Myspace:
What do you do? I make awesome crochet and knit creations. Hats, blankets, iPod cozies... Everything I do is without patterns. I hate following them, so most of my stuff is one of a kind. The cozies and hats were made without patterns, too, so every time I sit down to work on one, I hope I can remember how do do them.
What made you start selling your creations? For the past few years, pretty much everyone I know (including myself) has been popping out babies, so I would make them a gift. Without fail, someone would say, "OH! This is so cute! Do you sell them?" It took a few years, but it finally sunk in that I might get away with selling them. I think it is totally rad that people want to give me money for my creations!
What is your most likely distraction? Well, I have a three year old and a one year old, so they are pretty distracting. (They make great models, though!) I am also a total bookworm, so when I'm not hooking or throwing Cheerios at a kid I've got my nose in a book. Right now my half-read copy of American Psycho is calling my name...
We all have projects that fail, or don’t come out as planned, tell us about one of yours. A few years ago I read a blog about making "plarn" which is cut up plastic shopping bags tied together, and the blog author made a bag to store clothes pins in, the kind you can hang on your clothesline. I thought that was an neat-o idea, so I started making it. It's now 4 years later and I'm almost half done with it. The recycling aspect of it rocks, but actually cutting them up and tying them together sucks. Plus it's not the easist thing to crochet with. Oh, and we started using reusable shopping bags, so now I use any kind of plastic I can get my hands on. To-go bags from Subway, diaper packages, whatever. And it's oh, so hideous. I've never seen anything so ugly.
What is your favorite artistic or crafty website? Etsy, obviously. But I love browsing around
www.crochetpatterncentral.com and
www.knittingpatterncentral.com for new ideas. Once in a while I'll get a bee in my bonnet and start to follow a pattern, but most of the time I just look at the pictures and try to wing it.
What is your favorite quote or words of inspiration? I think it rocks when my mother (who knits) tells me my stuff is beautiful.
What advice would give to someone wanting to start selling their creations online? Make sure you can do something REALLY WELL. There are so many people out there who can do the same thing as you, and mediocrity doesn't fly. I would look through the pages of Etsy and wish I was a good enough painter, sewer, photographer, etc. to be able to sell my stuff. But I'm only so-so at those arts. After the 83rd person told me how good of a crocheter and knitter I am did it sink in; "Oh, I could sell THAT stuff!" And be yourself. Let your personality show through. Don't be super bland and try to appeal to everyone, because most people will find you boring and move on to the next thing. If you let your uniqueness show through, people respect that. If you turn someone off by having character, then you don't want them buying your stuff anyway. Because they probably suck.
What song gets you going? I'm obsessed with Depeche Mode. Like so bad my husband probably wants to hurt Dave Gahan. But I everytime "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley comes on the iPod, I just have to boogie! I mean who can resist that song? Besides my husband. And my parents. And all my friends...
What’s your favorite blog? I have a few, mostly controversial, political stuff that I follow. But I love
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.com/. Hilarious! I think they have a hidden camera on me. But I liked all that stuff before it was cool.
If money were no object, what would you be doing right now? I know it's a cliche, but I would love to travel more. Oh, and buy a house with a room solely devoted to yarn. Then I'd go buy yarn to fill it. While following Depeche Mode around the world.
3 words that best describe you are: Free-thinking (since I put in a hyphen can that count as one word?), unusual, vegetarian.
Your 3 guilty pleasures are: Taking a long bath while reading a book, brownie batter, "Mystery Science Theater 3000".
