I know that I have said before that there is too much negative in the world that I don’t like to bring “serious” topics up here. I want this to be primarily a safe place to have fun, see cute, snuggly critters, and geek out. However, every now and then, there is a topic that weighs heavily on me and I need to share: This is one of those times.

As I’m preparing for my first vendor show next week, I’ve been trying to make a wide range of Luvvies: Some are animals, some are Christmas themed, some are geeky (all are adorable, in my -biased -opinion), but someone pointed out to me that they are all targeted to a specific demographic: girls.

Now, obviously I am a girl myself, and I have a 9-year-old daughter; but, I never have been brought up to fully believe that toys were gender specific. I watched G.I. Joe, I played with He-Man, but I had Care Bears and My Little Ponies, too. And, I have raised my daughter with the same beliefs: She wants baseball cards for her birthday – awesome, here you go; she wants an 8-foot neon green caterpillar for Christmas – weird, but okay. We have race cars, we have robots, we have glitter…at times our living room looks like the toy aisle at Target, but I have never said to my daughter – you can’t have that because it’s a boy’s toy.

I know that certain colors are consider more feminine (pinks and pastels) and others more masculine (blue, although that is my daughter’s favorite color), and I try to take that into consideration and not have a limited palette – my mother always encouraged me to color with a box of 64 crayons, and I try to keep with that even today. So, it was a bit of a shock when I was told that my products were excluding boys. Why?

I make teddy bears, bunnies, foxes, Deadpool, Groot, gingerbread people….in what way is this excluding boys? How is this geared to girls in general? A boy can’t want a blue unicorn? A girl can’t want a baby Groot to snuggle? I don’t understand this concept.

I’m the first to admit, I am old-fashioned myself, my parents were old-school on most things and I have some of those tendencies, but I cannot see restricting what type of toy someone wants to snuggle with. Saying that a particular toy isn’t appropriate – or is too girly or masculine (in my opinion) only serves to confuse a child and make them think there is something wrong with them for wanting something, and then they work doubly hard to repress that desire, which can lead to problems later in life.

I’m not a girly, girl. I usually wear pants and t-shirts; I’m not super into fashion or makeup, but I love glitter and sparkles – why can’t I have both? Why can’t my daughter have baseball action figures and Tonka trucks and a boy wear pink tops and play with a baby doll? That doesn’t make them any less, it enriches them – shows them new worlds. It helps teach compassion, tolerance, acceptance.

Like I said, I know this is a controversial issue for some: Boys need to be men and girls need to be feminine. I don’t believe that is true. Gender isn’t defined by what we play with, the colors we like; it is what we feel. If my designs do skew too much to girls only and exclude boys, I am sorry for that – because I don’t think that anyone should be denied the warmth and love of a stuffed animal; stuffed animals are universal, they are non-judgemental, they love unconditionally. I would not want to be responsible for withholding that comfort and joy from anyone. However, I don’t see the Luvvies as being geared only to girls. I think there is something that everyone – regardless of gender and regardless of age – can find to provide additional love and support. At least that is my hope. This shouldn’t be something that works to further the differences between us, but cultivates more love and understanding.

With that said, I am going to try to look through my stock for the show and make sure I have a good representation of Luvvies. I want there to be something that everyone young, old, boy, girl will be able to love because that really is the most important thing: The greatest thing, we ever can do is to love and love in return (from “Nature Boy” by Nat King Cole).

Hugs and love to you all,

Elisha

My one year (re-learning) crochet anniversary is rapidly approaching, and with that I started thinking, in the past year, I wonder how many stitches I’ve actually made – and that includes ripping out pieces and starting again, and finished works.

Not only has my mind been thinking about these things with my crochet-versary on the horizon, but as I started a new project last night and was counting the rounds, I started wondering just how many stitches I’ve completed.

It’s funny, when I’m in the middle of a project, yes I’m counting my rounds to make sure I stay on track, but once a round is completed my internal counter resets to zero. And I just focus on the next round. But, as an accountant, numbers interest me greatly, so I was curious.

Taking just one pattern, my Captain America Snuggle Luvvie:

How many total stitches did I use for him? I went back to the pattern and started adding things up. Based on the stitches per row (not counting the embroidery), there are almost 2,800 stitches in this one piece (2,772 to be precise). And I made two of those close together, which is more than 5,500 stitches. That’s a pretty staggering number (for me, at least, as a newbie-ish crocheter). I know based on the size that the snuggle luvvies are probably the largest of my creations, but there are a lot of stitches in my other patterns, too.

Then, something the size of Hello Kitty is about 6,480 stitches for one – and I have made three of those trying to get the pattern correct, which is close to 20,000 stitches. Holy Moses!!!!

It is funny how when you are in the middle of something, even though you know there are a lot of stitches and detail that go into it and you know that you have counted a lot, it doesn’t really seem like that many, until you actually go back and look at it.

When I decided to use 525,600 (an homage to the song “Seasons of Love” from Jonathan Larsen’s Rent), I didn’t really think that it was going to be anywhere close to what I actually crocheted this year. I was thinking maybe 10,000 stitches to be reasonable. I think I may have been a lot closer than I knew.

So, I guess when it came to this past year (2017-18), if you would ask me, how did I measure the year: The answer would be happily in crochet stitches.

Hugs and cuddles,

Elisha

This has pretty much been the story of my life for the past month. I either end up wearing myself completely out so that I am falling asleep in mid-stitch on my couch and end up going to be ridiculously early; or, I am up until the wee hours of the morning and then have to get up at the crack of dawn and get no sleep – there is no in between.

As much as I love sleep, and as much as I will complain to friends and family that I always need a nap, I wouldn’t trade these past few weeks for anything.

Yes, I’ve been stressed at times – wondering will I have enough stock for Steel City Con (the first day is a little more than a week away); if people will like what I have made; or if I’ll even end up selling anything. For the past week or so, I’ve had a recurring nightmare that I have my table all set up and looking beautiful and no one buys anything. I’m just completely passed over.

Along with that fear, I also wonder about my pricing. I’m an accountant for my day job, so some of that automatically translates into what I am doing now: I know what my materials cost and what I need to sell for to at least break even. I don’t want to out price myself – or be too high above the competition; however, I don’t want to undercut any competition either.

Because of all these thoughts and fears going through my head, even on nights when I try to make it to bed at a reasonable hour, I find myself lying awake pondering how I came to this point. I do worry if I’ve made a mistake starting this as a business – some people are not cut out for business; and if I should have just kept this as something I do for fun. The other part of me – the one that wins out more often than not says, I’m going to be crocheting and finding new patterns anyhow, so I might as well at least get some income to help pay for the supplies and share some of the love.

Which brings me right back to where I started – I’m getting about 4 hours of sleep a night, there are days that I have blind panic wondering what I should be doing, if this is the right decision, if people are going to like my products – this is the first time I’m stepping out from behind the computer and really putting myself out there (even when I had the Etsy shop for my essential oil products I never ventured beyond the online aspect), but despite the stress and lack of sleep I am so happy with what I am doing. Seeing these lil’ cuties come to life gives me such joy.

I was finishing a Luvvie last night, and as she was getting the final fluff and touches, I couldn’t resist giving her a squeeze and loads of love – because that is really what it is about: It is the love I put into each stuffed animal, and the love that animal is able to “give” to its forever owner. So, yeah, sleep is vastly overrated if I can bring a little happiness into someone’s life.

I told y’all for someone whose first professional job after college was as a reporter, I am a terrible blogger. And, it’s not because I don’t have a lot to share with you all (because I do), it’s because I don’t have enough hours in my day (lol).

Probably the biggest announcement since the last time we chatted is that I have been approved as a vendor at Rhode Island Comic Con in November 2018. This will be only the second convention that I have attended, and it will definitely be the largest. I am so excited to be able to share my Luvvies with a wider audience, but terrified at the implication of interacting with that many people at once (and having enough supplies on hand).

Other than that, I have been having a blast exploring new patterns on Etsy – the ones I’m finding from One and Two Company, Yarn Society, and Storyland Amis are quickly becoming my favorites. They are so cute, and while most of them are using the same techniques that I’ve become familiar with, there are others that are testing my skills, and I’m having a blast.

One of the things I’ve been proudest of is my “mock” Mickey Mouse that I was able to get looking pretty darn close to the original. There still is room for improvement, but he is one of the most complicated pieces I’ve ever worked on, so I’m glad he is as cute as he is.

Thanks to the lovely ladies at 3amgracedesigns, I was able to make this awesome Awareness Ribbon Cuddler. The one above was my first attempt at the project, and I think it turned out pretty well (except I didn’t realize quite how large this was going to be and I ran out of yarn in the main color and had to stitch together in an accent color.

For my first one, I had to do green as it is for Organ Donor Awareness. When I was 9 (my daughter’s age now), my mother was diagnosed with chronic active hepatitis. By the time I was in high school, she was on the liver transplant list with a chance of six months survival. Thankfully the odds were in her favor and on February 1, 1995, she received a liver transplant, which kept her with us for an additional 21 years.

I have always been so grateful to the family who donated their loved one’s organs so that other people – including my mother – were able to live. I have been a very strong advocate of organ donation ever since, so it was only fitting that the Organ Donor awareness cuddler was my first.

I also worked to update my Hello Kitty pattern to make sure she is ship shape for Steel City Con. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to smuggle her away from my baby bear, but she is safely tucked away and ready for the convention. I still need to work on getting the whiskers a little more prominent and even, so I am 98% happy with her.

My track record with dolls has not been the best. My experiment with Belle from Beauty and the Beast is one that I would care not to relive, and somewhere in my living room is an abandoned human Ariel from the Little Mermaid who still needs a second arm. But this pattern from One and Two Company was so sweet that I had to try to make it. Overall, I think she turned out rather good. Her little skirt turned out absolutely adorable – it is so fluffy.

Which leads me to my most recently completed project. I absolutely fell in love with this little gingerbread boy from Storyland Amis. From his overstuffed little head, to the cute little gumdrop buttons, I loved making this sweetheart.

I worried for a bit when I started making it that I wasn’t going to have enough of the color that I started with. I used Vanna’s Choice in Honey: It was a new skein when I started, but after the head was done, I started to get a tad worried. However, it all worked out, and I had some yarn to spare. I’ve made a gingerbread person before (with a different pattern), but there was something about this one that I just fell in love with. I think I need to make his sister soon.

Now, the $64,000 question is what am I going to start on next. With T-minus 24 days until Steel City Con, I do need to make some more items for stock, but what type? Do I make more generic Luvvies (like my little gingerbread boy and my hula girl)? Do I work to focus more on the superhero genre? Somewhere in the middle?

Hopefully by the time I get home from work tonight, I’ll be able to settle on one project or another. The time is drawing close and I want to make a good premiere showing.

Hugs and cuddles,

Elisha

There is a lot of serious issues we are faced with every day when it comes to the news and what is happening, perhaps, in our own families. One of the things I try to do with this blog is to keep things light – I am talking about (and hopefully trying to sell) stuffed animals, it isn’t on the same level with finding the cure for cancer, and I hope my tone usually reflects that.

However, this is going to be one of those rare occasions when I have something a little weightier to say. That alone is a terrifying concept for me, because I do not like confrontation and try to avoid it like the plague; but, this is something that I have not been able to shake, and it needs to be said.

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