4kcbwday7 Looking Forward ::

So the knitting and crochet blog week officially finished a couple of weeks ago, but I'm still playing catch up.  Today I finally reach the end!

Today's topic is 'looking forward', thinking about where we'll be with our crafting 1 year from now.  For me that means I can't help but think about that in terms of business and also has me looking back to where I was a year ago.

I've come so far in terms of crafting since last year and each year more and more inspires me to move on further.  Initially I always said I would never turn crochet in to a business, because I love it so much and was really concerned adding a business element to it would leave me loathing it.  However I think in taking on designing I've managed to find a great middle ground, it incorporates so many different elements, a lot of them far removed from the calming act of using hook and yarn.  This time last year I had published just a handful of patterns, I now have 36 patterns on my ravelry page, my designs have graced the covers of 3 magazines and I'm finding work coming to me more and more, with less seeking out necessary.  All of this is fantastic, but as I'm sure anyone who works in a crafty business will understand, I still struggle financially, crochet does not pay all that well.  I'm lucky that I have a partner, who for the most part, understands this and supports me, I'm lucky that I have another crafty business that also supports me financially and I'm feeling pretty lucky that come September, my baby boy toddler child (!) will be spending a whole 6 hours, 5 days a week, in FREE childcare school.  As a result of this I'm seeing the next 12 months as a huge step up in work and crafting.  I have grand goals!  The two biggies will be starting to teach, with exciting things happening in Cheltenham, I'm hoping to find myself a regular little teaching/workshop spot.  I've taught a lot of people to crochet in a one on one setting, but classes will be a whole new thing for me.

I'm also hoping to write a book! I have so many ideas for some fabulous crochet books, so hopefully the extra hours school will allow me, will see some of them actually find their way on to paper.

However, as fun as my work is, craft can't all be about work, so I've also been thinking about how I'm going to hone my skills in a more personal, fun way.  At last weeks craft night in, I picked up embroidery hoop and thread and tried my hand at little cross stitch.  I'm sure I have done this before, probably as a child, but it certainly has been a very long time, I loved it!  I've since be trying to fit a little bit of stitching in to my evenings, wherever I can.  I hope to keep playing around with this over the following year.  It's nice to have a craft to do which is just for me, not work, but just pleasure.
I would also love to learn to weave.  Seeing all the fabulous looms at wonderwool really got me inspired to give this fabulous craft a go.  I am possibly the least patient crafter ever though, so I'm not sure how I'll get on with this.

This has been a really interesting topic today, it's really got me thinking and will be really interesting to look back on next knitting and crochet blog week to see how I've done!