How do you sell crochet and knitting patterns?
·Founder, Stakk
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25 September 2026
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7 min read
You write the pattern up as a PDF, test it on someone who is not you, state the license on the first page, and sell it as an instant download. The pattern itself is the easy part. What makes a pattern sellable rather than just written is the information around the instructions: gauge, yarn weight and yardage, hook or needle size, finished measurements, and whether you are writing in US or UK terms. Patterns are cheap products, so the flat part of a platform fee matters more here than the percentage. Checked 13 September 2026.
This is a niche where the buyers are also makers, and many of them intend to sell what they make. That means two questions come back to you over and over: does this pattern fit my yarn, and am I allowed to sell the finished thing. Answer both inside the file and most of your support disappears.
What has to be in a pattern before it is sellable?
Everything a maker needs to reproduce your sample without messaging you.
- Skill level and the stitches used, named up front so a beginner can tell if it is for them.
- Yarn weight and yardage, plus the exact yarn in the sample. Yardage matters more than brand, because your buyer will substitute.
- Hook or needle size, and any second size used for edging or ribbing.
- Gauge, written as stitches and rows over a stated square, in the stitch pattern used. A pattern with no gauge is a pattern that comes out the wrong size.
- Finished measurements, and every size if it is graded.
- Abbreviations, listed in full, even the ones you think everyone knows.
- Notions: stitch markers, safety eyes, buttons, stuffing, a tapestry needle.
Then have it tested. A tester working only from the PDF finds the ambiguous row you cannot see any more, and a tested pattern is the single biggest quality signal in this category. Credit your testers in the file.
Which format should the pattern be, and how should it be laid out?
PDF, built to print cleanly on both US Letter and A4, because your buyers are on both and a pattern that crops a row of instructions is a refund.
Set it in a size people can read across a room, since the file is usually propped on a table while both hands are busy. Keep one section per page where you can, so nobody loses their place mid-round turning a page. Number the rows and rounds clearly and put the stitch count in brackets at the end of each one. That bracket is the most useful thing in a pattern and it is the thing most often left out.
Photographs earn their place at the steps that are hard to describe: joining, attaching a limb, a colorwork change, the shaping at a shoulder. A stitch chart alongside the written instructions helps anyone who reads visually, and helps everyone who does not read your language.
Offer a print-friendly version too, with the photographs stripped out, if the main file is image heavy. Makers do print these, and they do not want to spend a cartridge on it.
Should you write in US or UK crochet terms?
Pick one, say which on the first page, and never mix them.
The two systems use the same words for different stitches, so a UK double crochet is a US single crochet, and the whole piece comes out wrong if the maker assumes the other system. This is the most common avoidable complaint in crochet patterns and it costs nothing to prevent.
The strongest version is to include both, either as two documents in the same download or as a second column in the abbreviations table. If you only produce one, say so in the listing title area as well as in the file, because a buyer who has to guess will often not buy.
Knitting has a parallel problem in needle sizing, where metric, US and old UK numbers all circulate. Give the millimeter size, and give the US number beside it.
Can buyers sell what they make from your pattern?
That is your call, and you have to make it in writing. It is the question makers ask most, and leaving it unanswered loses sales to a pattern that answers it.
The common position in this niche is that the buyer may sell finished items they make by hand, often with a request for credit to the designer, while the pattern file itself may never be shared, resold, translated or republished. That distinction is the whole license: the words are yours, the objects they make are theirs. It is the same split cut file designers write into a commercial use license.
Decide the edge cases before someone asks. Is there a limit on how many finished items? Does the permission cover a factory or a production line, as opposed to a person making them by hand? May they use your photographs in their own listings, or must they shoot their own? Are video tutorials of your pattern allowed on social media?
Write it in plain language on page one, in four or five lines. A license nobody reads protects nothing, and this is a friendly, word-of-mouth niche where clarity does more for you than legal phrasing.
What makes a $6 pattern different from a $30 collection?
Sizing work, support and how complete the thing is.
Grading. A single-size pattern is one set of numbers. A garment graded across eight or ten sizes, with schematics and matching gauge notes, is several times the work and is priced accordingly.
Bundling. A collection ties several patterns to one idea, such as a full set of nursery pieces or a seasonal range that shares a stitch pattern, and it saves the buyer choosing.
Extras. A video walkthrough of the awkward section, a stitch chart pack, or a printable yarn substitution worksheet all add real value. So does a photo tutorial version of a pattern otherwise sold written only.
The thing that does not raise a price is length. A tightly written eight-page pattern is worth more than a padded twenty-page one, and experienced makers can tell within a page which they are holding.
What does selling a low priced pattern actually cost?
More than the percentage suggests, because almost every fee in this category has a flat part, and a flat part hurts most on a cheap product.
Our own arithmetic on our own published rate. Any platform with a fixed component behaves the same way, which is the real argument for bundling patterns rather than selling them one at a time.
| Where you sell | Monthly | Per sale | Card processing |
|---|---|---|---|
| Etsy | None | $0.20 a listing plus 6.5% of the order | On top, rate varies by country |
| Gumroad | None | 10% + $0.50 | On top |
| Ko-fi Standard | None | 5% | On top |
| Payhip free plan | None | 5% | On top |
| Stakk | None | 10% + $0.50 | Included |
| Systeme.io free plan | None | 0% | On top |
| Whop | None | 2.7% + $0.30 | Included in that rate |
Yarn craft has its own marketplaces as well, and I have not verified any of their fees or policies at source, so none of them are in that table and I am not going to quote a number for them. Of the ones I did check, Ko-fi is the one designers reach for most often, and how it compares to Buy Me a Coffee is worth reading if a tip jar sits next to your shop. Etsy's $0.20 listing fee is the structural difference to watch: Etsy's own fees page says it is charged regardless of resulting sales, and again every four months when a listing expires, so a wide catalog of single patterns pays it a lot of times.
When is Stakk the wrong choice for a pattern designer?
At $6 a pattern, price is a fair objection and we lose it. Systeme.io is free with no transaction fee and Whop is 2.7% + $0.30 with no monthly cost, which on a cheap pattern is a real gap. If single low-priced patterns are your whole business, use one of them instead. Stakk is also the wrong choice for a pattern club, because we have no subscription billing at all, and USD only rules us out if you price in pounds or euros.
Where we are worth the difference is the second product in the same sale. The order bump sits on the checkout and rides the same charge, so the video walkthrough or the matching pattern carries one fee rather than starting a second payment, and the post-purchase upsell afterwards is one tap against the card already on file. Both are on every account with nothing behind a higher tier, which is uncommon: the post-purchase half is usually paywalled at around $99 a month. That layout came out of funnels that ran for agency clients before Stakk existed, and it is the honest reason to bundle rather than sell one $6 file at a time.
Want to sell your patterns as a bundle instead of one at a time?
Stakk is 10% + $0.50 a sale with card processing included, no monthly fee, and nothing owed in a quiet month. Upload the PDF, price it between $1 and $999, attach the collection or the video walkthrough as an order bump, and the buyer gets both in one payment and one download email. The money lands in your own Stripe account, so there is no platform balance waiting to be released and no minimum to clear before a small month pays out.