• Time
• No in-person sales opportunities
• Lockdowns decreased consignment sales
• Many trips to post office standing in long lines
• Shipping Armageddon lost/delayed packages
• STICHES was virtual
• Buying yarn online

The realist in me also wants to point out the negatives of crafting during a pandemic because it wasn't all unforeseen positives. There were definitely some serious downsides that also need to be remembered. The first was time. I know this was also listed as a positive but it also was a negative. For the first time, I had the time to do all the in-person events that I wanted since I was furloughed from my full-time gig. The only problem...all in-person events were cancelled. I found it hard to continue to create when my inventory kept growing without any way of knowing if in-person sales opportunities would ever come back. I just continued to knit with hope of better days.  ​

​With in-person events cancelled my sales nosedived. Most of my sales prior to the pandemic come from in-person sales. With this no longer feasible, I really saw the affects of the pandemic. The only sales that I had coming in were through my Esty shop and my consignment through Modern Mouse. Unfortunately, traditional retail stores also took a hit during the pandemic. Modern Mouse did an amazing job adapting to the restrictions and closures but since California was hit so hard with Covid, they were closed or very limited for a big part of the year. This decreased my sales coming in through that avenue as well. 

​Fortunately, my Etsy sales increased during this time! Nowhere near to my normal in-person sales amounts but it was still exciting to see people finding my shop online. Unfortunately, this made me realize that my nonexistent shipping process needed help ASAP. Since my Etsy sales prior to Covid were few and sporadic, I never actually had a defined shipping process. I would pick up shipping supplies as needed, handwrite labels, make the trek to the post office, and stand in line to ship the packages off in person. This quickly turned bad. Since everyone was shipping, it was hard to find shipping supplies on an as needed basis and the many handwritten labels became cumbersome. Trips to the post office became a daily ritual, which in non-Covid times would be fine but again since everyone was shipping turned into me waiting in long lines. A trip that had taken me 5 minutes previously could easily turn into an hour+. This was also the first time, I had to deal with lost packages and delayed packages. This meant replacing lost items and constantly refreshing tracking details hoping for delivery status changes. At least I got to learn how to fill out a claim with the USPS....eyeroll! Because of this, one of my goals in 2021 is to create and fix this shipping fiasco!

​When I wasn't standing in line at the post office, I was trying and failing at buying yarn online. I was excited when I finally made it through my yarn stash because that meant buying more yarn. I love buying yarn. It quite literally is one of the best things in the world!!! This excitement quickly dwindled when I realized that in-person yarn shopping was off limits. I mean I can rationalize taking the risk to go into a grocery store during a pandemic because you have to eat to survive, but a craft store??? If the pandemic wasn't going on and I had depleted my yarn stash, the first place I would go would be STITCHES. It's yarn paradise!!! But the pandemic made it go virtual so no huge convention center filled with amazing yarn vendors. I did end up buying yarn online, and it turned out to be great yarn, but the magic was lost. A lot of yarn I buy because it speaks to my soul in the moment. Having yarn speak to my soul through a computer screen is much harder. 

​So as the vaccines roll out and the end of the pandemic is possibly on the horizon, I continue to knit with hope for better days.

​As always, use the code BLOGPOST on my Etsy shop to save 10% on your next purchase, and thank you for shopping small! 

Having a business in 2020 has not been easy for many. The pandemic has forced many small businesses to close, which has been heartbreaking to see as a fellow small business owner. I am fortunate enough not to rely on the income I receive from my business, so I was not forced to make this decision. Regardless the pandemic has greatly affected my business. In some ways the pandemic has had a negative affect, but surprisingly some positives have also come from this year.

• Time
• Worked my way through my yarn stash
• Increased traffic to my Etsy shop
• Built up inventory
• Reorganized craft room
• Learned how to punch needle
• Made Pride Wall Hangings
• Renewed my passion for the handmade, crafting, and my business

As an optimist, I always like to start with the positives! Like many Americans, the pandemic led to me being furloughed from my full-time gig for some months. With this and the cancellation of all in-person events, I was unexpectedly left with a lot of free time to spend working on my small business. During this time, I was able to deplete my yarn stash!!! Something I never thought possible. It also allowed me to finally have enough time to build up my inventory (which will be very nice when in-person events resume). Before 2020, I never really had the time to build up a surplus inventory, rather I very often found myself knitting furiously to have enough items on hand for the next craft fair. This was good for my margins but really stressed me out between fairs. Now I have a much needed cushion for the upcoming craft fair season which will hopefully happen in the coming year!

​With this time, I also reorganized my craft room. My yarn stash was depleted...I was not able to shop in-store or attend STITCHES to replenish it... the only task left was to tackle the chaos that had become my craft room. I got some new fixtures to better hold my new yet-to-be-purchased yarn stash, a desk that I hoped would turn into a shipping station in the future, and a bookshelf to accommodate my increasing surplus inventory. Everything now has a place and I am ready to tackle the new year!

​I also learned a new skill! Punch Needling!!! I was surprised how easy and relaxing this was. I have some of the punch needle creations that I made up on my Etsy shop. I am excited to see how these do during in-person events. During the learning process, I ordered canvas squares that I thought would work for punch needling. They DID NOT! Instead of trying to return them, I have used them and my yarn remnants to create Pride Flag wall hangings! They turned out really cute and are an excellent way to use up the yarn remnants that are not long enough for hats. 

​Lastly, the best thing about this year was the increased traffic to my Etsy shop. Normally, I get a handful of orders through my Etsy shop as most of my sales are completed in-person. This year that number exploded. Especially during the holiday season. It was wonderful every time I got the notification of another order. I really appreciated all the people that purchased a hat! Each and everyone made my day! 

​All in all, the increased time, cancellation of in-person events, and being trapped in the house gave me a renewed passion for the handmade, crafting, and my business. I would not have survived quarantine without it. It also made me realize how much joy and satisfaction I get from in-person events and can't wait for their return! Now on to the negatives!

As always, use the code BLOGPOST on my Etsy shop to save 10% on your next purchase, and thank you for shopping small! ​

​I also pitched my hats to three local stores and were picked up by two of them. Unfortunately, one of the stores went out of business shortly after accepting me as a vendor, and the other was a bad fit so I ended up pulling my hats out of the shop earlier this month. The success of getting accepted (even though it didn't end up a business success), spurred me to pitch my hats to a quaint little shop in Fort Bragg. I first came across Dot & Twine while on a birthday vacation a few years back and fell absolutely in love with it! It has a great atmosphere and has one of the best selection of local and indie businesses. It is located in downtown Fort Bragg that is a beautiful idyllic seaside small town. If you get a chance to go visit, I highly recommend it! And while you are visiting, be sure to stop inside Dot & Twine and pick up one of my hats! (Yes! They accepted me and I began selling my hats there in December!) Another up!

The last upheaval was that the Sell on Etsy app stopped taking in person payments, so I was forced to find an alternative. I chose Square because that was what Etsy recommended and I already had a free reader that I got the previous year from being a vendor at the SFEtsy Holiday Emporium. I had just been dragging my feet and didn't want to learn a new system. But as it turns out, I LOVE IT! it is so simple and easy and totally works seamlessly for my kind of business. I wish I had switched sooner!

Another up was that I got to get involved with my local community by donating two decorated trees to local fundraisers. The first was the Festival of Trees in Idaho Falls. Proceeds from this event support people with disabilities in East Idaho through the Development Workshop, Inc. For this event I donated a miniature tree with the theme "A Handmade Christmas." The second event I donated a tree to was the Bingham County Christmas Tree Fantasy. Proceeds from this event go to a variety of local charities that help those in need.For this event, I donated a 4 ft tree tree with the theme "Carolling, Carolling through ​the Snow." Of course everything that went on both these trees was handmade by me!

​So for the count: this year I sold 197 hats and 35 hand warmers! Not a record but with all the ups and downs that this year has thrown at me, I think it was overall a pretty successful year! As always use BLOGPOST to receive a discount at my Etsy shop!!!!

As a small, local business owner, I appreciate the importance of community, and I value events, businesses, and organizations that make communities stronger and allow everyone to participate more fully in them. That's why I give back whenever I'm able. This year, I donated eight hand-knit brain hats to a very special, local nonprofit that helps small literary presses participate in the marketplace and get their very important and often life or mind-changing books into the hands of readers.

That nonprofit's name is Small Press Distribution, located in Berkeley. They're having their annual fundraiser, a pub quiz called Battle of the Brains, on May 8th. And you can help them raise some funds by donating to participating teams, many of which are comprised of booksellers, small press super stars, volunteers, and generous supporters. Simply visit their event page, click on one of the teams, and donate! You can also make a general donation. And be sure to check out their website if you love poetry or literary fiction and nonfiction.

Please remember to give what you can, where you can. We can make things better, especially if we use our brrrrraaaaaaiiiinnnnnnssssss.

This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love, when several thousands flooded the San Francisco Bay Area--and especially Haight-Ashbury--to celebrate love, art, music, peace, and living life outside the norm. In honor of that revolutionary summer, I've created a rainbow flower scarf. Each one is knit by hand and infused with the hope that we can make this world a better place--more loving, more compassionate, more tolerant, and more peaceful. Wear this scarf to celebrate the Summer of Love, Pride, spring, or life. It's light enough to wear even when the weather is hot, and its bright colors will put a spring in your step and a smile in your heart. Get yours here, and don't forget to use the code BLOGPOST for 10% off!

There comes a time every year (and often, multiple times each year) when crafters have to restock. I call this time Heaven, especially when STITCHES, a knitting and crocheting trade show of epic proportions, comes to town. Though STITCHES lasts three days, I only went Sunday (to get the best deals so I can bring you more affordable hats), and I may recover in time for next year's event...may.

Over the course of five hours, I visited every booth (and some multiple times) comparing prices, quality, colors, and styles. Wool yarns definitely rule the show, but I don't purchase wool because several customers have expressed a dislike of it because of skin irritation. However, I was still able to find an excellent selection of soft, unique, and eye-popping synthetic yarns that sent my creative gears humming. Sparkly eyelash yarn, multi-textured yarns in all colors, and wispy yarn soft as kitten fur...I got several gems that will make wonderfully unique square hats (or cat hats) and unicorn hats.

I also found a whole lot of new buttons for those hats: wooden buttons, stone buttons, plastic buttons, antique and vintage buttons, metal buttons, glass buttons. I found buttons with floral patterns, buttons with line patterns, buttons with multi-colored flecks inside, buttons made from coconut shells, large buttons and medium buttons, buttons in every color. Buttons just waiting to be paired with the perfect hat.

Though I wasn't able to restock completely, I was able to get enough supplies for some fantastic fancy square hats. I can't wait to see them and share them with you! Don't forget, you can request a custom-made hat anytime; pick your yarn type and color, buttons (or no), and quantity. Use BLOGPOST at checkout to get 10% off your purchase.

I've been making my square or cat hats for about five years now, and people are often pleasantly surprised by their unique shape. But during the last holiday craft fair and festival circuit, I had several women ask me if I'd heard about the Pussyhat Project for the Women's March in Washington, D.C. I hadn't heard of it yet, and in the rush of the fair/festival circuit, I didn't have time to find out more beyond word-of-mouth. Women told me the project was in response to Trump's awful comments about grabbing women. Any hat with even a little pink in it was gone by the circuit's end, and though I received requests for more, I was too busy at the time to be able to knit any.

After a break, in which I usually start to build up my inventory for the next holiday circuit, I looked more into the Pussyhat Project and the Women's March. I decided it was something I wanted to be a part of, but with only a week and a half before the march, I knew I wouldn't be able to put out a call for orders on my website because I simply wouldn't have time to make enough hats or ship them. So I decided to go small and take hat orders for marchers in my area. I put out a call on Facebook to a couple of my town's groups, expecting to get about 10 hat orders. I then logged off and worked on some other things. When I logged back on, I had 10 orders...and a whole lot more. They started snowballing quickly...20, 30, 40, 50, 60...soon I was facing an avalanche. So many women needed a hat for the march, and I was determined to get to as many as I could.

So I enlisted the help of my sister. I asked her to keep me organized, track requests, and set up hat deliveries while I, well, knitted. Knitted like never before. KNITTED FOR REVOLUTION! There were days I knitted for 14 hours straight, and the last two days I functioned on 3 hours of sleep each night. And worked at my day job. Modern Mouse, a charming and wonderful boutique shop full of local artisans and craftspeople, offered to help me by serving as a pick up location for the hats; their generosity allowed me to get so many more hats done. By the time the march started, I had knit a total of 84 pussy hats. In one week.

This was one of the most exhausting and touching experiences of my crafting career. I met so many wonderful women, and their gratitude, enthusiasm, and enjoyment of my hats filled my heart to overflowing. My heart glowed every time someone posted pictures of herself and/or loved ones online in the hats I made. I received so many beautiful, kind, and touching messages on Facebook, messages that renewed  my hope for the future. Because I was knitting non-stop, I didn't have time to make a sign for the march. But one sweet lady was thoughtful enough to bring me one when she picked up her hat. Each new happy face chased away the dark clouds of inauguration day and reminded me that we are legion.

And we showed the world that on January 21 when we marched all across the nation and world in the largest protest in U.S. history. We did that. All of us. And it started so small. The founders of the Pussyhat Project, all two of them, are Krista Suh and Jayna Zweiman, and their project literally knit together a community of women; learn more here. And the Women's March, which saw a turnout of nearly 3 million people, was sparked by one woman, Teresa Shook, and a Facebook post (read more here). One person can make a difference. You can. I can. We can. We all have our part to play, no matter how small it may seem at the time. Thank you to all the women who ordered a hat and left kind messages on Facebook for me. Thank you to all the women who fought and continue to fight. Thank you to all the people who marched in solidarity. Let's keep this movement going! Stay square and stay catty, my friends.

After a mountain of yarn, a sea of buttons, and eight months of prep, I am finally ready for the annual, very busy, very booked festival season. This is my favorite part of the year! I love the energy of each festival and event, but what I love more is each happy face walking away under one of my hats. And I can't wait to show you my new bear, unicorn, and shark hats!!! Below is a list of all the places I'll be, and I got hats you've never seen before...

• Urban Soul presented by Rock Wall Wine Company, Saturday, SEPT. 17TH, 6-10 pm. 2301 Monarch Street, Alameda, CA.
• Food Truck Frenzy--Harvest Rocks presented by Rock Wall Wine Company, Sunday, OCT. 2ND, 12-4 pm. 2301 Monarch Street, Alameda, CA.
• Holiday Boutique Craft Fair, Saturday and Sunday, OCT. 29TH AND 30TH, 9-4 pm, Sonoma Valley Women's Club, 574 First Street East, Sonoma, CA.
• Patchwork Show, Saturday, NOV. 5TH, 11-5 pm, Jack London Square, Oakland, CA.
• Jingle Fest 2016: Saturday and Sunday, NOV. 19TH AND 20TH, 10-4pm, Santa Clara Convention Center, Santa Clara, CA.
• Lynbrook Craft Faire: Saturday, NOV. 19TH. 9-4 pm, Lynbrook High School, 1280 Johnson Ave, San Jose, CA.
• Christmas at Kohl Holiday Boutique: Wednesday, NOV. 30 2016, 5-9 pm. Kohl Mansion 2750 Adeline Dr. Burlingame, CA.
• 2016 Elf Market and Tree Lighting: Friday and Saturday, DEC. 2ND AND 3RD, 6-9 pm (Friday),10-4 pm (Saturday). 540 Crespi Drive, Pacifica, CA.
• 8th Annual Arts and Crafts Fair at Albany Middle School: Sunday, DEC. 4TH, 11-3 pm. Albany Middle School, 1259 Brighton Ave, Albany, CA.
• The 33rd Annual ​Telegraph Avenue Holiday Street Fair, Saturday and Sunday, DEC. 10TH AND 11TH, 11-6pm, between Dwight Way and Bancroft Way near the U.C Campus in Berkeley, CA.

Ok, so maybe I need more yarn...and buttons...and time...