Hi! I am Millie!
I have run the crochet blog swecraftcorner since 2018 and I have patterns raging from amigurumi and baby to scarfs and hats, which is a problem, no niche. My business has grown to a point and then just halted; this might be because during the last few months I have tried many different versions and ways of handling my business. (Maybe never giving them enough time to take root) You know how it is, instant results, second guessing yourself and new ideas that constantly spark and leave the old ones unfinished.
I have so much I want to give to you! My reader! I want to make you happy and give you a place of joy and inspiration, all the while making enough money to help support my family.
Running a one-person business with my brain is hard! I can sit down to edit photos for a pattern that has been complete for weeks except the photos but feel overwhelmed by the fact that there are so so many photos to edit and instead spend the following 3 hours with chatGPT, trying to create a work routine that will allow me to edit these d*mn photos. And in the end, I will end up with 0 photos edited and ChatGPT’s suggestions just either giving me more ideas or making me feel lost.
I need to be completely honest with you. Currently I am struggling.
I got diagnosed with ADHD as an adult (which explained a lot, if I am being real). I have always had trouble holding a “normal” 9-5 gig and struggle to complete repetitive tasks. I also have the issue of starting out strong but finishing sloppily. AND I have all these ideas in my head constantly competing with each other. So, what do I do? I start on all my ideas at once, have nothing to show for it and you, my reader, get whiplash from all my changes and indecisiveness. And I don’t want that, this is not why I want to do this.
Imposter syndrome is also apparently a real thing, who knew! I constantly second guess myself. “Will anybody like this” “Will someone complain” “Am I disappointing you”. That along with RSD (Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria) gives my anxiety and self-loathing a real boost whenever I perceive having shared, done or published something that either nobody seems to like (e.g. no shares or likes) or someone is having a hard time understanding and complaining
ADHD sidenote; like when I had some testers tell me that they prefer patterns written in a different way because to them it is easier to understand when there are less words, caused me to change how I write all of my patterns, also getting me thinking I need to redo every single pattern I have ever designed, making it so I have even more work and can’t finish anything new.
And this has absolutely nothing to do with the testers’ opinion and all to do with me not wanting to feel rejected, disappoint people and please everybody to keep my anxiety in check. And even though it was my decision to change my pattern writing style my brain still thinks it is easier to understand “1 sc in 8 sts, 2 sc in the next st” than “8 sc, inc”. Sure, it takes up less room in the pattern and I as the designer know that the “inc” means single crochet increases, but had I purchased or used a pattern that just says “inc” I would wonder what stitch would be used and if the “8 sc” part means i should do 8 sc in one stitch. Okay, sorry, I got a lot of sidetracked here!
My point is that every time I get a notification that someone has sent me a message or left a review, I get a knot in my throat until I see what it says. And maybe this means I should just quit designing patterns and sharing my content with you, but I used to LOVE it! (a little bit less right now) So this is me trying to get back to that and build something that can last for decades!
I want to build a community where we understand that sometimes a newsletter will come on a Thursday even if it was planned for a Wednesday. Or an unscheduled email might come on a Monday even though I sent one on Sunday evening, because I got this, in my opinion, awesome idea that I just MUST share, or I feel like I want to see the numbers on my analytics page go up instead of down. Where you can learn in a way that suits you and the patterns are quick, accessible and written in at least two different styles. And if you just get the urge to share something, you can just send me an email and I PROMISE, I will answer. Even if you just want to show off your work or talk to someone that understands or maybe tell me how I can adapt my patterns to help YOU learn!
This is my plan, this is what I want to invite you to be part of, watch it grow and maybe grow with!
Quick Dopamine Projects
Bite-sized makes (amigurumi keychains, stash-busting accessories, minimal weaving of ends).
ADHD Crochet Hacks and struggles
How I manage my crochet and my business with my ADHD brain. (I want to be totally transparent, no editing, no fluff)
Crochet Q&A
Answer the questions you ask
Visual Learning Variations and text variations
Written pattern + infographic + video → different learning styles.
Community Dopamine Hits
Celebrate reader wins, showcase neurodivergent makers.
And probably a million other ideas I have running through my mind!
If you feel like being a part of this, just enter your email below and subscribe and I will keep you posted!
Got any ideas on what you would like to read, learn or get? Tell me in the comments, I would love the help to build this!