It was never an immediate rise to create the community. The Crochet Crowd is steady; it was a steady pace. It is often frustrating not understanding the complexity and having no one around in the industry to know how to go from just a fun little hobby channel to what The Crochet Crowd means to people today.
I had several moments, but three stand out most for putting Mikey in front of people at the time when it mattered most.
In This Project
Before Social Media is A Thing
Before the words 'social media' were created and became everyday language as they are today, there were people, just like me, fumbling around online sharing skills. This even predates Facebook having business pages and groups as we know them today. Yes, I have been around that long.
On Facebook, I would have to get the word out about my crochet through my own profile, but my closest friends weren't interested, and my feed was overtaking theirs and annoying the hell out of them.
#1 Lens Mill Stores
Social media wasn't a thing, and I wasn't sure I could film in stores with a real camera, since the idea of pulling out a phone didn't have the camera technology then. I emailed Len's Mill Stores in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, to ask permission to film in their stores. If I didn't get permission, I stated that I wouldn't mention them online to suggest shopping at their stores. It was a chain store.
To my surprise, they invited me to the store and had a meeting with the owner, Bruce, about my intentions to film so they could gauge my personality.
I was subtly reminded to come back to earth and not push my weight around with a major company. It was a superb lesson to realize that my goals and theirs don't always align. I was able to film a few segments with Phyllis, the lady from their yarn section.
I had filmed, but nothing really major came from it. No free or discounted yarn. I was just filling in my own content, keeping in mind that the power of social media is realized.
#2 AllFreeCrochet.com
AllFreeCrochet.com reached out to me around the same time they had reviewed my videos, but they were looking at my reach. After just a year on YouTube, I had already accumulated over a million views.
They asked me to host tutorials, and the pay for it was outrageously low. A small video of up to 10 minutes was $15, and a larger video in that time frame was $25. At the time, when you are not making anything online, something is better than nothing. But it felt like I was being taken advantage of. The videos also had to be placed on their network, so the number of people who found my channel with the exact same video was cut by 50%.
Having said that, the relationship put me into newsletters, but I wasn't a designer back then, just teaching other people's patterns and/or technique tutorials. While their video views climbed, mine stayed even-keeled, and I thought the best way to keep going was to have only 1 video online, and that it should be on my own channel instead of being shared between two. I lasted just about a year before I weaned myself off sharing my content with them.
The counterargument is that they are giving me exposure without me having to pay out of pocket. Which is true. The prep work on some videos took several hours, and the $15 wasn't worth it to recoup the cost of my yarn.
While I had quit working for AllFreeCrochet, the CEO, Stuart, recommended Red Heart Yarns as a host to teach their patterns. I was a host for 2013 and 2014 before not renewing a contract to move on to Yarnspirations. Working with Red Heart Yarns put Spinrite Yarns, aka Yarnspirations, on the back foot, as they were not getting any attention.
I made the jump to Spinrite Yarns Inc aka Yarnspirations, officially starting in 2015.
#3 Creativ Festival
This interaction with Len's Mill Stores opened the door to a conversation with Rita, the owner of Canada's Largest Crafting Show, Creativ Festival. She would reach out several months later to invite me to set up a booth and demonstrate loom knitting and crochet. I also had three sold-out workshops, and it was my first time teaching the public in person.
I had developed a great friendship with Rita over just a year, and we both ended up at the same behind-the-scenes show in Anaheim, California. We had taken the same workshops in social media marketing. We sat beside each other. I would lean over and say whether I agree or disagree, or suggest what we in the crafting industry could do.
Rita gave me a job offer to work for Creativ Festival, and I did for two years, learning about the inner workings of a crafting show, vendor interactions, and consumer behaviors.
You can hear my voice in the promo video below, as I was the Social Media Director. I wrote blogs for each vendor and did the social media magic, but there was a significant issue.
In the world of crafting, most people aren't into more than one craft as a primary focus. Social media updates would be sporadic, based on the consumer's interest. If you are interested in beading, you are probably not interested in scrapbooking, jewelry making, quilting, and many more that were at the show.
The show taught me how to put events together and understand what consumers want. The show was a lot of fun but exhausting at the same time. Some personalities are difficult to work with.
Working with the Creativ Festival, I was able to get into the door at Spinrite Yarns Inc., the home company of Yarnspirations, to do demonstrations. Working at the show gave me insight into consumers.
Moving officially to a yarn influencer for Spinrite Yarns, aka Yarnspirations, in 2015 to the present day. My role is just to educate and teach from my own perspective. I am not their spokesperson or official voice for their company, as individuality and perspective on the yarn must be personal to maintain community.
What I Came To Realize
When you criticize one company, it could be the same company and/or working together behind the scenes. As much as they are competitors, they can and do communicate.
I didn't like the brand Patons and was vocal about it, but I didn't realize back then that Patons North America was owned by Spinrite Yarns. It's the same company. Today, it's more obvious as the marketing and togetherness are solidified with the consumers. It's not difficult to figure out who is working with whom and who the yarn makers are.
The only thing that is kept extremely quiet, and I don't even know the answer to, is who makes the yarns for the retail stores' private labels. I tend to stay away from private labels, as there is usually a lack of pattern support for the volumes we come to love with yarns like Yarnspirations.
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