I love this post from Thread & Ladle breaking down the potential time and monetary costs of producing a quality knitting pattern.
People sometimes complain when I share patterns that cost money, and I do try to stick with mostly free patterns most of the time, but I like to support designers who charge for their work because it’s worth it to pay for a well-done pattern, and it’s important to support people who are trying to produce the very best designs and patterns that they can.
The post breaks it all down, but the quick version is that, between knitting, writing the pattern, grading the pattern (that’s coming up with the stitch counts and instructions for different sizes), taking pictures, designing the pattern itself and getting the pattern into the system wherever you want to sell it can easily take 100 hours or more.
And that doesn’t factor in the cost of materials, any photo editing and layout programs used, technical editing, test knitters and more things that actually cost money beyond thinking about paying a designer for her time and expertise.
If you think about all that goes into it, and that a designer would have to sell many hundreds of patterns to make up the cost and pay themselves some kind of wage for their labor, paying $5 or $7 for a sweater pattern doesn’t sound so bad, does it?
I’d love to hear your thoughts. Do you pay for knitting patterns or only use ones you can get for free? Do you think paid patterns are better quality? What is a knitting pattern worth to you?
I am almost always able to take an idea or photo of a knitted item, and then make my own pattern. It isn’t that hard.
I am more than willing to support knitting designers. I am most appreciative of their creativity, and the time spent bringing their patterns to us. For a modest, initial fee, the pattern can be used repeatedly. It’s a win-win for me.