Ah, WordPress, How I Neglect Thee So!

On 17th Oct 2021 By woollymakerIn crafts and hobbies, knitting, writingLeave a comment

It’s been a while since I’ve posted consistently here. I’ve got to say that writing on Medium has now taken over my life!

Just today I posted 2 posts over there, each about 1000 words. I’ve been posting there everyday and it’s shown in the stats and the payments.

But, I feel like I’m neglecting this lil blog a bit and I had this one before Medium! So, what else have I been up to?

Crafting

I’ve cast on a pink knitted baby hat and have done only about 6cm of the rib. I only started that last night, but it shouldn’t take me long and then next to cast on is a matching baby cardigan or jumper.

I’m still crocheting and knitting baby blankets and I haven’t done any more of my knitted socks! Too much writing happening that the knitting also takes a back seat!

I went through my fabric and wool drawers and boxes and have 2 bags of stuff I don’t want any more. I’m not sure what to do with them as a lot of charity shops can be funny about craft supplies. I might see if a local primary school wants any of it. There’s card blanks, paint brushes, fabric…all sorts.

And yet I still don’t seem to have any more room, after I got rid of 2 bags of craft supplies, 4 bags to the charity shop and 2 bags of paper recycling!

I was ruthless last week, going through all my old knitting magazines and patterns I’d pulled from magazines and put into my knitting folder. I threw out so much stuff that I realistically was never going to use.

Print on Demand

Not much done for RedBubble and Society 6, although I did update the shop banner yesterday. I made a sale on RedBubble yesterday (yay!) and that prompted me to have a look. I was excited for a moment as I thought I’d crossed the payment threshold, but nope! Still need another 20p haha!

I’m going to have to have a look this week at print on demand stuff, but it’s still fun. Just a bit neglected too at the moment.

Writing

Apart from Medium, I did set up an e-mail system but I just haven’t had chance to even look at that. I might do soon, but it’s 8pm now and I want to come off the computer soon! Tomorrow is Sunday, so I’ll see if I can send out an e-mail tomorrow.

I’ve also let Etsy and the Amazon book I was writing slide a bit…there is just not enough hours to write! I thought since I’m a fast typer that writing would be quick for me, but it’s been surprisingly time consuming. That’s without my second WordPress blog and my website which both need content.

Affiliates

On the plus side I have joined up and applied to join a few more affiliate schemes which is fun. I haven’t been using them in Medium posts as I submit them to publications and they each have their own rules about what links you can use. But I think I’ll try and do a few more in the near future!

I joined Cadbury’s affiliate scheme (you should be able to see a banner on the sidebar). Yay chocolate!

The whole passive income side of things is slow going, but still fun. The amount of things I’ve learned this year has been unreal!

Christmas

I can’t believe I’ve bought my first Christmas present of the year already. For some people this is early, for others late.

I don’t like leaving it all to the last minute anymore and I NEVER buy anything on Christmas Eve – too last minute, rushed and busy!

I bought my brother a few books and ordered another one. And the fact that it was double points at Waterstones until today…well so much the better!

I’ve decided not to make any more decorations this year, either sewn or knitted as I have no room to store them! Maybe some people might get a mini knitted stocking or something like that, but I’m not doing big things. Need to focus on other crafty things!

Saying that though, I might make another hat or some mittens or myself if I have time. Socks and baby stuff come first though…

Anyway, that was a bit of a ramble through my head and where I’m at right now.

Still plodding on with things, not as much crafting going on as I would like, but I’m sure I will make a lot of progress with things now that I finished my jumper a few weeks ago.

Hope you’re having a fun and productive weekend and I’ll try to get back into the swing of posting a bit more regularly. 🙂

Here’s a few popular posts I’ve written on Medium:

View at Medium.com

Updates and Life Stuff

On 20th Sep 2021 By woollymakerIn writing1 Comment

This post has the F word in your face, so if you’re a sensitive soul then look away now!

It has been a week or two since I’ve been on WordPress. I feel a bit like a traitor…I’ve jumped ship, so to speak!

Writing

I’ve been writing so much on Medium lately, that it’s kind of taken over my writing life. There’s no more words leftover for on here! I’ve written over 10,000 words since Friday, they are literally pouring out of me. LITERALLY.

And it’s been my best month for stories, stats and earnings. Mostly because I’ve been submitting to publications on there and getting the hang of how to write, if not viral pieces, then at least pieces that hook people in and make them want to read on.

It’s been fun! This piece was published in Writer’s Blokke publication on Medium yesterday. It’s now my second most viewed story of all time! No surprises why when you read the title – How Medium Has Turned Into Lord Voldemort!

And this one just got published into Fuck Niches publication…

Screenshot by me of a publication I submitted that valuable, information-rich article to!!

Because apparently I just had to write about Jedi Force Farts…

Knitting

Anyway, enough about Medium, I’ve been trying to get more progress done on my orange knitted jumper. I’m kind of sad to say only about 12 rows or so since the last update. But it’s hard to find the time to concentrate on knitting at the moment when it’s all about the writing!

Last night for example, everyone else in the house had gone to bed and I was busy trying to type quietly at my computer as a ‘great’ story idea popped into my head and I just HAD to write it down! I came off the loud keyboard and onto my iPad and used the app to continue writing until almost midnight. And then sleepy time.

So when is there time to knit?!

But so far, I haven’t made any mistakes in the main pattern. It’s not a difficult pattern as long as you pay attention to what you’re knitting. When I did the back last year I made a few silly booboos which only I can see because I know they’re there. But this time round…perfect!

I’ve also done a few more rows of my Sock Yarn Shawl…but since it’s really thin wool, you can’t really tell!

It’s September and it’s been so sunny and warm lately. I think I might go for a walk and try to get away from the computer desk…even though I don’t want to!

Banana Bread Recipe

I made a banana bread loaf on Saturday to use up some old bananas. I used a recipe by Kirsty Allsopp, let me see if I can find it.

Ah! Here we go…

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/you/article-4841032/Kirstie-s-Real-Kitchen-Banana-cake.html

I didn’t add the salt or vanilla as I have it written down somewhere and I obviously didn’t copy all if it! Also I think there are several versions of this floating around the inter webs. I wouldn’t add vanilla to something like this anyway so…it’s optional, I guess!

But it’s quite yummy!

The only thing I would say would be to use less than 4 bananas…maybe 3 medium sized ones. But it depends on how banana-ry you want it!

Tweet A Bookshop!

Getting used to using Twitter, I decided to Tweet Waterstones (a bookshop chain here in the UK) to see if they could recommend any books about writing (for writer’s). Here’s what they had to say:

They recommended On Writing by Stephen King, On Writers and Writing by Margaret Atwood and Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott.

I’ve got and read the first 2, but not the 3rd. I’m going to ask for it for either my Birthday or Christmas

Still getting my head around Twitter…but I’m getting there!

What else?

A lot, but this post is taking me so long to write that I’m going to have to go and get a drink and run a few errands now!

Hope you had a great weekend and are on the way to a fun and productive week. As for me, you won’t be surprised to hear I’m going to try and write a bit more today and maybe, if there’s time do a bit of knitting…:)

Sign up to join Medium here (if you sign up using my referral link I’ll receive a portion of your membership fee at no extra cost to you).

[This post contains affiliate links which means if you click the link and make a purchase, I get a small commission of that purchase at no extra cost to you!]

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5 Things This Week

On 9th Sep 20219th Sep 2021 By woollymakerIn crafts and hobbies, writing2 Comments

I’ve been a bit quiet over here this week but I’ve been busy beavering away at other things. Even managed to get in a spot of crafting or two.

This week in general has been a week of little but long errands, like yesterday was my car’s MOT, but I went to a new place so had to drive a bit further than usual, so it was a little but long errand!

And there have been more appointments for people and picking up and that sort of thing, which leaves you feeling you only have half a day to do stuff.

Anyway, this is what I’ve been up to this week:

1. I joined Twitter!

I had such a busy day yesterday with the errands, writing 3 articles for Medium, picking up people, doing household chores etc. that I decided to join a new social media platform too. I used to have a personal account years ago, in fact I only joined it then because I was forced to for a university project. I’ve never understood it much or loved it in all honesty, but I’m trying to be more social and business minded on the internet.

Which means that Pinterest just isn’t enough! Whilst I do have an Instagram account for Woolly Orbit, I only have 3 crappy posts on there, I’m beginning to hate Instagram with all the videos and I don’t use Facebook. Which is what I’ll have to eventually do if I want to progress with the sharing and marketing side of things, but anyway back to Twitter.

I have a few tweets and I’m just getting started, so stuff will change in the future, especially when I finally sort out branding and everything!

I’m @woollyorbit if you want to come say hello and help me figure out the platform!!

It also means I can do this here:

2. I’ve started to upload to my Society 6 shop

I joined a few months ago, but have been focussing on RedBubble. This week I looked at both Spoonflower and Society 6. Spoonflower needs a lot before I launch patterns as I need to order samples and so I’m going to wait until I have a lot of designs uploaded and ready to go.

But as of today, I have 5 designs live on Society 6. And OMG what a pain to get the file sizes! I’m glad I kept the Photoshop subscription as some of the file sizes are HUGE. And you need different dimensions – square, vertical, horizontal etc.

BUT I like the products they have over there…they have bar stools and deckchairs and yoga mats. They have a credenza! I’d never even heard of that before…but I can stick a simple design on one!

Screenshot (I can do those now) of a credenza on Society 6

I like the furniture they have on Society 6, although not so much the prices, but you know – furniture!

So, I’m going to keep going with that, even though it takes me a lot longer to upload each design onto the platform.

https://society6.com/woollyorbit

So that’s fun!

3. Medium – Publications and More

I won’t go into the details on here, but if you want to get your stuff read on Medium, you have to submit to publications. Which I haven’t been doing because I’ve been focussing on my writing. Also, the submitting and signing up process scares me!

Anyone on Medium can create a publication. They are just another part of the platform.

Imagine if you could create a group blogging section on WordPress and invite other bloggers or accept articles on relevant topics to your group. That’s kind of like what the publications are like on Medium, except the bigger ones get thousands of views and followers, and so your post is more likely to get seen and therefore read by more people. Hope that makes sense!

Anyway, not only did I write 3 posts on there yesterday, but I also left an add me as a writer comment on my first publication which might take a while to get accepted (he does say on the submission guidelines he only checks it once or twice a month). In the meantime, I’m making a list of potential publications that could work for me and I’m going to try and submit a few articles to them in the coming days and weeks.

First I need to spend a bit of time actually writing a REALLY good article!

I do have my own publication which is called Woolly Orbit Passive Income (no surprises there!) but I’m not doing much with it. Maybe now I have Twitter I can promote the publication itself on there as well as the articles themselves?

So, that’s another side of Medium I’ve been looking at.

If you want to follow my writing on Medium, you can subscribe via e-mail here:

https://woollyorbit.medium.com/subscribe

Or, if you want to join Medium you can use my referral link here (if you use this link then I’ll receive a portion of your Medium fees at no extra cost to you)

https://woollyorbit.medium.com/membership

4. I’ve been watching…

Simple Living Alaska

Skeindeer Knits

This Is Kachi

5. Finishing Miscellaneous Craft Bits And Bobs

A bit of crafting done this week but not much ‘big’ progress!

I’m just sewing in the ends of my Christmas Crochet Blanket right now and then I need to decide what to do with it. Where to donate it.

I love it, I love the colours and the fact it’s a Christmas blanket…but I have 5 blankets already and they’re just the ones I can think of off the top of my head. So, to charity with this one!

I’m also doing one more round of black cross stitch for the placemat I finished last week. I might see how much thread is left and do another round after that…but there’s not much black left. I just thought it would be easier to sew up if there was a bit of wriggle room when sewing the edges.

I’ve done about 10 rows on my knitted orange jumper. I am getting sick of writing that phrase on here…knitted orange jumper, knitted orange jumper! It doesn’t even have a pattern name, I don’t think! I’m on the home stretch for it now though.

Here’s a previous post about it.

Knitted Jumper Progress

And I’m about to cast on a pair of vanilla socks by Winwick Mum.

There’s no photos because they don’t look all that much different from previous posts for everything here…and I’ve been writing at the computer for hours today and I want a break!!

So, that’s pretty much it for now. It’s been another week of half days.

And a heatwave…29 degrees celsius yesterday and the day before. I thought summer was over, in fact I was getting ready to put all my summer clothes away!

I’ll try and post a bit more over here, but you know, I get carried away writing!

Two of my most recent posts on Medium:

https://woollyorbit.medium.com/what-youtube-has-taught-me-about-homesteading-in-the-usa-f821d0e2c728

https://woollyorbit.medium.com/how-to-update-your-redbubble-store-ed8085fea436

LATEST POSTS:

August Goals Update

On 10th Aug 20219th Aug 2021 By woollymakerIn blogging, crafts and hobbies, writingLeave a comment

I wrote a blog post a week or so ago about my goals for August – you can find that post here:

August Goals – Crafting and Work

I’m not going through all of them here, but I’ve managed a bit in this last week. Even though the last week has had lots of things like hospital appointments and other errands that need a bit of driving or planning.

And it’s been miserable weather! Dark and gloomy and rainy…I can’t even get motivated to go out for a walk when it’s like this!

Crafts

I’ve been writing the last week, in fact I managed almost 5000 words last Monday, as well as editing and proofreading and scribbling ideas for things. So, not a lot of crafting is what I’m getting at.

But, I have been looking at websites and reading and dreaming. And that is just as fun sometimes. Looking at knitting patterns and flicking through my craft books.

I have a book about top down sweaters that I’m desperate to try a pattern from, as well as lots that I’ve seen on Ravelry and other places.

Actual crafting this week? I did some more cross-stitch, not enough to show and I did bake a loaf of bread and do some more on my orange jumper…but not enough progress made to justify photos and making a big deal – just a few rows really.

Funny, I actually got out my orange jumper to knit a bit last night and then I put it away without doing anything at all as I wanted to write and scribble instead of knit!

The EXACT same amount of progress since the last picture I showed you…because this IS the last picture I showed you!

Writing

As I said above I’ve been writing a lot. I don’t feel in the mood to write much right this moment and yet here I am, writing this blog post. That’s the real secret – write even when you don’t feel like it!

I wrote and published 3 posts on Medium last week, one was a whopper from a few days before that I just let and sat for a bit before editing it yesterday. The others I wrote from scratch yesterday.

And I published 3 more today.

I did set myself a goal to upload every day on Medium in August (the same on this blog) but it hasn’t happened on Medium yet. The articles over there are more like actual articles and here I can be quicker with my writing!

I’m getting to grips with Medium a bit more, actually following people and publications and still figuring out how to format my own publication!

I’m enjoying it so far, but I’m finding that if I do a day of solid writing, I don’t feel like doing that the next day!

Here is the link to the massive post about using affiliate links:

https://woollyorbit.medium.com/affiliate-links-and-some-practical-ways-to-use-them-2f72cbd45789

And here is a weekly roundup. I’m doing over there, where I try to track my progress of the week. Hint, last week there wasn’t much!

https://woollyorbit.medium.com/progress-report-3-69cb0e7eac88

I bought a magazine called Writing Magazine to read. There are 2 main writing magazines in the UK…Writer’s Forum is thinner and has fewer articles about writing and more stuff written by readers (like the winners of each monthly writing competition get their story published) but I like the layout better. It’s easy to read and the flow of the magazine works for me.

Writing Magazine is full of good articles, there’s a useful section at the back with info about competitions, who is hiring etc. But it’s so crammed in with words I find it difficult to know where to look. It’s too overwhelming with their layout for me! Also, it feels like every page has a different font and style…I don’t think that’s the case in reality, but it’s how it feels to me and it’s really off-putting!

Anyway…I’m reading that later!

Passive Income

I’ve joined several affiliate schemes and I even published my own Amazon KDP notebook (it came on Saturday…I’ve redone the cover, but I just wanted to see the process of self-publishing a book on Amazon, which is really easy by the way!). I need to wait for the cover to re-upload which can take a few days and I’ve added a couple more (text based cover designs) to Amazon, so we’ll see how they look once they’re finished uploading.

Here is a work in progress author copy of the book. I’m glad I ordered it, even though I’m making changes to the cover. Just ignore the rubbish photography!

I haven’t signed up to Substack yet, but I looked through everything I could on the website the other day, so I think I’ve done all the research I can. The same with Fiverr.

I made my first sale from RedBubble last week too – yay! 3 x stickers if you’re interested. I’ve been adding more to RedBubble for the past couple of weeks so I think I’ll continue with that! Up to 172 designs now I think off the top of my head.

I’ve done nothing with the other places like Spoonflower etc…I just need to figure out the formatting because each place wants files in different sizes and some like CMYK and others like RGB colour systems. So, it’s figuring it all out beforehand before getting really stuck in.

This week the goal is my Etsy shop. I want 10 listings ready to go…I’ve lost all motivation with that, so I need to get it back! I need to re-read Deep Work by Cal Newport!

I’ve been pinning loads to Pinterest – that takes time and it looks like I’ve done nothing!

Latest Posts:

Medium First Story Posted

On 6th May 20215th May 2021 By woollymakerIn writingLeave a comment

My first post is written and published on Medium. Yay!

It says it’s a 7 min read…well, all I can say is that it didn’t take 7 minutes to write!!!

And I managed to sign up for their Partner Program too. 1 story (it’s a blog post really, they just call it a story) down and only about a hundred more to go.

I didn’t even think about having a nice picture to go with it, so it’s currently image-less. And it’s more of a stream of consciousness kind of post of where I’m up to with things.

I’ve decided to keep this blog as a more crafty space, which is more about knitting, sewing, crochet, baking, maybe a bit about reading and writing, and everyday life. Maybe some design elements will creep in here and there, but for the most part this will be more of a diary, old style type blog.

What I write on Medium will be more of my Passive Income financial journey…what new sites I’ve signed up for, what I’m learning about whether technology or money based. And be more of a curated and sort of professional-is space. Although I realise the irony of saying I’m going to be more professional and not having a picture to add to the post, but you get my meaning.

Here is the link if you want to have a read. You get a few free stories to read a month before you have to pay $5 a month for a subscription.

If you like writing here on WordPress, it might be an option to sign up to their Partner Program, I’m sure there are lots of ways you could re-purpose your content!

Read my first post on Medium here

Below is a random picture of a sassy looking pigeon because I’m obviously prepared for writing this blog post…see I have a picture ready to go and everything!