Are Free Patterns Worth It?

I’m a member of a lot of knitting groups online, and it’s always interesting to me to see people asking for help finding knitting patterns. Often they will specify that they only want to work with free knitting patterns.

There might be a lot of reasons for this. They could be new knitters and they don’t want to spend money on a project they might not understand, or a craft they might not stick with. They might not have the budget for a $12 sweater pattern. They might have worked from free patterns before and had a good experience, so they expect that to always be the case. They might be cheap.

I would hope that they don’t want free patterns because they don’t think the work of writing patterns is worth paying for. But sometimes that’s what it feels like.

A lot of my career (at About.com, on my own blog, here at Craft Gossip/CraftBits) has been spent writing patterns that are given away. I’m generally OK with it because I’m getting paid in some way, whether from the pattern itself or because of advertising on the pattern page. But I understand that in no way does that money represent the worth of the pattern or my labor and skill used to write it. The most popular knitting pattern on my blog right now, for example, has made me a little more than $18 in the past three months, barely more than the yarn cost to knit it.

As a designer I want designers to get paid fairly, and I want knitters to feel like it’s worth it to pay for patterns when designers choose to sell them. I regularly buy patterns — more than I’ll ever make, to be honest — because I want this industry to continue.

So I guess you could say I see all sides of the issue. I’m always interested to hear other people’s thoughts, so I enjoyed reading this post from Frog & Cast called “The High Price of Free Patterns.”

It’s mostly about the disservice yarn companies do to designers by offering free patterns, because they often aren’t paying designers what they should and they don’t share in the profits when patterns become super popular.

I would love to know what you think about this issue. Do you buy patterns? Do you look for free patterns first? Have a favorite source for (free or paid) patterns? If a designer has patterns on their website for free but also sells PDFs, will you buy them? How can we all support independent designers more?

Next Pattern:

Sashiko is a traditional Japanese embroidery technique that uses running stitches to make lines (straight or otherwise) that reinforce and insulate fabric. It can be used as a mending technique or for decorative purposes, and it has become popular in recent years as a visible mending technique.

It’s also the inspiration behind the Sashiko Tee by Elenor Mortensen. This top down, circular yoke top is worked in the round with allover stranded knitting designs reminiscent of intricate sashiko stitching.

You’ll find floral patterns, starbursts, straight lines and individual colorwork stitches in this design.

The pattern is offered in six sizes and two different gauges (both use fingering weight yarn) making a dozen different size options. The finished bust circumference of the sweater ranges from 33.8 to 57 inches, or 86 to 145 cm.

The project calls for two colors, and I love the traditional blue and white of the designer’s sample, but some of the projects shown on Ravelry use more than two or use a multicolored yarn as one of the options, which gives it a different look that’s even more interesting. There are also some projects that show longer sleeves, repeating the patterns from the body on the sleeves, which is a great move if you need a sweater for the fall.

I know I say this a lot but it’s worth your time to look at the different ways people have approached this sweater by clicking on the projects tab on Ravelry. You’ll find different colors and sleeves, different ribbing treatments, added beads, a bit of mohair, different lengths, subtle colors and bolder choices…so many fun options.

The pattern is available in English, French and German, and you can grab a copy of Ravelry. I think this one would be a fun way to get into colorwork knitting without having to deal with a bunch of colors, and you get a cool result and lots of practice following a chart.

[Photo: Elenor Mortensen]

Next Pattern:

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