A productivity tool - #CTBrainDump

A New Week, Already?!

After I read my bible yesterday morning, I looked at instagram for a few minutes and stumbled upon Create & Thrive's blogpost on Morning Brain Dumps. This was a God-sent message for me, since I had no idea how to go about what seemed like a frustrating Monday.

You see, I'm writing a thesis and I have a  big, huge problem: I'm not actually writing anything. Ouch, that is not a nice place to be. I'm spending my days frantically looking for a primary source to analyse for my thesis. I've read a bunch of secondary material already and am hooked on my topic of choice, I just haven't had much luck locating a primary source.

The Morning Brain Dump

Well, enough with the woe-is-me already and on to the tool, right?!

You basically make four lists before your day begin. The first and most important is your MUST list. The second is your SHOULD list, then there is your COULD list and finally the WANT TO list.

Since September 2014 a bullet journal has been my faithful friend, so naturally I made the list in my journal.  It started out looking like this (and yes, I did it in English because most of you don't read Danish and I know you are curious to know what I actually had to do, you don't have to thank me, really it's okay):

During the day more items got added as I thought of them, because I was waiting to hear from the royal library whether or not they could find a book in their archives. For hours it didn't look like I would make any progress on my most important MUST, so I decided to get a lot of other things taken care of, while I basically had to sit around and wait.

By 1 pm, the end of my lunch break, my list had grown quite a bit, but a lot had also been checked off:

At 2 pm, while I was busy working on both COULD items and a WANT TO item, I received notice from the Royal Library that the book I needed was now available. So I waited not so patiently until my bread was done baking and my laundry could be put in the dryer and then I headed off to the capital. By then my list looked had no item on it, that I hadn't at least started to work on:

When I came home, I had two possible primary sources for my thesis and had gotten a whole lot of things done, so I decided to relax, finish this post, drink some tea and knit on the sock as the only item left anywhere on the list was the PT (Practical Theology) for next week.

Evaluation Time

Not only did I get a lot done, I also felt like I had a really enjoyable day. Being able to see that you are getting the things you MUST get done is great, seeing the SHOULD, COULD and WANT TO is fantastic.
I'm going to try this out for a while and would encourage you to do the same. Have you tried something similar before or do you have another favourite productivity tool?

Knitting and Joy

First things first 

Knitting and joy is closely connected for me. I can knit all the day long and feel perfectly content, so when I started noticing a lack of joy I knew something was wrong. For over a year now I've been very focused on the whole design aspect. I've learned so much and have grown as a designer, starting to discover my voice and using it. New things were on the horizon, an e-book and trying to get a design published in a magazine.

Frankly, the more exciting everything got the less I felt like knitting and with the whole #vatmoss deal, it was beginning to feel like a lot of work with very little reward. I'd love to say that month after month of no sales doesn't affect me, but that would be a lie. What really did me in I think was that so far my charity pattern, Everyday Rockstar has only sold one copy and I know that a close friend purchased that (and love her for it).

While I really want to some day have a decent side income from pattern writing, at the time being I'll be taking a break from it all to regain my joy and energy. During the next 6 months I'll be writing my BA thesis and I need knitting to be happy place during that time, not another thing in my life with obligations, deadlines and pressure.

Hopefully, by the time I'll be ready to return, I'll not only be rejuvenated, but perhaps the whole #vatmoss ordeal will be solved as well. I won't stop blogging though, fear not and I'm not saying a design or two won't find their way into my life during the next 6 months, what I am saying is that if they do so, they will do it because of an itch I must scratch, not because I feel obliged to work on them.

Now to reclaim the true joy...   

To combat the negative feelings I was beginning to harbour towards my knitting, I decided to knit something cute, something I didn't have to think about. I needed to not think at all, so I grabbed 3 different yarns and a baby knitting book and told my man to pick something, anything for me to knit. 

He chose the Bella Cardigan and some dark purple wool and off I went on my merry way. 

I'm already feeling a lot better about my knitting, less than a week after taking the decision to just have fun with it. Want proof? I've already planned what I want to cast on next: Baby Scallops.

Have you ever been in a similar situation and how did you regain the lost joy?

What's on My Needles? - From Idea to Published Pattern..

Going a new way

2015 is the year of Full Disclosure for me. Thus let me tell you about the new project I have on my needles: It's a sock pattern and it's entirely a secret!

For the first time, I feel ready to work on a pattern for submission. Will it be accepted? Only God knows, but I'm giving it a shot.

This shot at a pattern for submission means I'm working on a deadline for the first time, that isn't set by me and can't be changed. It means I can't show you any pictures or really talk about it. I will not, however, stop me from sharing the process with you. I'm sure the next month and a half will provide me with a good deal of headaches.

The big question I've keep asking myself is if it is worth it to work on patterns for submission. Like anyone would do, I made a list of pros and cons:

Pros

• Some form of compensation is provided
• It will get my name out to a much wider audience
• If the pattern is refused, I'll have a pattern to self-publish

Cons

• I have to keep everything about the pattern a secret. 
• I have to wait a long time to know if the pattern is accepted
• I have to follow the guidelines that the publisher decide on
• I have to work on a deadline

For the longest time the single con of having to keep everthing a secret outweighed every pro. I've now reached a point where it doesn't anymore. I'm running my head against a paywall in so many aspects when I think of something I could do to further my business, but this is one thing I can do, that won't cost me a dime, in fact, it is likely to make me a dime or two if all goes well. 

Now tell me, do you have any experience getting your patterns published? And what are your pros and cons?

Take a leap of faith in 2015

How to make this your best year yet

Making this your best year yet will not be easy or painless, it will however be worth it. So often we stay in the comfort zone or maybe we gather up our courage and walk to the edge, take a peek at the abyss below us and suddenly forget that if we take that leap of faith we may be granted wings to soar.

If you are ready for your best year, then please join me and ask yourself these (somewhat difficult) questions and then do the most important part: take action!

Insanity

The well known definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. Now I ask you - is there a part of your life in which you are insane?

It's very likely that we can all answer yes to this question. I certainly can. I want my micro business to grow, yet I keep doing what I've been doing all along. Writing the same types of blogposts, working on patterns when I feel like it, which truth be told isn't very often, because most days, after work I'm 'too tired', or so I tell myself. I keep telling myself I'm committed to making this a profitable business, but telling myself isn't enough, I have to take action as well.

There may be more than one area of your life, in which your actions and expectations aligns with the definition of insanity, if that is the case then choose one, the most pressing one, the one you feel most uncomfortable with, the one that will bring the most and best change to your life and focus on that area in 2015.

Full Disclosure

As you may know my theme for 2015 is Full Disclosure. It stared out as full disclosure towards you, but I've come to realise that it means so much more - it means full disclosure towards me. No longer will I be kidding myself, wondering why things aren't moving faster, when I put in so much effort... When in fact I'm not putting in nearly as much effort, as I though I was. So look at the area of your life you just decide to focus on and ask yourself this: Are you being completely honest with yourself? Are you telling yourself lies and more importantly, are you believing them? Identify at least one lie you are telling yourself in regards to your chosen area.

Failing to plan...

Another famous saying is that if you fail to plan you plan to fail, that is why you need a plan to even have a shot at making this your best year yet. Make a list of 12 small things you would like to focus on inside the limits of your area this year. These aren't goals, they are sub-areas to focus on, you could even do 4 bigger headings with 3 goals each. You'l need 12 in order to have a new focus each month. I'll show you about mine to illustrate what I mean:

Blogposts

1. Evergreen
2. Quality over quantity
3. Compilations

Social meadia stragegy

1. Pinterest
2. Twitter 
3. Instagram

Patterns

1. Layout
2. E-book
3. marketing

Education

1. Pattern writing
2. Designing new pieces
3. Techniques

Make some goals!

Now it's time to make some goals for your sub-areas, preferably SMART goals, that is goals that are Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely.  First of all your goal should be Specific, it can't be 'work on my blog', it has to be something like 'come up with ideas for evergreen content'. Now Measurability comes into play and it's an important one, you can't just say you want to come up with ideas for evergreen posts, that way, if you come up with two you have succeed, because that fits the plural of your goal, instead make it your goal to come up with 2, 12 or 24 (you get the point) ideas for evergreen content. Your goal also needs to be Achievable, but make sure at leat one of your goals for the month is a bit of a stretch, while still Realistic: what can you expect to get done? The Timely bit mostly gives itself in this case, as you have one month where that specific sub-area is your focus, so make sure you can get it done in one month.  

Work the plan

Each month you'll focus on a new sub-area and it's specific goals, for example in January I focus on coming up with evergreen content for this blog (kinda like this post, genius, right?!) and then come February my focus will be on quality over quantity, but I'll still keep the evergreen aspect in mind. Thus each month you'll add a new aspect to focus on while you build on the past months' sub-areas. By December 31st you'll have done a complete overhaul of your chosen area in life.   

Now go out and take that leap of faith!

All I want for Christmas... + a Christmas gift for you!

It's Christmas! I know, I know... A lot of you won't be unwrapping presents until tomorrow, but today or rather tonight is the big moment we've all been waiting for around here.

Now I wanted to take the time to wish you all a very merry Christmas and let you know what my only wish from all of you is this year, in case you are feeling a little generous...

Wouldn't it be nice to have a great new pattern to cast on during all the festivities tomorrow? And wouldn't it be even nicer to know that with the purchase of said pattern you had made a contribution towards cancer research?

Most of you know what I'm going to wish for, but in the interest of beginning my theme for next year a little early, I'll tell you why I'm wishing for it as well.

I had hoped, that I could send the Danish Cancer Society a big fat check at the end of the year, but right now I've only sold one copy of the Everyday Rockstar and while I'm very thankful for the sale and the money it raised, it doesn't exactly make for a big fat check...

So if you are feeling generous or need a last minute gift for a dear Ravelry friend or just need a hat because you accidentally left your old one on the train on your way home, may I suggest you go with the Everyday Rockstar - together we can beat cancer through research and secure many more merry Christmases for families all over the world. When you spend the 15DKK or ca. $2,5 you'll contribute just over 10DKK/$1.67* to cancer research. *Depending on exchange rate, paypal fee and Ravelry fee. 

There you have it, all I want for Christmas is YOU -

Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night!  

Wait, whaaaat! You really thought I'd leave you hanging without telling you about my very special Christmas gift for you? You should know me better!

Well, I've been working hard on creating an e-book, called Faithful Knitting, for all of you and it will be send out to everyone on my email list tomorrow. If you see this after Christmas then don't worry, if you sign up you'll still receive the gift, but wouldn't it be nice to have a brand new e-book to read on Christmas day about faith and knitting?
Oh, and in case you aren't Christian and think you wouldn't care for the book, I just want to share something on of my proof readers, Cami, told me:

"As someone who was raised Christian, but no longer considers herself a Christian, I would say there is plenty in your book that can/should be considered by a non-Christian audience."

Sign up now to be among the first to receive the e-book tomorrow.

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And The Theme of 2015 is...

The Concept

The idea of choosing a theme for the year instead of setting New Year's resolutions have appealed to me ever since I first heard Jasmine of the Knitmoregirls talk about it. I've toyed with it in the past, but in the interest of full disclosure, I've never really followed through on a theme before. That is what I hope to change in 2015.

Speaking of Full Disclosure

That is exactly what my theme for 2015 will be: Full Disclosure.
As you have probably noticed I took most of December off in the interest of spending some good end of the year pondering. I've been looking back at 2014 and what a year. A number of exciting changes have happened, I've tried out a few things that didn't work and a lot more that did. I feel like I'm slowly finding my voice both with respect to this blog and my patterns, which is a wonderful feeling.

Looking back isn't all I've done though. I've also spent a good amount of time pondering 2015. Do I want to make any change? Which and why? How will I go about it? These questions and more have been floating around in my head and one morning all the answers came together in the words I've decided will be my theme of this year: Full Disclosure.

What does the theme entail? 

You may be left wondering what my theme entails, especially if you aren't acquainted with people such as Jasmine, so let me explain:

I love sharing both the ups and downs of my micro business with you, okay maybe I love sharing the ups most, but I do include the downs because they are as important, if not more important. In 2015 I'll take that a lot further, hopefully for the benefit of both you and me. There are two main aspects of this theme:

• Tracking and Sharing Work Hours 

Twice each semester the university asks us to tell them how many hours  per week we spend working on each subject we take. It's a guessing game for most of us, but I see the sense in knowing how long you actually spend doing something. If I want to see results from this micro business, then I have to put in the effort and I'm not always sure if I'm actually doing just that. Thus I'll do my best to track the hours I spend each month, divided into the following three broad categories: 

- Blog writing

- Pattern writing

- Marketing

• Sharing Income Reports

This part of the Full Disclosure theme is what scares me most. I've talked about money before, but I've never actually shown you the precise figures. It scares me because I'm afraid you'll call me out and tell me that this isn't even a micro business, it's a hobby that's costing me a lot more than it's making me. That terrifies me because it's what my inner critic constantly tells me and it's true. Since August I've made the grand total of 11 DKK and all that money is from the sale of one copy of my Everyday Rockstar pattern, so that money doesn't belong to me, but is waiting to be donated!
The lack of sales is a challenge at times, but I know I don't have a lot of patterns yet, so I'm dedicated to power through and create more, hoping the income will come later. I see no need to share a monthly income report as long as almost nothing is happening, but every quarter you'll hear the exciting news of the financial side of Noget Uldent. 

What else will change?

Besides the theme there'll be a few other changes. I'll try to bring you even more reviews and interview as well as keeping the Knit Crushes coming. I'm debating switching my platform from blogger to wordpress and if I decide to go ahead and do so it will inevitably bring along some changes to the look and feel of the blog. In addition to that I'm kicking the idea of using different medias as well. All these things are still not fully decided, so you'll just have to wait and see what happens. 

What is decided is that I'll be valuing quality over quantity. I've been blogging regularly now three times per week. That will change in the new year. I plan to blog twice a week and dedicate the time that leaves me to pattern writing and marketing. You see, I'm not very talented in the marketing area yet and that may be a huge reason why I'm seeing hardly any sales.  I want to dedicate more time to that and make my posts better, but time is limited so I'll be limiting the posts as well.  

On a Final Note

It feels like 2015 will be an awesome year with lots of changes around here, I can't wait to share them with you and I hope you stick around. Merry Christmas and a very happy New Year to you and yours. 

Passion is energy...

... feel the power that comes from focussing on what excites you.

- Oprah Winfrey

I never thought I would begin a blog post with an Oprah Winfrey quote, but it seems fitting. You see I'm going to take sort of a break from blogging in December. I have a few posts in mind that I want to share with you, like the follow up on the Honninghjerte recipe, an exciting product review and a knit crush, one or two other posts may sneak their way in there, but I won't be doing my regular Monday-Wednesday-Friday blogging.

In case you are worrying I'm going to abandon blogging, I want to easy your mind at once. The reason I'm taking most of December off from blogging is because I 1) Have a lot going on with family and school at the moment. 2) I Want to spend the last month of the year preparing for next year. I've mentioned before that there are a few changes I'd like to make to ensure that blogging and designing runs more smoothly. I'll be defining those and implementing some of those in December.

I want to spend the year focussing even more on the things that excite me: theology, designing and food. I'm hoping that 2015 will see my first collection of knitting patterns, a lot more reviews and hopefully a bunch of designing I can share with you.

Invaluable blogging tools

The recent creative blog tour made me think about the way I blog and the tools I use. Personally I love to hear about different 'systems' and as I'm looking into streamlining my system even more, I though I'd go ahead and share what I do now.  I'm by no means a pro at this, but here are my invaluable blogging tools.

Bullet journal

Every month I dedicate a page in my Bullet Journal to my blogging activities. The layout I tried this month isn't as good as the previous one, so it's obvious that I'm still tweaking this, but overall here are the things the page include:

• Editorial calendar 
• To-do list for the blog
• To-do list for designs

The editorial calendar

My (blogging)life would be insane without this one tool. It's probably the most important for me if we overlook the obvious need of a computer.

Having a list of 12-15 open slots that need to be filled with content can seem a little daunting at first, but I quickly came to love it. The editorial calendar provides such a clear and visional progress statement. I can fill in content, move it around and mark when I've finished working on a post. To me this is priceless.

To-do lists

These are pretty self-explanatory, aren't they?! I find that a lot of things on these lists don't get done that month. But it's a safe keeping system and it means that said tasks aren't swimming around in my head. 

iPhone

The whole smartphone world is still pretty new to me as I got my first this summer, but it has proved a great tool for blogging. I would say that around 95% of the pictures I shoot for this blog is taken with my iPhone 5s. It's even painless to add them to posts via my phone. What I haven't found useful is writing the actual post on the phone. I prefer to do that on a computer.

MacBook Air

Speaking of computers, my beloved old MacBook was retired this summer. As a result of it's age there was a lot of webpages that I simply couldn't access. Not good when said webpages are needed for a lot of your work. I had know this day would come and saved up for an Air for years. I decided on a 11" as I needed something small and portable and oddly enough, writing long papers on a small machine doesn't bother me.  

Canva

The final tool I use all the time is completely free! Canva lets you design graphics like the one I made for this post for free or you can choose to use elements from them, for $1 a piece. I've never bought anything from them yet, since you can do so much with the free elements and I'm on a tight budget. 

As the pendulum swings... A note on life and time management.

We didn't have a pendulum, so you're stuck with my man's pocket watch...

Have you ever felt like the whole deal with 'a balanced life' was just one big sham, invented with the sole purpose of making you and me feel inadequate? I've always been big on pursuing this mythical 'balance', which all the cool kids seemed to possess. That, however, changed for me last week. It wasn't a instant turnover, in fact this whole balance deal has been in the back of my head for a while now.

What was so special about last week, was that I spent most of it in bed with a tremendous head cold. This nasty condition made me sleep away most of the day as well as the nights and for the first time ever, I was okay it. I knew it meant this week would be much harder, I knew it meant it might not be as fun, as I would a) be recovering from the nastiness and b) have two week's worth of work to get done. But I was okay with it.

Why was I so okay with it? I asked myself that more than once. Slowly the answer began to form in my mind. I was okay with it because... wait for it... life is not about constant balance.

I will venture to say that life is about the complete opposite of constant balance and that our pursuit of it may be a large part of why so many of us feel less than great about how our days, months and years are spent.

Don't get me wrong, balance has its place in life. That place is just not on a day to day basis, but in a much larger scheme. That scheme is a year, or sometimes even years. As nature cycles through the months and seasons, so do we.

Exceptionally busy times are generally followed by much quieter times, where we can rest and rejuvenate, enabling us to face the next period of toils. After the harvest comes the sweet and quiet months of winter, a time to stay indoors and get lost in books and wool, learning things that will aid us through the next spring, summer and fall with a bit more grace.

2015 will, no doubt, be a busy year for me. I'll write my B.A. and (D.V.) begin my master's degree. If all goes well, we'll be moving next year. As I'm preparing for this busy time, I'm tweaking systems and trying out new things to make the year run smoother.

I hope you'll continue to join me as I work on embracing the different seasons life has to offer, one day at a time.

Pattern Launch: Everyday Rockstar - a cancer charity project

Has your family been affected by cancer? Mine sure has - a lot. We've lost a few to cancer and many more have survived it or are currently battling it. Once you've had it right there next to you, or in you, you come to understand what a vicious disease it is. Thankfully, research has come a long way and more and more people beat it!

I've been pondering for a while if I would be able to raise some money for the Danish Cancer Society - Kræftens Bekæmpelse, in one way or another and then I realised that I could, because I have a micro business!

Thus I've decided to send 100% of the proceeds from the sale of my new pattern Everyday Rockstar to Kræftens Bekæmpelse and I have this dream, that it will be a big fat check, because knitters are awesome and not unwilling to support good causes, and this is one of the best!

But why should I contribute to a society in Denmark when I live in... Here's my answer, stolen from their own site:

This diagram shows how they use the monetary support:

53% goes to research - that means you benefit from it wherever you live.

23% goes to patient support, that's local, but I've personally benefitted from this, so please indulge me.

17% goes to awareness

and only a meagre 7% goes to administration.

There you have it, now on to the pattern:

buy now

This hat is warm and stylish, making you feel like a rockstar every day. The ribbing gently hugs your head and allows space for an up-do. Its timeless and simple style makes the hat perfect for both men and women. The pom pom offers a great way to add a splash of colour.

SIZES
Circumfrence unstretched
S: 40 cm / 15,3/4”
M: 44cm / 17,1/4”
L: 48cm / 19”
Length with turned brim
ca. 19 (20) 21cm / 7,5 (8) 8,1/4 ”

For just 15,00 DKK / $2,5 you get a stylish hat pattern and contribute to Kræftens Bekæmpelse. The entire proceeds from this pattern will be surrendered, that's just over 10DKK/$1.67* per pattern! (*Depending on exchange rate, paypal fee and Ravelry fee).

I hope you want to knit the hat and support a great cause, there's nothing I'd like more than to send them a big check!   

buy now

Creative Blog Tour

This weekend I was tagged by Tahnée of Woollen Wilderness, to take part in a creative blog tour. I'm not a big fan of random blog tags, but when I read the questions for this one, I knew I had to participate. 

1) What am I working on? 

Right now I'm working on soooo many things, both personal and for the blog/micro business. 

On the personal side I'm spinning a yarn for my mum for Christmas and knitting my dad a pair of socks. 

For the micro business I'm just about to release a pattern for charity, which always takes up a good deal of time. Then I've just sent a pattern into test knitting, so I have to tend to that every now and then. There are blog posts to write and I'm in the process of finding people to feature for 2015. I have a pattern yet to be written up and another to put finishing touches on. I need to get to all that if I have hopes of publishing my collection in 2015 (and I do!).

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre? 

I've thought long and hard about this. I know what the answer is for the blog: I try to be transparent and share the design process and its ups and downs. As for the designs themselves? I hope I'm coming into a certain feel. I want to design a wast scope of items and that means I'm dealing with a lot of 'firsts' at the moment. My design philosophy is 'simple with a twist', hopefully that shines through in my work.  

3) Why do I write/create what I do? 

Because I can't help it! For years I said that I would never design. Why would I bother when there are so many great designs out there? Well, I just reached a point when that no longer mattered. I had to design. There was this creative force inside me screaming to be let loose and play. Often I feel the same when I write. Actually my best pieces (in my humble opinion) are the ones where I just had to share what was on my heart. 

4) How does my writing/creative process work?

This is a difficult one because I don't think I have a process. Instead I have many, depending on the project. Sometimes I cast on a swatch, play with it and there is the idea that sparks a design. At other times a design is fully formed in my head before I even find needles and yarn to swatch for it. Sometimes it takes me no time at all to write and knit the sample. At other times a design spends months in the naughty corner, just to be finished in a matter of days once it has returned to grace.  

What I can say is that my process is very dependent on how busy my other occupations keep me. Being a full time student with a couple of part time jobs doesn't leave a lot of room for creative endeavours, so vacations seem to be my prime creation time. 
I keep a log of my blogposts and things to be done for the business every month in my bullet journal, which helps tremendously. There are other parts of the process I would still like to streamline though. That's a project for 2015. I'm still learning every day I work on something and I've made a list of a few things I'd like to implement in 2015 for the business. Maybe I should share those with you soon?

That's what I have to say for now. I think I'll continue to mull over these questions as they are great questions to ask yourself to further your business or hobby. I'm nominating my dear friend Zoë to take up the torch. 

Debating centimetres

Centimetres, they give me a good deal of trouble in pattern writing! If I was queen of the world everyone would work in cm. They make much more sense to me and are easier to work with in knitting as they give a smaller unit of measurement without having to be broken up. Sadly I'm not the queen of the world and a good deal of the world, at least in the knitting market, is used to operating in inches.

Inches, they give me a good deal of trouble in pattern writing! I want a piece to be x cm long and it always converts to x,something-odd inches. Could we please just all become part of the Knitmoregirls' metric revolution??!! Pretty please...

Now I'm debating going strictly centimetres or strictly inches in my patterns, because including both, which I have thus far to make it easy for you no matter what you are used to, is simple proving to be a looooot of work.

One of the patterns I'm currently writing up has 10 sizes (see I'm all about making it easy for you), which translates to 20, TWENTY, different measurements every. single. time. That isn't easy for me and certainly not for you either!

What do you think? Should I stick to my roots and go cm only? Maybe go international with only inches?  Or should I just stop wining and keep giving both?

Purple Knight Baby sweater - Pattern now available!

It is with great pleasure that I'm releasing the pattern for the Purple Knight baby sweater today. This pattern was one of those that just had to be knit. The pattern, if you recall is inspired by my parents' bedspread and I have to say the mix of colours will make this pattern work for any little knight or princess in your life.

Baby Erik was by far the cutest model I've used so far and I might cast on more designs for children, just to have him model them. I know his parents wouldn't mind getting more knits either.

Purple Knight is a bottom up raglan sweater with all the colour work inclosed, so no tiny fingers will get stuck. The pattern is wonderful for using up leftovers and different colours will create very different expressions, just take a look at Mimi's stunning sweater:

When knitting for babies, I recommend taking both the season and their size into consideration. It is always better to knit something larger than expected, so the child can grow into it. Baby Erik is 6,5 mo in the photos and modelling a size 12 mo, which should fit him perfectly this winter. 

All the stats are on the Ravelry page and the pattern can be yours for 30 DKK. 

The True Cost

Money. We all need it, but it's a subject most avoid talking about like the plague. This post is partly spurred by Woolly Wormhead's brilliant post on The true costs of a pattern and her follow up post. Please go read them both. I think they should be mandatory reading for any knitter/crocheter/craftsperson.

Making it in the pattern design world is tough folks. Making a living, whew... that is almost impossible. Before I got into the world of designing, I had no idea and while I now have some inkling of what there is to it, I'm still a far cry from the insight Woolly Wormhead can provide you with.

What I can chime in with are my own two cents. Oh wait, that's right, I don't have two cents to rub together. I do of course have some money, what I'm talking about is money made on patterns.

Recently, I gathered up my courage and made a big scary spreadsheet of income and expenses. My expenses so far have been limited. No yarn, no needles, no fees for anything really. What I have spent money on is a few Craftsy classes, hoping to improve my skills and thus the final patterns I can present to you guys.

The following should be prefaced by telling you, that I have made twice what I hoped to this year. You should also know i had very low expectations. Nonetheless: I'm severely in the red and thankful this is not what has to pay my bills.

Hopefully, the income will grow as I publish more patterns. I mean, how much can you expect to earn off of two patterns, right?! What is important here is not wether or not I make it in this business. This post has a greater good in view.

As mentioned, it takes a lot to make a living and you should know, that more or less no matter how much a designer is charging for a pattern, you are getting it way cheaper than it should be. I love free just as much as the next guy, but I'm also beginning to understand, how spending just a few dollars for something you'll really value, will make a big difference in a designer's life.  

Please take every opportunity you have to buy from independent designers, yarnies and crafters alike. Like Nadia of Abso-knitting-lutely, Marie of Frogged Designs or me:

SIMPLE WITH A TWIST 

DKK 15,00

Reclaiming Time

We all have 24 hours in a day, so how come some people appear to have 36 and others just 12? I've decided I need to reclaim a bunch of my time, if I want to juggle being a full time student, working a job, having a micro business, blogging, being a loving partner and oh, do I need to mention sleeping well? Cue my question to all of you for tips on how to do it all.

Now that I have an idea of what my weekly schedule is looking like for school, I need to carve out time to do the other things I'm passionate about. This means I'll have to fight the urge to cuddle up to my man every night in front of the TV. Instead I need to spend most of that time getting things done.

Would you judge me, if I told you I have some wonderful feedback on one of the patterns, I have in testing, that I still have to get around to implementing? I just haven't had the brain space to sit down and work on something important like that. If, however, I want to work on my micro business during my semesters, I need to find that brain space.

Believe me, I have considered using the semesters to work on knitting up new patterns only and leaving the majority of the pattern writing, testing and adjusting to vacations. I'm still undecided on this point.

Having a fairly anal personality, I do well with schedules, planning and checklists. I might even venture so far as to say I thrive with them. So I'm sitting down to re-evaluate every hour of my week. The aim is to find 30 min here and an hour there to work on the things, that so far has been put on the back burner.

Do you need to reclaim your time? Join me and we'll do it together. I'll keep you updated on my progress.

End of Summer - Micro Business Update.

Today marks my first day of school for the new semester, a fitting day to do an end of summer update on, don't you think?

The past 3 months have brought with them a lot of changes to the blog and my tiny business. I've spent hours and hours researching how to do this and that, then fiddling with it and feeling like a champ when it actually worked out. I even have a slight idea of what some of the most comment elements of html mean now. The tinkering with the blog will probably never end, but I've come to a place where it is time to channel some of that energy into other aspects of my business.

The most time consuming of those aspects would be the collection I've started working on. It will be a long process, especially as my time will be seriously limited by my studies. Don't get me wrong, I love my studies, I found my place of home in the academic world back in 2010 and I have felt that way ever since. Studying, along with my new job, will mean all I'll have will be evenings and frankly I'm usually very tired by then, which isn't a good time to design. I'm not complaining though, I have all the time in the world to work on this.

progress on the sock design

I still have 2 patterns in testing and there have been a slight delay, so they aren't quite ready to be published yet. I can't wait until they are though. I'm praying that with the release of a few more patterns, I'll actually make some sales again. Saying that business has been slow would be lie. There hasn't been any business at all... But hey, I'll keep trotting along anyway since I'm having a grand old time doing it all.

Coming soon...

As I'm facing a season of less knitting time, I'm wondering if I should make this into more of a lifestyle blog. Featuring more of our cooking and other adventures. What do you think?

Micro Business - Learning from the Pros vol.3

Summer has been hectic and we have a lot going on personally as well (all good), but I've been trying to carve out some times to learn more about blogging and micro businesses and here are a few of the things I really found valuable.

First of all, 5 blogging mistakes you don't know you're making by Melissa of Freeing Imperfections (I just love that blog name!) is a great read. While there I would also recommend checking out 5 secrets of successful bloggers and How I keep up with it all: Blogging, Online life and more.

Staying in line with how to keep up with it all, Laura of The Turquoise Home has a great post on How to be an efficient blogger.

I've also been looking into advice on making a craft business work and have to say that 10 Things You Must Do to Have a Successful Online Craft Business by Create and Thrive put it very clear and made it seem manageable. #10 was right up my ally, since it was Learn, Learn, Learn..

What have you learned in the past month?

Want to learn more?

vol.1

vol.2

Follow Pia @ Noget Uldent's board small biz tips on Pinterest.

Some news, a thank you and the giveaway winner.

The news

Let's begin with the news bit. You know, in case you don't make it all the way through the post. (Oh, I know you always read it all...)
The first bit of news is (insert your own drumroll please): I have finally created a Ravelry group. In the future, it will be the place where all testing is carried out as well as a place of general fun and fibre goodness I hope. Please come join us, even if you don't want to test knit, but just want the group members only coupons and all that jazz.

The second item of news is that I now have all the test knitters I need for the baby sweater. If you missed out, then you can put you name on a list for future test knits right here. This also leads me to the second item on the agenda for today's post.

Thank you 

Dear Friends, I knew I could count on you! Thank you so much for answering my desperate call for help. I have almost burst from excitement every time one of you emailed me, offering to help me out. Thank you to each and every one of you.
Now onto the giveaway.

Giveaway winner

Random.org has spoken (I promised I only asked once) and the winner of this cute box bag from Rock Solid Designs is:

Congratulations Tahnee!

Please email me you address. 

If you don't already know Tahnee, then check out her blog Woollen Wilderness.

Knitters needed!

The baby sweater design I've been working on and off on for a while is nearly finished.
We did a photo shoot over the weekend, with a really cute baby and by golly, I hope the pictures turn out well.  The pattern is written up and has been through my tech editor and the only thing left is test knitting.
I have discovered that most designers have a tried and tested pool of test knitters, I have more like a night potty full.*

Honestly, I'm in dire need of people willing to spend their time and their own yarn helping me out in exchange for nothing but the working copy, the finished pattern and my gratitude. Are you such a knitter? Then please shoot me an e-mail and I'll give you more information.

*This term does not describe the quality of my test knitters, only the volume of people. Wouldn't want any confusion there...

Micro business update.

Can you believe it has been another month since my last update already? I find it difficult to wrap my head around how fast the days pass at the moment, but at least they are flying by because I'm having a lot of fun. Maybe even a bit too much fun (is there really such a thing?). Not much has happened business wise in the past month or so it seems, mainly because my baby sweater pattern still needs me to do a few changes before it can be send out to test knitters (btw. do you fancy test knitting a baby sweater?) and we still haven't found a baby to do a shoot with.

However according to my list a fair amount has been done. 11 out of 17 goals has been achieved. The remaining 6 has been deleted for various reasons. I'd say that is a fair amount, wouldn't you?

The only active knit on my needles at the moment is business related and going... Well, I'll tell you about that soon, if you are on instagram the picture below will give you a clue. When a relative had spotted it in another room and came to tell how great it looked, oh my, it made my day. She had no clue it was my own design. As for the pattern, everything is calculated, but nothing is actually written in plain English yet. I will have to prioritize that soon.

In other business related news, I have interviews, giveaways and more lined up for the next three months. If you would like to be futured here, then let me know and I'm sure we can work something out. I can't wait to share these great little micro businesses with you in the months to come.

Oh and my man surprised me with an iPhone 5s shortly before my MacBook finally died. I still have to rescue a few things from it, but I'm writing this on my wonderful new MacBook Air 11", which I have to say is my kind of computer, I'm positively in love. So the technology has all been updated and a smart phone is really nifty when you are trying to use twitter and instagram more.

How has summer been for you and your micro business? We are home again now and while we still have a few more summer adventures we want to go on before our vacation ends, I'll most likely be working a bit more. One thing is certain, I'll miss the company of my tiger as I knit away...