Welcome back to #Marchmeetthemaker Day 2 everyone! If you’re here because of yesterday’s March Meet the Maker Day 1 post, welcome back! If this is your first visit here, welcome and make yourself at home! And, if you’re a tried and true follower of the blog (you know who you are **wink, wink**) thank you for your support! Today’s prompt is… “All About You”. So I’m going to be a bit more selfish than usual and ramble about myself lol
I won’t bore you all into the crazy details of how I got started crocheting, (although if you’re interested I DO go into all of those details in my first blog post: “Chapter 1: It Began with a Hat…” onceuponahook.weebly.com/once-upon-a-hellipblog/chapter-1-it-began-with-a-hat#/ ), but for today I’m just going to talk about the actual girl behind the hook! For those of you who don’t know me personally, my name is Victoria and I am (what is probably obvious at this point), the fiber artist behind Once Upon a Hook Crochet. I am a native born Michigander who is currently transplanted in NC. Although, if I’m being honest, NC is home at this point. Growing up, I came from a relatively small family, with some amazingly crafty women in my family tree. You name a craft, hobby or DIY and I can almost guarantee myself, my aunt, my mother, my grandmother, or my great grandmother has probably tried some version of it! It definitely has made for some great stories, and even greater memories over the years; and I can confidently say that it has provided me with many opportunities to stretch my imagination and thinking skills. Clearly I fell into my little niche of the hobby world with crochet, but I do still craft about with other things from time to time too. And I don’t plan to stop any time soon! For all of my childhood I grew up taking dance classes, and for a short few years during middle school and high school I even danced with a semi-professional children’s ballet company! While I loved to do jazz and tap, ballet was easily my favorite style of dance; especially pointe. I had a part time after school job as an assistant teacher at my local dance studio and loved every single second of it. Which is why it came as a huge surprise to many, during my senior year of high school when I announced that I had planned to join the Marine Corps. Talk about a career change, am I right?! I wouldn’t change the decision for the world though. While I only did a 5 year enlistment as a videographer I met some of the most amazing people (to include my husband), and took part in some amazing experiences. A few favorites that stand out are getting to take video imagery of the F-35B aircraft on it’s first flight(s) at Cherry Point (a Marine Corps Air Station in North Carolina), and working with Costal Riverine Squadron during their Call to Fire exercise (in what was probably the coldest, wettest training exercise I ever went on). Of course there were plenty for other great memories splattered throughout my time at Cherry Point as well. To say those years were an adventure would be an understatement! Clearly though, I like to make sharp left turns when it comes to my life and have since moved into a more… artistic… style of life as I now take part in all things fiber related. So, as for the here and now, 2023 marks some pretty awesome milestones for me and my family. First off, I’m turning 30!! Which is crazy to even say out loud lol. My husband and I will also be celebrating our 10th wedding anniversary; and of course all 5 of our kiddos are looking forward to their respective birthday’s as well. As you can see, much to celebrate within my personal life this year! Professionally I am *hoping* to get some great milestones in too. For starters, I am hoping to have my first official crochet pattern book published and available by the end of the year! I am also expanding my social media presence and storefront(s). My site here, which originally started out as just a simple little blog, will now host all of my crochet pattern PDFs, as well as finished, ready to ship and made to order pieces. I will even be adding a section for those looking to get custom commissions done (in case nothing I currently have to offer strikes your fancy). I am also expanding from Ravelry! So for those who prefer to purchase their patterns from a site that keeps everything in a hand little “library” all in one place and also supports other fiber artists and their patterns you can find me at both Ravelry and Riblr! Finally, I am hoping to show more behind the scenes work on both Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. Which is why the March Meet the Maker month prompts are super important to me this year. I’m hoping that by working all month long with these prompts helps light a fire under me to keep up the momentum and show off the remainder of the year! Well, I think that’s it for now. In reality I could really go down a rabbit-hole about all the crazy things I’ve done in almost 30 years of living, but I think I’ll just end it here for now lol If you’ve made it this far I hope you all are having a wonderful start to your March and as always, Happy Hooking!
0 Comments
March Meet the Maker is back!! If you’ve been amongst the Instagram maker/small business community for a bit of time now, you probably already know all about this month long Instagram event created by Joanne Hawker. I won’t go into too many details myself (in fact I HIGHLY recommend checking out the official web page: https://www.marchmeetthemaker.com/ ), but I am super excited to be *attempting* to take part in all of its goodness this year! Because the event is for Instagram I will do the majority of my sharing over on that space (and I’d love for you to come give a follow if you like!), but some of the prompts definitely deserve some longer posting in my opinion and I will be throwing in some of my blog ramblings as those themes come up! I also plan to show off some in theme TikTok’s and Facebook posts as well . I can’t wait for you all to meet this maker… so without further ado, here’s today’s post! BRAND ORIGIN Once upon a time, a girl named Victoria fell in love with crocheting. So much so that she decided to create a Facebook page where she could share (and potentially sell) her finished crafts. At this time the Facebook page was known as, “Victoria Stewart’s Creations”; because if Martha Stewart could brand herself as a household name, why couldn’t a girl named Victoria?
I’ll tell you why… from a bit far away “Victoria Stewart” can quickly be misread for “Victoria’s Secret”; and that was NOT the type of household name I was going for! So after a few brainstorming sessions I managed to create a list of all the fun and whimsical things I had loved over the course of my life. All of which had the elegant theme of what I call, “storybook-esque”. As a note, I would like to say that at this time I was not yet into the crochet pattern design scene. I had ZERO idea that I would ever become a pattern designer, and as such only had lofty dreams of stitching up beautiful heirloom dolls, lace-y blankets, and other timeless Pinterest and magazine photo worthy pieces. To stay on trend with this theme I thought about how every great fairytale began, “Once upon a time….” And tailored the phrase to my craft. I spent hours Googling the phrase, “Once Upon a Hook” or titles similar to see if my amazing idea had already been claimed, and was happy to find that a crochet/fiber arts business by such a title had not yet been taken. So I grabbed it and ran! Fast! Once I had my name picked out, my years of cross training with the Reproduction/Graphics Marines while in the Marine Corps took over and I began sketching a few drafts for a logo design. I knew I wanted something timeless, that would immediately spark brand recognition. I played around with the idea of an open book with yarn and hook intertwined around it, but ultimately found love with the logo you see today, which is an old school ink quill pen with the nub changed out for the tip of a crochet hook. If I’m being completely honest, that logo is my pride and joy (I’m even debating getting it tattooed onto my forearm I love it so much!). My logo encompasses so many things about my business; most importantly it serves as a reminder of the path I took to get to where I am as well as a compass pointing to all of the great pieces yet to be designed. And as any reader knows, a great story is all about the journey - past, present and future. At the risk of showing off my vulnerability, I will admit, I have a good deal of self doubt about my brand. Not necessarily that it’s a bad idea, but I know my want to “make all the things” sometimes clouds over my want for solid brand recognition. Clearly the patterns I design aren’t the typical cutesy, whimsical, heirloom pieces I imaged when I first began. Nonetheless, my hope is to one day have my logo immediately recognizable in the fiber arts community. I think of all of my favorite designers such as Natalie Allen from The Twisted Hatter, Stephanie Pokorny from Crochetverse, Mikey from the Crochet Crowd, Sarah Zimmerman from Repeat Crafter Me and all of the other amazing fiber artists I’ve learned from along the way. All of them put in crazy amounts of hard work to create the brand they’re known for, and I can only hope to one day be even half as popular as they are lol So, there you have it. a bit of my story and how it came to be. If you happened to make it this far in my ramblings, I hope you have an amazing beginning to your month of March! I look forward to sharing more of my story with you all thought the rest of the month; and as always Happy Hooking! Hey everyone! Long time, no blog… am I right? Oh well, I think it’s safe to say the last year or so has been slightly more than crazy to say the least. If we’re being honest, this year has been a bit crazy as well! 2023 is already shaping up to be a memorable one; at least it is for me anyways.
If you follow my Facebook page, you probably noticed awhile back I started putting out feelers for crochet pattern book ideas. Since that first initial poll I’ve solidified a theme and have been diligently working away with my testers at bringing this goal to fruition. Unfortunately, while I can’t say that I have an exact deadline/release date, I can say that multiple new patterns have already been created and tested! I am so excited to be bringing you all along on this publishing journey. I hope you all continue to stick around to see the final results! And while we’re on the subject of new things…. I think you’ll see that the blog site has changed a bit! From the top menu bar, visitors are now able to shop my ready to ship items and pattern PDFs! The new additions are a little slow going (specifically in the pattern department as loading more than 100+ patterns is a big undertaking!) but if you check back often you’ll be sure to see all sorts of new goodies being added! It’s part of my 2023 goals to diversify myself a bit more and add in marketplaces other than Ravlery. I look forward to what the remainder of the New Year brings, and as always… Happy Hooking! As some of you may have seen over on Facebook, earlier this week I shared a new site/app that I am slowly making my way into by the name of Ribblr.
To start off, you are probably wondering WHY I am showing off a new site for my content. This has a few different answers. Currently, all of my pattern library is on Ravelry. When I first began learning to crochet Ravelry was the FIRST site recommended to me. It provided me with free patterns to learn from, it allowed me to buy, and save all of my patterns in a nice and neat little organized digital library, and once I stepped into designing it gave me an outlet in which to share my own content. But, just like everything in the world it hasn’t been all sunshine and daisies perfect. Now, Please don’t take this as me ragging on Ravelry, I’m NOT! Realistically speaking though, Ravelry has been in a few situations in just my short time in the community that unfortunately turned away various parts of the crochet/fiber arts community. Without getting to much into politics, many artists unfortunately had to decide if it was worth keeping or pulling their content from the site. I watched many designers face backlash for “choosing” to either stay or to decide to remove their content from the platform. Which to be honest really sucked. I know I myself spent weeks agonizing over weather or not it would be right for me to stay or leave. Unfortunately, I wasn’t in much of a position to remove my content as I really had nowhere else to go. I also decided that because I keep my content politics free that Ravelry was still a “safe” site for me to stay on. Since that time, I have continuously looked for other outlets that both provide me with a space to share my content, but also fit my needs as a small business. In fact, I’ve probably looked at turning to Etsy alone at LEAST a hundred times or more! Unfortunately finding a space that fit what I needed was easier said than done. And while I am still looking for spaces to share my content (cue my husband INSISTING I need to publish a pattern book on Amazon - yes, we love his support!) I have found that for now I am most comfortable stepping into the waters of Ribblr. Unlike spaces like Etsy, or GoImagine, or even Amazon/Kindle books, Ribblr is a space that is dedicated to the fiber arts community. Simply opening up to their home page you will see tabs for “Crochet”, “Kinitting”, “Tunisian”, and “Sewing”! And that alone means a lot to me as I feel my content will be seen by the right community. Ribblr also provides a dedicated app that allows users to view and follow along with their favorite digital patterns in an easy to use interactive way. Something that Ravelry (currently) doesn’t offer. I could definitely go into more detail about the other aspects of Ribblr that have drawn my attention, but for now I’ll just leave a link for you all to make your own decision ;) www.ribblr.com/? On that note, for anyone worried I may be trying to leave Ravelry, I promise I am not! I love the Ravelry team and site, and as my first space I joined, they will always hold a special place near and dear in my heart. Realistically though, I know that the more places I am able to share my content the more successful I will be as well. So don’t be alarmed if over time you see my pop up in new creator spaces! After all, pattern collecting is just as much a hobby in and of itself as crochet is, so why not add another space to search for new and exciting project content!? It was bound to happen…. In typical me fashion I let the blog posts skip a Friday here and there so I could catch up on other things and before I knew it months had past. I sincerely apologize. I’m really trying to do better and hoping that with 3 of my 5 littles in school this year the house will slow down slightly to allow me to stay on better track across all platforms. On that note, I am staying on task design-wise and continuing to crank out new pattern content for my testers, so new pattern releases should *hopefully* continue to stay fairly regular.
I want to thank everyone who has followed my journey (on any platform!) from day one, as your support, kindness, and understanding mean the world to me. I hope you all have a great week and Happy Hooking! I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to post about for this week’s blog…. I’ve been in the process of working on market prep and new pattern designs, and while I’ve shared various peeks across my different social media pages I didn’t want today’s post to be the same drawn out piece on what I’ve already shared elsewhere. So today I am bringing you my infamous “WANT TO DESIGN LIST” - this list is an ever growing work in progress as I welcome new inspiration and knock out completed designs. The inspiration comes from fellow artists, friends, family and so much more. I am always open to suggestions for the list as well, because who knows better what the current crochet crowds want then crocheters themselves! So without further ado (and in no particular order) my current list of things I want to create!
CUDDLERS:
FISH (like the current bass fish pillow design)
MISC. DESIGNS:
I hope you all finished something on the list that sparks your interest, and you look forward to seeing. If not, feel free to leave a comment/suggestion! Happy Friday everyone and Happy Hooking! P.S. Don’t forget Monday there’s a new pattern drop! So make sure you’re following the Facebook page to get all of the details on that! ![]() Yay, It is officially Friday! It’s also the 1st, so rather than waiting an entire weekend to post the newest pattern on Monday I thought today made a perfectly good drop day instead! If this last pattern theme has taught me anything, it’s that crochet can sometimes be very humbling. For those in the know, today’s pattern release has actually been ready to go for over a month now. I am really trying to make this year my year of consistent new content and in order to do that I have to design “ahead of schedule”. While I don’t necessarily keep in mind what month I will be releasing any particular pattern, it does mean that each design has to be completed and run through my lovely testers WEEKS before I will actually show off the finished piece to fans and followers. The cute Astronaut Cuddler I released today is actually a design that has been on my “want to design” list for ages! So When I finally got the crochet bug again after finishing the Sheep Cuddler I went through my list and this one jumped out at me as the next piece I couldn’t wait to work up! Logically, I can’t tell you what my thought process was, or why I decided in January, that I would work the Sheep and THEN an Astronaut - clearly they have no tangible connection lol; but either way it was the piece on my list that sparked inspiration and here we are! As usual, the idea to create said astronaut sparked more inspiration (as you will see in the pattern listing, as well as the pattern that will be releasing later this month). Unfortunately, (and this is sort of my little secret) not every design I come up with, makes it all the way to publishing. I know, I know, hardly a secret. Clearly this is where the humbling, “win some, lose some” mantra comes in. So, I began working the Astronaut Cuddler towards the end of January. I “leaked” pics on Instagram of yarn colors I was using, shared a video on TikTok, and all the other fun content creator stuff that adds to the behind the scenes experience. The example piece worked up like a dream and I immediately thought, “hey… since I’m on a space kick, why not make it NASA inspired!? Instead of creating the typical cartoony astronaut that everyone knows and loves, I should also make a version of their signature blue training suits and their orange suits as well!! How inspiring to see crochet designs based off real life?!!” But alas, those pieces did not get made… well, one of them did. I actually had the blue training suit version fully complete and out to my testers, but the more I looked at the piece the less special it felt and eventually I deemed him as not fit for release. The orange version didn’t even get started! Instead though, I created the bonus piece (which I am totally over the moon about!). Who knows, maybe some day I will go back and re-visit those pieces. If nothing else, at least I can say I gave it effort and tried. I can also say it gave me more designing experience. I’d also note that after sitting on the design and deciding to not release it, I’ve come to accept that not all designs are going to work out, no matter how much work is put into them… and that’s perfectly okay. As a designer I want to create pieces that inspire, pieces that spark joy, and pieces that people want to make; but I can’t expect you all to enjoy a piece if I myself am not excited about it. And while I won’t say I have any current designs that I absolutely hate, I do have a few that I wish I had waited to release, because even though they are cute and I’m sure there’s SOMEONE out there who likes them, I realize I could have done so much better by them if I had just scrapped the idea for the time being and came back at a later date. It is what it is though, and it definitely WON’T keep me from designing! Heck I’ve already got May’s stuff ready to go (well minus the last piece with my testers that I desperately meant to finish up this week and didn’t get too #oops) and have started on June and July’s pieces. I look forward to this month’s remaining release, and I hope you all get the chance to check out the bonus content that comes along with this month’s patterns! Happy 1st, Happy Friday, and Happy Hooking Everyone! Okay, okay… I know it’s not Friday, but I simply couldn’t wait to get this content to you all! Yesterday I posted about some reusable water bombs I was working on and I had a few questions regarding a pattern. Now, I know the reusable water balloons pattern has been floating around for YEARS at this point and it is seriously such a great summer time project! At the moment though, I am really trying to use up the yarns currently in my stash. So while the water balloons look absolutely amazing as usual in the fun, bright, summery colors, I had some black yarn that desperately needed to be turned into a project as well. So I thought… “Why not water bombs?”
In yesterday’s post I mentioned that I wasn’t sure what size I wanted to go with. To be honest, I’m still partial to each size for various reasons, but ultimately I decided to work up most of them in the largest size. That way when I take them to any markets or anything I am able to offer them for the same price point as the water balloons and customers can mix and match their sets if they so choose! For you all though, I wanted to give you all the details for ALL of the sizes! I’ve got all the fine details listed below, but if you are interested in an Ad free, “pretty” version, or feel like supporting my crazy designing schemes I do have a nicely laid out PDF available for only $0.99 over on Ravelry (link here: https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/reusable-water-bomb-2 ) I hope you all enjoy this fun summer project! Happy Hooking! MATERIALS NEEDED:
NOTES:
STITCHES USED:
SMALL BOMB: With a J 6.0mm hook. Work in the round. With Black. ROUND 1: Ch x 3, Dc x 8 into 3rd chain from hook, Slst to close (8) ROUND 2: Ch x 2, Dc Inc x8, Slst to close (16) ROUND 3: Ch x 2, Dc x 16, Slst to close (16) ROUND 4: Ch x 2, Dc Dec x 8, Slst to close (8) Finish off. Leave a long tail. You will now cut 3 strands of White Blanket Yarn, approximately 6 inches long. Slip Stitch each strand into the inside of the bomb and secure (Reference A). Braid the 3 strands together, knotting at the end to secure. Trim up ends if needed (Reference B). To finish the bomb, using your yarn needle weave the tail end of your bomb in and out of the last round (round 4)(Reference C). Cinch gently to close. Finish off and weave in the remaining end. MEDIUM BOMB: With a J 6.0mm hook. Work in the round. With Black. ROUND 1: Ch x 3, Dc x 10 into 3rd chain from hook, Slst to close (10) ROUND 2: Ch x 2, Dc Inc x 10, Slst to close (20) ROUND 3: Ch x 2, Dc x 20, Slst to close (20) ROUND 4: Ch x 2, Dc Dec x 10, Slst to close (10) Finish off. Leave a long tail. Finish assembling the bomb the same way as the Small Bomb (Referenced below). LARGE BOMB: With a J 6.0mm hook. Work in the round. With Black. ROUND 1: Ch x 3, Dc x 10 into 3rd chain from hook, Slst to close (10) ROUND 2: Ch x 2, Dc Inc x 10, Slst to close (20) ROUNDS 3-4: Ch x 2, Dc x 20, Slst to close (20) ROUND 5: Ch x 2, Dc Dec x 10, Slst to close (10) Finish off. Leave a long tail. Finish assembling the bomb the same way as the Small Bomb (Referenced below). Hey there lovely friends and followers! I apologize now for missing out on the last two weeks of a Friday blog post. To say I had immense guilt for skipping out was an understatement. I just didn’t feel like I had anything noteworthy to say over the last two weeks. Not that things weren’t going on! In fact the last two weeks have been extremely productive… but as someone who likes to read blog posts myself, well I just didn’t think you all would want to read the simple life updates of “yep, more pattern writing and testing…” let alone to do that to you all two weeks in a row! But this week I am back and I have what I feel is a lot to share! Please forgive me, as this week’s post comes to you in bulleted form. I have a lot I want to share and for me it’s easiest to process by way of “checklist” so without further ado…
Today’s blog is a bit short - really it’s more of a quick update that I feel is too long to post on FB, and of course the typical, “so much to do, so little time!” If you follow my Facebook page, you probably noticed that I put out a “Testers Call” last week. I was so excited to see so many amazing fiber artists apply! I am still slowly working through all of the applications at this time. To say I am extremely grateful for the love and support of my followers would be an understatement. As of today, I have concluded the first round of 2 groups of testers (who I am soooo excited to work more with) and I will be sending out messages for the next two groups over the weekend. If for some reason you haven’t heard from me yet, don’t worry! You will hear from me soon, I promise! On that note, I did have a few people I messaged last weekend who I still haven’t heard back from. Unfortunately Facebook won’t let me reach out to individuals through my business page, so I have had to resort to messaging from my personal page; which means my message may have been “lost” in a message request folder (so make sure to keep an eye out there!). I continue to look forward to working with all of you and growing the Once Upon a Hook Crochet testing community. There are so many amazing pieces I can’t wait to work up and release! I hope you all are having a great Friday, happy hooking!
|
Archives
March 2023
Categories |