I want to talk to you for a minute about quiet success.

This is something that started as a conversation between me and Tara Swiger -- she's also made a video on this topic -- because for the past few months I have been feeling really pressured to have a big year long goal. This pressure came about because of a couple different reasons.

It's time to reflect on what I've accomplished and what I've learned over the past year. 

Welcome to Lunchtime with Joeli -- a series where I spend 5 minutes answering your questions and discussing issues related to being an entrepreneur in the yarn/craft industry. If you have questions you would like me to answer you can leave them in the comments or send them to hello @ joelicreates.com.

1. A WAY OF ANNOTATING PDFS

Some designers may want you to work with a text editor but I find that working that way leads to a lot of compatibility issues. (Don’t ask me about the time I sent a file to a client and all the commas disappeared when she opened it!) Evernote is my preferred software but you do have to pay for the premium service. The other option that I love is iAnnotate. This is an app for iPhones and iPads — great for if you like to edit on the go!

WORD OF WARNING: If you use an Adobe product to annotate PDFs your notes may not show up when the designer opens it in a different program. There are usually ways to “flatten” the notes to avoid this problem and something you should definitely test out with a friend first!

Yarn and needles

This is a little obvious but well, this is where you have to start! I like to have a wide variety of yarns to play with and a good interchangeable needle set.