Crochet a Dishcloth

Make a sturdy dishcloth that will last!


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How to Knit Children's Slippers

Cute slippers to knit for your favourite child. Or sell online. Whatever. You can do whatever you like with them 😆

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How to Knit Socks

Another one of my favourite things to make, socks! They are one of those things that you can make as individual as you are.  

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Self-Publishing Your Patterns and How-to's (Pt. 2)

Like many things in my life, self-publishing is a continual process and I keep learning new things as I go. My latest project Simple Seed Bead Rings You Can Make was the biggest and most elaborate that I've taken on yet. It is so big, as a matter of fact, that my "simple" little how-to grew large enough that it required a table of contents. All of my previous patterns were short and sweet, but my ring tutorial gave directions to make 5 different rings, with some of them calling back on previously learnt techniques. With the digital format, it's very simple to create a clickable link in the document that allows the user to go right to the point that you are talking about. 

For example, I demonstrated how to to add an extra row of beads to a ring. In another design, part of the pattern calls for the reader to ad an extra row. Instead of having to write out the instructions again, I created a bookmark to the instructions I wrote previously and create a link in the document highlighting the words "ad an extra row". Now, if the reader already knows how to do it, great! They can pass by it. But, if they forgot, or haven't done it already, it's easy to find in a simple click.

It is very easy to set up bookmarks and a table of contents (ToC as it's called). I found this article posted in the Amazon forums on how to format your book that is sure to help. It is written for those using Word, but if you are like me and don't have this program, not to worry. I found a program called Open Office. It is a free program that you can download from their website.  It offers all the same features as Microsoft Word. The bookmark feature that you need to automatically create the links and Table of Contents (ToC), operates in the exact same way.

Another very valuable lesson I learnt with my latest project - Shrink your photos! My new tutorial has over 100 photos and when left them in their original size, the document I created was so huge is was almost embarrassing. I recommend that you make your photos no larger than 300 pixels square. The eReaders shrink your photos even further but this size will give you enough to work with and still be manageable. 

After I realised my photo mistake, I went back to edit and save my photos twice. The first was to crop them to eliminate any extraneous background from the photos, and to save them in a new file. I then shrunk them to be no bigger than 260 pixels wide (just to be safe and to make my document that much more manageable) and saved them AGAIN in another folder marked smalls.

I did this for two reasons: the first was to create the ebook. The second is that I want to have my pattern available to users of Amazon Prime, especially for the holidays coming up.   For a publisher, this is listed as the KDP Select program and I will let you know how this goes for me. 

But back to my point.  One of the stipulations to have a book in the Amazon Prime program is that it has to be exclusive to Kindle. There can't be a digital copy for sale anywhere else, including Etsy, ArtFire, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, etc. BUT you can still sell hard copies AKA books. What I plan to do is reformat my ring how-to and then print and sell the booklet. This means I can use larger photos than I did for my ebook and why I save them in two sizes.

It's also important to remember, that not all of the readers (i.e. Kobo, Kindle) are in colour. Depending on what your photos show or demonstrate, you may need to take into consideration the contrast between colours when they appear in black and white. 

I also wanted to give a quick update on how things went with Smashwords. Great news!! I am now officially on most of the devices that are out there because of them!  I'm on Barnes and Noble, iTunes and Diesel. I am still not on Kobo. To date have sold 1 copy and looking at my stats at Smashwords, I haven't got a whole lot of paritial downloads either.  I guess something is better than nothing.

As far as Lulu.com is concerned, they rejected my submitted patterns because they didn't have a table of contents. It would be easy enough to make one, now that I know how, but since I'm already listed on Barnes and Noble and iBookstore, I see no reason to go back to edit them.

By far the most successful platform I'm selling on is Kindle. As I stated in Part 1 of my self-publishing adventures, I went directly through this one.  As of right now, I usually sell 3-4 patterns a week. Lately, my bracelet how-to has taken off and I sell 1 every few days and sometimes more. I'm not sure if it's because of the upcoming holiday and people want to make gifts or if it's something else. To be honest, the "why" really isn't that important to me. I'm just happy that this is working!

To continue on my self-publishing journey, please continue on to Part 3.

Seed Bead Rings You Can Make

Design your own ring with this bead graphing paper.

Thanks for stopping by my page.  I hope you are enjoying the seed bead ring tutorial. If you haven't seen it yet, you can use the link below to check it out on Kindle.  Don't have a Kindle?  No problem!  You can always download it to your computer and read it using amazon's free app.

The following are the rings that my how-to teaches you to make:

I know some folks like to see a little of what they are going to get so here are a few sample pages.



The Art of Self-Publishing Your Patterns & How-to's

Once upon a time, a lady lived in a small community in northern Canada wondering how she could ever sell her patterns to the world. She knew people would enjoy them and try as she might, she had a heck of a time getting people to buy them. That is until she discovered self-publishing!

This may come as a shock, but I am referring to me (a stunned silence falls over the crowd.  One can hear a single, small gasp of awe).  I have a total of 3 patterns that I have for sale and since this option has come to light for me, I have to say I am very impressed!

I sold my PDF patterns in my

Etsy shop and through PayLoadz for over a year now, but recently decided that I should give the other retailers a try.  Hands down the best success I have had to date is selling my ePatterns through Amazon on Kindle!  I have sold 6 copies over the last two weeks.  Some may think that's not much but Rome wasn't built in a day either.  And needless to mention, it's pretty cool to be able to say, "Yeah.  I'm an author on Amazon."  It's a nice ego boost!

It's also great because they offer a free ebook reader regardless of what device you are on, even your computer.  This is great because even if a potential customer doesn't have a Kindle they can still download my patterns and read them!

I continued to do a little more research and discovered that I can also sell my digital versions on Nook - the Barnes & Noble version.  Unfortunately, as a Canadian I don't have a US address, bank account, etc.  Oh but wait!  There are always other ways around these pesky little rules.  That is where Lulu.com and Smashwords.com came into play.  Lulu.com will submit your pattern to Barnes & Noble and iBookstore (it's like iTunes) for you.  Smashwords.com submits to all of the major ePub distributors including Kindle, Barnes & Noble, iBookstore, Kobo and more.  I'm doing both myself.  Which ever of the two gets my work into these venues first is the one I am going with.

So now down to the nitty gritty of preparing your document.  Formatting is easy though it may seem intimidating at first.  Make sure that your document has no extra breaks between paragraphs.  Let your control freak lapse because you are never going to be able to control how your pattern looks on every device. As long as it looks good to the guy or gal that approves it, you're golden. 

Make sure that you also remove any headers, page numbers or anything else that isn't necessary.  You can add links to your websites or blogs: they become clickable links that can help drive traffic to you.  Just make sure that they aren't on your title page.  That's a big no-no for some.

Save your pattern as a *.rtf. This is the standard document format so they can convert it into an ePub for you. When you are in your writing program as as Microsoft Office or Word or whatever you use, click the Save As option. The *rtf option will pop-up in the bar beneath the one where you enter the name of your document.  Or, you can simply save it as Your_Title.rtf.

Make sure that you follow the rules!   The different publishers require different things like a link back to them, specific copyright wording, titles that specifically match the content, etc.  Smashwords.com has a detailed Book Marketing Guide which is very helpful with this. Keep in mind that you may have to tweak your pattern a bit for each one of the publishers.   It will most likely be only the first page, but the content will remain the same.

Be patient! It takes a while to get on to some of these. Your work needs to be manually approved by the publishers and that can take some time.

A few notes to take into consideration: all the publishers take a percentage and this varies from publisher to publisher.  You won't get your full asking price so you may want to adjust it if you feel your pattern is worth specific amount of money.  I kept the prices for my patterns the same across all the publishers regardless of the percentage.  I like to keep things consistent but that's just me. 

The payments can be slow in coming.  Some pay out every quarter, some make you wait for their specified billing cycle.  Some may want a PayPal account they can send the money to or an address where they can send the cheque.  Most have a specific sales total you have to meet before they will even consider sending you your money.  $10 seems to be about standard for PayPal accounts, $100 for a cheque.  But once again, things can vary from publisher to publisher.

I know there is probably a lot more to this than what I'm sharing here, but this is what I know for sure.  I'm pretty new to this, after all.  If you know a little more about this than I do, by all means share it!  I would love to know how I can help myself further my publishing career, and yours too!

For an update on my self-publishing adventures, please check out Self-Publishing Your Patterns and How-to's (Pt. 2)

How to Basics

Here are the basics that everyone needs to know.  So far, the focus is on knitting lessons but I have thrown in some crochet tutorials to spice things up.  If you are so inclined, you can also go to my channel on YouTube, KweenBee Crafts, and see all of my how-to videos.

Scroll through the thumbnails along the bottom of the video player to find the knitting stitch you are looking for.  Click the video and it will play on this page.  If you no longer want to watch the video you selected, click the video again.  To see the list of knitting videos again, click the PLAYLIST icon.  It's the first icon on the bottom right.

For a bit of extra help I've included some crochet techniques.  I wasn't sure where else to link up to them so here they are.

Edging - Crochet Lesson

Afghan Stitch - Crochet Lesson (Sorry, I haven't got the video done yet but the picture tutorial is finished)

Knit Another Dishcloth

This is another very simple dishcloth that you can make.  It is especially good for a new knitter.

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How to Knit a Pair of Slippers

My most popular slipper design by far! 🥰 See what all the fuss is about and make yourself a pair today.


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Knit a Simple Dishcloth

This is a great project for anyone who is just learning how to knit. It's not an overly complicated project and the yarn is easy to find and not too expensive. Best of all the final result gives you something you can use, even if it doesn't turn out perfectly 😉

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How to Crochet an Afghan

This is more than a common granny square...this is what is known as an afghan stitch or tunisian crochet.

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