1-2-18 New Year, New Focus

It's been nearly two months since my last post, and within that period we had Thanksgiving, I got married, and we had Christmas. It feels like the past two months went by at the speed of light, and the Queen Stitch... she got put on the back burner... and that's okay.

Also I friggin love the holidays, I feel like you guys already know

I released this free 'Frosty Beanie' pattern! Is that enough?

Look how much holiday spirit! - from the Summer 2016 collection! ha!

The holidays, and the colder weather are two big triggers for knitwear sales and I had to force myself to watch and not act. I made the specific choice not to. Planning a wedding is essentially the equivalent of having a second full-time job, but instead of with co-workers it's the added stress of trying to make all your family members happy, pull off the event of a lifetime, all while trying to keep the true focus of partnering yourself to another human being for the rest of your life, come what may. And I'm happy I made the choice to put everything I had towards my family, the event, and my new husband Peter.

I made this heart cut-out top for my rehearsal dinner with The Rare Creature 'Loop' organic cotton yarn <3

This is me and Peter on Dec 8th 2017 in Brooklyn, NY. (extra <3)

BUT. That's done now. 2017 is done now. And what a year to reflect on! I hit a couple of Queen Stitch milestones this year thanks to the support of my fans + supporters and I feel so lucky, encouraged, and happy to have had the fulfillment and challenge of a small business! Here were a couple of highlights:

I broke even on my investment with the Queen Stitch, not quite profitable yet, but I'm right on the margin!
I partnered for the first time with a major yarn company, Paintbox Yarns, to release the Bralette Bonanza this summer!
I broke 4,000 instagram fans
I learned to knit and released my first knit pattern!
I launched my website
I collaborated on a NYFW fashion line!
Collaborated on the Stitch&Hustle kit shop
I started teaching crochet courses at CraftJam in NYC

Feeling blessed. Not all of it was fun and games of course, it took sacrifice and risk, and a lot of nail biting; it also took hard work, great mentors, and a lot of help. 2018 will have its own personal challenges, but I am determined and excited to renew my focus on The Queen Stitch. I sat down and laid out my goals for the year, and there are quite a fair few! It really seems like a lot now that I'm sitting here writing it all down, but if I could do all that in 2017, why not be a little overly ambitious??

My 2018 goals:

Plan out my months a bit better ahead of time
- Have a set number of blog posts and pattern releases per month!
- Actually send out my newsletter once a month!
Release some new exclusive kits
Meet some new makers!
Release the Bralette Bonanza 2
Learn to knit a top-down sweater
Learn to knit cables

What are your goals for the new years? Have I missed any? I realized that none of my goals are economically focused, e.g. "I want to make 10k in sales this year". Rather, my goals are in terms of building the business, development and output. This last year was the first full calendar year of the Queen Stitch existing, and as I mentioned before, it's been a bit of an unpredictable one with my personal and professional life, so hopefully next year I'll be able to create a baseline to jump off of... but we'll just have to see won't we! Bye 2017!

xx Katie

Katie JagelJanuary 2, 2018