Knitting For Profit
If you love knitting and have ever wished you could make money from it, then make sure you keep reading because I
Posts Tagged ‘Knitting Patterns’
How To Turn Your Knitting Website Into A Shopping Site
Wednesday, August 26th, 2009
Many people ask me how they can start selling their knitting from their own blog or from knitting websites, so in this post I'll show you how easy it is to add a Paypal function to your knitting or crochet site to instantly start accepting payments for your goods or services – yay!
Many knitters and crocheters don't realise how easy it is to start making some money from their creations online. If you already have a website or blog, and you would like to start selling your products or services, then using Paypal's payment buttons is the fastest, easiest and possibly cheapest way to get started.
And you may not realise Paypal buttons can also give you the ability to collect donations for charity fund-raising (like sponsored knit-alongs) or even let people give gift certificates for your sites products!
First of all you need a Paypal account, which is easy and free to set up. Then when you log in, you'll see this screen, choose the “Merchant Services” tab (circled).
To create your payment buttons, choose “Website Payments Standard” (circled on the left).
Now you have a few choices:
The “Buy Now” buttons will take people straight to the payment page and will not allow them to add anything else to their order. This button is for “once-only” product sales, and probably won't be as suitable for you as the free shopping cart option below.
The “Add To Cart” button allows people to buy many different products and as many of each product as they want. This encourages them to buy more than one thing at a time, which is always a good thing!
You can also set up a “Donate” button which allows you to collect donations over the web – this makes it much easier for people to support your fundraiser, and allows you to reach a world-wide audience with your cause.
Or you can include a “Buy Gift Voucher” button, which I think every knitting or crochet website should have – why not encourage people to give your products or designs as thoughtful gifts to friends and family who also love knitting and crochet?
For this exercise, we'll look at setting up the Add To Cart button, which will probably be the first one you use. So click on “Create One Now” as shown circled above.
Step 1 on the next page allows you to customise your button to your needs. You need to create a separate “Add To Cart” button for each item you want to sell with the different price, payment currency and size/colour options for each. In the example below I have created my button for a US$35 beanie that comes in red, blue or black. You can add more than one of these drop-down menus if you also have size choices.
If you want to, you can use your own customised button images by putting in their URL in the “customise appearance” option.
Next add in the postage cost for that item (assuming it was bought as a single item) and choose the Merchant ID for transactions – the secure option uses your registered paypal email address as the ID, or you can choose another email address if you wish.
In Step 2 you can set up inventory tracking and profit and loss tracking which can be very handy. You will be alerted by email if the numbers of a certain product are low, and you can stop people ordering an item if it is out of stock.
In Step 3 you can customise your check-out pages. You can allow customers to add in special instructions, and choose whether or not you want their postal address (for example, if you are selling knitting patterns as pdf's you may not need their postal address to provide the products).
Then you can choose where the customer will go once they have finished paying (circled here). If you are selling knitting patterns, you can upload the pattern or pdf to a specific page on your website and send them there once they have paid (so only people who have made a payment can view that page). If you are selling products you might like to set up a special “thank you” page which thanks them for their order and gives them information like approximate delivery times.
Finally click on “Create Button” at the bottom of the page and you will get some <html> code and a preview of the button (see below).
Now all you need to do is click on “Select Code” and “copy” (using Control C on your keyboard) then go to your web page and paste the code in where you want your button to appear.
I have included an example of what the code looks like on your web page below – I have pasted the script from Paypal (circled) into a table, and then the preview of what it looks like on the website is below that.
Now you know how to start taking payments for your products, gift certificates and donations – if this brings up any more questions, please post them below and I'm happy to help!
33 Places To Find Great Knitting Patterns
Thursday, August 13th, 2009
There are so many places you can find knitting patterns, it can be a bit overwhelming!
The best way to sift through this massive collection is to get specific. When you know what niche market you are going to supply, you'll know what sort of patterns are you looking for and it will make your search much easier and faster.
Here's a few places to look offline:
►yarn stores
►bookstores (especially second-hand bookshops)
►craft shops
►garage or yard sales
►swap meets
►craft markets or fairs fiber festivals
►ebay and other online auction and trading sites
► stuffed away at the back of your (or your mother's) cupboard!
And here's some useful links to online resources:
► yarn store sites: www.jimmybeanswool.com, www.yarnmarket.com, www.y2knit.net, www.bellaknitting.com, www.yarnsupply.com, www.theyarnco.com,
►dedicated knitting or crochet pattern sites: www.knittingpatterncentral.com, www.crochetpatterncentral.com, www.knittingonthenet.com, www.patternfish.com, www.freepatterns.com, www.freevintagecrochet.com, www.theknittingvault.com
►yarn manufacturers sites: http://freeknittingpatterns.lionbrand.com, www.berroco.com, www.knitrowan.com, www.patonsyarns.com, http://redheart.com
►specialised designers sites: www.vogueknitting.com, www.bymelissa.net
►knitting supply sites: www.knitpicks.com
►knitting and crochet information and magazine sites: www.dailyknitter.com, www.knittinghelp.com/patterns, www.knitty.com, www.smartcrochet.com,
Or you can type your specific pattern search into Google or Yahoo and see what comes up! For example just type into the Google search bar "cable knitting patterns" and it won't take long before youl find exactly what you are looking for.
Online Knitting Success Story – Emilda From Hectanooga
Tuesday, June 2nd, 2009
Emilda is a knitting designer with a difference, and you can’t help but be inspired by her positivity, generosity and joy of knitting! She is part of a growing group of designers who create with “knitterpreneurs” in mind, with fast easy to knit designs that she is happy for people to make a profit from knitting.
Find out why her products sell so well, and how this self-confessed technophobic now makes most of her sales online!
How it all started…
Emilda grew up in a small country village at a time when skills like knitting, crocheting, quilting and sewing were part of everyday life. “Women could do everything, and it was all of necessity, not a leisure activity as it is today. As a young girl, the clickety-click music of my mothers knitting needles, and the rhythmic movement of her hands dancing above her knitting needles was a mesmerizing and almost hypnotic nightly occurrence in our kitchen as we sat around the big wood stove by the light of a kerosene lamp!”
“We had no access to patterns back then, so I became adept at finding a way to make what was in my mind, and bring it into reality. I have always sewn without patterns, and knitted and crocheted without patterns.”
From knitting by lamp-light to online retailer!
Over the following years, Emilda built up a wide and wonderful range of knitted items, which sold well at countless craft shows and markets. But she wanted to go the next step, and start selling online.
The only problem was that she believed she didn’t have the knowledge or skills to be able to run her own website. “At my age, I probably just have a limited expectation that it is just too complicated for me to comprehend” – but this wasn’t going to stop her!
She decided to list her knitted pieces on a couple of crafting sites, but was disappointed with the results. Then one day she happened to find a discussion on a blog about Etsy.com, and after reading their positive comments she decided to find out more.
“When I saw how little the costs were, and realised that they do all the maintenance of the site, I was determined to join up!
“I had sales the first day I placed listings on the site! After that, I shifted my compulsive urges to listing, and making new items, and listing and listing and listing. My first sales were for wooden buttons which I make from tree branches, and in the beginning that was the main attraction to my site” she says.
Why are her products so popular?
Emilda started her Etsy.com store in November 2008, and in only 7 months she has made over 400 sales!
“When I joined Etsy, I was only selling the finished products. But I received emails from people who had visited my shop, asking if they were they my own designs, and if they could they buy the patterns. And so, being entrepreneurial in spirit, I saw that there was a need for that type of thing. I began the task of having a clipboard handy, and writing the instructions as I was knitting.
I think what makes my items unique, is the mere fact that I have not followed a pattern. When I was selling at craft shows, which was the main outlet for my creative endeavors for a great deal of the past 30 or so years, people would buy the finished hats, scarves, ornaments, and they were attracted to my booth because my items didn’t look like others.
Now my pattern range consists of over 100 hats, cowls, neck warmers, scarves, crocheted jewelry, knitted fashion accessories, mittens, shrugs and shawls. And I find that people keep coming back for more because once they have used one of my patterns, they realize how simple and easy they are. My biggest focus is on how to make an item with the least possible increases, decreases, or complicated patterns – without losing the cuteness factor!
And my tutorials include pictures of the progression, which is very helpful. When you have the visuals, it really leaves nothing to figure out.. you read the directions, and look at the picture, you pretty much know what is being explained!”
And you don’t mind people using your patterns to “knit for profit”?
“I want people to love knitting and crochet as much as I do, so my patterns aim to be simple, easy, quick, and made for people to be able to make a profit from them.”
I have lots of people coming back for more patterns, simply because they are free to sell and profit from the finished items they make. And I love that they will be giving birth to something that was in my imagination, because I just don’t have the time anymore to mass produce. My mind is full of patterns, so I think my purpose is to supply the whole world with wonderful patterns!”
Emilda is now retired, but loves that her hobby provides extra income and keeps her busy. “The best part of making money from knitting is being able to work whenever I want to. If I have a sleepless night, I just get up and let the creative juices flow – for me, the hardest part is actually shutting my imagination off!”
A great tip for using Etsy…
I wish I had known that I could have started on Etsy with just one item. I thought I had to have a store full, so I was pressuring myself to hurry up and make lots of things, and then go through the photography and listings all at once. It is actually better to list slowly, because it keeps you at the top of Etsy’s search engines.
And her advice for someone who wants to make money knitting?
“Make one or two things you love to make, then open a store on Etsy!
You know, I don’t have any shares in Etsy… but as far as I am concerned its a great deal. Anyone, anywhere can try out their products on a well maintained, and well managed site…. and all for just 20 cents, because that’s all it costs to list an item. There are no registration fees, no start up costs, just set yourself up, and list an item! What have you got to lose?”
If you are interested in starting an Etsy store, you can click here to get started (and I don’t own shares in Etsy either, but maybe I should!!)
And have a look at the new Knitting Patterns pages right here on the Knitting For Profit Blog to see some of Emilda’s beautiful designs that you can buy through her Etsy store at www.hectanooga.etsy.com
Knitting Success Story – Ruth From nonstopknits
Friday, March 6th, 2009
This month’s Real Live Knitting Success Story is featuring Ruth Boelkins from nonstopknits, who has taken her knitting hobby and passion, and turned it into a thriving small business.
Here’s how this "beginner knitter" made her home-grown knitting business a success…
How did she start her knitting business?
Ruth is relatively new to knitting. It took years of persuasion, but 5 years ago she finally allowed her mother-in-law to teach her how to knit. She was instantly hooked, and hasn’t stopped since! She now creates a beautiful range of knitting patterns, as well as finished hats and purses for her very appropriately named knitting business, nonstop knits.
Ruth first started selling her creations at local Bazaars where her hand-knitted items sold very well. She had discovered one of the keys to success in selling hand-crafts, which was to make her knitted products unique and different. By using interesting styles and colours, and adding knitted flowers and decorations to her work, she presented knitted pieces that people could fall in love with and desperately want to own.
She then started taking custom orders, and it wasn’t long before her knitting business grew. Most of her sales are still local, driven by art sales and word of mouth. She also sells knitting online through her etsy.com shop at www.nonstopknits.etsy.com
A profitable knitting niche by accident?
Ruth found another knitting niche market by chance one day when she created a knitted hat for her son to wear to Ice Hockey. "My intention was that Adam would have a cool knitted hat," she says. He started wearing it to the rink and a coach commented on it, so she made knitted hats for all the coaches. Then, parents started requesting knitted hats for their kids, and suddenly she had a whole new income stream!
How did her knitting business evolve into knitting pattern design?
Ruth didn’t aspire to become a knitting pattern designer either. She started getting requests for her knitting patterns when visiting yarn stores with her daughter, who often wears her mother’s original knitted designs. After many requests for knitting patterns from other parents, she was lucky enough to get the support and encouragement of a local yarn store owner who said she would sell her knitting pattern for a felted purse if Ruth would write it down.
This apparently gave Ruth the push she needed, and she hasn’t looked back. Ruth had hit on another niche market with her knitting patterns. They are appealing to both new and experienced knitters because the projects are quick to knit, and the directions are very detailed. Her knitted hat and purse patterns are made using circular needles and don’t require expensive yarns. If someone knows they need a couple of gifts, or want to whip something up quickly, many of the projects can be made in an hour or two.
Looking back, Ruth says she is glad she finally picked up the pointy sticks. "I love that it began as something within my family," she says, "I have on my knitting patterns that I’m a home-grown business, and that couldn’t be more true." Ruth says the experience has also made her a more avid supporter of other local businesses and connected her to other creative people. "That’s been a really enriching thing, to bump into other knitters and discuss what we love to make".
Ruth’s advice to up and coming Knitterpreneurs:
‘Many of my knitting patterns are for small fast projects, which is a great way to begin. A hat on circular needles is easy to hold and a fun way to knit, you can make a range of sizes, you only need to purchase limited supplies and you can experiment with color changes as you go. Projects with no seams make for nicer finished products as well.’
‘I am on a steep learning curve as I make my knitting hobby and passion into a business. I constantly try to keep my focus on doing what I love. Designing, creating and fitting art into life is the edge where I like to work. If you want to sell your knitted items, my advice is to listen to the comments people make about your work and watch how they react to your products. This will show you where your marketing opportunities are.’
If you would like to see Ruth’s knitting patterns and products, have a look at her etsy shop at www.nonstopknits.etsy.com If you have a knitting or crochet success story, we would love to feature you here as part of our real live knitting success series! Just drop me a line at liz@knittingforprofit.com
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About Liz
Welcome! My name is Liz and I am a work at home mother of two. I am also the author of the new book “Knitting for Profit”. I have created this blog to give you more great information, ideas and resources for making money from your knitting passion! [more]
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