MYTHS BUSTED: You Can't Make A Living As A Crochet and Knit Designer?!

MYTHS BUSTED: A Follow Up

 "You Can't Make A Living As A Crochet and Knit Designer?!"

My blog post, You Can't Make A Living As A Crochet and Knit Designer?!  really resonated with a lot of people. Thank you to those who sent emails, tweets, and blog post comments.

I heard from so many of you. Some messages from knitters and crocheters thinking about dipping their toes into design part-time as a side hussle, and those already designing on the side, thinking about making the leap into taking designing side-hussle to full-time.

Either option is perfectly fine! You'll be Fine!

I think this post touched a nerve for a lot of designers. On one spectrum are ther designers who are not making a true sustainable living from their design. After You Can't Make A Living As A Crochet and Knit Designer?! launched, I heard from a couple designers (go check out my twitter feed @KnitDesigns to see comments from November 11th).

Don't get me wrong, I am a realist. I understand being a crochet and knitwear designer can be a struggle and that not all designers make a profit.

 

But let's be honest, it can be profitable.

There are designers making a living, contributing to their family's budget, paying for more than just more yarn. You have to be strategic. You have to treat is as a business. For a long time I struggled to figure it out. I have a process that works, now. But maybe in a year something might change and I have to figure it out again. But that is business. You are always testing and tweaking some part of the business to see what happens. You can't just do one thing and expect it to work forever.

If you want to make a living as a designer, the key is to offer more than just self-published patterns on Ravelry that sells for $6. That isn't going to make you rich, heck, that won't even be enough to buy decent yarn. But, providing additional offerings, selling designs to publishers for $300-500, adding sample knitting/crocheting services, write articles, etc, and building a strong foundation, can lead to a business that can provide a good living.

There are ways to build a business that can lift you above the poverty line and build wealth. In my business, I look to other industries to see how those entrepreneurs are growing their business and building wealth. Women are turning small business into full-time jobs everyday. As long as there are others out there making a real living as a craft business owner, I hold belief that:

 

"If They Can Make It Happen, There Is No Reason That I Can't."

Now, it's your turn. Bust the myth. Stop listening to nah-sayers. This isn't a whoo-whoo hippie stuff about "if you have the passion, it will all fall into place." This isn't that. This is about thinking outside the box. Taking all your life experiences, and figuring out how to make money doing the thing you love. There will be lots of trials and errors.

 

You will have failures!

Pick yourself up, brush yourself off. Trust that you can do it. Because, you can and will figure it out. You can do anything you set your mind to do. Remember, look to other industries for inspirations. Find people that you respect that are doing it and identify those key components that make them successful.

You will figure it out!

FOLLOW WHAT MAKES YOU TRULY HAPPY! 

Harwinton Easy Lace Boomerang Shawl



     

Freeport Cardigan

 

 

 

  

 

  

 

Go, check out the Pattern Page to get your copy here:



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I Couldn't Knit! I Don't Have The Patience.

So, my son is on the swim team at school. He goes to the pool after school pretty regularly. Practice last for almost 2-hours, so when I take him to practice and on the days I decide to wait and watch, instead of heading home to start dinner or go to the library to chat and catch up on town gossips (P.S. this is a small town with some big time drama, whoa!), of course I’m gonna take my knitting or crochet. In fact, I always have something to knit or crochet with me in the car. Just in case. Doesn't everyone?! You never know when you will be stuck somewhere, right? This is a small town, but not a fast town.

Anyways, the other day I decided to stay and watch the practice and was working on a knit scarf design that will be published next year. It was in a lovely silk and cashmere blend and the color was divine. Trust me, this is the kind of stuff knitters and crocheters would give up their first born for!

So, I’m at the swim practice, knitting away, minding my own business. I must have been in a sort of Zen moment or something because I was just lost in the rhythm of the clicking needles. I was transfixed by the feel of the yarn as it moved through my fingers and over the needle to create a stitch. I can just imagine the look of complete and utter pleasure on my face, right?

I felt eyes on me. You know that feeling you get that you are being watched? So, I looked up from my work and turn to the woman sitting next to me. Gosh, I must have been in hyper focus mode, because I don’t even remember anyone taking the seat on the bench next to me.

I could see the questions in her face. There on her lips, she wanted to ask me something about my knitting, but she didn’t want to be rude. So, I helped her out. I gestured to my knitting and told her what I was making. I didn’t want to completely scare off the muggle with the details of the yarn composition, the needles being used, the stitch pattern, so I kept it super simple and casual.

She smiled and said what I hear so often…

 

“I couldn’t do that, knitting. I don’t have the patience.”

In the past, in reaction to this comment I use to go into discussions, expounding quite eloquently on the many virtues of knitting and crochet; about how knitting and crochet allowed me to have patience instead of having the patience to actually do the craft. I use to feel like, if only they knew the benefits of what this craft could do for their state of minds.

I didn’t this time. I didn’t want a battle. I didn’t want to be the crazy knitter at swim practice. Well, at least, this time. I nodded and she smiled back at her. She went back to playing on her phone - I think it was one of those Candy Crush type of games from the low sounds coming from her phone - and I went back to my knitting, instantly transported back to my happy place, where I was creating something beautiful and lovely. I was making art that was also functional and wearable, the love, and hope, and possibility knitted into it.

 

This design, when published in 2016, I hope a mom will knit for her daughter for graduation. Or, maybe a big sister will knit for her little sister on her wedding day.  

 

 

FOLLOW WHAT MAKES YOU TRULY HAPPY!

 

 

 

Harwinton Easy Lace Boomerang Shawl



     

Freeport Cardigan

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Go, check out the Pattern Page to get your copy here:



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The Submission Tracker: for Crochet and Knit Designers

You have been designing for a minute. You are really finding your stride in the industry as a designer. Yeah, it's scary to actually call yourself that, but you are owning the title. You have a pretty good rapport with magazine and yarn companies, and getting more and more work everyday.

Fantastic, right?

So, what's the problem?

The problem is that there are a lot of steps to go through from the time you put the proposal together and hit send, to getting that "Yes, we would love to include your design for publication," to the publication actually going live, and you receiving payment for your work.

There is a lot to keep track of. You are having a hard time keeping up and keeping track of all your submissions. You are sending out a lot of proposals to many different publications, and you are at various stages of the publishing process with all your submissions: from initial proposal to acceptance to finished pattern and sample to publication, and payment.

This is a simple, yet powerful tool to help Crochet and Knit designers manage their submissions to maximize efficiency and increase acceptance.

It was easy when you were only self-publishing or selling a handful of designs each year. But now you are selling more and more of your designs. Things can really get lost in the shuffles if you are just writing it all down on note cards or on paper. What if you lose track of a deadline? Besides it being really embarrassing, you could loose credibility with the publication editor. And that could lead to less of your proposals getting accepted. The Submission Tracker was built to help you maintain your credibility.

With the Submission Tracker you have at your fingertips, 24/7 your entire submission portfolio and each one's stage in the path to publication. Also, you can track your rejections so you can be sure to not re-submit the same proposal to the same publication. Yikes!

BUY NOW

The Submission Tracker is for you if (Check all that apply):

• You are a designer (knit and/or crochet)
• You design full-time or part-times
• You submit design proposals to magazines and yarn companies Call for Submission 
• You submit more than a handful of designs and need a way to track your submission
• You don't currently have a system for tracking your submissions. Right now, your only "system" is writing general information on note cards.
• You want to grow your design business
• You want to find trends in your design portfolio. What design proposals are being accepted/rejected and by which publication in order to better craft specific proposals. 

How did you answer? If you said yes to any (or ALL) of the above, The Submission Tracker is for you.

 

Read how The Submission Tracker helped E, a knitwear designer:

The Submission Tracker help me to be strategic with submitting proposals. Before I would just send out proposals to whatever Call for Submission I found on Ravelry that the deadline had not past. I would do this without considering the deadline for samples and pattern. This wasn't a big deal when I wasn't getting a lot of designs accepted.

This really bit me in the butt when I had 3 designs accepted at different times (yay!), and all having the same deadline for the finished sample and written pattern (yikes!). When I accepted the terms from the publishers, I didn't realize the deadlines were all the same. It was a frustrating 6-weeks. I would go to work at my day job, come home, have a quick dinner and family time, and work on the samples until late into the night, only to get up the next day and repeat the cycle. During this time I lost a lot of sleep and missed out on precious family time with my husband and daughter.

Last year I make a conscious decision to grow my designing business and to send out more proposals. Now that I have The Submission Tracker, I have had a clear picture of the status of each proposal. I know when everything is due so I don't over book or miss a deadline.  It was a hard lesson to learn and now with The Submission Tracker I have all the information I need to make smart decisions about my design business.

Be like this knit designer...

E. was able to increase her submission and thus, her acceptance rate by carefully tracking what designs were being accepted and rejected from which publications. With this tool, The Submission Tracker, she was able to find trends and better craft proposals specific to the publication she was submitting to.

BUY NOW

Never miss a deadline and most importantly, never lose track of when payments are expected and when the exclusivity period ends and you self publish the design.

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You Can't Make A Living As A Crochet and Knit Designer?!

There is no easy way to say this. I feel really bad about having to be the one to tell you. So, I am just gonna come right out and say it...running a knitting business is hard work and worst, your family and friends won't understand what you do. And that can be the biggest factor to your failure if you really let it happen.

So, you want to be a knit and crochet designer. You have great ideas. Magazines and yarn companies are really digging your submissions. You're really killing it! But your full-time gig is really cramping your designing aspirations because it doesn't leave you with enough time or energy to pursue all your ideas and submit as much as you'd like. You think you can really make a go out it, if only you had the time to be able go for it. You have done your homework. You can really make a living at this.  You are ready to leap in.

You will hear all sort of stupid comments from the people you love that will make you just want to scream, such as:

• You're just sitting on the couch  knitting and crocheting all day, how is that a job, let alone, a career?
• You will never make it anywhere doing that!
• How can you making money doing that? Your job as an Administrative Assistance was a great job with a future, where can this knitting thing get you?
• So, that 4-yr degree and the huge debt you're still paying off was for this? And the debt, what was all that do?
• This is too risky and not a grown up thing to do.

 

So, you've heard that one?! Stop me when you've heard enough; I have a million of 'em! But, you're a realist. You know what you're in for and your ready.

 

None of that matters!

The bottom line, as long as your spouse and kids understand, you know, the only people whose lives are actually directly affected by your decision, is all that matters. So what your father doesn't understand how you get your ideas in that magazine last fall. Who cares if your sister-in-law looks down on you for not being a full time stay at home mom like she is, consumed completely and wholly by her kids, because a mom's real obligation is to her kids and husband.

 

You don't have to explain what you do in simple terms.

 

You don't have to explain yourself at Thanksgiving dinner about what you do that makes you happy and how much money you make.

FOLLOW WHAT MAKES YOU TRULY HAPPY!



Freeport Cardigan

Candeo Shawl

Go, check out the Pattern Page to get your copy here:



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