Among other things, I design no-sew knit-and-felt bag purse patterns, selling exclusively now through Ravelry and Craftsy (as downloads) and Etsy (as PDFs sent direct to a buyer's inbox). Interest has been huge, and the pattern on the left is one of my best sellers. Oddly, though, 99% of my customers are from the US. I've had the occasional Canadian and Australian buyer, but very little interest from the UK. Unexpectedly, the few UK sales I did make came mostly through eBay. (That was shortlived, though, as I logged on one day to find that eBay had removed all my pattern listings, for the reason that sending items by digital means is not allowed. When I asked why, no-one could give me a sensible answer. As sending hardcopy through the mail would have made the patterns unattractively expensive, that was the end of that!)Anyway, I digress! The reason for this post is to try to find out why there's such an apparent lack of interest in knitting in the UK. It's a huge industry in the States, and lots of celebrities have supposedly made it 'cool'. So is it the prices of designer patterns that puts Brits off? Possibly, as I was once asked by a UK eBayer if I would consider selling one (priced at what I consider a modest £2.75) at half price. I politely explained the work and time involved, and pointed her at Etsy and Ravelry, where most pattern prices are a lot higher than mine, and she came back and bought!
So are we simply a nation of tight-wallets who want everything at car-boot prices? Or is it something else...? Your thoughts gratefully received!
(To those interested, the actual bag above, fully lined and with magnetic snap fastening, is available here.)
I can't really comment about the tight-waddedness of Brits (being only a "pretend" Brit myself) but I suspect there is an element of the ol' carbooty about Brits as a national group. You only have to look at the number of telly shows going out of their way to get people to "bag a bargain", whether it be at the aforementioned car boot, or at auction houses or whatever. I know there's a similar mind-set in Australia, but I'm not sure it's so ingrained; and over there the handcrafts market has always been fairly huge (I think it has something to do with being so far away from "the rest of the world" - it's often considerably cheaper to do it yourself), so people know a decent price when they see it. Don't know how to dispense with the "buy cheaply buy often" mentality, but I think we have to keep plugging away...
ReplyDeleteI have some patterns for sale on Ravelry too and have made a few sales, but I think a lot of people (not just Brits) expect to find free patterns on there. I've priced my patterns in GBP to make it easier for me, but I've had a few Americans asking how much they cost in dollars, so maybe they are more willing to pay for patterns.
ReplyDeleteGiven the price of knitting magazines that often contain patterns I would never want to make, I'd be happy to pay a few quid for a single pattern I really like.
Thanks for your thoughts, both. :-)
ReplyDeleteI can see why knitting mags are expensive, but as they rarely contain anything I'd knit, I wonder how they stay afloat. I can't be the only one who flicks through them, then - disappointed with the contents - puts them back on the shelf!