I Wish moocow Was Keeping Me Warm Now

A few minutes ago, I turned up the heat, sat on my couch and and turned on the news. Guess what the first thing I saw was! No, not coverage of the presidency. Not new development on the "Miracle on the Hudson". I saw the weather and no, it's not getting warmer.

I was planning on publishing this post in the next week or two but moocowhandknits' shop is too appropriate for the moment and the colder weather I am anticipating so I decided to publish this interview early. Hope moocow's work warms you up too.


1. How would you describe your shop?

Well it's the land of knittedness :D I guess you could say it's a justification for my monstrous yarn stash, and the result of a brain filled with too many ideas and not enough time.


2. How long have you been knitting for?

About 3 and a half years now. It was love at first stitch.


3. How did you get into this line of work/hobby?

Knitting's a hobby for me. I originally started after I had 6 months off work to undergo major surgery (and I mean REALLY major). I was bored, someone mentioned a knitting group locally, I bought some yarn and that was that!


4. Do you do this full time?

Sadly no. I have a full time job in the medical diagnostics industry, which takes me away from home for at least one night a week. It's long hours and interferes with what would otherwise be knitting time but I do love it.


5. What is your favorite item in your shop? Why?

Blimey that's a hard one *thinks*. I'd say the City Chic shrug. It's massively labour intensive but it's worth all the hard work - fits like a glove and really versatile. I have two myself (one blue, one black). Or maybe the Simply Soft wrap... or maybe the Cross My Heart wrap... LOL if I carry on I'll just mention everything in the shop so I'll stop now.

NM: The Simply Soft and Cross My Heart wraps are my favorites!


6. What are some of your favorite Etsy shops or items?

I recently discovered nutandbee ... HOW CUTE!!

I have a major thing for siansbury's sock monkeys.

I'm looking forward to Abi's new collection coming soon at abibansaldesign

And unsurprisingly for a knitter, I covet pretty much everything in snowberrylime's shop


7. You currently have 329 sales. How do you attract people to your shop? Where/how do you promote your shop?

I am completely terrible at promoting, blogging, facebooking and any other kind of social networking but I've built up a small following of previous customers and friends from the UK Etsy massive. :D I was also incredibly lucky to be chosen by etsy to be their featured seller last November - a real bolt from the blue.. unexpected, terrifying but great fun. I can only assume that good photos are the key, as my views, sales and treasury inclusions shot up when I altered my photography style. Reading that back it makes me sound like I know what I'm talking about when it comes to 'photography style' LOL - I don't. My photos are mostly taken in the corner of my bedroom, with the camera on self timer!


8. What advice can you offer other Etsy sellers to boost their sales?

Hmm. I may have anwered this question in the one above LOL.


9. Are your items available anywhere other than etsy?

Yes, I have a shop on a UK handmade site called Folksy - the currency there is in GBP, which is better for UK buyers as the exchange rate for US dollers means the price can fluctuate. I have also just agreed to have a small section on another UK online shop which I'm working on at the moment.


10. Do you have a blog? If so, please tell us a little bit about it.

I used to, but I gave up last year, having realised that blogging is not my forte :D


Business Details

Name: Siobhan

Business/Shop Name: moocow

Location: Liverpool, UK

Etsy URL: moocowhandknits.etsy.com