Welcome to 2024 my friends!
I just want to say that I am so blessed to have built an audience like mine. Back in 2018, I never imagined that I'd be reaching and helping so many people with my craft knowledge. Thank you for being here!
This year is to bring about many changed in my personal life, as well as Infiniti Crafting Co. and I won't lie, the way is a little murky. But as I have since the beginning, I'll keep trusting God and moving forward until I can't anymore.
If I can be candid here, I've been so unsure this last year and half on whether this is something that I will be able to continue to maintain. As times get rougher and the economy shifts, it's hard to garner financial support for things like the creative arts. At least that's been the case for me. In addition to rising software and supply expenses that I incur for the channel, I still have to contend with everyday things like groceries and gas. And the whole deal with my broken front tooth is still on-going as well.
At some point last year I started to despair about all of it. I implemented all sorts of shifts last year to try to turn things around for the better though. This included changing some of my online priorities and closing my Etsy Shop. The latter was a spur of the moment revelation that I had late one Saturday night and at the time, seemed counter-intuitive. However, I found that by getting rid of that one thing that wasn't working, I was able to concentrate better on the Infiniti Crafting Co. website.
In the time after that, I began to move everything to the Handmade Shop, from patterns to, eventually, my merch. I did a little editing of the website to create a better, convenient flagship experience for my community. And I also added in all of my pottery from Spring of 2023 to the shop. All of that was before the summer hiatus too and I felt incredibly accomplished for it.
Over the summer, my Crafty community on Facebook grew from 568 to over 25,000 new faces! Imagine my excitement and surprise! Since July, I re-launched Hey Craftepreneur! which had formally been a podcast idea of mine. It was reborn as a crochet & knitting pattern club where I've been updating and releasing my patterns with video tutorials. In the long run, I wanted to create a way to share my creative passions sustainably. That's always the goal, right?
Since launch, I've shared a mixture of new, unreleased patterns and old favorites, all with video, written instructions, and extra notes. Some of these patterns are club exclusive, while others are pending public release. The full list of things included with membership so far:
✅ Crochet Water Bottle Sling [Bonus Alt Design] 🔴Club Exclusive
✅ Socks made on the Sentro with a knitted afterthought heel 🔴Club Exclusive
✅The Mountain Forager Garden Shrug [knitting pattern]
✅ Socks made on the Sentro with a seamless crochet afterthought heel 🔴Club Exclusive
✅ How to knit kneesocks on the Sentro Knitting Machine 🔴 Club Exclusive
✅ The Fresh Peaks Sweater Vest [knitting pattern] ❇️ Pending Public Release
✅ The Sweetheart Scarf [knitting pattern] ❇️Pending Public Release
And I am THRILLED and ever grateful for those who signed up in 2023 because that was the first time in a long while that I'd felt hope for continuing my business. I'd even go so far as to say that it sparked some sort of motivation in me too, 14 pattern releases in 6 months? Crazy! We're just coming out of the holiday fog here so I don't quite know what's in store for January but I look forward to sharing those things with you! So thank you for being Super Crafties and making my small business dream possible.💖
In the mix of all that, I somehow executed a living crochet course that I'll be able to expand as time goes on. It'd been something that I wanted to accomplish for a few years now and as technology has advanced, so has my capability to accomplish these lofty plans. Currently, the course covers everything that is basic crochet but I named it the Ultimate Crochet Course because I want it to be just that. As time goes on, I'll be able to add more topics/lessons to the plan to make it a comprehensive source for learning to crochet.
I put a lot of thought into it with my FB community in mind because many of them followed me this summer to learn crochet. And while I have a Rumble and YT channel that remain free resources for that, I take a lot of joy in mapping out lessons. And with this, I was able to record things in a way that feels like a one-on-one experience. This class includes 23 lessons chocked full of information and is self-paced so you can finish it at your leisure. Best of all, it caters to both right and left handed people.
I added a banner at the top of the home page of this website so it could be easily found. Sign-ups are available through a one-off payment option or its complimentary if you're a Hey Craftepreneur! subscriber. I've been crocheting for 11+ years now and there are all sorts of unique perspectives and pro-tips that I look forward to sharing there.
I wanted to put 2023's recap into words not only to inform my readers but to also serve as a reminder I can read back on later. It's easy for me to fall into doubt, admittedly and while I anticipated challenge in starting my own business, I never quite realized how hard it could be until I was in the weeds of it all. Despite that, between my faith, your kind worlds, and the continual incremental growth I see on other fronts, I find the ability to persist.
All-in-all 2023 was my biggest fiscal year ever as far as non-YouTube things go and I'm so incredibly humbled and grateful for that. In 2024, I will continue to look at ways to better serve my community and earn your patronage as I press on in this Craftepreneurial journey. (See what I did there?)
In other news, as the year came to a close, the Infiniti Crafting Co. YouTube channel was cresting 16k and as I write this blog today, we've crossed that milestone! It's so awesome that I have this many students out there in the world and I can't wait to share new tutorials with you all! One day, I hope to reach 100k over there and I look forward to seeing how this year may further that goal.
Speaking of YouTube...
I've mentioned in many Channel Chats by this point that the future of tutorials beyond May of this year is iffy at best right now. As graduation draws closer and closer for me, I have to look at what's best for me and my family in the time that comes after. Currently, if I want to continue working on Infiniti Crafting Co. full time and scaling it further, I would need 500 Super Crafties signed up for Hey Craftepreneur!.
This would allow me to pay for my editing and pattern formatting software, internet, platform fees and maintain my house while catering to your crafting needs. I always say how running this thing is a full-time job, because it is. I can't count the probable hundreds or thousands of hours that I've devoted to this side gig over the last 6 years. While it has been an over all joy and I love sharing my knowledge with others, I can't continue doing what I do without the support of my community.
There was a time where I worked two jobs, went to school full-time, and catered to my household but doing all of that nearly made me ill after sometime. I'm not opposed to working hard but I'd prefer to work hard for you, for people who enjoy the product that I create with my hands. I typically don't mention things like this because "suffer in silence" was ingrained in me for so long. So for many years, I just kept my nose to the grindstone.
However, I realized that if I wanted to grow and continue teaching my passion long-term, I needed to bring awareness to it. I set Hey Craftepreneur! subscriptions at $5.99/mo to make sure that my supporter content was in reach and accessible to those who had the desire to uplift my business. That tier will always remain at that price for that reason. If I am blessed with growth, then there are other tiers that I have planned out that would be implemented at a later date. So right now, I just want to pack as much value as I can in the programs that exist so that my community will want to support.
In the event that I can't meet that goal by the end of May, the channel(s) will move into a podcast-only format essentially, as I trade one job for another. I can't really say what things look like after June in that case but all of this will likely take a back seat as I prioritize my health and family's well-being.
I'll be taking my month-long hiatus in June on all channels, including Hey Craftepreneur!. I'll also continue to produce pottery, patterns, and merch. Ultimately though, I want to continue to cater to those who saw potential in what I'm building so I'll be continuing HC well into the future.
Beyond any of that, I have no idea what this year will bring! Like I said before, I'm just along for the ride and trusting God that things will end up as they are meant to be. Until then, I'll continue to work for you all because that is what I love doing the most.
I want to thank you for reading this article today and I hope that your year is filled to the brim with blessings and love.
Happy Making,
Infiniti
P.s. In case you missed it, I showed off everything I knit and crochet last year, as well as some of the new potter that is to hit the website later this year. If you want to, come check out Channel Chat 147 with me 💖
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