What makes me happy

All year I've been crocheting up projects for other people and have had no time to create new patterns or even graphs. You want to know something? I like it! I really, really like it. Everyone in the crocheting world seems to agree that the money is in the patterns and that made me feel like I was unsuccessful as an artist (who barely warranted the name!) and that I needed to get off my lazy good-for-nothing butt and write up patterns! Since that didn't make me happy, I dragged my feet doing it and I felt rather like a failure in the business. Now I've found what really makes me happy: crocheting finished items. I want to make high-quality, affordable, beautiful items for people to love. This business, Kendra's Crocheted Creations, is what *I* want it to be. I do not have to conform to what I think others expect of me. I have been happier this past year making things for other people than I have been in a long time. I'm going to continue making finished items to sell, personalized items, unique items. Special orders. This is what I like to do. This is where my talents lie. This is what makes me happy. If I write up a pattern to work from and it works I will of course pass it on as usual. But I will not feel guilty for working from someone else's pattern. Yeah, I did that. I thought "I'm the professional, I should be writing up my own patterns to work from to be taken seriously." Forget that! Yes, I can work things up without a pattern but I always feel like they're not good enough or that somebody else did it so much better. So be it. I do not need to be the best pattern writer. Sometimes, it's ok to let someone else do the hard part and for me to do the easy part. Here are some samples of what I've been up to this year.