Tag 2024 plans

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.

Reflections and Plans

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So 2023 was…interesting.

I started the year with a day job and a sole-prop crochet business. I ended the year with no day job and an LLC crochet business.

I was in 7 shows in 2023, though I only made a profit in 4 shows. Overall, I ended the year just barely in the black. I did $1367.50 in total gross for in-person sales.

The economy was not on the side of small business owners in 2023. I have talked to over vendors, and not just fiber art ones, sales have been horrible for a lot of small business owners who rely mostly on markets for sales.

The local yarn store (LYS) to me has granted me a space in their shop to sell some of my amigurumi. If you are local to Hampton Roads, or anywhere near the Virginia Peninsula, you should check it out. The shop is The Village Knittery and it is located in Hilton Village on Warwick Blvd, Newport News, Va. I’ve also been invited to become a member of the local business group that gets together once a month to discuss upcoming events and collaborate. More on that in a future post.

I’m still looking for a day job to help cover bills while I work on turning this crochet business into a full time job. Losing my day job in August speed up my 5 year plan drastically. I was hoping to have found a job by Christmas, but that didn’t happen. I’m hoping for something this month.

I have plans for regular blogs Monday through Friday. The YouTube channel will get resurrected in February. The Twitch channel will have regular streams in the evenings starting sometime in January. The other social media platforms that I am on will also be having an overhaul in 2024. If you would like to follow me on those, you can find the link to my linktree here: https://linktr.ee/OctojellyCrochet

I also want to try designing my own patterns this year. I’m still in the research stages of that at the moment, so more news on that later.

For in-person shows in 2024, I only have 1 so far on the books, Convival 2024 in Williamsburg, Va. https://convivialva.com/ At the time of writing this, the vendor list has not yet been updated. I will hopefully have more shows scheduled by the end of February.

If you’ve read this far, thank you.

I have hopes that 2024 will be better for me than 2023 was. If you plan on joining me on this journey, thank you.

The Holiday Update

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Greetings and Salutations.

So, over the last 24 hours, I have been updating the inventory in the shop.

All of the amigurumi options have been updated. I’m still debating adding baby blankets, scarves, and shawls. I may put those on the ko-fi portion of my business instead.

In December I will be adding a new category to my shop. This will cover all the DnD monsters out of the 5E Monster Manual.

I’ll be streaming on Twitch atleast 2 days during the day and early Sunday mornings starting the Monday after Thanksgiving.

All the blog series will restart on January 1, 2024. I have to much going on to be able to keep up with them at the moment. I do have a good portion of the Tea Series written and staged for January. The Crafts of the World Series is still in the research stages. I’m also working on a new pattern series.

I plan on turning the Granny Square series in to how-to YouTube videos in the new year, recording for those should start sometime next month.

I have finished the market season for 2023. I didn’t do as well as I would have liked, I had just about half the markets I did not even make back the table fee.

I have better hopes for 2024. My first event will be ConVival 2024. This will take place in Williamsburg, Virginia January 12-14, 2024. See https://convivialva.com for more details. As of this posting, they are still working on the vendor list.

I may try for the Smithfield Farmers Market for 2024 as well.