. So I penned a quick thank you note, printed up care instructions, gathered up my packing materials, and staged it all to be ready to go first thing this morning. That's when I discovered that the small flat rate box I was confident that I had was no where to be found. Oops.... Well, at least that is cured with a quick trip to the post office near my house. No great delay.

When I first set up my Etsy shop, I had settled on Priority Mail Flat Rate shipping as my method of choice. My thought was that that most of my products were small enough to fit in the smallest of the flat rate boxes which meant $4.95 to anywhere in the USA, a price that seemed reasonable at the time. However, no matter how I folded my little nautical layette, it would not fit in the small Priority box with out mangling the box, a very unprofessional package to say the least. So I located a box that did fit and, with a quick perusal of the USPS website, found that I could still make that $4.95 shipping payment. However, I also discovered that I can probably figure out a way to ship my products for less with a comparable amount of transit time. Ah, but that is a issue I will have to address another time. I must get my beloved first sale shipped to that wonderful woman in Illinois, who is probably already beginning to wonder where the heck her purchase is and why is this seller being such a slacker. I also have to pick my son up from preschool and get all my errands finished before the forecasted snow storm hits trapping me in my house for the next 24 hours; but these are all trivial details.

I walked in to the post office for the second time today, once more giddy with delight at the thought of completing the process of my first sale. The post mistress was great and a font of good information, I wish I could download her brain into my computer. It turns out that Priority Mail does not include package tracking. This is an extra service which costs additional money, beyond the $4.95 that I allotted for shipping. This is the point where I slap my forehead as though I should have had a V-8 and realize that, as a SAHM, I have been away from the business environment too long. OK, so I have had an inept and naive last few days, but I am going to remedy the situation with the shipping comparison spreadsheet that I am building tonight. I am determined to optimize things a bit and make the chaos of today improbable in the future.

The important thing is that the precious little 'Weigh Anchor' set is now on its way to Elgin, Illinois. I hope it gets there alright. I hope my wonderful first customer likes it. I hope it withstands the drool and spit-up to which it will soon be subjected. I hope I measured it right when I sized it.

Tending My Knitting

I have been knitting since I was in the 5th grade. I give credit for this to two wonderful women, neither of whom knew how to knit - my mom and my grandmother.

I surprised Mom when I expressed an interest and I remember the look on her face when she told me that it was something that she couldn't teach me. As a parent myself, I now understand what that look meant - "I really wish I could help you, darling, but I just can't. I feel helpless on this one." Seeing my disappointment, Mom suggested what my parents have always done when they did not know something, getting a book. She and I made a special trip to the library and we found a how-to-guide to knitting. Then she dug out her mom's (Grandma Emily's) double pointed sock knitting needles and some old rug yarn which had both been living at the bottom of her sewing box for 25 years or more so that I could practice the stitches pictured in the library book.

A couple of weeks later, I was visiting my grandmother in Houston. She saw me sitting quietly with the library book in my lap practicing my knitting and asked me about it. After I explained what I was up to, she observed that I was running out of yarn. She called a good friend of hers, who knitted, and asked where to shop for such things and got the name of a needle arts store not too far away. I remember walking into that store and being amazed at all the different yarns in the bins that lined the walls from floor to ceiling. Then there were the all the different types and sizes of knitting needles and crochet hooks hanging from the floor displays. I was in heaven.

Grandmother explained to the shop keeper what I was doing and I showed the woman my sampler. She made a suggestion for a real first project, a garter stitch afghan in two colors. She wrote down the instructions, set us up with yarn and a pair of knitting needles. I spent my entire two week summer visit with Grandmother working on my afghan. Grandmother was very proud and told all her friends about my project. I still have it to this day tucked away in the bottom of our blanket storage. It is a study in learning to knit. You can see in the stitches where I finally learned the nuances of yarn tension and consistency.

Until I reached my 30's, I had always been shy about my knitting. I made a sweater for Mom, a couple of scarfs for cousins, and a sweater for a college boyfriend (which took a ton of courage). But for the most part, my projects were for personal use and the frequency of my knitting became few and far between. Then our friends started having babies and I picked up my knitting needles again to discover that I liked knitting baby clothes. The projects are small, relatively quick, and satisfying to complete. The compliments on the handmade layettes I have given away have done much to bolster my confidence.

Now I am a stay-at-home-mom seeking a way to feel as though I can provide something to our financial bottom line. After reading some encouraging articles about other women who have made successful businesses with their knitting, I have illusions (or maybe delusions) of grandeur for my own knitting potential, never mind the fact that such businesses have a much lower success rate than even restaurants. But, I have put together a simple business plan, have been chanting the mantra, "Start simple and small and work up", and have picked up my needles again. In the weeks that it has taken me to organize and build a small inventory, I have learned some new techniques/skills and have experimented with different yarn. I have all kinds of product line ideas and I love the creativity that is flowing. So we will see what happens. In the meantime, you can check out my new online store, Hynek's Handmade, on Etsy.