Saying Thank You

Meet my little love heart cowl:

Some of you will doubtless recognise the stitch pattern I've used here – it's one of the 3 sections used in the Purl Bee's pattern for the Stitch Block Cowl, a piece I've made to commission several times now.  The wool I've used is a big favourite of mine for cowls: Malabrigo's Worsted Merino, a super soft kettle dyed pure merino wool from Uruguay.  The colours I've used are Natural and Gerano and the cowl is about 22 inches in diameter, just the right size to slip over your head and arrange in a variety of ways, depending on your mood.

As you can see, the stitch pattern is pretty on both sides and I've made it quite wide/tall at 20cm /8 inches so that you can fold it over if you want, right side out:

Or wrong side out:

Or both sides out!

Knitting cutesy love hearts isn't usually my thing and, as anyone who knows me in person will tell you, I'm quite reserved when it comes to sharing my emotions. I've told people before that this has to do with growing up in Yorkshire amongst all that grit, but regardless of the environment I developed in, I think it's my personality anyway. So having established that I'm not likely to be gushing or in the least bit phoney when I say this, I want to say a great big thank you to everyone who has supported and encouraged me in my crimson rabbit adventure over the last couple of years.

Last month, I reached a goal in my Etsy shop when my 'number of sales' tipped over 100 and whilst it took a while to get there, it felt amazing.  As anyone who has sold on Etsy will tell you, unless you're already an established presence online, or have a product that everyone wants, or you just happen to get lucky, it's hard to get started.  For one thing, how to succeed on Etsy isn't obvious and there are various dead ends that you will find yourself wasting time on and becoming demotivated by.  I haven't discovered any magic path to success there, I've just got on with running my shop as professionally as I know how and continuing to use Etsy as a buyer by favouriting and following and treasury list making – which I love doing anyway, when the mood strikes me.

Facebook has also been great for me in several ways, not least of which is actually developing my own personality as a creative person.  That might sound a bit arty farty, but in the effort to fit in and succeed in the corporate world during my many years there, I had molded myself into someone else and it took a while to decompress and get back to who I am.  The other fab thing about Facebook is being able to socialise online with people you like, whether you're following their page, they're following your page or, more commonly, both!  Ironically, I never used my personal Facebook page and I still don't very much – I just don't feel the need, but mixing with the handmade community (makers and supporters) on there has been so important for me, especially working in the rather isolated way that most of us do, day to day.

Anyway, enough of this sharing and gushing, the point is – thank you, whoever you are – if you're readying this, you're supporting me and my endeavours at making a living doing what I love and I appreciate it, massively.  I'm still quite a way from actually making a living at this, but thanks to you, I keep inching closer to it.

And coming to the main point of this post, I would particularly like to thank those people who have spent their hard earned cash on buying something from me – whether it was the old friends who bought something from me in the early days or the new friends I've made on line over the last few years, or anyone else out there who saw something I made and wanted one for themselves or a loved one, for whatever reason.  If you've ever bought something from me, and you like this love heart cowl, please leave a comment on this post and I'll enter you into a draw to win it.  I'd love to make you all one but, well, that's just not practical, is it? 😉

I'll put the names of all commentors into a hat on Friday 10th July and announce the winner here after that and by Saturday noon, at the latest.  Good luck! 😀