In which I try to be careful and reasonable, but will probably mess it up somehow
There’s another one of those big, swirly (slightly messy) conversations happening over on instagram, this time on pattern prices and designer earnings. And those are good things to talk about! But the conversation is happening largely in instagram stories. And that’s great if it works for you and how you like to share or consume information…but wow am I not good at following conversations there. And wow do I have a lot to say about pattern pricing and designer earnings. So I’m going to talk about it here.
So, as far as I can tell (imagine a big asterisk here where I say up front that I certainly missed part of the conversation because of that whole thing about stories not being a good way for me to see or follow things), a couple of folks talked about how independent pdf sewing patterns often seem to start at about $14 and go up from there more, but very very few independent pdf knitting patterns are priced in that $14-$20 dollar range.
Some folks suggested that $14-$20 might actually be a much more reasonable reflection of the work that goes into making a pattern (and the time you spend working with the pattern), and that it might be a heck of a lot easier for designers to make a living wage selling patterns at that price (versus the $5-$10 range that seems most common right now). I saw posts from at least some designers and knitters saying that seemed reasonable to them, and I believe some designers said they were going to consider raising their prices.
Then a whole bunch of folks started to get really upset and said raising prices would be flat out terrible. The reasons given seemed to fall into two basic camps. The first seemed to boil down to ‘designers are already making too much money and/or designers are just doing this for a hobby and don’t really need their income to pay the bills.’ The second was ‘if knitting patterns are more expensive, knitting won’t be accessible to lower income knitters.’ I think these are two different arguments, and I want to take them one at a time.
First up, the ‘designers are making too much/designers don’t need pay the bills with their work’ comments. I’m going to just say flat out that’s wrong. Designers as a whole are not making too much money. And lots of designers do rely on their design work to pay the bills.
Earlier this year, ravelry shared sales information for January 2019 ravelry sales. Ravelry is by far the biggest platform for knitting pattern sales, and January is historically the best sales months of the year for ravelry. And in January, more than 80% of designers earned less than $100 from ravelry sales. Only 3% of designers earned at least $1,000 from ravelry sales. And less than 1% of designers earned $3,000 or more from ravelry sales. (The numbers are quite similar to the ones ravelry shared earlier for August 2016.)
So to recap, on the biggest sales platform (and the only one a lot of designers sell on), in the biggest sales month of the year, 80% of designers made $100 or less. Only 3% made at least $1,000 (even if you can manage to do that every month, that’s still below the federal poverty line in the US for a single person household). And less than 1% (fewer than 100 people) made $3,000 or more.
And that’s not profit, that’s revenue! To figure out what actually ends up in your bank account, be sure to take out whatever it costs to produce the patterns (yarn, needles, camera, a computer, software, maybe editors or photographers or models or sample knitters, maybe website hosting or mailing list costs). Then take out ravelry fees and paypal fees. And for sure don’t forget your taxes (in the US, as a self employed person, in addition to your regular taxes you also need to pay self employment tax to cover the contribution to social security and medicare that an employer would normally pay). Remember this job doesn’t come with any health insurance or paid time off (so try really hard not to get sick or hurt). And there’s no pension or company match on a retirement plan (so you’d better be saving your pennies for later). And of course if you have to stop working, you totally don’t get unemployment benefits.
That’s fairly grim. I know lots of designers who have said, publicly, that they have had to stop designing full time and look for other jobs in order to pay the bills (and it’s something I’ve heard from lots more people privately). Here’s one account from Leethal, here’s another from Alex Tinsley. Others have tried to spell out just what goes into creating a pattern (this post from Andi Satterlund is amazing) and how much it actually costs (Woolly Wormhead talks about this a lot and has been very open about the financial aspects of designing).
If you think that a group where less than 1% of people come even close to a living wage is overpaid…well then we’re going to have to disagree. And if you’re going to tell me that it’s ok for the job to pay poorly because most designers are women and they can just rely on their husbands’ incomes…well then I’m going to say some fairly stern things to you and then we’re going to have to disagree. A lot.
Still with me? I told you this one was a slog and really not suited for instagram. All that was just to answer the ‘designers make too much already’ comments. Now I want to talk about the ‘if patterns cost more, knitting won’t be accessible to low income people’ comments.
I want to do this carefully. And I’ll probably say something that makes someone angry. But I’m going to try really hard to be both cautious and clear.
It’s a good thing for knitting to be accessible to lots of people. Full stop. That’s not up for debate. It is just true. No one should be made to feel bad for using the yarn or tools or patterns or project bags or notions or whatever else that they like and can afford (and any sniffy comments about cheap acrylic yarn are lousy and we should all be more careful about not making anyone feel bad about what they’re working with). But (and you knew there was a but)…there’s a whole world of difference between saying ‘knitting should be accessible’ (true!) and saying ‘in order for knitting to be accessible, all patterns must be free or really cheap’ (nope!).
As I type this, there are currently 126,942 free knitting patterns listed on ravelry (and I bet it’s gone up between when I typed that and when you’re reading this). Let me say that again. One hundred twenty six thousand nine hundred forty two. More than fifty thousand of them are available for download directly from ravelry right this very second. Want a sweater pattern? There are two thousand of them to download free on ravelry right now. Want socks? There are five thousand of those. How about a shawl? You’ve got four thousand to choose from. Prefer a hat? Great, you’ve got nine thousand to pick from. If you downloaded every free pattern available on ravelry right now and knit one a day, every day, you’d need more than a hundred and thirty years to get through them all. There is not a shortage of free knitting patterns.
Now, I totally understand the feeling of ‘the particular pattern I want most isn’t in my budget.’ There are all sorts of things (books… purses… couches… shoes) that I look at and think ‘the particular one I want most isn’t in my budget.’ And that’s no fun. But I can’t see how to get from ‘I can’t afford the one I want most’ to ‘it’s not fair that the one I want costs more than I can afford…so it should cost less or be free.’
Just for the record, I generally think that things like health care and child care and school and public transportation should be free, and that if you don’t have food or housing, well then that’s a hell of a problem and you need that too. I actually sort of find myself thinking a universal basic income would make things a lot better for literally everyone. But a knitting pattern is a luxury, not a necessity, and I can’t quite get to a point where I feel like luxury goods need to be free.
So, while I will absolutely agree that knitting should be accessible to lots of folks, I don’t think some patterns for being for sale, or even some patterns being expensive is a barrier to that (people being snobby about yarn or patterns, that’s a barrier and something to address…some patterns costing more, not so much). There are a tremendous number of free patterns (and free tutorials, oh so many amazing free resources), and no one is taking those away. Telling designers they shouldn’t charge for their work doesn’t make knitting more accessible…all it does is make sure that fewer people will be able to afford to design.
Whew. Did you make it this far? I’m totally impressed if you did. So, before we go, I’m going to say a few things that are specific to me (because I know someone out there will have a few questions). So, in no particular order:
- I’m fine, please don’t worry about me. I’m one of those folks who, through a combination of really good luck and lot of hard work, is in that one percent of designers who can more or less make a decent living at this. I’ve been doing this for ten year (five years full time), and I put out patterns at a ridiculous rate. (That picture up at the top? That’s some of the patterns that I have coming out in the rest of this year. Not all of them, because they’re not all knit yet because it’s only May. But some.) I’m married, my husband’s job comes with health insurance, and we don’t have kids. I keep my expenses low, and I’m fine.
- I’m not planning to raise my prices right now (though I’m sure I will at some point in the future). I raised them last September (fifty whole cents, less than the cost of a stamp…and yup, I got some nasty messages about it), and I try not to raise them more than once a year or so. That said, I fully support anyone who does want to raise theirs, and I do think it would be good if knitting pattern prices were higher overall. I feel that, as someone who has been doing this for a long time and is fairly stable, it’s actually good for me to keep my prices on the high end. Mostly so I can keep doing this work. But also because I think it helps establish that patterns have worth and it’s ok to charge for them (and I have enough practice to deal with it when folks send nasty messages).
- And finally, if you want to knit my stuff but the price is a barrier, be sure you’re on the mailing list. Mailing list folks always get new patterns for 15% off the first few days they’re out, and they get a heads up when I do big sales (like the indie giftalong in November and the countdown sale in December, both of which let you get a lot of my favorite patterns for 25% off). And all my books should be available at your library (they can request them if they don’t have them on the shelf right now)…I adore libraries and am one hundred percent cool with you getting my books there!
Ok…well that was fun. I told you it wouldn’t all fit in an instagram post!
Thank you for this rational argument on the topic of pattern pricing. I agree with your arguments, and certainly support more-than-adequate compensation for pattern designers. One side note, however: I sometimes buy patterns because I’m curious about how the item is created rather than because I intend to knit it. While I’d be willing to pay, say, $14 for a pattern I intended to knit, I would probably curtail this other impetuous purchasing. Knit on!
I agree completely! And I absolutely understand that something with a lower price is easier to do as an impulse purchase. I know I’m more likely to buy that crazy nail polish color if it $4 than if it’s $12. I truly think there is room for all sorts of pricing structures (free…free with ads…free with yarn…inexpensive…downright pricey), and that it’s totally ok for folks to price their patterns however they want and however they think will work best for their business and their goals.
This, all of this and then some!
And also. It’s none of my damn business, what the actual breakdown of all costs for the designer is. They put a price on their pattern or pattern book and I decide whether I want to pay that amount. I don’t see other businesses having to declare what their cost breakdown is, for that cup of coffee or computer or whatever. Sure, people complain that a bit of hot water and some coffee is never that expensive (and don’t forget about the paper cup) but it doesn’t lead to dozens of coffee chains, feeling the need to give information about how they come to their pricing.
Yup. I’ve yet to see someone saying to an artist ‘well…I mean it’s some ink and some paper…is it really fair to charge that much for your painting…shouldn’t you just price it to cover your costs…who do you think you are?’ I’m sure it probably happens, people will say anything. But every time I hear the ‘why don’t you just price your patterns to cover your costs’ thing, I get a little cranky.
That’s such a funny thing to hear you say! I’m an animator, which means I know a lot of people who draw incredibly well. You won’t believe how common it is for people to ask for free art in exchange for “exposure” and be shocked when they’re turned down because the artist shouldn’t be working for money but because of the love of the craft! It’s something that gets talked about a lot in my industry. This post definitely felt like it was responding to similar mindsets and I think that a lot of your responses to the issues are applicable to multiple creative industries. It definitely goes to show how people don’t tend to understand how much work goes into creative pursuits.
Point is, I think that this is a universal problem in creative fields. It’s something that definitely needs to be talked about more!
This is also something that musicians get a lot… that they should be happy to play/sing for “exposure.” Generally speaking, creative work is undervalued in our society, until and unless a specific work or artist becomes popular/fashionable.
Like you, I have a hard time following all of the comments in IG stories and so often I realize I’ve missed completely what someone is responding to.
I agree with what you are saying. I only buy an individual pattern if I know I’m actually going to knit it. If it’s a pattern book, my rule is that if I like more than 50% of the patterns (meaning I would actually try to knit them), I’ll consider buying it – otherwise, it’s the library. Do I like free patterns – yes! But I also realize that they don’t pay anyone’s bills.
As for people judging others on what they can afford, it makes me so stabby! I seldom use the yarn indicated in the pattern because it’s usually not in my budget. I used to work in a yarn store, and people would come in and look, and they would often say they couldn’t afford the yarn they wished they could buy; we would direct them elsewhere (often to big box stores), and I remember once a lady said, “Thank you for being so nice about it,” and I thought well why wouldn’t I be? Then I remembered all of the superior people that I have encountered when I haven’t been using the “right” yarn.
If people have a pattern and a yarn, and want to knit, it’s no one else’s business if they would a) knit that pattern, or b) use that yarn. Every knitter should be happy and confident with what they are making.
Oh I HATE when people are snobby about yarn. I remember the first time I went to a yarn store (instead of the yarn aisle at a craft store). I’d saved up money to buy myself something awesome (I was a broke grad student, saving up was not a trivial task). None of the yarn in the store had prices, you had to ask. And when I asked what the yarn I loved cost, the employee said ‘oh it’s very expensive.’
I felt AWFUL. I went ahead and bought the yarn out of embarrassment. Then it sat in my stash forever because I had such bad associations with it. I finally threw it out years later because it was all tied up in bad feelings and shame. And you can bet I never went back to that store (though I did think mean things every time I went past it).
As usual, you’re spot on.
Thanks for taking the time to write all that out.
Hah, I am nothing if not wordy!
Thank you for posting this. I agree with what you say about designers needing to get paid what they are worth. A lot of time and effort goes into each and every design. I do however think there should be some type of scale when it comes to pricing patterns. Certainly, a sweater pattern that requires lots of adjustments for various sizes requires more work and incurs more cost than a simple single skein shawl pattern. I don’t understand when the shawl pattern is $12 USD and the sweater is $8. At some point too, when the pattern prices are seemingly “too” high, they may get passed over in favour of something else a few dollars cheaper. For me, once a pattern goes over that $10 mark I really need to think twice as once I pay for the dollar conversion (I am in Canada), that pattern is now $13-14.
I’m hesitant to say much more than ‘folks should price their products in a way that works for them.’ I feel like any sort of attempt by an outside observer to judge how much time or effort or cost goes into a pattern is somewhere between tricky and nearly impossible.
I’ve gotten far *far* more pattern support questions from my absolute simplest patterns than from my most complex. I suspect it’s because newer or less confident knitters look at them, think ‘I can do that’ and then want or need a lot of hand holding.
And that’s fine…but it does mean that my simplest patterns actually take the most time to write (because I try hard to make them as detailed as possible) and the most time to support. (And this is something I’ve heard from lots of other designers too.) So if one of the things I’m accounting for in my pricing is my time (and that seems super fair…), then I’d actually generally price the simple patterns higher.
So a pricing structure that seems weird might actually make more sense depending on your perspective.
Why should you have a pricing structure? If someone wants to price their pattern for free, $2 or $20 that is their choice. It is your choice whether you want to support them and pay that! If my budget is Wal-Mart or Dillard’s or Nordstrom…I know where to shop. I would never tell a designer their clothing was out of reach for my budget. Why do we feel it’s ok to assault knitwear designers about their pattern pricing. If I ever wanted something special I would save for it….why today, it’s ok to offend artists and demean them on social media telling them they need to make their product affordable….what $2-$10?? I call that bullying! This is not OK to use social media to tell people to make their product more “affordable”. Yes, you may love that designer and their patterns are billable. They want to make a living…. there are sooooo many patterns available for FREE…maybe not from the artist YOU want. But you will spend $200 on a pair of rubber shoes not made in this country….I’ll step off my soap box….except…support local art and artist….they build community…big box usually doesn’t unless it’s their home town. Sorry….I’m in total support for these designers….and I’m not one. But I do work for myself….
Well and clearly said. I missed the IG discussion totally, so I appreciate your summary. I agree with you on both counts. Thanks for tackling the hard topics as well as filling my feed with pretty pictures!
Yeah, I love that IG is providing a place where lots of folks are able to easily share their experiences and find validation…but it does come with tradeoffs, and a big one is that it’s hard to see/find/link to other conversations.
Thank you for all of this. And all of the beauty you bring to the world and share. And the blog posts, that I always read and love, even if I don’t always comment. That is freely given, but I know you must put so much time into your blog posts. Thank you.
Thank you for your insight
Hunter, you are nice person, who has laid out a reasonable, well thought out and well expressed response. I’m not as nice, so I’ll just say the following:
This is LIFE, which can be translated, in part, to “You’re not going to get everything you want just because you want it. You’re not going to be able to tell everyone else how they should live, act, love, worship, or even sell knitting patterns, and have them instantly fall in line with your desires. That is how it is, and that is how it should be.” .
I wish you continued success.
I weave textiles and sell them. I used to get a lot of “your xxxxx are too expensive. I can get xxxxx cheaper at Kmart.” Eventually I refined my response to “I understand about limited budgets”. Because their limited budget is not MY problem to solve.
Instagram stories are the worst way to share important things. Thanks for sharing the issue and your thoughts.
This propped up for me at exactly the right time, just after our knitting group (on Zoom) had talked about the cost of patents. I am going to send it to them all. Can you please tell me how some patents are free? Are they paid for by the network company that promotes them?
Thanks so much for posting this, Hunter. You’ve basically said everything that’s been on my mind. I hadn’t personally jumped into the conversation yet because I’ve been way too busy (go figure) working both my design job as well as my teaching job. Something else that puzzles me is that many of those criticizing designers for *gasp* charging more for their patterns are also some of the same Instagrammers calling for more diversity among knitwear designers (which, yes, I agree with and would like to see more of). But why on earth would someone encourage more BIPOC to become knitwear designers who are then expected to charge so little for their patterns that they are below the poverty line? That doesn’t make sense to me.
Thanks for setting this out Hunter, and also thanks to the commenters. This is a tough racket, and I appreciate that someone making it work is also willing to join in important topics. I’ve written blog posts in the past about my pattern prices, and I finally got around to writing a page specifically addressing that on my website. If you are curious, this is the link: https://www.jillwolcottknits.com/shop/why-jill-wolcott-knits-patterns-are-expensive/
I am decidedly one of the “privileged” designers. I don’t have to rely on the income to eat, but I have always worked other jobs to pay for this work. I am privileged because I love what I do, but I’m trained to do it–I went to college to learn how to be a designer. Sorry I didn’t have the foresight to get an engineering degree!
I am a LYS owner and I want to say that daily we encourage customers to pay for patterns. When they come in with questions or bring free patterns to class we often have to point out that their free pattern is not correct, complete, easy to understand. When you pay for a pattern you have an expectation of tech editing, pattern testing and a designer who has put some thought into what is happening.
Show me a popular yarn and I will show you a yarn with strong pattern support!
Thank you for your thoughts – I’m not on IG, so this is the most I’ve heard about it. One factor here is that it gets confusing when there are both hobbyists and professionals doing the same thing, and this is often true in the craft industry as a whole. I think this comes into play both on the designing end (people who put out one pattern for fun vs. people trying to make a living designing) and in the production end (people selling things occasionally at a price to recoup materials costs vs. people selling at high end craft fairs.) Outsiders may not recognize these differences.
Very articulate, which is nothing less than what I would expect! Interesting to me that your simpler patterns often require more support than the more complicated ones, first I have heard of this, so I’m glad to have the education. I do think that patterns are generally underpriced, and I say that from a perspective of privilege that I can afford to buy more expensive ones from time to time. I get extremely annoyed when I get a pattern and can tell it has not been edited properly or tested, so that factors into my willingness to pay more as well. It’s best for all of us when we understand the “behind the scenes” parts of what we enjoy.
I love everything you said and agree. There seems to be a third piece of the conversation about privilege. I was told that me designing and offering free patterns is a privilege and that I need to name and relinquish my privilege. I am happy to name that I have time and tools to design, but somehow I am to relinquish that – which puzzles me because like you I’ve thought I’ve been contributing to the community by offering something without charge. I am a hobbyist and have no illusions about making a living. Yet charging what would attract great designers is also bad for people without means.
BIPOC folks are observing that they don’t get much attention or sales – to which I say, welcome to the club!
Crikey…I missed this one, but it seems that everyone and his dog is up in arms about something on Insta at the moment. Whilst some of it is so overdue it’s not funny (exclusion of BIPOC and LGBTQ communities, even in this day an age…it beggars belief), a lot of it seems to be lead by some sense of everybody who puts a product out into the world must ensure that it’s everything to all people. All sizes, all colours, all the help to ensure they can make it, an all at the lowest possible price point. And the fact that the designer needs to put food on the table be damned!
It’s infuriating. I’m 52 and it’s only in the last couple of years that I’ve been able to drop $15 on a sewing pattern, or $20+ on a skein of yarn, and I’ve never felt deprived. I don’t quite know when the world turned to this position of entitlement, but I find it quite shocking. I know I’m coming from a place of privilege but I’ve also been in a place of “how will I pay the rent this month’ and never felt the world owed me a freebie!
I completely agree with your stance and applaud you for making it. I just despair of the world we’re in where you need to.
I shall now step off my soapbox! Knitting awaits.
Thank you for this! I am not even in complete agreement with you on certain points (like universal basic income), but I think you are right on in your assessment.
It was interesting to me to read that January is usually the highest selling month, because for me it is usually one of my lower ones. Usually my high sales months are in the fall, with decent sales in the spring and winter and almost no sales in the summer (except around my birthday because of my sale).
Anyway, I just wanted to chime in and say that we don’t have to agree on every single point to have a general agreement on what is reasonable. Thank you for your voice.
You’re right, it’s a crazy complicated discussion and I also find it very difficult to track down all the threads of the conversation on Instagram. I just wanted to pop in and thank you for the observation that, by keeping your pattern prices reasonably high, you are actually empowering other, perhaps less well-established designers, to do the same. You are helping to establish a sustainable baseline for everyone. Women in particular often find it difficult to ask for what their work is worth.
And don’t even get me started on “This is just a little pin money you’re earning for luxuries, little lady, but we all know it’s hubby who pays the bills.” What century is that even from? Professional work deserves professional wages. Full stop.
Well said! Truths like this need to be said over and over so that nobody forgets them.
Something else a lot of people forget is not only do designers deserve to earn a living from their creativity that they’re kind enough to share with the rest of us but designers that earn enough to give up other employment have more time to spend designing and thus can produce more lovely patterns. Even better if they’re able to pay test knitters, tech editors, etc., thus creating employment. Beneficial to many as far as I’m concerned.
This is a very logical and interesting argument, with which I have no disagreement. I’m surprised that I haven’t seen more blogs/comments on this topic addressing the issue of publications though (but maybe I’ve missed it?): for somewhere between $10 and $25 I can buy an entire magazine or book that is chock full of fantastic and well-designed patterns (or, heck, I can go to the library and get those for free). Because of this, spending $10 on a single pattern seems imbalanced, despite being fair.
That’s a whole other (and super fascinating) conversation. I know in my experience (I’ve published several patterns in books with big traditional publishers, and talked with many designers who have done both individual patterns and entire books with those same companies), designers get very very little compensation from books or magazines. I almost think of the books more as markers of credibility than as actual viable sources of income.
I can reliably make 5-10 times more in the first week I release an individual pattern than I can by submitting it to a book or magazine. If it’s a really popular pattern, it’s even more.
And the only reason I can afford to do books is because I self publish them. That means I generally get about 40-50% of the cover price (remember, when you buy a book on amazon or at a book store, about half goes to the place selling it, about half goes to the publisher). And at that rate, I can make it work. But if that 40-50% went first to the publisher, who then had to pay a whole staff in addition to paying the author/designer? That just doesn’t leave as much room.
But I totally hear you…books are a *great* deal for knitters, and I hope people make use of them.
Talking about the pricing of sewing versus knitting patterns without taking into account the difference in the business models involved is foolishness. I know one of the indie sewing designers you refer to above, Jennie Rushmore of Cashmerette. She has one full time employee and rents commercial space to use as design studio, sample manufacturing and warehouse/mailing facility. She also employs a pattern drafter. I know quite a few indie knitting designers and none have that level of capital investment in their business.
One thing left out of the pricing discussions when comparing with indie sewing patterns is that their pricing is based on physical paper versions of the pattern. Indie sewing designers must bear the costs of buying physical copies of not only their pattern instructions, but the large sheets with the patterns on them. They must also bear the costs of having those large sheets folded so that they fit into the pattern envelope and having the envelopes stuffed. Sewing pattern companies (sewing pattern designers are almost never one person operations, or not for long) also need warehouse space to store all those paper patterns, which costs money. I don’t know the breakdowns, but comparing stores where I buy fabric and yarn, fabric stores sell lots of patterns, yarn stores tend to sell mostly books and some printed patterns. Designers must factor wholesale vs retail pricing into their pricing decisions. If they are going to have a high volume of retail sales, the pricing must reflect that they must achieve their profits based on the wholesale pricing. If you are comparing the pdf download prices, that doesn’t really work, because indie sewing pattern companies have discovered that there are enough customers who demand paper patterns that you must offer them to be successful. So the pdf patterns must be priced to not cannibalize paper sales completely, as well as to encourage shops to stock the paper patterns. All of these are costs which begin where knitting designers financial obligations have ended.
The problems indie knitwear designers have aren’t caused by the low pattern prices, they are caused by the fact that by becoming a serious hobbyist, you’ve already acquired the skills and materials needed to become a designer. So people become designers, discover that there aren’t enough knitters to financially support everyone who wants to be a designer, but instead looks to undervaluing of women’s work for the reason they can’t make a living in a saturated market.
I could go on about why people expect free patterns (yarn companies gave them out and pre-DMCA copyright gave zero shits about free sharing of out-of-print works). But I’ll just leave this here.
I want to respond to a few of these points in particular, I’ll pull a few quotes from your comment to reply to directly.
While most knitting designers don’t, some certainly do. Kate Davies comes to mind (she lists her team here), and I’m pretty sure I’ve heard both Aroha Knits and Amy Herzog mention their staff before. And a lot of the most successful pattern designers also end up creating yarn lines (think Ysolda or Jared Flood), and that certainly comes with an amazing amount of investment.
And while I’m not privy to the details of of other folks businesses, I just pulled up my accounting software to check and I paid my printer more than sixty thousand dollars over the last three years. That’s not what it costs to actually create the books (for that you need to add in thousands more for knitters and editors and photographers and software), just to print them. Feels like a fairly big investment in my business to me.
I actually specifically looked at pdf sewing patterns to keep the comparison the same.
And while I totally agree that having both pdf and paper versions of your product complicates, and that selling things both wholesale and direct to consumer further complicated things, I don’t agree that this is something faced only by sewing designers. Knitwear designers face exactly the same issues. Both sewing designers and knitwear designers have to decide if they want to offer their patterns electronically or in print or both (and if in print, do they do books or individual patterns or both), and whether to offer them directly to consumers or through shops or both.
So if those are reasons for sewing patterns to cost more, it seems they would be reasons for knitting patterns to cost more too.
I completely disagree. Many (not all…but many) comfortable knitters can probably design something for their own use.
But being a designer, at least at a level that lets you pay the bills, involves a whole lot more than just dreaming up and making a pretty thing. You also need to be able to explain how to make it to someone else well enough that they can do the same thing (which is harder than it sounds). That can include things like sizing the pattern, creating charts and schematics, explaining complicated stitches, and taking photos. Then you have to manage all the boring background business stuff like bookkeeping and paying your taxes. On and don’t forget promoting your pattern and providing customer support.
You basically need to be (or be able to hire) a designer (come up with the idea), an knitter (make the thing), a photographer (pretty pictures sell), a graphic designer (pattern layout/charts/schematics), a social media manager (ads, email campaigns, blog and instagram posts), a customer support provider (handle questions), and a bookkeeper (keep all your records straight to hand over to the accountant come tax time). And while I don’t at all want to take away from the importance of being a good knitter, the actual knitting is by FAR the smallest part of that.
Bravo!
Your patterns are worth every penny! They even come with personal notes via your blog, too. Never doubt for a second that you are amazingly fair.
Thank you! I’ve always agreed with what you & Wooly Wormhead have posted on this topic. I have read some of the stories on IG but you are correct that they are very difficult to follow for me as well, although now that I’ve figured out how to pause I can at least read an entire screen now.