I'm tired boss...|| Channel Chat 162 Knitting Updates, New Craft Books & a Changing Digital Landscape
Good day, Crafties! Time has definitely been flying by faster than I can keep track of, but hey... Better late than never, right?
August was an absolute whirlwind around here. I managed to finish up my second Helter Skelter cap, put together a fresh pattern update, contemplated yarn, and scored some amazing deals on craft books. I also found myself questioning which direction YouTube is heading and doing a bit of deep reflection on true friendship. Materials disappear, algorithms can completely bury your hard work, and personal growth naturally shifts what kind of content you actually want to make.
Disclaimer: This article contains affiliate links which means that I may earn a small commission on qualifying purchases at no additional cost to you!
Why the Helter Skelter Cap Still Works for New Knitters
If you haven't tried the Helter Skelter cap yet, it's a simple, beginner friendly knitting pattern I released at the end of 2020. The best part? It uses only knit and purl stitches with zero increases or decreases. The finished cap if perfect for older teens, adults, and newer knitters who just want a straightforward, wearable result.
If it feels a bit too long, you can easily fold it into a half brim, and knitters with larger heads can adjust the fit by adding 12 stitches. When you're picking out a pattern, always look for clear skill requirements and room to change the size or styling. I ended up finishing a second cap for my stepdad using the leftover hand-dyed yarn from the first one. Because the two hats use different gradient directions, this matching pair is super easy to tell apart!
What the Updated One-Page Pattern Adds
I've moved the written pattern over to my newer template while keeping the one-page format and it’ll also include a video tutorial & linked finishing help. These changes won't affect the original $4.99 price, I just wanted to show this pattern a little love.
Having both written steps and video guidance does a great job in helping makers stitch, which is why I do it! I test my paid patterns multiple times before release to check the fit, construction, sizing, and overall making experience.
Reliable Yarn Supplies Help Keep Pattern Writing Stress Free
Lately, I’ve run into some trouble with vanishing colorways, story of my life! Two of my sport-weight designs used a hand-dyed yarn that became terribly hard to find as the shades only appeared at certain times and then seemed to vanish altogether. That became a massive headache for both designers and customers!
When a maker buys a pattern only to spend weeks hunting for the recommended yarn, or a designer loses momentum because a planned project depends on a base that no longer exists, it slows everything down. To add to the annoyance, this line of yarn had been my only remaining reason to provide affiliate links to that company. Without it, there's nothing else that I care to promote. I suppose that's not a huge deal, as I mainly promote products I actually use and trust.
My game plan moving forward is to rework those designs using yarn from independent dyers, friends really, that offer much steadier supplies. Sticking to consistent yarn bases and color families just makes patterns so much easier to repeat and recommend, plus this'll give me the chance to shower more love on friends in the space. Another of my older projects completely lost its spark after the original yarn became unreliable, but restarting it with a better material is giving the idea a great second start!
Finding Craft Inspiration at Used Book Sales
I love a good bargain and considering I'm not made of money, I'm always looking for sales and
events to bolster my hobbies. This summer, I got to go to a large county book fair that filled an arena with old library stock is. Admission was free, paperbacks were about $1, and hardbacks were $3 or less. I drove about 20 miles and walked away with 10 books for just $25! Not all of them were craft related, I was pretty stoked to add stories that I'd been pining after for a while in the process.
The crowd was way larger than expected—the checkout line wrapped around the arena and kept going into a back hallway, but volunteers counting books beforehand kept things moving. It was amazing to see how many people still love physical books with families and younger readers filling the space. If you ever hit up a busy sale like that, definitely bring a reusable bag, set a spending limit, wear comfortable shoes and long waits. 😂
The Craft Books That Open New Ideas
My haul included a wealth of crochet & knitting references packed with clear graphics and sections on necklines, collars, stitch details, garment construction, and sock anatomy. I also grabbed a crochet stitch book with 500 patterns that adds techniques I was missing from my older spiral-bound reference.
Another fun find focused on Hollywood knit style and featured a hooded flag pullover for children which I'm seriously hoping to work out the math for an adult version! A Dungeons & Dragons crochet book caught my eye some months back, mostly because of its adorable owlbear amigurumi pattern. So I finally snagged that one from Amazon while I was at it. 🤭
These books are a great reminder of how fiber arts can connect with gaming, fantasy, costumes, and other hobbies. It's something that happens more and more every day and I think is an overall boon to the fiber arts! Plus, having print references around makes it so easy to check a stitch or construction detail without have to burn out your eye balls on a screen all the time.
My other honorable mentions here are:
So We've All Heard About YouTube
We need to talk about YouTube for a second. Before I get into this though, I don't hate them but I have been cynical and agnostic to them for a very long time regarding their motivations behind changes. This is why back in 2020, I sought to have a little CYA on a platform I never expected to grow the way it did, Rumble. My community over there is comparable to the one on YT and my viewership is better. There are pitfalls to every platform which makes navigating this digital landscape more of a dumpster fire everyday. But I digress.
We've all known about the long-standing YouTube Partner Program benchmark of 1,000 subscribers and 4,000 watch hours, but there's been talk of increases to 8,000 watch hours, plus a Shorts threshold jumping from 10 million to 20 million views within 90 days.
While you should always check these figures against YouTube's current rules before planning a business around them, the pressure on solo creators is real. When you have a full-time job, your hours for recording, editing, uploading, and community work are pretty limited. Meanwhile, updates like this seemingly cater more to content farms and channels backed by contractors, teams, or genAI tools that can churn out hundreds of clips while a solo creator produces just a few videos a month. Since many viewers just care if content entertains them rather than how it was made, high-volume channels get a massive advantage.
I only see this as pouring gasoline on a fire. Creators are frustrated as it is and many large ones have jumped ship, diversifying and simply using YT as a discovery engine. I don't blame them.
Personally, I've seen both viewership and revenue drop an eye watering 80% since 2018. What once seemed like solid ground to springboard my business was just snuffed out over night with some of last year's changes. To add insult to injury, the revenue split is changing from 70-30 to 55-45. While I do tend to hyper-focus on data, thankfully AdSense isn't the reason I started my channel and community to begin with.
Why Long-Form Content Still Fits Me
Short videos are great for reach, but they don't lead to viewership on full videos, to websites, or pattern shops. Short-form publishing is a time consuming soul suck, which we've all been heared into participate in just to stay relevant. Despite that, with the influx of uploads, this means that there's now an oversaturated market for these things which hardly anyone wants to watch (some of my recent clips stopped right around 89 views!). Of course, there are many factors at play for my own content, (pivoting, refusing to post rot, etc.) But for a creator with over 22k subscribers, getting 20 - 100 views is salt in an open wound. And again, these things are so time consuming, it's hardly worth making them for the 20 cent per thousand pittance they give. Short-form income can be tiny compared to view counts, fluctuating wildly by niche and platform.
Data aside, long-form videos just fit my personal style much better because I love detailed craft talk, personal updates, and other concepts that require a bit more attention and thought. I like to get out those ideas! And as you lot are well aware, I love to digress often so making super short videos aren't my forte. Not only that, I just don't have the personality that lends to trendy content. There's lots of footage on the cutting room floor that's made me feel the need to shower just because I think most trends are CRINGE.
Why Creators Need More Than One Platform
This is why I post across YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Rumble, and everywhere else I can. Having a website, an email list, & a broadcast channel gives my followers a reliable way to find my new work whenever an algorithm decides to stop showing my posts.
If you want to support your favorite creators, you can help immensely by subscribing, turning on notifications, following on multiple platforms, sharing useful posts, and visiting their websites. Buying patterns and products directly from designers makes a massive difference when platforms only send a tiny fraction of followers toward new content. 💖
Somehow between now and next year, I'll be upgrading my email plan so that I can reach ALL the Crafties on my email list. As I mentioned earlier, revenue is crashing and burning at the moment but I continue to have hope that I can turn things around. Lately, I've been bringing up Hey Craftepreneur! more often in hopes of being able to push along just a while longer.
This Knitting and Crochet Designer Update Ends With a Lesson About Friendship
To wrap things up, I want to share a final reflection about friendship. Over the years, I've called myself a friend to many but when it came down to it, I had none. I am a person who pours into others immensely as I believe kindness is everything. The bible gives us so many instructions on loving others as Christ loved us but the world we live in has always spit on that. Yet, those of Christ that have the Holy Spirit are supposed to have long-suffering.
And long have I suffered, to be sure 😅.
But to stay unshaken is a matter of the heart and Lord knows, I've had a many prayer about not becoming bitter and the treachery that people seem to engage in without a second thought.
Healthy friendships require effort, respect, communication, and genuine care from both sides. A good rule of thumb is to ask yourself whether both people actually show up during hard seasons, not just the easy ones. Do they sympathize and build you up or do they seem to revel in your misfortunes? Real support goes way beyond simple comfort and as Christians, it's paramount that we commune with other people who love God. There's nothing like needing advice and shutting down because your entire friend group is living for the world.
I've been blessed by a friend recently who listened, understood my concerns, encouraged my spiritual growth, and helped me stop overthinking. Never in my life have I felt okay letting a friend see me cry and this lady has more times than I can count. Whoops! But this past instance was so powerful to me after the fact because I saw how she didn't just let me stay there. True support doesn't mean someone agrees with every fear you have—sometimes it includes those honest words that point you toward your next step.
Proverbs 17:17 says, "A friend loveth at all times and a brother is born for adversity."
That verse hits the nail on the head because dependable friendship shines brightest when life gets difficult. Someone might be a wonderful person overall, but still lack the faith, experience, or capacity to meet a specific need you have, and recognizing that difference helps protect the relationship without ignoring your own well-being. Iron sharpens iron, after all.
I hope you enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I have to say that I'm having more and more fun with these as time goes on and I'm so happy that I came back.
Until next time,
Happy Making!! 💖
Comments