The Business Side of Designing – Social Media Challenges

It’s interesting, all that’s necessary to bring forth a design. Whether it is painting, designing patterns, knitting, crocheting, jewelry making, scrap booking, or whatever art form it may be, once it is conceptualized if its not exposed will remain non-existent. So the challenge is at times developing oneself in areas in which we may not necessarily excel in or even enjoy.

I was at a yarn shop just recently and brought in one of my latest designs.  I got many complements and request for my pattern. I felt good as you can image. Yes, I showed my design and now 5 ladies knew about it. It’s about letting people know what we do. If what you’ve created is not exposed, it will never go beyond its full potential whether it is monetary or the sharing of knowledge to enhance and inspire someone else’s craft.

Social Media Fun Shopping Cart
Ultimately, it all comes down to marketing. Designing and marketing are equally important – one should not exist without the other. Creative energy must be channels equality towards both venues. This is a hard thing to do if your enjoyment in mostly in designing.
 
Unfortunately, for me, I lack much knowledge in these new technical-social areas. Let’s just say, I actually use my cell phone as a phone. There are some who can manipulate social media to an art form. Blogging, Facebook, Tweeter, and all the handshaking that comes with it, comes very natural to some. For me, I’m a work in progress.

As a knitter and designer, I find my solace in my design work. It’s a quite place. I can spend hours knitting and designing but clearly that is not enough. It is but a portion of my task.  My challenge awaits me. I need to reach out and let others know what I’ve done. A hand full of ladies at my local yarn store does not suffice.

Are you in this same situation? Do people know what you do? Is there something you’d like to share with others? I imagine that there are many like myself who are learning this new art form, side-by-side, along with your dreams. I hope you’re up to the challenge. I am!

Blogging Tips image

Blogging Tips

Last weekend I attended a conference here in the Orlando area, Central Florida Bloggers Conference. This particular conference was on blogging.

 Thanks to Chris, my knitter, blogger, food expert friend who recommended this seminar. Chris has a very successful cooking blog called, CooktheStory.com

 

What I learn at this seminar, I’ll share with you. I’ll be writing these tips in a serious of blog entries to come. 

We’ll be talking…     sm Logo dragon fly only

Sad – Borders, hosting Knitting group closing

For years, every Thursday night at Borders was special. That’s the night my Knitting group met at the Borders in Oviedo. Borders hosted us and made us all feel welcomed. Our group grew as many joined and even picked up knitting because of our presence there. So it’s no surprise that I have a special place in my heart for Borders in appreciation for their kindness. And yes, it was genuine kindness. It was not unusual for the manager to come up to us and give us pastries from their coffee shop or bring books and magazines to our table for us to browse through the latest knitting books and patterns. Every Thursday we would walk in to find a large table especially prepared for us with a sign on it “reserved for group”. This kind of hospitality is unheard of in this day and age. 


So here’s my “Goodbye” to Borders. We will truly miss you!
 Boo hoo…. 

Endless Knitter Newsletter

While our website is under construction, I thought it would be a good idea to get things started.

You are invited to sign up for the Endless Knits Newsletter 
and receive a 15% coupon code 
good on new purchases of


*Offer good through July 31, 2011.
 Purchases must be made through the Ravelry Pattern Store. 

Select the links provided above for purchase and more details.

Visit: Sign up here or Endless Knit website.

Zom’s Steak & Garlic Stir Fry – Thai Recipe

This is the real thing! True homemade Thai Stir-Fry.

Some of you may already know this but my son’s girlfriend is from Thailand. She’s an amazing cook and enjoys cooking for our family. Her grandmother in Thailand taught her how to cook.


Thai cuisine has amazing sauces that distinguishes their dishes from our typical US stir-fry.

Here’s one of her recipes. 
Steak & Garlic Stir Fry

Thin Steaks, cut in 1 ½ ” wide slices, approx. ½ lb
Garlic 3 cloves, chopped
Cilantro, a couple of sprigs or to taste
Peppercorns or coarse pepper, to taste
Soy Sauce, 1 tbsp
Oyster Sauce, 2 tbsp
Sugar, ½ tsp
Heat oil in non-stick pan and sauté garlic until slightly cooked.
Add steak slices and cook until done.
Add remaining ingredients and cook for just a little bit longer (approx 3 min.) for the flavors to come together.
Serve

I don’t have a picture of this dish made with steak.
But instead here’s a picture of the same dish made with chicken.
I added sesame seeds too. Yum!
Serve with Rice noodles.

I hope you enjoy this. The sauce is amazing.
You’ll want to try it with other recipes too.
Thanks Zom! 

A note on the Oyster Sauce – I’ll be honest, I wasn’t sure I’d like having Oyster Sauce on my chicken. But I was surprised at the wonderful taste it has. It doesn’t taste fishy at all. In fact, you’ll recognize the flavor as one that is typical of the sauces in Asian cuisine. Who knew it was Oyster Sauce all this time.

My Birthday 15% discount on everything in my shop

Blog Birthday Party
It’s my birthday and come celebrate with me.
Thanks for visiting my blog and coming to my blog party. :)
Have some cake, feel free to chat and comment, and by all means, 
take home a goody bag with your 15% discount. 
There are no coupon codes needed. 
15% discount applied to all patterns
for any new purchases made through Ravelry.com from July 11 – July 12 Pacific time.

Click here for a shortcut to the Ravelry – Endless Knits Pattern Store

 
On another note…
Progress on the new website is moving along… slowly but surely. The Endless Knits newsletter will be a great feature as well and you won’t want to miss it. It will include the latest released pattern, KALs, discounts, etc. In the  meantime, you can complete the “Follow Me by Email” box found in the right hand column to keep posted.

Website Makeover

I’m excited to announce that the Endless Knits website will be having a makeover. It’s all coming together smoothly. This will be great and something that I’ve been looking forward to. Not only will I be able to provide information on patterns but I’ll also be able to include the video contents and technical aspects of design that I’ve been wanting to do.  Tutorials, videos and ease of downloadable patterns will all be part of the upgrade. The experts are on to it and will have the upgraded site up soon under www.Endlessknits.com.

The new website will also have a blog. The challenge will be to transition the flow of viewers from this blog to the new one. So I’m just letting you know what’s up ahead. We’ll keep in touch. :)

Knit Magazine Issue 37 now available at Barnes & Noble

Issue 37 of Knit Magazine is finally out in bookstores. 
 Here’s a peek at the shawl. 

Additional information can be found in
I’ll be starting another one soon. This time I’m knitting it in Madelinetosh Lace Yarn, color Logwood (purple).

Super Hero? Hum?

Did very little knitting this weekend in working on my new pattern. Here I am at the Toastmaster’s  “Super Hero” Convention. My husband is very involved in Toastmasters, a public speaking club. They were having their speech competition this weekend. I’m sure you can tell that they’re a fun and enthusiastic group of people. Every convention, they select a theme and everyone shows up in costumes. Silly but fun. It’s only for one night of craziness though. The following night they get serious, a Gala affair loaded with great speakers competing for area finalist.
BTW, Hubby is Zorro, but don’t try to guess which super hero I am. Either I’m a super hero with an identity crisis,(don’t know who I am) or I’m still incognito not willing to disclose my identity to the world yet.  I like to think that I’m the latter.
Definitely super at something. Ha, ha, ha.

Ok, enough fighting villains now back to tackling my next pattern. 

Knit Magazine Issue 37

I just received my complementary issue of Knit Magazine Issue 37 and finally got to see my Camelot’s Embrace Shawl pattern in print. The magazine won’t be available here in the US until mid May. It’s a lovely magazine with great articles and patterns.
I’ll be posting pictures of the shawl soon. The model is just lovely. She shows the shawl being worn as a scarf and also as a shawl. This is something that I wanted to stress since this pattern gives instructions for making it larger or smaller, even as small as a scarf. That’s pretty convenient if you don’t have a lot of yarn or prefer wearing scarves. I’ll give more details later and post some photos too.

Knit Magazine Issue 37, Kalmedia UK
 previously known as Yarn Forward Magazine

Camelot’s Embrace Errata

Important to mention that there was a printing error on the Camelot’s Embrace Shawl pattern, Knit Magazine issue 37. The order in which the charts are worked was mixed up. It’s a quick fix but a very important one. I’ve written the revisions on the pattern page – Revisions Link Here
Please feel free to contact me with any questions, Endlessknits@gmail.com 
This is a very easy pattern to follow. Once you make these quick changes in the pattern it will be easy sailing. 
Nitza