Like every personal post, dealing with subjects difficult to talk about, this one took me a while to mature and to finally write it…

Let’s dive in ! As a knitwear designer, it is really hard to make a living out of it. Everyone knows the names of some famous knitwear designers (Ysolda Teague, Stephen West, Jared Flood, Andrea Moory, Joji Locatelli…)which are well-known and whom we think sell a lot of patterns (right- or wrongfully, I don’t know). In fact, this is not the case for most knitwear designers…

As forme, I decided right when I begun (in 2013) that I would diversify my activity by proposing you knitting accessories besides my knitting pattern because I knew I couldn’t make a living with only the knitting patterns. That diversity is what has allowed my activity to cover itself for the last 3 years. My earnings cover my business expenses (insurance, website, yarn, axposing at some yarn events), which is already not that bas, I know it, but I’m not paying myself !

I’m lucky to have a husband who supports me, but I’d like to bring back some money home too, more regurlarly… Moreover, I have so many more ideas I’d love to develop for Instants de Louise, but I can’t do so if my activity doesn’t bring more earnings… I have benn thinking a lot about it, for a while (over 1 year) and I decided to implement 2 solutions to get there. Today, I’m going to talk about the first one : raising my knitting pattern prices and I’m going to explain you why.

Why raise the prices of my knitting patterns ?

This deicision has been on my mind for a long time, as I was seeing other knitwear designers do so. I was decided to do it, but I couldn’t bring myself to set a date for it. I also wanted to explain you why, which implied to write a post, and it seems I couldn’t put words on it, until I saw a article posted recently by Thread and Ladle. This was the impulsion I needed to finally attack the subject, write this article and assume the price raise.

Some might scream that my pattern prices are already expensive, that for the same price, they could buy a magazine with multiple patterns in it… Yes ! True, but those magazine have a big teams, big communication team, big diffusion services (ans we don’t know how the pay the designers). Me, I’m alone behind Instants de Louise and I’m trying my best here. Let me show you.

What is necessary to make an Instants de Louise knitting pattern ?

At first, there is an idea, a small sketch in a note book, a yarn that stroke my inspiration or a stitch being I really want to use… The inspirations behind a knitting pattern may be pultiples !

From this general idea, I then need to knit a sample. Usually, I buy the yarn I need. From time to time, I’m lucky to create a pattern in partnership with a yarnstore who offers me the yarn, but it is not everytime (far from it). Once I have the yarn in my hands, I swatch and do some maths (sometimes quite complex, sometimes not, depending on the project). Then I can dive in the most fun part, knitting ! This when I can trully realise if the idea I had in my head works, if it is as nice as I had imagined it… Sometimes it works, some other times, it doesn’t and  I have to frog it and startd all over again… This can take a lot of time !

While I knit my sample, I also take some notes about what I’m doing : the different steps, some numbers, without getting into details. It is very far from the final file, but they are really important for me : some time can pass between the sample knitting and the actual writting… They help me remember what I have actually done when I finally write the pattern.

Next, it’s really time for me to sit down in front of the computer for a while. When necessary, I do all the gradation maths. I have big spreadshits, with lots of calculation, for all the sizes… Some designer doesn’t like this step. I kinda enjoy it : I love maths ! I fond it stimulating ! While I calculate all the stitches and rows numbers, I also estimate the yardage for each size.

When all the math is done comes the time to actually write the pattern. This is when the few notes I took while sample knitting really hemp me. Writing a pattern is an important work, as I write the pattern in French and in English. Twice as much work ! When I write the pattern, I try to make the explanations as simple and clear as possible. It is important to me that they are complete, clear and understandable for a large amount of people : it means happier knitters and (potentielly) less pattern support afterwards.

I stay on the computer to do all the schematics and the charts (when necessary) on specific softwares.

Simultaneously, once my sample is finished, I plan a photo shoot to take all the pictures to present you the pattern on Ravelry, my website, social medias… My models are from my close circle : some friends, but mostly my sisters and my children. I’m usually behind the camera because I know exactly what type of pictures I want and, also, because I am not really comfortable in front of a camera…

When I think the pattern is ready and after proofreading it several times, I send the files to tech editing. My two tech-editors (one for the French file, one for the English one) bring fresh eyes to my work and their job is to control everything : the maths, the counts, the spellings, the extra spaces, the inconsistencies. They point out what needs more explanations. They check the measurements… They do a thorough proofreading of the pattern so that I can offer you the best pattern possible.

Then it’s time to have the pattern test knitted. If they want to participate, my test knitters have to knit the pattern during the allocated time and report to me every questions, comments and errors they could meet during their knitting time. Like the tech editing, the test knit brings fresh eyes onto my work to control everything is ok. My test knitters don’t have any obligation toadvertise about my pattern when I publish it. If they do, I appreciate it, but I don’t impose it on them ! when their project is done, they can do whatever they want with it, it is theirs. When I publish the pattern, I also send it to my test-knitters.

When the tech editing and the test knitting are over, that I made all the necessary corrections and modifications to the files, that I took all the pictures I need, I can now publish the pattern. For me, that mean adding it on my Ravelrr shop and Makerist, adding it to my portfolio on my website, writing a post to present it on my blog and advertising it on my different social media. For that last point, I know I can do better…

Once the pattern is published, I receive from time to time some questions regarding the pattern, asking for help. I then try to answer it the more clearly (and the more faster) than I can so that you can continue to knit on your project. This pattern support is variable during time and different from one pattern to another…

What are the costs of creating one knitting pattern ?

To begin with, let’s have a look at all the expenses I have for creating a pattern (material and services) and for running my business.

First, there are expenses directly connected to the pattern I create : the yarn, the tech editing in Franch and in English, copyright deposit

Then, there are all my expenses to run my business : bank, professionnal insurance, website, communication(business card…), from timt to time, I also need some new needles or haberdashery and some documentation. those fees are up to 1200€ per year, to distribute on all the knitting patterns I publish in one year.

Now, let’s have a look at some examples…

Example 1 : shawl pattern

For a ‘traditionnal’ shawl pattern, we need to count :

• 2 skeins of yarn (~ 40 €),
• the tech editing in Franch and English (~ 50 €)
• the copyright deposit (11€)

Example 2 : adult garnment pattern

For a ‘simple’ adult garnment pattern, we need to count :

• 3 to 4 skeins of yarn (between 60 and 100 €)
• the tech editing in Franch and English (between 100 and 150 €)
• the copyright deposit (11€)

Let’s consider that I publish one knitting pattern a month. My annual business expenses are divided between the 12 patterns, up to 100€ per pattern.

So, the expenses for a pattern are  ~200€ for a shawl and between 270 and 360 € for an adult garnment. This doesn’t count at all all the time I spend working on the pattern…

How much pattern do I need to sell to cover the costs ?

You need to know that the expenses I presented you above are not the only ones. For every sale, I have to deduce different fees : Ravelry, Paypal and my social and welfare costs.

That means that, when I sell a pattern 5 €, ~3.5 € remain after deducing those fees ; 4 € remain for a pattern I sell 6 €.

Example 1 : shawl pattern

If we look back at our shawl pattern example above, when I sell a shawl pattern 5 €, I need to sell 57 to cover the costs, without paying me for the time spent creating the pattern.

Example 2 : adult garnment pattern

For an adult garnment pattern sold at 6 €, I need to sell 68 to 90 to cover my costs before thinking to pay myself.

 

I can tell you that not all my patterns sell up to thoses numbers, or really slowly (while the expenses are quite close in time).

what if I count the time I spend creating a knitting pattern ?

Above, I listed you everything I do when I create a knitting pattern, fro sketches, smaple knitting to publishing. Every step in that process takes time, some more than others, and sometimes it is quite difficult to count, but let’s try…

Un peu plus haut, je vous détaillais tout ce qu’il y a derrière la création d’un patron de tricot. Chacune de ces étapes demande du temps, certaines plus que d’autres, et elles sont parfois assez difficiles à estimer, mais nous allons essayer…

We will get back to the examples we saw earlier and we will consider that I paie myself the French minimum hourly wage (7.61 €/hour). I would love to earn more than that, but the minimum wage would already be a good starting point…

Example 1 : shawl pattern

For a ‘traditionnal’ shawl pattern, we need to count approx. :

• 20 to 30 hours for sample knitting
• 0.5 hour for maths and gradation
• 3 to 4 hours for writing in both language (French and English)
• 0.5 to 1 hour for shcematics and charts
• 1 hour for the tech editing corrections
• 1 hour for the photo shoot
• 2 hours for the test knit follow-up, divided in small chunk durinf the whole duration of the test
• 1 hour to publish it on Ravelry, Makerist and my portfolio
• 1 hour to write an blog post
• for all the communication job and the pattern support, I don’t have any numbers, but they take me time…

That makes a total of 30 to 41.5 hours to create a shawl knitting pattern.

That means I need to sell 66 to 91 additional patterns, bringing the total to 134 to 181 5€ patterns to cover my costs and pay myself at the minimum hourly wage.

Example 2 : adult garnment pattern

For a ‘simple’ adult garnment pattern, we need to count approx. :

• 40 to 50 hours for sample knitting
• 2 to 4 hours for maths and gradations
• 8 to 10 hours for writing in both language (French and English)
• 1 hour for shcematics and charts
• 1 to 2 hours for the tech editing corrections
• 1 hour for the photo shoot
• 2 to 4 hours for the test knit follow-up, divided in small chunk durinf the whole duration of the test
• 1 hour to publish it on Ravelry, Makerist and my portfolio
• 1 hour to write an blog post
• for all the communication job and the pattern support, I don’t have any numbers, but they take me time…

That makes a total of 57 to 74 hours of work to create a simple adult garnment pattern.

That means I need to sell 109 to 141 additional patterns, bringing the total to 177 to 231 6€ patterns sold to cover my costs and pay myself at the minimum hourly wage.

What price raise ?

After all those observations, I decided to raise a little bit my patterns prices to take in better account everything that goes into creating a knitting pattern. that doesn’t mean the prices will double, far from it ! But a small increase of all my prices and some standardization between my patterns would allow me to cover my cost a little bit faster and so to be able to pay myslef a little bit faster too !

On June, 1st 2018, my knitting patterns will be priced as follow :

• small accessories (cowl, mittens, hat) : 5 €
• shawl : 6 €
• children garnment : 6 e
• adult garnment : 7 €