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My mom taught me to crochet at a pretty young age, I was about 10. When I was young, I loooovvvveed all things crafty, I made friendship bracelets and sold them to other kids at daycare, asked for *all* the art kits every birthday, and got my first sewing machine around the same time.

Honestly, growing up, crochet was just another craft I did. I just dabbled in it here and there, and didn’t really pay much mind to it compared to my other creative interests like photography or graphic design when I was in school. Then when I was in college I started to get into it a bit more. I found out about Ravelry about that time and enjoyed seeing other people create really cool things with yarn, so I decided I’d pick up my hook again and make a cool hat (Vicki Howell’s Urban Jungle Beanie to be exact). To my surprise friends and family loved the hat and wanted me to make them one.

I continued to venture into the land of crochet accessories, mostly just making them as gifts.. a few craft shows here and there. But there seemed to be a reoccurring theme with all the patterns I followed— I usually didn’t have the patience to follow the instructions given by someone else. I always wanted to venture off and try to tackle it myself… I truly enjoyed the journey of bringing an idea to life by experimenting with different stitches and yarns. I wanted to be the creator of a new favorite accessory, the process gave me life!

Then came my verrrrry first crochet design and pattern in 2011 (you can see it in the photo above— I’ve still got it!). I tell this story often over on Instagram, but I’ll share it again here.... I saw a photo of a really neat crocheted bag in an online store that had these raised “bump stitches” in the shape of diamonds on it and decided I needed to recreate it, and make a pattern for it since it was a pretty pricey bag. But what sweet little clueless Meg didn’t know at the time was that those “bump stitches” were indeed bobble stitches, that could be crocheted in the round. Yep, so I looked at that bag and thought.. hmm.. how would I create that effect? Why, by crocheting millions of little crochet pieces then sewing them all. on. individually. LOL! Thinking back to that pattern always cracks me up because of how straight up ridiculous that is. But I’m still kinda proud of myself for just tackling the task with what knowledge and skill I had at the moment. I started a little blog called “knot the knorm” and put that pattern on it, along with some other sewing projects I was doing at the time. The website didn’t survive (and I’m glad it didn’t because that pattern was probably ROUGH) mostly because I was in college and wasn’t sure what I wanted to do with my life.

Fast forward quite a few years to 2016. Our son had just been born and I was looking for a way to earn some income online because I really valued staying at home and raising him. At the time I was making and painting wooden signs, and just wasn’t really enjoying it. I was craving something more… and right about that time I began to see really cool crochet designs on Pinterest and Facebook. It took me a few months of thinking and researching, but I eventually decided I’d become a crochet designer, and earn income via a website as well as selling the PDF patterns. The next year I started the Megmade with Love blog, crochet hook in hand and a crazy amount of inspiration to create patterns that people "*needed* to make.

With the teensiest bit of design experience under my belt, I decided to finally go for it. I crocheted a couple of hats, and with the help of some very patient testers, they gave me suggestions and thoughts on each of my designs. Was I a professional right out the gate? Definitely not. But I was learning some really valuable lessons while releasing patterns and I was actually getting my stuff out into the world. Slowly, after each pattern release, I became a little better and it became easier to put them all together. I was finding what I enjoyed making (what my “style” was) as well as what other people were diggin’.

I am so darn happy I decided to “just go for it” when it came to designing. I am 100% an advocate for just jumping in when maybe you don’t know everything or have everything figured out. I know if I never did, I’d be regretting it now… and I’d hate for someone else to have those feelings. I figured out all the particulars as I went, and I wonder if I spent more time researching or trying to figure out all those unknowns before starting I’d just be burnt out and end up not going for it. So if you’re thinking about taking the plunge into the world of crochet design, I beg you to take that next step into making it a reality. And if you find it’s not for you, that’s totally okay. You’ve learned something valuable about yourself and at least you won’t be thinking “what if?”

And that, folks, is my lil’ journey from being a crocheter to designing. Crochet designing really fulfills a deep creative desire for me, that I’m really grateful I get to do. It may not be for everyone, and I am in no way suggesting that everyone needs to be one. I just love sharing my journey on here with you, and hope to inspire others if they’ve got that itch, ya know?! If you have other questions about designing or blogging, leave them below in the comments. I love delving into this topic, so ask away... I’ll try to cover it in a future post. :)

Until next time,
Meg

How I became a Crochet Designer - Megmade with Love

I was reminded not too long ago that the two-year anniversary for the Megmade with Love website is today. Which sorta blows my mind, because it seems as if the time has absolutely flown since diving into this lil’ dream of mine. Keeping the theme of “two” alive, I thought I’d share two of the most important lessons I’ve learned since first officially purchasing my web domain and hitting that publish button for the very first time.

Lesson #1: Consistency is your FRIEND

Wanna know one of biggest ways, I believe, I was able to begin making a substantial amount of money blogging within a few months of starting? I think it was the fact that when I started, I decided I would post twice a week (oooOOo stickin’ to that “two” theme right there) for at least one year. It was a commitment I wanted to stick to, mostly because I had a really bad habit of starting something, then quitting. It was, in a way, forcing me to give it my all and to not let “failure” drive me into apathy.

So I stuck with that commitment to my blog for the most part, posting both patterns and crochet-related articles (now that I reflect on that, it makes me feel silly for dropping that habit— it was a good one for my business!). So week in and week out I showed up to the blog, and posted to it. At the time, I had really no audience built up whatsoever, I just shared the patterns in groups on Facebook and on Pinterest. I’m not gonna lie, sometimes it was really, really hard to keep wanting to post on the blog. I had cricket chirps on many posts in the beginning, and I often wondered if this thing would ever take off… but I was hungry for this dream so I kept at it!

Eventually stuff started picking up for the blog as I was sharing to more group boards on Pinterest that had more of following behind them. Which, by the way, if you’re just starting out or thinking about starting a crochet blog, I’d 100% suggest finding group boards for you share your posts with over on Pinterest. That is THE way you will get those eyes on your content. Sure, social media and whatnot helps some, but Pinterest is magical tool, I’m telling ya.

And to add to the topic of consistency, I was very much consistently pinning those articles and patterns I posted on my blog to those group boards on Pinterest. Each board has rules for the amount of times you’re able to share, but I usually stuck with 2-3 pins per day on each of the boards. It’s insane to me how easy it is to get your content seen out there by, in a sense, piggy-backing on another’s audience. And the people who run the boards get great content out of it too, which attracts more followers.. so it’s a win-win.

Another little way I honed in on consistency in my business was posting to social media regularly, usually daily. I learned the value of the trust you build with your “peeps” (aka your audience) by showing up day in and day out. Which also applies to the twice a week blog posting. It really does provide that trust factor that your audience needs when they’re deciding if they want to become a follower of your work. And that’s why I value it so much… in the eyes of someone following your blog it means everything to be reliable and trustworthy. Because honestly ain’t nobody got time for a half-a$$ blog.. because this is the internet and there’s countless other people to follow.

Lesson #2: Viewing failure differently

For some strange reason before I got into blogging and owning a business, I built up this fear of so-called "failure”. I realize now that my view of failure was so skewed… It’s like I made it into this giant that it really wasn’t. If I didn’t get anywhere with my blog or quit again like I had done before, because it didn’t take off, I was doomed in my mind. And it honestly kept me from taking the plunge into Megmade with Love for quite some time. I would think, what if I look like a fool, yet again, if this ended up being another one of those seemingly good business ventures I’d taken before??

But ya know what? When I take a step back and look at it—that all really just stemmed from caring too much about what other people thought of me, it’s as if I thought the whole world was keeping an eye out for me to have another business flop. But that was just all in my mind. And, ya know, it makes me wonder how many other people are debilitated by this silly illusion that is future failure. Ya know… the illusion that we’re gonna crash and burn when we go after what’s so incredibly important to us… and then to top it all off everyone is going to point and snicker when you do.

Well I’m here to say it’s not the end of the world if something doesn’t go as expected or if one of your ideas absolutely flops. Something I learned early on is that I should use failure as tool or as data. Because when you fail, it’s really valuable information for you and your business— you now know what not to do or how not to do it. Sure, it probably stung when you “failed” but that’s just how it goes as an entrepreneur. It’s far more productive to say “alright, what can I learn from this?” than “this is so embarrassing, I guess I’m a failure now…”.

For example, like I mentioned earlier, how I’d quit multiple business ventures in the past. I once had a little photography side hustle and after that I attempted a wooden sign-making business— I ended up deciding both were just something I wasn’t passionate about. They just weren’t my “thing”. Sure I enjoyed doing them to some extent, but I certainly didn’t find joy in making a complete business out of them. In the midst of straying away from both of those things I honestly believed myself to be a failure. I thought I just couldn’t get my act together and decide on a career path.. I thought I was lost and pathetic. But now I look back and just see it so simply: I tried something… It wasn’t for me, so I moved on. I’m so glad I got over myself and realized I should give it another go. And I get it, it’s really hard to keep getting back up after things don’t seem to be going well. Especially when it’s time and time again. But I can’t shake the thought that I’d rather keep giving it my all than to settle and wish I would have.

So in the end failure=data… don’t give it any more power than that, and I promise you’ll see how it positively affects your life and business.

So those are my top two lessons from the two years here on good ol’ Megmade with Love. I’ve enjoyed this process of becoming a better business owner— I’m far from perfect, but I’m having a heck of a good time doing what brings me joy. Hope these little lessons were of some value to you! I love sharing stuff I’ve learned while blogging, in hopes that someone else may gain some knowledge or that it may be that “something” they needed to hear to encourage them to keep going.

Take care!

Meg