Feb 9, 2015
This Week’s Episode
In this week’s episode, I interview Lorene Eppolite from Cre8tion Crochet and Kathy Lashley from ELK Studio Handcrafted Crochet Design about the weekly Crochet Business Chat Live event they co-host on Mondays at 12 noon Eastern in the ELK Studio Crocheters Facebook group. We also talk about connecting with your audience and the crochet industry as a whole.
About Lorene Eppolite
Lorene Eppolite is a crochet designer, blogger, and owner of Cre8tion Crochet. In addition to her website, you can find her online on Facebook, Pinterest, Ravelry, Twitter, and YouTube. Lorene started as a maker, but people would often ask for the patterns for the projects she shared on Facebook.
Lorene soon converted her blog to be focused on designing. After meeting Corina Gray from Stitch11 in a mommy group, she began monetizing her blog. Lorene runs Cre8tion Crochet full time, and is also the mother of three children.
About Kathy Lashley
Kathy Lashley is a crochet designer, blogger, and owner of ELK Studio Handcrafted Crochet Design. You can also find her online on Etsy, Facebook (on the ELK Studio page and in the ELK Studio Crocheters group), Pinterest, and Twitter. Kathy is a sonographer who recently earned a Master’s in Business Administration from Auburn University.
Kathy also started her crochet business as a maker, but grew bored of making the same things. She had been blogging for some time on advice from a class speaker, and later set up the ELK Studio blog to promote her crochet business. She started monetizing her blog in March, 2014. After earning her MBA, Kathy decided to continue her crochet business. She now works part-time as a sonographer and manages ELK Studio as a part-time business.
About the Interview
In this interview, we discuss about how Kathy started the weekly Crochet Business Chat Live event in the ELK Studio Crocheters Facebook group, and how she teamed up with Lorene as a co-host. We also talk about the information they both share about the business of crochet on their blogs and through social media. Listen to the episode to hear more about how designers and makers can work together, advice for connecting with your audience, pricing and wholesaling for makers, and how Lorene and Kathy view branding, competition, mentoring, and more!
If you enjoyed this episode
The Creative Yarn Entrepreneur Show is no longer broadcasting. Episodes are available as a service to the yarn community. This episode originally aired in February, 2015. Be aware that content may be outdated.
If you'd like to chat with other yarn-related business owners, join the Creative Yarn Entrepreneurs Facebook group. Support Marie's work by buying one of her books, Make Money Teaching Crochet: Launch Your Business, Increase Your Side Income, Reach More Students (Amazon | Gumroad) or Design It, Promote It, Sell It: Online Marketing for Your Crochet and Knit Patterns (Amazon | Gumroad).