More than a year ago I opened my Patreon page. The goal was to gain enough patrons to be able to fund the equipment and other items needed to produce online spinning classes.
Over time my spinning interests got more and more complex and honestly most people are spinning for fun and don’t want to dive in as deep as I was going so I thought that perhaps the ones that did would find me there and we would dive deep together.
But, I wasn’t exactly sure how to go about making my goals happen and I was confused about how to use Patreon, Instagram, my blog, a newsletter, and Facebook all at the same time while offering different and coordinating information. Honestly, it’s still a puzzle to me.
Another thing that threw me off a bit I think was offering too many patron levels with different benefits at each level which added another level of complexity.
In the meantime I was reevaluating where I actually wanted to go with the textile stuff . Was I going in a certain direction because I thought people expected me to or was it because I had the desire to stay on that road?
Things came clear to me one day back in December when I was trying to get some yarn on the loom and I was a bit crabby about it. My darling was in the living room watching tv and that’s where I was too. After a little while of watching me struggle he asked why I was doing it. I told him what I had told myself. I wanted to know how this yarn would act. I wanted to make a jacket from a really fine wool singles yarn. I wanted to see if I could do it. He responded that I didn’t seem happy recently except when I was sewing. clothes. I brushed it off and continued working at the loom but that night I really thought about what he had said.
As you can probably tell, I took that conversation to heart.
After I decided to adjust my direction to focus on sewing some other things needed to change and one of them was Patreon. Earlier this month I adjusted my Patreon page to have only 3 levels of support. The first two levels are if you want to support my work. The benefit is that I am open to questions about anything. Are you spinning or weaving and you are stuck? I will give you in depth answers to your questions and help as much as I can through the Patreon group Facebook page or on my Slack channel. Are you sewing and you want to know how I do certain things to get a certain result? Same thing. Long, in depth discussion if that’s what you need until your problem is solved or your question is answered. The $7 level also includes a patron only newsletter with some extra content about sewing, weaving and spinning.
The third level is $25 per month. Currently there are no patrons at that level but I added it just in case. The plan is that we will do 3 alongs a year. These alongs will be based on what I’m working on. Right now the focus is sewing but when I get myself in order we will also be doing some spinning either on a wheel or a spindle. And we could also do weave alongs. The alongs will last up to 4 months and will include the materials needed for the project. There will probably be color choices.
There is a 4th level of support still there because I have one stalwart hold out at that level and I appreciate him and his belief in me so much. (It’s not my husband although he is also super extra supportive.)
Anyway, I just wanted to give a public update about what is happening over there at Patreon and if you are a new follower feel free to check it out.
Also, while you are here sign up for my newsletter. I’ll be starting to send them out again about monthly with some fun content.
