I was always DIY-kind of person. Not the “visit Bunnings every other week” kind. The “I need an accountability buddy whenever I go anywhere near a yarn shop or art supplies shop” kind.
It started with knitting & crocheting as a kid. As I grew up, I lost touch with both crafts until I rediscovered both as a youndg adult.
First, it was crochet. Specifically, crochet doilies. Yes. I am that kind of weird.
Then I re-discovered knitting.
Knitting 2.0 started with socks. Just plain, usable socks. Nothing fancy or lacey. Just the kind that you can wear until it’s no longer fit for purpose.
Then I decided that I was going to try knitting my own clothes.
First it was cardigans. At the time, there was an app that let you punch in your measurements and it would generate a custom pattern for you. My very first cardigan was a mid-grey number made using a pattern from that app. Unfortunately, I no longer have that cardigan.
Then came shawls. The first one I made was the FibreFest 2018 Shawl (by Dominique Trad). It was released in conjunction with the inaugural FibreFest, an annual convention of sorts for yarn sellers, as well as sellers of related accessories & crafts. I’ve made a few of them. Mostly because I wasn’t 100% happy with the results of the prior project.
Then there was life. Literally. I did have a full-time job after all.
There were days when I’d go without chipping away at my WIPs. It was then that I realised that I needed to keep myself accountable. Somehow.
What better way to do that than to put it out there on the internet for the whole world to see? Right?
Yeah… The one problem with the notion of blogging as a virtual accountability buddy was that I struggle to ‘remember’ to do things. Things would happen (usually my day job) and I would go for weeks, if not months without posting a thing.
This created a cycle of me trying to keep a blog, not really knowing what I was doing, then rage-quitting.
Then I started Made By Anna Lam. This time, I gave myself permission to go as slowly as I saw fit, so long as I made an effort to put something out there on a regular-ish basis.
This arrangement has worked out well for me so far. I’m not experiencing any of the bouts “I want to rage-quit” that I did with previous blogs.
It wasn’t until early 2025 that something clicked and I decided that I was going to try and turn this blogging hobby into a legit side hustle.
Step 1 was educating myself about the financial aspect of what is effectively content creation as a side hustle. Specifically, budgeting.
I already consider myself to be a decent budgeter, so setting up my side hustle budget didn’t require too much of a learning curve. I decided that, for this venture, I was going to start using separate bank accounts for my blogging stuff from day 1. Even if my blogging side hustle was just an itty-bitty baby.
Step 2 was figuring out a manageable blogging routine. I think that this part is going to be the one that’s going to be a constant work in progress. I am seeing series of ‘retrospective meetings for one’ in my blog’s future….
Step 3 was generating the content. Oh boy… The first questions that popped into my mind after settling on the idea of turning blogging into a proper side hustle were: “how the f*** am I going to come up with content ideas?” and “how on earth am I going to manage them?”.
I guess that leaves actually getting out there and making that content.
So, wish me luck everyone!
