Preparing for a Knitting Machine

Morning!

It’s a glorious day!

I’m getting ready for my knitting machine to get here. Usually, I crochet my items. I did begin by learning how to knit years ago, but then I began crocheting all the time after becoming a mom. It’s difficult to find time even to crochet around a child, but it’s a little easier than knitting with a child.

However, crocheting machines aren’t a thing at this moment in time. But knitting machines are. And they’re fast!

I have an order for 20 pokeballs, but instead of crocheting the main ball, I’m going to zip them out on my knitting machine. I can’t use the machine to make the details though, so I spent much of today just making pokeball details to sew on when my machine comes in the mail.

I think this is a great use of my time instead of crocheting big balls when I can make them so much faster with machinery.

I’m excited to do this same thing with some gigantic amigarumi plushies. Before getting married and having children, I really enjoyed making life-sized amigarumi. I made a 2-foot tall minion toy for my nephew, and I made a dragon with a 5-foot wingspan. That dragon has so many details (because it’s epic) that it took 3 months to complete. However, much of that time was spent on the dragon body, and the same thing goes for the minion. Large amigarumi bodies are huge and plain. Now that I have a family to take care of, the idea of spending months on a single project is crazy to me. Especially if I hope to sell those amigarumi. Once I get the knitting machine, I’ll be able to bust out those huge bodies in a day or two. And the details, even if there are a lot, might take me a few more days. Even a really intense project will be able to be accomplished in a week.

With that length of project time, I could actually bring in a significant amount of income from this. Even if I charged $300 for something like that dragon, making it in 3 months would only give me $100/mo. And that’s nothing. But by being able to make 4 dragons/something similar in a month would make over $1000. And that’s a number I can live with.

And also, when I see a cute knitted holiday hat on Pinterest the night before a party. I could actually make myself one. But hand-knitting/crocheting wouldn’t allow me to do that. With a machine, I could make a hat just for fun in a hour or less. Without a machine, the same hat would take all day to make.

I don’t know why I didn’t decide to invest in a knitting machine earlier. I think I was just fight against it. Honestly, the sale of a single project would pay for the machine.

I haven’t even gotten this machine yet, and I already feel as that this is such a great idea. I wish I’d thought of this sooner.

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I Bought a Knitting Machine!

Guys!

I just bought a knitting machine, and I’m so excited! I couldn’t get the 48-pin machine like I originally wanted, because of placement of funds, but I did get a 22-pin, and I can make multiple panels and sew them together! Then, I should be able to upgrade in a few weeks to the bigger machine, but I may not if this one does well.

I can hand knit, but I stopped and began crocheting after becoming a parent. But I’m so, so excited to be able to make large items again. I live in Texas, and warm knit/crochet items are only practical for 1-2 months out of the year. I’m good at making large, realistic, plush items, but the big swaths of regular stitching take WAY too long. Now, I can focus on detail work and let the machine make quick work out of those plain sections.

The machine I ordered should be here by Thursday, and I can’t wait!

Don’t Mess with Success… crochet???

Hey y’all,

So, I just published a post that I wrote on Friday about my goals for this next week. But now it’s Sunday night, and I already completed the majority of the crochet projects that I wanted to get done this week…

And I’m thinking heavily about getting a knitting machine.

I feel like I’m still unsure about this whole idea about doing crochet for money, but here I am doing math for it and creating a business strategy.

And… Andrea Schulman did say that she got successful after realizing the “key” that she should focus in on what she was already successful at, rather than just going for certain “good ideas.”

So, my business goal is to make $1000 per month. If there are 20 days out of the month where I can really work, that’s $50 a day. Even though I’m sure I’ll make some money through blog ads and Etsy digital downloads, I think it would be a good rule of thumb for me to make $50 worth of crocheted merchandise every day that I plan to work. Then, I can have hundreds of dollars in sales at a show, and it will all work out.

The “problem” is, that I don’t currently have the patterns to make $50 of merchandise every day. I currently have one pattern for a heart-shaped dish scrubbie that I can make in under and hour. Ok – scratch that – I also have a pattern for a peppermint dish scrubbie that I can also make in about an hour. So, two patterns. However, it’s not like I can spend all day every day making hearts and peppermints. They’re both seasonal items, and many people don’t want dish scrubbies. So, I need some more pattern ideas.

If I invest in a knitting machine, it would allow me to make more of what I really like, which are life-sized and oversized projects. There are so many projects that I pushed away because they would take too long. But a machine would let me make something in a week or less that would take me months to hand crochet.

So, we’ll see what happens, but as of tonight, I plan to invest in a knitting machine.

PNG and Crochet (1-23-23 Weekly Goals)

Hey y’all,

At the end of last week, I decided that I just want to finish the crochet order that I’m on currently and stop taking those types of orders. Then, I kept getting distracted this weekend by ideas of things to crochet. I had to remind myself, several times, to stay focused, and that I don’t actually want to be crocheting throughout all my waking hours. After having children and having animals, it’s nearly impossible to find time to crochet items in the first place and then avoid getting them covered in pet hair.

Then I got a sale of one of my digital crochet patterns. (Yay!) That actually got me to thinking about digital crochet patterns. I keep thinking about the whole concept of “don’t mess with success.” I like the idea of making one of an item and then being able to sell a pattern from it forever. However, I don’t like the idea of constantly needing to create something new. It quickly becomes difficult to think of new items to create. But… digital patterns are the biggest sellers I have. I can’t do anything with this idea at the moment, but it does make me wonder if it’d be worth my while to begin creating patterns again after February.

But that’s a way’s away. As far as next this next week is concerned, I do want to get more of my current crochet orders finished. I’m partially through with a “baby shark” plushie, and I’ve finished 4 of 20 pokeballs. I want to finish the plushie, and I’d like to have 6-8 pokeballs completed by the end of the week.

And, I have an idea for a PNG design that I’d like to make and upload.

I don’t feel like that’s much to have accomplished this week, but I definitely feel better if I’m able to exceed my goals rather than if I set them too high and fall short, even if I do get a lot done.

So, my goals for this next week are to:

-first and foremost, take care of my child and household

-finish the “baby shark” plushie

-make 2+ pokeballs

-create and upload a PNG design

I also keep wanting to hustle hard and do all the things, but I just keep telling myself that I need to focus on what’s more important and forget the rest. Doing too much is just a recipe for me becoming burned out, and I really don’t need that when I have children to take care of.