The plans
Hi! Just a ‘quick’ note from me about the progress of my plans!
I recently revealed that I have new plans for my videos and my websites. I am currently working on a series of videos to teach beginners how to crochet. I will also make pattern videos, so that it remains interesting for experienced crocheters, and I will do the same for knitting. An ambitious plan, but that is what I actually intended The Crafsteacher for a long time ago.
Learning curve
The past few weeks have been a real learning curve for me! My husband always filmed, and I did the editing of the videos afterwards and I did the associated things for posting on YouTube and the things for my websites. Always more work than I estimate in advance, I am actually not a very good planner in that respect . I also do everything twice, for my Dutch channel and website (De Handwerkjuf) and for my English channel and website.
Because I am now going to make a lot of and generally shorter recordings, and my husband is quite busy with the maintenance of our old house (from 1880!), I decided to do the filming myself, with my mobile phone. I also did not want to have to convert my hobby room into a studio with all kinds of lamps and tidy everything up every time, because I also have other hobbies that require space.
That did cause some technical challenges. I not only wanted to be able to see what I was filming on a screen, but I also wanted to be able to zoom in and out. So I had to look for software that made that possible for me and then I also had to learn how it all worked. In any case, I am happy with what I found.
Shorts and videos for left-handers
Then I realized that shorts are of course something you can hardly avoid these days. And of course it is also useful to be able to quickly watch something again if you have first watched the extensive course video and have more or less mastered what was shown. Because that has to be filmed vertically, you have to make your recordings again. Moreover, those shorts can only be short, so you have to think about how to make your subject quickly understandable. That also caused extra content and technical challenges, because editing with my software had to be approached differently.
And last but not least: I actually wanted to make the videos suitable for left-handers! I only thought of that after I had already recorded a few videos (a bit silly, I could have thought of that earlier of course!) Those who are in my Dutch group of the Hooked and Locked CALs have probably already seen this, because I definitely wanted to know how to do that. My husband really doubted whether it could be ‘as simple’ as mirroring. And so I started to doubt too . But after watching some existing videos I saw that my idea had to work.
The current status and what still needs to be done
The score is now that I have 32(!) videos ready to be released soon! Half for my Dutch channel and website, the other half for my English channel and website. I have almost completed all YouTube activities for that! These videos are a minimal basic set that starts at the very beginning of the setup to finishing your threads. Of course, this needs to be supplemented with many more videos to be able to speak of a real course. In any case, I have now been able to develop a way of working that enables me to make subsequent videos faster.
What still needs to be done is to make the associated items available via my website, so that you can quickly jump to the videos you are looking for (also via the playlists I have made for YouTube), but where you can also find and download pattern drawings that belong to a video. And also some general information that is useful. I have not done any technical maintenance on my websites for months, so that is also part of it.
So it really is a lot of work! But it is a lot of fun to do! And for me, as a former software developer, it is also fun to try out new technical gadgets! I hope I can get everything completely finished this week, or at least next weekend, so the very first basic series can be released.
How can you help me? With a shocking fact!
I know most of you are already experienced crocheters, but I hope that you will first do a little advertising for me when you hear that someone wants to learn to crochet! Then refer to my website or my YouTube channel. And if you are already an experienced crocheter, then please take a look to see if there is a video that can teach you something.
And then this, which actually came as a bit of a shock to me. Did you know that 93.5% of my viewers are not subscribed to my channel? I have 1.6 million views now, so I think I’m doing pretty well, but it could be so much better if I had more subscribers. It really makes a big difference to me! I don’t have deals with yarn manufacturers, and I don’t sell courses (I do have patterns on Ravelry, click here). Of course I could do that, but I want to spread my knowledge and skills for free. Of course, nothing is really free, because viewers ‘pay’ by watching commercials or by subscribing to YouTube Premium, but my goal for now is to make things accessible to everyone, especially those who are less fortunate. I believe in free education where possible! So do you want to help me out? Subscribe to my YouTube channel! (click here!) And give my videos a thumbs up if you like them. A quick little action with a big effect for me!
What am I going to do after the first video series is released?
I am going to make a lot more videos. I think I will also crochet some patterns first (the stitches, not entire projects), so that it is also fun for the experienced crocheters. I will also release them in smaller pieces, at a higher pace if possible, so not entire series at once. I don’t want to commit to a fixed schedule (I have worked with bosses’ schedules long enough ), so if you are subscribed to my channel, turn on the bell that ensures that you receive a message for every video I post, then you can easily stay informed without having to do anything yourself!
I wish you all good days for now and see you until my starter series of crochet videos starts!
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