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Every so often, I have a question that doesn’t have a neat, tidy answer. This is one of them.
Should you take something you love, like crochet, and turn it into a side hustle?
The honest truth? There is no one-size-fits-all answer. And anyone who tells you there is probably isn’t telling the whole story.
This decision depends entirely on you: your priorities, your energy, your goals, and what you actually want your creative life to look like. What works beautifully for one person might drain the joy right out of it for someone else.
So instead of giving you a yes-or-no answer, I want to walk you through how I am thinking about it: what changed for me, what I’m considering, and the steps I’m taking as I explore whether selling crochet makes sense in my life.
Does Monetizing a Hobby Ruin the Joy?
I don’t believe that turning a hobby into income automatically sucks the joy out of it. But I do believe that it can if you don’t make some key decisions early on.
Those early decisions set the tone for everything that comes after:
What you make
How much you make
Who you make it for
And how much pressure you put on yourself
I’ve talked before (and often) about making money with yarn and crochet in ways that don’t involve selling finished items. In fact, most of my content around monetization has focused on exactly that. CLICK HERE for that YouTube playlist!
Selling crochet pieces was something I said (many times) I wasn’t going to do. So… what changed?
When You Change, Your Goals Can Change Too
I’ve been running Shannon Talks Yarn for nearly five years now, and one thing has always been clear: I never wanted a “typical” crochet channel.
For me, doing tutorial after tutorial just doesn’t work. I sprinkle them in occasionally, but they were never meant to be the foundation of my content.
When I first started, I was crocheting anything I could. It was often based on whatever yarn I had thrifted or picked up cheaply. That led to a lot of finished projects that:
I didn’t really need
Didn’t fit my lifestyle
Had nowhere to go once they were done
Eventually, I shifted to a rule that still mostly holds true today: I only crochet things I actually love.
But here’s the thing no one talks about enough...there’s a limit.
There are only so many virus shawls, infinity scarves, and wearable pieces I can own, wear, or realistically use. Once I hit that limit, I had to ask myself a bigger question:
Do I still want crochet to be part of my life in this way. And if so, what needs to change?
That’s when selling started to feel like a possibility, not an obligation.
Why Local Markets Weren’t Working for Me (At First)
One of the biggest things that held me back from selling was the local market scene.
In my area, very rural Iowa, most vendor events lean heavily toward:
MLMs
Direct sales companies
A wide, scattered mix of products with no clear focus
There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but it didn’t align with what I wanted to do or who I wanted to reach. The few handmade-focused markets nearby had high vendor fees, and without experience, I wasn’t willing to take that financial risk.
If you live somewhere with more options - urban areas, bigger cities, or regions with strong handmade communities - your experience may be completely different.
That’s why my biggest advice here is simple:
Investigate before you commit.
Look up markets in your area
Visit them in person
Talk to vendors
Observe who is shopping and what they’re buying
You can’t make an informed decision without seeing what’s actually out there.
When the Right Opportunity Doesn’t Exist… Create It
In my case, I decided to do something a little wild.
With the help of a friend, I chose to co-host our own handmade-focused market.
Yes, this creates more work for me—but it also allows us to:
Advertise intentionally
Attract the right audience
Support genuinely handmade and homegrown businesses
And if I’m going to invest my time, energy, and yarn into selling crochet, it needs to be profitable—or at least comparable to paid work. That doesn’t mean it’s “all about money,” but sustainability matters. Read more about that in THIS BLOG POST!
Creating a Brand That Fits Your People
One of the biggest steps in this process was creating a separate local brand that's completely different from Shannon Talks Yarn because it's for a totally different audience.
This brand is designed specifically for:
Local shoppers
Local platforms (hello, Facebook)
People who don’t know me from YouTube
I kept things simple and affordable:
A basic website
A Facebook page
Cohesive Canva branding
Clear visuals using consistent colors, fonts, and photos
This wasn’t about being fancy, it was about looking intentional and trustworthy.
You Can’t Sell to Everyone (and That’s a Good Thing)
One of the most important decisions I made was identifying who I’m selling to.
We all want to believe our work is for everyone, but when you try to appeal to everyone, you often end up appealing deeply to no one.
For me, that meant looking at:
Who I am (a Gen X woman)
Where I live (rural, farming communities)
What that audience resonates with
The result? A brand that blends:
Farm girl / cowgirl energy
A little Gen X attitude
A touch of “I’m still cool, even if I take vitamins and go to bed early”
Your version will look different—and it should.
Why My First Market Is a Test, Not a Finale
For my very first market, I’m doing things differently than I plan to long-term.
Instead of large quantities of a few items, I’m offering:
Smaller quantities
More variety
More room to observe and learn
This first event is a fact-finding mission:
What do people gravitate toward?
What will they actually pay for?
What feels aligned and what doesn’t?
Later on, if things go well, I plan to streamline into higher quantities of fewer items for a more cohesive brand and a more sustainable workflow.
Visibility, Fear, and Putting Yourself Out There
One of the hardest parts of all of this?
Letting people locally know what I’m doing.
Small towns come with curiosity, opinions, and yes...gossip. But visibility matters. People need to see your face, your work, and your story more than once before it feels real to them.
I’m sharing blog posts, reels, photos, and teasers. Not everything, but enough to create interest and trust.
And honestly? That discomfort is part of the process.
So… Should You Do It?
Only you can answer that.
But hopefully, walking through my thought process helps you:
Ask better questions
Avoid rushing into decisions
And feel less pressure to “do it the right way”
I’m excited to continue sharing what I learn as I go: what works, what doesn’t, and what surprises me along the way.
If you’re thinking about turning crochet into something more, I hope you’ll check back and follow along. I'll be starting a YT playlist just for this topic and adding to it as I continue the process.
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| Watch the YouTube video HERE! |
Thanks for talking yarn with me đź’›