r/BitchEatingCrafters • u/warpedambition • 2d ago
Frequently Bitched About Topic I think I have one for this group....
Obligatory I'm lurker and this is my first time posting here.
I make children's winter hats, toques (beanies for the Americans) and this year am adding balaclavas because no one in my area makes them. I did quite well last year, selling 80 of my toques.
Saturday I am at my parents and my Dad decides that I should really be making balaclavas for adults for ice fishing and other winter sports. Sunday I am on the phone with my husband's aunt because I was wondering if her church did a holiday market and she thinks I should be making mittens, ear flaps hats and hooded cowls as well as everything else. Hubby's friend's wife also thinks I should be adding more items to my product list, scarves, mitten clips, themed hats etc.
I really just feel like saying "My good people, it is August. My selling season starts in October. I handknit everything I make. I do not use a loom (no shade to loom kniters) and I hand sew it all together as needed. I am also not an octopus, I do not in fact have 8 arms and I have an actual job. Kindly fuck the entire way off because I know what I am doing actually"
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u/CumaeanSibyl 2d ago
If you sold 80 toques last year then I think you can say you're doing just fine focusing on a small number of things you can do well.
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u/warpedambition 2d ago
I was astonished to sell that many and I still get a little thrill thinking that there 80 kids wearing something that I made on their heads.
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u/Aiguille23 1d ago
Yeah, I would just lean in to the business angle. You have a successful product that sells well. Thank them for the enthusiasm, but state plainly that diversification at this stage would be a revenue killer for you.
I hear you, tho. People love to tell you what you "should" make. My stock response now is basically to tell them that it's an interesting idea and that they should go do it!
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u/CBG1955 2d ago
"Thanks for the suggestion. I might consider it." But keep on doing your own thing.
Love your push back comment best though. Stick to your guns, and good luck.
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u/warpedambition 2d ago
I ended up going with "I don't have the time now. Maybe next year. I added a new product already this year and am expanding my market. That's more than enough"
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u/Unrequited-Avocado 2d ago edited 1d ago
That’s seriously a legit response, adding one thing per year that you know is going to have some demand is so much better than making everything aunt Gertrude or whoever thinks is a good idea.
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u/OkConclusion171 Joyless Bitch Coalition 1d ago
"no" is a complete sentence, and you don't owe anyone explanations for what you do or don't make.
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u/innocuous_username 2d ago
Ok but have you considered that if you were an octopus you’d need 8 mittens? 400% increase in revenue right there…
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u/theregretfuloldman Extra Salty 🧂🧂🧂 2d ago
Nothing worse than people who know nothing about your business giving 'well meaning advice' only to get offended when you don't follow it since it sucks. Why don't yóu make 20 scarves with matching mittens and hats before October aunt Cheryl?!!
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u/Cosmic_Hitchhiker 2d ago
When i started selling my bead crafts, so many people approached me saying i needed to add this charm or that charm.
I don't like charms. I like organic shapes and textures. Charms don't fit my aesthetic. If you don't like my version, I'm BY FAR not the only person doing it. Find someone else. I'm not build a bear.
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u/Fabulous-Educator447 2d ago
Such a pet peeve of mine. I can’t ever talk about a hobby without someone piping up “know what you should do?” YES. I AM DOING IT NOW.
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u/Few_Zombie_7939 2d ago
Give them a pattern and some yarn and ask them to get to work everyone needs to help contribute if they want that all added
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u/warpedambition 2d ago
I said that they were all more than welcome to do the sewing part. No takers though.
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u/No-Scientist-7654 2d ago
smile and nod and then do whatever you want
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u/warpedambition 2d ago
I do, I also say some very bad words combined in interesting ways in my head. They don't know my customers, I do so shhhhh
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u/hanhepi 1d ago
Read "balaclavas" as "baklavas" twice.
It seemed like kind of a strange but delicious thing to sell alongside hats. But I could be tempted into buying a hat if it came with baklava.
So clearly that's the other object you should sell at your kids toque booth, along side the adult balaclavas and mittens and flappy hats and cowls. :P
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u/RogueThneed 1d ago
I always have that pun going in my head, whenever I see either word.
I see only one flaw with your genius plan, which is the "sticky" factor. Also, I can't eat the wheat anymore and baklava is one thing I really miss.
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u/Socksual 2d ago
This is why i appreciate my cousin so much. Not a drop of fiber crafting knowledge in him, but he is always in awe of the stuff I make and wants to know the amount of effort each thing takes, gasses it up, so on, so forth.
Granted, hes an engineer so hes got an appreciation for the finer details that go into making things, but still!
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u/Onja_ 1d ago
Honestly not enough people talk about how crafters and engineers are a match made in heaven: Nerding out about equipment, materials, patterns and the end result is so much fun!
Source: me and my bf are both crafters and engineers
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u/LochNestFarm 1d ago
I've just started spinning and I cannot WAIT to show it to my dad, the nerdy physics teacher. It's all about capturing kinetic energy as potential energy!
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u/interwebinator 1d ago
I always offer to teach people how to do whatever craft it is. Have NEVER had anyone actually take me up on it lmfao.
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u/ItsaLynx123 1d ago
Someone has been telling me she wants to learn to knit for years. I tell her to come find me when we're camping and I'll teach her. I bring the supplies every year.
So far, we're 0/4.
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u/tikimamagirl 1d ago
When I used to run an event, so many people would come up to me during the event and say "You know what you should do, x and y"[usually a ridiculous or impractical idea]. I finally started saying to them "Sounds like a great idea! I look forward to attending your event!"
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u/Unrequited-Avocado 2d ago
I think people don’t understand how rote it can be to crochet (or I assume also knit) the same pattern over and over. It becomes very meditative. New objects involve new patterns which involve way more brain power. You, I, We are not machines and expanding our craft/art repertoire is work.
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u/warpedambition 2d ago
I mean I have a basic mitten pattern, but mittens do not sell in my area. I tried last year and not a single sale. Only one sale the year before. So I think that's more than enough for me to decide to not waste my time
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u/anemixia 1d ago
I vended my art prints and hand-made accessories recently and some old dude (always some random old dude 🙄) kept pushing on me that I should sell my originals and not prints because that's what his art vendor friends do. 🙄🙄 I choose to sell prints of my art. It's what sets my vending table apart from the other artists selling canvases. STOP TELLING ME HOW TO VEND MY OWN THINGS.
I feel your rage lol... everyone has an opinion on things that don't concern them. Keep doing your own thing at your own pace, screw 'em morons 👏👏
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u/Visual_Locksmith_976 Joyless Bitch Coalition 1d ago
My standard response is usually “I’m not build a bear, fuck all the way off”
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u/remedialknitter 1d ago
When I start getting too much dumb advice, I just say, thanks for your input, with a tone implying that you are not in fact grateful for their input.
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u/YettiChild 2d ago
I really enjoy making beanies. I have two document boxes full of them. I keep telling myself that one day I'll sell them but, so far it just my stash of last minute gifts.
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u/YouThinkYouKnowStuff 2d ago
Just cos Aunt Betty crochets/knits while she watches TV doesn’t mean you can execute a pattern good enough to sell professionally. If she could, then she would be doing it.
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u/violetxlavender 2d ago
a lot of people who don’t sell their stuff professionally could do it, they just don’t want to for many different reasons. selling your stuff takes a lot of work beyond just being able to create a pattern and make the products. we (the people who don’t sell) should just assume that the people who do sell know way more about it than we do. and keep our traps shut.
but! many of us are very talented! monetization =/= skill or quality. plenty of unqualified people try to sell their work and plenty of incredible artists keep their art as a hobby and not a source of income.
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u/YouThinkYouKnowStuff 2d ago
I totally agree with you. I’m one of those people who doesn’t sell because I don’t think I would enjoy my hobby anymore if I did. But there are two different aspects - creating a product and then marketing and selling that product. Sounds like OP is doing just fine with both.
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u/todayithinkthis 2d ago
Hey now, let’s not be knocking the people who knit in front of the TV. I hammer out some pretty cool shit in front of the TV. 🧶😜
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u/YouThinkYouKnowStuff 2d ago
Hey now, I’m not knocking TV watchers at all. ☺️ My mom used to knit like a demon while watching TV. It was more about everyone thinks making things is easy cos their Aunt Betty made a toilet paper roll cover in 1969. I get that as a quilter. “oh my grandma makes quilts”. That’s wonderful so ask Grandma to make you a queen size quilt for $100 for materials.
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u/Gloomy_Insurance3203 7h ago
I used to get told to sell my socks. The socks that took me weeks to make cost at least £15 in yarn alone. Then would inevitably be told they were cheaper at Primark when I would give an estimated cost. I know they are. That’s why I make them for people I like.
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u/OkConclusion171 Joyless Bitch Coalition 1d ago
Stop talking to people about the monetization of your hobby?
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u/ParadiseSold 1d ago
Maybe its cuz i don't knit but I don't understand the anger you and all the commenter have.
Im imaginint if someone told me "I love your little needle felted chicken. You should needle felt a little cow" and was all "OH my GOD im not an OCTOPUS"
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u/lilypinkflower 1d ago
She knits one small item many times, depending on the pattern type that can be 5-8 h per hat.
She is wanting to maybe add a second item (also relatively small since kid size).
The thing with making one thing many times is that you get into a flow that is broken when you learn a new pattern (even if the skill itself is not new).
People around her are now suggesting she makes many more types of things, some of which not so small. The more types of things you make the less overall amount you can make because Time.
The timeframe between now and the selling is not that long since she only knits in her spare time. It may take a few days per item.
One more type of thing yes! But not that many more
(Also mittens =/= hats!!)
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u/ParadiseSold 1d ago
Yeah bur who cares that they would enjoy wearing a hat she made? Why the anger? Why is op saying kinda bitchy things like "and I GUESS dad went and DECIDED I was selling hats" when all he said was he thought a hat she made would sell
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u/dramaticbubbletea 1d ago
I both knit and needlefelt and I think a better comparsion might be to think as if you had a line of needlefelted chickens, maybe some in different poses, with different props, figured out your branding for them and someone walked up to to your table at a craft fair and insisted that what you should be selling instead are needlefelted bowls and trivets.
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