Before I catch you up on what I’ve been doing, I wanted to share this picture that I saw the other day on Cute Overload. It is a picture from a website that will make a custom crochet voo-doo doll of your pet. It’s all in fun….no animals will be harmed in the process, although it looks like this pug might understand the intended purpose of the doll. The title of the post is the best: “If you really want to mess with him, tell him it’s a chew toy”!

Source: cuteoverload.com

Want a human voo-doo doll for that special someone? Check out my free pattern for Vito the Voo-Doo Doll!

On to the State of the Empire Address, which will be quite personal this month….

My regular readers will notice that I have not posted as much in January as I normally would have. There is a reason, but before I get there let me back up a bit.

In a previous post I mentioned that I felt I had missed my calling as a fashion designer. Although I love fashion and style and have dreamed for years of designing menswear, the idea of going back to school was daunting. After all, I am 41, have almost $150,000 in student loan debt from my degree in naturopathic medicine, and have financial responsibilities that I can’t put on hold the way a 20 year old can. In addition, most 4 year fashion programs are heavily weighted towards women’s wear, which is fine but not that useful to me. I thought that it was a dream that I would have to set aside.

This autumn though I was playing around on the internet and discovered that there was a sewing school right here in Portland that perfectly matched my needs. All the classes were offered on nights and weekends, so I am able to take classes and keep my full-time job. The school offers complete certificate programs in both apparel design and the business of fashion (the business side of things is usually given short shrift in traditional four year degrees), and the certificates can be completed in 1 or 2 years. The overall cost will be quite a bit less than a four year degree, and I can focus on menswear (all the classes have a male option or a female option). As soon as I discovered this school, my path was clear.

This January I started the first classes in the apparel designer certificate program. It is making for some long days and late nights, so I haven’t had the time and energy to post as much as usual. I am starting to get used to the schedule, but it has not been an easy adjustment. Although I am a very young 40, at the end of the day my body is still 40+ years old and not as resilient as it once was. However, exhaustion and achiness aside, I am loving the program so far and am really excited about the doors it will open for me.

Now, I can hear the question on everyone’s mind…what about crochet? What is the future of Crochet Empire? At this point, I am still assessing what all of this means for me. I have no plans to stop blogging any time soon, although I may have to adjust the frequency at which I post. Crochet is too important a part of my life to set aside, so I will always have new projects to share and will still be blogging about the exceptional crochet that I find on the internet.

What may change are my plans for my design business. I think there is truth to the phrase “No one can serve two masters”, and right now I am trying to serve three masters: my day job, Crochet Empire and my plan for a crochet design business, and a Fashion Design program (the classes have quite a bit of homework). I am still searching for a way to bring some balance, focus, and integration to my life. I don’t have the answers yet, but I will let you know what I finally decide to do.

And one final thing: I promise that I will not slowly turn this into a sewing blog. My intention from the start has been to keep this as a blog solely devoted to crochet, and that’s what I am going to do.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Crocheting!

Erich