It's been an amazing 3 years on YouTube with many ups and downs. I am always astonished by each new milestone reached and the willingness of those who continue to support me. After all, its just a one man show over here at Infiniti Crafting Company!
Over these last few years, there have been a lot of ups and downs, and time where I've considered throwing in the towel. Times like this make the journey feel very worth it. Infiniti Crafting Co. started out as mostly a pass time because of a learning vacuum I had at school. I felt that I could use my "spare" time to add to the crochet community on YouTube. At that time, I'd been stitching for about 5 years and I thought that I'd do well because there also weren't many people who looked like me doing knitting/crochet tutorials. I'd found my niche. Not that I thought my skin color mattered too much, but again, I just thought it was an opening.
I started my channel on October 1, 2018 and over the following months, I began improving my content, sharing it on social media, and publishing my patterns. I also saw YouTube as an opportunity to practice my teaching techniques because after all, I'm in school for Art Education. In late 2019, I started to feel as though I was pretty good at explaining things. I suppose it also helped that I'd been an adult ed. math tutor for three years at this point. I was pretty content with putting content out there but, as with most things, I desired to grow more.
After a year of YouTubeing, I thought to myself, " It'd be really nice to get paid for this." So began my campaign for advertising my channel. I began investing more in my equipment and generally continuing to improve my content. In 2020, it was due to generous shoutouts that my awareness started to improve and that made me very happy. About the middle of the year, I reached the 1000 subscriber milestone and that made me appear on video during my hiatus! Admittedly, I began to burnout a little as the year progressed and fell into a slump. Right around the end of November, I was tempted to take an extended hiatus from uploading and go find a new second job to make my ends meet.
Glory be to God though, because within a couple of days, I was invited to the YouTube Partner Program (YPP). This allowed me to start making income from my video content! This was such an uplifting moment for me that I almost cried. I'd been so frustrated with trying to advertise my patterns and handmade items, keeping up with bills, pay tuition, buy groceries, etc. But because of this new chapter in my journey, I was able to do all of that with more ease and due in part to this income, Ko-fi support, and my own savings, I was able to launch my blog finally on Valentines Day, this year.
2021 has brought about a lot of fun projects regarding Infiniti Crafting Co, which I now see more as a small business startup. I've been designing patterns and releasing like crazy, I've written an e-booklet, and started a podcast for my supporters. All of this has come from the little channel started back in 2018 and the evolution of it all has been a blessing in hindsight. I don't really know how God's going to lead me on this journey next but, I am so grateful to all of my Crafties who have helped me with this worthwhile experience!
