I recently took the initiative to improve a pattern I had in my shop for a while now. I’ve been putting it of and putting it off and decided that it was time to just do it and get it over with.
If you’ve been on the internet as long as I have, there are things you notice that have drastically changed over the years. Etsy is overflowing with patterns. Ever since 2020, people have taken up crafting as a way to cope with challenging times. Some creators started their small businesses at that time because there was really nothing much to do. I took up working out to lose the extra weight from being pregnant with my third child.
In the past when you searched for patterns on Etsy, you would get a variety of patterns to choose from and you would know that they were real patterns. You would also get quite a few that use acrylic yarn. There was no snobbery on what type of yarn is for a what project. There really wasn’t much bias on what you would buy to use on a project. You wouldn’t even have to mention what brand and people would just go out to Michaels or Joann to get their supplies. Even the patterns themselves would be different. The wording was different. So that’s why I had to revamp my pattern. That and there had been some errors with it. I also had to film a video which apparently is somewhat of a requirement nowadays. I’ve had to adjust my pricing because filming takes some time and effort. When people ask for a video, I usually don’t make one because it takes a while and I would have to drop my current projects to make it. So now, I am making it a habit to record “difficult to understand” parts of my patterns.
So if you’ve followed me since the beginning, you would know that I took a long hiatus from YouTube. In that time I was wasn’t crocheting as much and I didn’t post as often as I used to. I got married and had kids and honestly, I don’t even know why I stopped crocheting. Other than the occasional baby blankets, booties, hats and dolls, I didn’t make anything else. I wasn’t as connected to the communities I once cherished. I had replaced them with a life I created with my husband. I guess it was just time to end that chapter of my life and to rethink and reorganize my thoughts about what I’m creating content for. Now that I have fully returned to YouTube and content creation, it’s been a struggle. The internet isn’t as accepting as it once was. Everyone is just a little bit more critical. There’s so much drama within the crochet community and a whole lot of cliques that I don’t quite care for. Everyone (and I mean, EVERYONE), has a brand deal or a sponsorship. Back then, no one wanted to do sponsorships and they had to explain why they did them.
Another thing I noticed was the change to chenille yarn when making dolls. I don’t even know when chenille yarn came into the picture. I looked it up and it makes sense that it became popular around 2020. At first I thought that chenille yarn (being soft and easy on the hands when crocheting) rose into popularity with the hyyge trend (where everything is cozy and no stress), but hyyge was popular several years before. I still don’t know why people suddenly associate amigurumi with chenille yarn and it seems like some YouTube crocheters won’t even consider other yarns a possibility or an option. I watch several YouTubers and many of them just use chenille. There are some others who still use acrylic but the majority use chenille. I get the hype and why people love it. I love it too but it’s very limiting in what you can do. You can’t do much detail with chenille and that’s why I still prefer acrylic or similar yarns to acrylic.
Anyway, I didn’t really have a plan for this post other than to just chat about what’s been on my mind. I did post new patterns in my shop and re-activated a couple of patterns on my Etsy if you want to check them out. I will list them here:
The animals are in the same cateogry so I will link them in just one link: https://piglovesmouse.com/animal-patterns/
Swinging Baby Demogorgon: Baby Demogorgon
Cory Carson: Cory Carson Pattern
piglovesmouse.com 