I Live and Breathe

I live and breathe yarn. So much so that I have a storage bin that holds nothing but yarn and yarn related things. And the storage bin holds most of it and it’s almost full. I can honestly say I have too much. One of my goals for 2025 is to downsize the stash so that it all fits in the closet. With the doors closed. That will be a very tall order but I am motivated because I don’t want to pay to have my yarn held offsite.

Motivated and excited because I like having my days centered around being creative and making pretty things with sticks and strings. I know this is a blessing and some people can’t do it. That is another reason to become responsible for the gift and the blessing and not be wasteful of it. Believing this is a day made by the spirit; this is what my day is like:

The day begins with a protein shake and a quiet moment in my yarn room—my sanctuary. With over 1,000 skeins of yarn in my collection, the possibilities feel endless. I start by reviewing seeing if I have any new sales. This is more like from October – February. The rest of the year, sales are a surprise. Though I hope to change that by being more season conscious and adding more patterns.

I have a schedule of projects. I work on them in groups of three. One for designbcb, Abbey & Lincoln and GoImagine. They can also double as inventory for craft shows. My schedule is divided on an Excel worksheet with each cell being an hour. Most of the cells are filled with knit/crochet but there are other things in there as well: church, study, cleaning, paying bills…other things I need to accomplish during the day. Workouts are there, too, twenty times. Workout times vary so I can get in 2-5 hours of exercise a week.

Getting to Work

I start whatever is on my spreadsheet to do. One of the perks of knitting and crocheting for a living is being able to stream something or listen to music. I have a full menu of streaming channels and I alternate through them. Some of the shows I enjoy while streaming are Call the Midwife, 9-1-1 Austin, all the FBI series and some movies.

The reason I enjoy it is because I enjoy the process. I get something pretty in the end but it is the act that is the thing that reaches my soul. The reason I opened an Etsy shop was because I had so much stuff lying around the house and the biannual sales we had at church didn’t clear out enough of it. I opened a shop as a consequence of all the knitting and crochet.

Taking Care of Business

Once a project is finished, I change the color of it on the spreadsheet and then the business part of the day kicks in. It has to photographed, priced, listed in one of the stores. If it is a physical item, it has to be logged onto my Square app so I have it for a craft show. I will write a blog post about and a yarn review if it is made with yarn. It needs to be posted to all my social media, logged into a inventory book, added to the newsletter, (sign up for it here.) Finally, it gets added to the shop carousel.

It’s quite the process and can take a minute before it’s all done. It doesn’t help that I am easily distracted and things don’t always go as planned. The day is pretty long and ambitious. There are free hours designated, as well. They come in handy. My day goes pretty late, I usually in bed by 1 or 2am.

What does your perfect knit and crochet day look like? Share your routine or favorite moments in the comments below—I’d love to hear how you bring yarn to life!