Tag business update

2026…What’s Changing and What Isn’t

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So we made it. It’s 2026.

Last year was, a lot, wasn’t it.

Between the American Political System,  the tarriffs, Joann’s closing, and life in general.

This year, I’m actually hoping to improve my online presense as I will be reducing the number of in-person shows I will be doing do to IRL work obligations.

I’m in the process of re-organizing the menus for both the blog as shop. My hope is that this makes it easier to navigate the website.

I’m planning to add a lot my crochet content this year. I have tutorials in the works, as well as pattern collections, and reaserch I’ve been doing on the different crochet styles.

I’ve also been working on reviews on the various crochet books that I have, so I can get those listed.

The tea reviews will be an ongoing thing. I just have to get better at finiding time to drink the tea so I can actually do the reviews. I am going to add other tea brands beside Adaigo and Friday Afternoon, I promise.

I do plan on doing working on my personal crochet challenges. I’ll make posts about each of the creatures as I get them done. I have Lovecraftian, and Cryptid creatures in the works and I hope to have those posts up soon.

I have a few other side projects that i’m working on but I’m not ready to announce those just yet.

Is there anything that you’d like me to do this year?

 

Friday Check-In

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So hi hi,

Sorry it’s been a minute since I’ve done a business update.

I’m going to try to do these every other Friday now.

If you’ve been on the site in the last week or so and gone to the Tea Category, you’ll now see that I have separated the Teas by brand to make finding particular Teas a little easier.

I do plan on restarting the Tea series soon, it’s just been on the back burner since the kiddo is out of school for the summer so various schedules have to be re-thought.

There will also be new crochet-realted posts soon, I just need to finish adding pictures and then those will get scheduled

The picture will be elaborated on after I do a little more research on the temu/aliexpress crochet at events topic.

At the end of this month, I will be doing a big product update, with some older creatures in new colors and some new creatures.

Upcoming Plans

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So, I touched on this a little in my monthly newsletter. If you haven’t signed up, I do ask that you do, as I announce sales and updates  there usually a week or two before I announce on Social Media.

2024 has been an interesting whirlwind of things (so far) for me.

While I have done slightly less (and yes I’m counting the 3 upcoming in this count) shows compared to 2023, I’m actually less than $200 away from what I made all of last year.  All but 2 of the shows I’ve done this year were new to me and larger (in visitor count) to the 2023 shows.

A side effect of this is that I’ve actually put more thought into my display set up for indoor shows. It definitely looks more cohesive and less haphazard now.

If you haven’t noticed the updated header on the website yet, I now have a Commissions page. It’s still evolving, but there’s now a form for inquiries. I do plan to add specific forms for Dragons and Chthulu in the coming months.

There will be one product update in November, once all the shows for 2024 are finished. I just have too much product to make in the next 3 months (plus a kid and a day job) and won’t have time to add product  to the website before then.

I’ve decided not to start posting on YouTube until after Jan 1 2025. This is before many reasons. A few of those reasons are because of the kiddo being under foot when I’m not at my day job. He starts school in a week, so I’m planning on getting some recording done then. Twitch streams will start back up then as well.

I’m going to be trying something a little different with the social media content starting Sept 1. Follow me on Insta/Facebook for more on that. I’m still working out all of those details, so I’ll share more on that next week.

If you need to find me on my socials, use https://linktr.ee/OctojellyCrochet

Is it August Already?

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So…with in the next 90 days, I will have 3 events.

These will be my 3 largest and 3 final events for 2024.

The September event will also be my longest event since I started doing events in 2020.

I am planning on using all of my free time to make a lot of products, some of which will be never before seen product.

I have also started experimenting with glow-in-the-dark yarn. Pictures are coming to the social media soon.

If you are interested, I’ll be streaming tomorrow (Sunday 8/4) from about 9:30 PM until  6 AM or  until I feel like sleeping, whichever happens first.

The regular streaming schedule will start back up after the 26th of August, as that is when Quality Control will be starting 1st Grade.

I also plan on getting a regular blog schedule actually hammered out before then, too. So far, I have the tea blog done to Wednesdays, and the Fact/Opinion days are on Fridays, but I’m debating moving those to Saturdays.

What do you think?

Halfway thru 1st Quarter

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So, the first 2 events for 2024 are now in the books.

I have 2 more confirmed events in May and possibly 2 more in August, though I am still waiting on confirmation on those.

Making upgrades to some of the gremlins.

I had a conversation at today’s event that I have actually had a few dozen times.

Inevitably, some will look at my work and ask how I get my stitches so tight.

Usually telling them that I have essentially crocheting since I was a child will stop the conversation. Unless they see me writing just before or after they see me crochet.

See, I’m left-handed. Except when it comes to crochet. I was taught to crochet by right-handed people. I learned to use my right hand to hold a crochet hook. Which also means I hold my hook with what I (and a lot of crocheters I know) call a death grip. I also crochet counterclockwise. Which, for crocheters, means that I crochet backwards.

It makes it interesting when I go to teach people how to crochet, and they get slightly confused before they realize what I’m doing. The people I teach do crochet in the right direction because 9 times out of 10, they are right-handed.

I’m getting ready to start writing about the yarns I use.

On the YouTube front, I have deleted the 3 videos that I had up on the site. I do plan on re-recording all 3 of them this week. Starting with the crochet tools and the yarn types videos.

On the blog front, I have 3 series that will be starting or restarting soon. I spent the weekend adding 250 draft titles to the site to make writing the posts easier.

June Update

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Greeting and Salutations,

Just a quickish update while I take a break from product prep for Cosplay World Richmond Aug 4-5 in Richmond, Virginia.

So I gave in and ordered business cards with a QR code of to my Linktr.ee since I have more than 4 social media links now.

I also had to make a new Instagram account as the old one is still linked to the original Facebook page. My 100+ messages to Facebook Customer Service have gone unanswered and I really needed to be able to edit the shop section. The old Instagram page will be permanently deleted as of July 11, the new one can be found by looking up OctojellyCrochetStudio.

I also started the paperwork to convert the business into an LLC. As the business’ is currently a sole prop, a lot of the basic paperwork , like a DBA and a License to sell for the Virginia Department of Taxation, is already completed.

As I need to make a few changes to the business, once the LLC process is finished, I will be doing regular social media updates starting late July/early August.

The goal is for this business to be the majority of my income withing the next 2-3 years.