Colour me good - colour me bad...

Choosing a colour theme... Not always easy. I have no rules, I have no guide to how I do it. I just experiment. And ever so often it just happens. By accident. A bunch of yarn mixed up in a basket in the most unpredictable combinations can surprise you wildly. A combination played in your mind might be a disaster when being added to your work. I test and frog. Test again and frog. And again, and again. I get stuck. Search for inspiration online. Often flowers. Nature. A piece of fabric. A nice outfit. And then you find it. It clicks, and it feels good. But it can take days and even weeks to find what I'm looking for...  or 30 seconds. I never know in advance. I guess I follow my gut feeling. When I try to hard it never works. When I follow the invisible feeling, it turns out just right. How do you do it? Creative chaos is pictured above. I love my creative journeys. They make my heart sing.

Kärlek
Annette

FOLLOW  My Rose Valley HERE:

Hooking for cash in Simply Crochet #44

Did you see it? Did you read it? In the latest issue 44 of Simply Crochet I'm being featured in an article about being an Etsy shop owner. It is always a weird feeling to see yourself pictured in a magazine... I'm actually quite shy so I simply blushed when opening up to see this. Little me in the Simply Crochet magazine, I'm humbled...

I'm excited to say I'm rubbing magazine spread shoulders with creative and talented women like Becky Skuse at Make Me Do, crochet designer Hannah Cross at HanJan Crochet and Cécile Balladino at Gipsybazar in this article by Judy Darley. It turned out to be a great article filled with inspiring stories, tips and tricks about Hooking for cash, as the headline says.

I thought I should write a post about being an Etsy owner as a complement to the article. How is it really? Was it hard to set up the shop? Is it time consuming to run an Etsy shop? What about currencies, fees, prices, shipping costs, packaging...??? You know... just some pointers out of my experience... So I started to write but found it hard to know where to start and what to talk about so... I thought I should ask you instead:

 What would you like to know about
being or becoming an Etsy shop owner?

Ask me anything you would like to know about it and I'll do my best to share my story and tips and tricks with you in a future blog post. And before I go - THANK YOU so much for all your comments and messages on my Ravelry blog post. I feel so much more confident there now and have learned so many new tips and tricks about it. Looking forward to keep on exploring. You have been a fantastic help. Forever grateful. :) I still need to fix a Ravelry button in my sidebar... and at the bottom of the blog posts... It is noted and added to my To-do list...

Kärlek
Annette

FOLLOW  My Rose Valley HERE:

Ravelry Help needed & Ravelry Shop open!

Hi dear crafty friends all over the world. I'm an Etsy girl. I've been an Etsy girl from day one. Etsy is where I do my shopping sprees, where I surf for fabric in my manic patchwork phases. Etsy was what I chose when starting to sell my handmade creations and later my own crochet pattern designs. It felt natural to open an Etsy Shop. It was also so easy. So what about Ravelry?

MY RAVELRY PAGE
Ravelry has kind of fallen a bit into the shadows of my attention... I have had a page there for many years (find me under the name My Rose Valley or Annette MB Ciccarelli) but I haven't really been active. So a few weeks ago I decided that it is time to get involved and discover a new fabulous crafty community. I jumped in with some action.Not much, but a little...

THE RAVELRY SHOP
I'm delighted to inform that I now also have a Ravelry Shop where my patterns are listed. I'm thinking maybe this makes it easier for those who are more of a Ravelry fan than an Etsy fan to enjoy my patterns. On Ravelry you can pay with Visa, MasterCard and PayPal at the check out. Just like on Etsy, it is immediate downloads and my patterns are available in US, UK and Swedish terms if nothing else is mentioned. So welcome to my Ravelry Shop!

I NEED RAVELRY HELP
Little by little I'm adding on projects I have made and so on. People "friend" me and I'm not sure what I should do? "Friend" back? How does it work? Anyone who can give me some simple user and manners advice on how to join in the club? How much detailed information do I need to add to my project listings? What is Errata? Is it better to list yarn in weight or length? How do I socialize? Any advice is welcome. I find it a bit clonky, hard to navigate, but it might just be me being a beginner...

FREE PATTERNS
I'm also planning to add some of my Free Patterns to my shop and already you can find the Maybelle Baby Blanket Pattern and the Vintage Crochet Hangers. They contain links to my blog posts, is it better to add PDF files for these too? And if so, how does that work? Do I get a notification every time someone downloads a Free pattern too? Is it really necessary or are people happy with links to blog posts?

Well as you can tell, this is new territory for me. I'm totally lost. But knowing you, you will hold my hand and guide me through it. You always do.

Kärlek
Annette

FOLLOW  My Rose Valley HERE: