It comes and goes in waves

Do I need constant approval? Do I need to see new views and hearts on my shop stats page every time I click over there (which is very often)? The answer, unfortunately, is yes. Yes, a million times, yes. I don’t know why. In real life, I generally don’t care much what other people think of me. I’m a tell-it-like-it-is kind of girl, and if you don’t like it, you are free to go… you know what. I’m not fashionable. I got Uggs way late and only because they are super comfy, and if you ever catch me in a pair of skinny jeans you have my permission to shoot me. In fact, give me a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie and I’m happier than a fat kid in a candy store. I’ll even wear them to run errands, even though as a recently read blog post over at Classic Confusion so aptly pointed out, I probably shouldn’t do that. I don’t compare myself to others because, let’s face it, all that would do is make me feel miserably inferior, whether I actually was or not. So I don’t. I’m me, love me or hate me, and that’s that.

Except, apparently, when it comes to my Etsy shop. Holy moly, I spend a lot of time looking at my shop stats, and now that they go more in-depth, at my individual item stats. I know it only takes one view to sell an item, but for some reason I get really upset if I don’t get many views in a day. And no hearts? Forget about it, I’m a wreck. So here’s what I think is going on with that…

I don’t think my stuff is very good. I look at it when it’s finished, and I know I would wear it because I made it, and I know my mom would wear it because, well, she’s my mom. But would anyone else wear it? I tend to doubt it with most things. My cast on edges are terrible and uneven. My bind off edges are better, but they still look like a monkey decided to finish my pieces for me, at least to me. And God forbid something needs to be seamed!! If there is one thing I hate above all else as far as knitting goes, it’s seaming. I’m terrible at it. Here’s an example of something I just think should look better.

Now, it looks fine. Alright. Not bad. But great? Good enough for someone to pay their hard earned money for? No. I wouldn’t buy it. But am I being too hard on myself? Maybe. In my mind, the cast on edge sucks, the seam in the back (which you can’t see) is terrible, and the top? What the hell happened there?

And then there’s this. I belong to a number of teams on Etsy, a bunch that ask you to favorite the shop or item above you in exchange for the ability to post your own item. I participate in these threads a lot. I also belong to a number of networking groups on facebook with essentially the same premise; like a certain number of fan-sites above you and then post your own. The problem with these things, as I see it, is are these people liking me and my stuff because they actually like me and my stuff, or just because they have to?

There are days that I decide I don’t in fact care how many views or hearts I get, and I don’t promote at all. But I’m still looking at that shop stats page all day. And now that I blog on a regular basis? Same thing here. It’s hard for me to reconcile both the not caring and the omg no one likes me I should just go die in a corner somewhere parts of me. Am I nuts?

Anyway, in other news… I’m going to be doing a pre-sale sale on Facebook and Twitter this afternoon. Basically what I’m going to do is put up pics of stuff that I haven’t listed in my shop yet, and offer a reduced price on them for the first person to respond. Just want to give my fans and followers a bit of an edge. If you’re interested, go check me out on Facebook or Twitter. Enjoy!!