Why Pattern Designers Should Sell on Ravelry or Craftsy

Do you design knitting or crochet patterns? Have you ever tried to sell your patterns? What outlet do you use to sell your patterns through?

If you said Ravelry or Craftsy, you're up there in the top percentage of very smart and thrifty designers! Ravelry has been around since May 2007 when Casey and Jessica Forbes decided to found a social networking site that allowed fiber artists a place "...to keep track of their yarn, tools and pattern information, and look to others for ideas and inspiration." (Wikipedia, "Ravelry." 28 February, 2014.)

In comparison, Craftsy has only been around since 2011 when it was launched by Sympoz (former eBay execs John Levisay and Josh Scott) but had over a half million enrollments in its first year. (Wikipedia, "Craftsy." 24 November 2013.) Craftsy is popular for their video tutorials teaching people various crafts such as sewing, quilting, knitting, crochet, cooking, and painting. But did you know they also have a ton of patterns released by independent designers? Everything from sewing to crochet and knitting? Did you also know that it is free to sign up, free to sell, and you keep your profits? http://www.craftsy.com/pattern/sell

Neither Craftsy or Ravelry charge fees. Ravelry gives you up to $30 in sales a month before they charge anything, and then it is only a very small fee. Craftsy makes the explicit statement that it is your pattern, your design, and they do not take any of your profits. To make a long story short, Craftsy and Ravelry allow me to keep most of my profits (there is always the Paypal factor) but I lose out big on Etsy! If you want a break down, read on.

Now why am I saying all of this? Because I am also a vendor on Etsy. I sell my patterns there. To sell my patterns, I have to pay a $.20 listing fee, then another 3% +.25 if they are buying through direct checkout. If they buy through Paypal, I lose an additional .5% on Etsy then 2.9% + .30 on Paypal. So if I sell a pattern for $2 on Etsy, it costs me $.57 ($.06 is 3% + $.25 + $.20 listing fee) just in fees, making my grand total of profit $1.43. If I sell through Paypal, I lose an additional $.31. This takes my profits down to $1.12 Etsy and Paypal are collecting a tidy little profit off of me at this point. 

Now granted, if I sell through Craftsy and Ravelry I will still lose a portion of my profits through Paypal. I have a business account on Paypal, so my fee drops down to 2.2%. Which is only $.04. I can handle that. I would rather lose $.04 than $.88! Now, I know I'm going to lose out somewhere along the way and I can't make 100% profit, but the alternatives to selling on Craftsy and Ravelry seem better to me than paying Etsy!

 I'm not an Etsy hater. In fact, I adore Etsy and credit their venue for providing 90% or more of my sales. I can sell through Craftsy and Etsy at the $2.00 rate and still make $1.96 on each of my patterns because they don't charge fees for selling. But on Etsy, I have to charge $2.50 - $3.00 for those SAME PATTERNS just so I can make close to the same profits. 



I'm not going to go into the details of what is involved with pattern writing and production right now, but unless I sell A LOT of patterns, I won't become rich or supplement my income in doing it. I basically do it because I like to and can make a little change here and there. Ravelry and Craftsy are two of my favorite selling venues. If you're looking to sell your patterns online, try out one or both of these sites and see what I mean.

*Disclosure: I am a paid affiliate for Craftsy.com and will make a small commission from sign ups generated through clicking on these links. However, all opinions expressed and recommendations are based on my personal experiences. I do not sell for vendors that I do not use or have experience with. 

Tuesday Needlework: Ravellenics Progress

I posted last Tuesday about Ravelry's Ravellenics Winter Games and thought I'd give an update on my progress thus far. I've made it halfway there! I finished the back of my sweater project last night. The pattern is definitely not my most favorite! I've had to accommodate for poorly written instructions, a confusing chart, and miscalculated stitch counts. It's been quite the project to say the least.

detail of cables

I was very excited about the pattern when I first discovered it. I did a pattern search on Ravelry after seeing a similar design (likely store-bought, but cute) at church one Sunday. I just love the way the sweater hung and looked so warm and cozy, but a little country too. I'm a boot and jeans girl, so this was a really great design for me to pursue.

Back of sweater, with a lifeline! 

However, after tracking down the errata and getting a new chart, I soon came to realize that the stitch count was off by 16 stitches. The directions say to increase every other row for 16 rows, which means I get 16 increased stitches in this section. (8*2) The stitch count was supposed to be 122, but mine was coming out to 106. Hmm.. so I decided to go ahead with the stitch count I was getting following the directions - which incidentally was the same as what the chart indicated - and disregard the stitch count.

Blocky, but think it will work

After making it up to the decreases section, I realized that their stitch count was still off, so I would end up with about 22 stitches for my neck and shoulder section. This wasn't real good, since I don't have a pin neck. To fix this without taking out everything I had done and starting over again, I decided to decrease up to 80 stitches, then knit even for the remaining six rows. And instead of decreasing 8 stitches over 4 rows, I decreased only 7 over the four, giving me my final stitch count of 36 that I was after. It's a little blocky, but because it will be sewn together I'm not too worried about it. I think I can make it look pretty good in the seaming section and the ribbed neck and edges will straighten the rest of it out.

This has been such a confusing pattern that I think I will deserve a medal when all is said and done! 

Tuesday Knitting: Knitting is an Olympic Sport on Ravelry

The Sochi Winter Olympic Games are in full swing for 2014! While countries around the world are cheering on their prized athletes and taking home medals, those of us not in the Olympics or athletically inclined may be wondering how we could win our own medals. Everyone has a skill of some kind, and for some of us it is crochet, knitting, or fiber work of some type. Ravelry has your solution!

My 2014 Entry!

Ravelry hosts the Ravellenic Winter Games in which knitters, crocheters, and other fiber workers can find their niche in their Olympic "sport." And of course one of the big stories in the needlework arena is that of the Finnish Snowboarding Coach Antti Koskinen knitting at the starting line. It even made it to Buzzfeed and is all over Facebook. So why not have it as a game?

So what are Ravellenics? Honestly, I hadn't even heard about them until this year. Never being very active on Ravelry until this year, it's not surprising that I missed it. The Ravellenics are a series of events that fiber artists can enter to set a personal goal of finishing. Everything from cables and lacework to finishing up UFOs can be entered. They even had a classification for things that don't fit into other categories. Basically, you chose a project, enter it into your project gallery, and tag it with Ravellenic tags to enter. If you can finish by February 28 (the end of the Olympic games) you get a medal. Pretty cool, huh?

I entered this year, hoping to finish a cabled shell that I've had my heart set on. I started on opening day, then ripped it out to start over again last night. I know I only have 17 days left now. I'm a little worried. But hoping I can pull this one off! If not, there's always next year. Setting a personal goal is fun and challenging!



If you'd like to give it a try, find out more and a list of events on the Ravelry Ravellenics group page. You can enter with a team you already have or go it alone. It's a good way to have fun with your groups or stay on a project you'd like to complete. All in good fun!

Knitting Two Socks at a Time

A couple of posts ago I wrote about the resurgence of old techniques such as tatting, and how some techniques seem to catch on for a while then die away again. I have another one to share with you that some may find very interesting.

I'm sure you've heard of magic loop socks. These are knit on the a long circular needle. You knit one sock, and then the other on a second pass. So with this method, you ARE knitting two at a time, but still knitting them separately on one needle. So for every one row that you do, you still have to repeat the row a second time on the other sock.

 The method I'm discussing is not the Magic Loop. This is a Double Knit method using double point needles and literally knitting one sock inside of the other at the same time. The Annie's Catalog class "Magic Socks" teaches how to use the same method on a long circular needle in the magic loop style. However, I don't own a good pair of circulars with a long enough and flexible enough cable. So for me, the dpns seemed like the best fit!

So what is this exactly?

Well, if you've ever tried double knitting, you've come half way to doing two socks at a time! Double knitting is a process that uses two strands of yarn on double pointed needles. The yarns are worked together and produce a thick, double-layered fabric that can also be used to show mirror images on either side. Here is a really good example on Ravelry by Heather Zoppetti that would make for excellent practice if you so desired.

Now that that's out of the way, let's discuss how we knit 2 socks without having them stuck together. The concept is pretty much that you are going to knit using 2 strands of yarn that are never crossed over each other. To do this, you have to knit one strand in the front by bringing the yarn to the back, then separating the yarns and bringing the front yarn to the front as if to purl, making the knit stitch in the back with the second yarn, then bringing the front yarn back again to make the next stitch. What you end up with is 2 separate socks, knit at the same time, with two yarns. Confusing? 

I thought so at first, too. But I can't confess to having only used one method. I also used the method by Kory Stamper in her article on Knitty to work out the kinks. I have included a bunch of notes in my Ravelry project for the changes that I made and why. But I DID succeed in making 4 socks. The images below only show one pair, because my daughter scarfed up the other ones and I can't find them right now. Kids...

As I was knitting these socks, I thought to myself, "Self, I bet we could knit just about anything tubular using this method." So self and I decided that we would try it! We knit 2 slouchy button hats (also a great Ravelry pattern!) using 2 different colors. Since I also knit hats for charity, I was ecstatic with the thought that I could knit one for personal use (see daughter below? She took the orange one and then other daughter has successfully taken the brown one) and give one away. While that idea only works if you don't have daughters that like hats, it is an excellent one. This same technique can also be used for knitting two sleeves, two boot cuffs, two pot holders...you get the picture. They don't have to be tubular either, as in the case of the pot holders.

I would not suggest using this technique for cabling, unless you have the patience of Job. Knitting two stitches together involves moving stitches around on the needles. It can be a bit tedious. I'll probably try it one day. Just to do it. And say I did.

Since there are a couple of tutorials on the socks that I mentioned in this post, I will be posting a tutorial Friday on making the hats. I'll be using a baby hat pattern and worsted weight yarn for a speedier finish than the dk and sock weights I used previously. The tutorials will be in 2-3 sections, depending on what I can cover. So stay tuned, and check back for more!