Talk to Me Tuesdays! - Little Voice Knitting

Keeping with the movement of our knitting theme from last week, this week we are hearing from Little Voice Knitting.  Susan the shop owner is super cute.  I love her outlook it just puts me in a cheery mood.  Her stuff is adorable!  Just looking over her shop is encouraging me to expand my shop offerings. 

Stitch Silly:  Tell me about yourself.

  
Little Voice Knitting:  Hi, I'm Susan. I like pina coladas and long walks on the beach. No wait...I'd rather have a margarita and have been known to be knitting on the beach instead of walking.  I own Little Voice Knitting (http://www.etsy.com/shop/LittleVoiceKnitting) and like the name implies, I knit.  I knit A LOT!  I started my business in 2009, based on the urging of friends and family that were impressed with my knitting skills and thought I should start selling them. (Isn't that the cliche of how most of us have gotten here?) I did the local craft show circuit for 2 years and have recently opened my Etsy shop in April. I'm married and a stay at home mom of 2 girls, who are, unfortunately, in school full time now. So it's time to put down the bon bons and get off the couch (LOL-if only that were true for what the life of a sahm is like!) and go back out into the real world. I have been knitting since I was a kid, while also  dipping into many other art forms like cross stitch, scrap booking, dance, painting, and even a BFA in Technical Theater.

Stitch Silly:  How did you get started with Etsy?

Little Voice Knitting: I first heard about Etsy a few years ago (and wish I had signed up then) from my daughter's art teacher. After doing the craft show scene for a few years, I decided I needed someplace a little more permanent to showcase my shop and came to Etsy. Craft shows are great, but fickle and the amount of inventory needed to fill the shelves became too overwhelming. 

SS: What is your favorite part of being your own boss?

LVK: I get to follow my own vision of what I want to make and what direction I want my business to go. I don't need to compromise or follow someone else's ideas. That also has a downside too because every decision is on my shoulders but it helps me keep my focus on what I want to accomplish. Plus, I can give myself vacation days and raises whenever I want! : )

SS: What are your 2 favorite products in your shop?

LVK: I love the little stuffed toys that I've recently started making. So far I have a frog and cow listed, with other animals in the works. They are just really cute and they have passed the "kid test", which means if my kids ask if they can have one too, I know it's good. I also really like my "Heads and Toes" line; which is sets of matching baby hats and booties. 

SS: What is your greatest success since joining Etsy?

LVK: Well, so far I haven't had a sale on Etsy yet, so I can't really say I've had any success but each view, or heart, or treasury I am included it, I count as a personal success that I am doing something right.  Like Sally Field, I keep thinking "you like me, you really like me". Now to just get break that ice...

SS: What do you most want to improve?

LVK: Sales! (did I mention that already?)

SS: What is your ultimate goal for your Etsy shop?

LVK: My ultimate goal would be to be successful enough that I could actually see my "hobby" pay for itself with a profit. And to have a waiting list...that would be cool. 

SS:  How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

LVK: The world may  never know! 

How can others reach you? Facebook? Website? Blog?

I can be found on facebook at http://www.facebook.com/littlevoiceknitting and have a lot of items that were custom orders and craft show items that haven't been listed on Etsy yet. I am also on Ravelry, (what's up knitting peeps!) as Mrsnoodle97, if you would like to friend me.

Recent Sales

Burp Cloths all Rolled Up

This weekend I delivered some of my most recent projects.  One item was some burp cloths and bibs for a friend who is throwing a shower for some friends.  This is the second gift set that I've done with her.  I'm super excited how they turned out.  I forget where I saw it, but I saw someone else roll up there burp cloths and receiving blankets in a similar manor and I admit it, I stole the idea!  The bib's are reversible made out of flannel or cotton.  I did not purchase the fabric on this project, I got the lovely pleasure of just making bibs and burp cloths it was definitely a different experience.  I'm looking forward to our next project together.

Burp Cloths Surrounded by Bibs

Another project I finished up and delivered this weekend was my newest creation of some beautiful hand knit fingerless gloves.  These gloves are for a friend's sister's Christmas present, so I'm excited to hear how she likes them.

This is the second pair that I finished.  And it took me less than a month!  I have two more pairs that I want to create, but those will have to wait until I am finished with my current backlog of hand knit orders.  This is such a fun pattern to knit, that I'm sure I will be making more as soon as I can.  I just love the vibrant blue color of them.

Just the gloves

Perhaps the next time that I knit some gloves I will switch up the pattern.  I have a few ideas in my head for something different, I just need to plan it out and do some more research.  My idea is for a different twist on the cable stitch, but I haven't done too many patterns with cable stitches yet so I want to get a few more ideas first.  I suppose I should run off to my knitting reference books now!

While I am off researching, what are you best reference materials for your craft?  Share some love to help educate the rest of us. 

A Perfect Fit!

Close up of the details

Simply Stunned..

My October started out with a bang and I have been feverishly working on multiple custom requests all month.  I was just getting into the mindset as I wound down my projects to pick up a few unfinished projects that I want to include in my shop inventory.  Apparently that is not the case, I received, not one, but THREE order requests yesterday!  The downside to these requests is that they are knit items.  My knit items tend to have longer lead times, for obvious reasons of them being hand knit.  My goal for these items is to finish them all within by Thanksgiving so I can do some inventory building before Christmas hits, but I fear it just may be all custom orders this year.  Here's to hoping for a successful nest few months!

 In the mean time, here is my latest creation.  I was commissioned to create some bibs and burb cloths for an up coming baby shower.  I rolled up the burp cloths and pinned them for the diaper cake topper.  The bibs will be hung up on a cloths line at the shower.  I'm happy with the way they turned out, hopefully the mom-to-be likes it too!  I may start packaging all my burp cloths like this.  What are you thoughts?

Close up of the pins

Bibs wrapped around the burp cloths

Completed Elmo!

I mentioned a few weeks ago that I finished my son's Elmo costume, well I finally was able to dig out my camera and take a few shots of it this morning.  I think it turned out well.  Hopefully he agrees with me!  Check it out.

I know the pictures aren't the greatest, but I'm brainstorming a way to improve them.  Lots going on behind the scenes right now here at Stitch Silly.  I hoping to unveil some new ideas and news soon...

Talk to Me Tuesdays! - Modern Butter Cup

Today's interview is with a relative newbie.  She has been open since March and it making great progress.  Hopefully some of you loyal readers will stop by and check out her shop and let her know your thoughts.  But before you run off and do that, let's here what she has to say first!

Stitch Silly:  Tell me about yourself.

Modern Butter Cup:  Hello everyone.... I live over at Modernbuttercup, my blog. I am a crafty person who loves terrariums and walking barefoot on the beach. I create jewelry with a touch of whimsy and a bit of quirkiness.

SS: How did you get started with Etsy?

MBC: I have always loved to make things. So when I realized I could actually have a job doing something I loved, I was in. The community on Etsy is great- it's supportive and always full of great advice.

SS:  What is your favorite part of being your own boss?

MBC: I'd say the favorite thing about being my own boss is setting my own work hours. I can enter "work" at 12:00 in the afternoon or at 9:00 at night. It's fun to be your own boss. :)

SS: What is your two favorite products in your shop?

MBC: That's a hard one. But I'd have to say my two favorite items in the shop are: The Silver Chair Necklace and Silver Locket with Glass Beads Necklace. They both are very unique and have lots of intricate detail.

SS: What is your greatest success since joining Etsy?

MBC:  I am new to Etsy, so I haven't had any big successes yet, but my biggest success would definitely be my first sale.

SS: What is your ultimate goal for your Etsy shop?

MBC: My ultimate goal for my Etsy shop is to have a great brand and happy customers. And with happy customers, there's great customer service. My #1 goal is to have product satisfaction and great customer service. Who could want more? :)

SS: How many licks does it take to get to the center of a tootsie pop?

MBC:   Believe it or not, I have actually tried to figure this out myself. I was up until about 2 in the morning counting how many licks it would take me once... but I miscounted somewhere around the 300 mark. My conclusion? About 392 and I'm probably off by 20 or so licks! So I'll just go with the commercial slogan "How many licks to get to the center of a Tootsie Pop? The world may never know."

Bringing in more buyers

For those of you who are my fellow Etsians, I'm sure you've heard about a recent article written by some researchers at Wharton discussing the effects of free shipping on your shopping habits.  To me this is an enlightening idea.  I never thought about how the shipping fee changes my shopping patterns. 

Honestly, I never thought about this as something that has an effect on my online shopping...until I thought about it.  When I had my son, I signed up for Amazon Mom and got a free year of Amazon Prime.  Having the free shipping with Amazon, I started filtering my searches to only those items that were available for free shipping.  When I make purchases from fabric.com, I always order the minimum amount to get me my free shipping.  I could go on...  It really does effect my shopping habits.  I seek out free shipping and I have even been known to not purchase something online because I couldn't get free shipping.  Now that I am a eCommerce business owner, this is something I should probably consider, and definitely have not. 

I know when I started, my shipping fees were much higher.  Since then I have readjusted my shipping prices, but have not thought to provide many incentives for free shipping.  Perhaps this is a new incentive to offer over the holidays to see if it helps bring in some on line sales.  For a majority of my current sales, this is not an issue as the are mostly local.  I would hope that offering free shipping will attract new customers from across the country. 

I'm curious, has anyone used this and seen a significant sales difference?  Have you seen a difference even in comparison to a percentage discount?  What are you thoughts on the idea of free shipping?

Success...I think!

Well I went home and forced myself to be creative last night.  Sounds like an oxymoron but I think it worked!  I managed to motivate myself to work on one of my custom orders this morning before I had to head into the office.  Unfortunately, tonight will be spent preparing for a family visit so I do not anticipate any huge step in productivity. 

Farm Animal Fabric

You know, LeAnn, I would think that Monday's would be the worst for me as well, but nope, Wednesday is my bad day.  Perhaps we can motivate each other since our rut days seem to be on different days typically. 

A big goal I have for myself over the next week is I want to finish ALL of my outstanding custom projects so I can again get back to focusing on building my inventory.  I have about 3 projects I either need to start or finish that are focused on building my inventory.  Most notably, is my farm animal receiving blanket and burp cloth gift set.  I am partially done with it, and thought I had my price point all picked out.  Then I did more research and now I am second guessing myself.  I'm not sure why, but this gift set is challenging me on my pricing philosophy.  I guess I just have to do some more research.  Off to play with numbers!