Making money from your knitting

Last week I concluded that it’s probably best to not try to make money by selling your knitted products. But of course that isn’t the full story. So how might you go about making your knitting pay?

1 Sell your patterns
The best way to make money is to design and sell your own patterns. There are lots of knitting and crochet magazines in the UK and more across Europe and in the US. There are also online magazines, but beware of these as a lot of websites don’t pay.

You’ll need to be able to write your patterns in a clear and concise way, so you’ll need to be very familiar with the standard abbreviations and knitting ‘language’. Different magazines will probably have different conventions so it’s worth getting style guides from them all. Email commissioning or technical editors and find out what each magazine looks for in a pattern and then try to match your skills to that.

The growth of self-publishing means that you can even publish your own pattern books for a fraction of the cost of a traditional book. eBooks are great – a whole pattern book that is conveniently stored on your phone or tablet. But keep quality in mind. If you can’t provide decent, colour photos and well-written copy then this might be one to avoid.

2 Knit small things
The big problem with selling knitted items is the time it takes to make anything. This isn’t the case with, for example, baby booties and hats. Make a matching set, put them all in a tissue-paper-filled box and, hey presto, you’ve got a saleable item! If you then manage to build a reputation for high-quality knitted babywear, you’ll soon be able to charge more for bigger or more complicated items like blankets or clothing.

This cute hat and bootie set hardly took
any time at all to make.

3 Knit for other people
Designers need pattern testers. You’ll need to be fast and highly skilled, but if you think you fit the bill then try contacting some designers to see how much they pay and how much knitting is expected of you.

4 Write about knitting
If you can write, you can make money by providing copy for knitting or crochet magazines. I work on a birding magazine and we get unsolicited feature ideas all the time. Good ones make it into the magazine. You’ve got nothing to lose, so why not jot down some ideas and email all the relevant publications.