The Pattern Conundrum: Why Bigger, Better Patterns Don't Mean Bigger, Better Income

In my previous post I talked at length about how little the vast majority of independent pattern designers actually make, in contrast to increased demands to add more and more value to patterns.

Inevitably someone will argue “But if you add X, Y and Z, you’ll sell more patterns, and make MORE money!”
So today I’m going to address why

1.       Adding value to patterns does not necessarily equate to a meaningful increase in sales
2.       Why a (theoretical) boost in sales would not automatically generate more revenue

Some of the things knitters have asked designers to include in their patterns in order to be more inclusive and accessible of late include:

·         Written instructions for charts (visual accessibility)
·         Graded to at least size 5X (size inclusive)
·         Alternative yarn options at different price points (financial access)
·         Available on non-Ravelry platforms (web accessibility)
·         Maintain low prices/institute a sliding scale/give away a certain number (financial access)
·         Diverse models—models of different sizes and/or races/ethnicities (inclusion and diversity)

First: all of these are GREAT ideas! In an ideal world, designers would absolutely do all of these things because we truly want this community to include everyone, and we recognize that our patterns are a critical part of the fiber arts industry.
But we don’t live in that world; we live in a world where we often have to balance doing the right thing with doing the necessary things like paying rent and buying food and taking care of our kids, and so on. (Otherwise we’d all just give our money to charity and spend our days protesting the world’s injustices, right?)

And so, the hitch is, no matter how just and inclusive all of these asks are, they are also additional labor. And more to the point, labor that won’t be compensated, because the impact on pattern sales will be negligible for the majority of designers.

Why? Because none of these things drive sales.
The primary drivers of sales are what the sweater (shawl, socks, hat, whatever) looks like and who’s selling it.

Because for the majority of pattern buyers, none of these things are actual dealbreakers—even though most buyers likely prefer patterns with one (or all) of these elements, only a small percentage of potential buyers are actively excluded from using patterns when they lack them. The difference between the number of people who like a pattern enough to buy it and will buy it regardless, and the number of people who like a pattern enough to buy it but cannot buy it without X, Y and/or Z element is tiny—and ultimately, unless you are a Very Popular Designer, negligible, in terms of sales, and therefore income.
That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive to include everyone--of course we should! But we also need to understand that, in the current context of pattern design, asking designers to address all of these issues on their end is asking for free labor—because the majority of designers won’t sell enough additional patterns to cover the added work.

Let’s say a Very Popular Designer and I both release a sweater pattern that sells for $8. VPD sells 500 copies of her pattern and I sell 50 of mine—VPD has made $4,000 and I’ve made $400.
Now, let’s say we’d both sell 10% more patterns if we added 4 more sizes, wrote out the charts and suggested yarn options at various price points. That means we’d do roughly equivalent extra labor, but VPD will sell 50 more copies and make an added $400 for those additional hours of work; I will sell 5 more copies and make an extra $40.
Now, I’m certainly not arguing that all designers should earn the same amount of money—some designers are more popular, that’s just how it goes. But I think this example demonstrates how, in terms of adding value to patterns, the majority of designers—even among that top 10% of earners I discussed in the previous post—may realistically be doing that work for free.

Now as for point No. 2 (more sales =/= more income), that relates back to sizing in particular. Increasing your pattern size range is the most likely of these elements to increase your sales—but it doesn’t automatically mean more income.
Why? Because it’s also the thing that requires the most extra work and expense.

First, the more sizes your pattern has, the more expensive it is to have tech edited. Let’s say a sweater in 6 sizes takes my TE 1.5 hours to edit—that’s around $60. If I add 4 more sizes, that same sweater pattern may take 3 hours to edit. Now it’s $120. I have to sell twice as many patterns to cover the editing cost, before I start earning any profit.
And not only is it going to cost more to have edited, it’s going to take longer to grade the pattern. Grading for larger sizes isn’t as simple as extrapolating out the rows in your Excel spreadsheet (this is also why the editing time may theoretically double even though I’m not doubling the number of sizes). Without getting bogged down in the details, in general, body measurement proportions that hold true at smaller sizes become less true the larger the garment gets. It’s much more challenging to get a bust circumference/armhole depth/neck circumference to work out correctly, for example, in larger sizes—stitch patterns may need to be reworked, rates of increase/decrease changed, stitch counts retooled until it all comes together. Which takes more time.
And this is true for all of the additional requests being made of pattern designers: more time has to be invested in pattern production. I explained above how that isn’t necessarily compensated by great sales. But, perhaps even more importantly, more time invested in each pattern means fewer patterns produced overall. Why does that matter? Because fewer patterns produced means fewer total sales—because the buzz created by regularly releasing new patterns is absolutely essential to generate sales. And fewer total sales = less money, not more.

So, what’s the answer?
How can we make knitting patterns more inclusive without expecting designers to work for free?

The most straightforward solution would be for people who are able to pay a fair price for patterns (and there’s no clear answer to what that might be, but $12-$15 is a good starting point) to be willing to do so. When designers are earning a fair price for most of their pattern sales (ie, people are regularly buying them at the full, true value price), that puts us in a better position to add more value to them, as well as to devise ways to make them accessible to those who legitimately aren’t able to pay the full price, without undermining our own incomes in the process.
And I honestly don’t see that happening any time soon.

So, other options—none of these are ideal, but may provide a happy medium between free labor and inaccessible patterns.

Crowdsourcing: Unfortunately Ravelry played a big role here and it is no longer an option for many. Still, for many years, Ravelry has been an essential source of project information and if you are still able to and feel comfortable using it, it is a great way to find, for example, alternative yarn options for a particular pattern, or how a sweater looks on different sizes. In its absence, Instagram might be a stopgap substitute for the same things (searching specific hashtags for the pattern in question is a good start).

Bartering: Do people still do this? We should. If you have trouble with charts, consider asking a fiber arts friend to write them out for you, in exchange for an appropriate favor from you. If you can’t access NuRav, ask a friend to purchase a Ravelry-only pattern for you while designers search for an alternative.

YouTube: Remember, for $6 or $8, a pattern is only going to cover so much. There is already a lot of information available for free on how to work various knitting techniques, so consider taking advantage of what is already out there, rather than expecting designers to offer tutorials, or emailing them to explain a new-to-you technique that you don’t understand. (I mean, unless you want to pay them for a knitting lesson, of course; I bet some would take you up on it!)

Sign-ups: While I maintain that pattern prices are already artificially low, that doesn’t mean they aren’t a legitimate struggle for some to finance. The best way to get a deal on patterns is to sign up for designers’ newsletters. Subscribers almost always get the best discounts, and you’ll be automatically notified when sales happen.

Patience: This is my biggest tip. Most designers I know are actively working right now to simultaneously 1) increase their size range, 2) upload all of their patterns to an accessible Ravelry alternative, and 3) institute some method for keeping their pattern prices accessible while still earning a living (or at least trying to)—but given that this labor is largely uncompensated, it’s going to take time. So please keep in mind that just because it’s not being done immediately doesn’t mean it’s not being done.