I haven’t been an active part of the online knitting word in a very long time, and even when I sort of was, Ravelry was the only real gathering place online for the community.
But I recall it being a sort of known/accepted understanding that it was kind of a shitty move to purchase a pattern from someone and then use that single purchase of a pattern to sell multiples of the finished object.
Back then, as I took it, the idea was that if you are going to make money selling something you made from someone else’s pattern, that buying a copy of the pattern for each FO was a general courtesy.
I just read a post on the craftsnark subreddit and apparently the feeling seems to be these days that pattern makers are just assholes in general and it’s ridiculous if a pattern designer doesn’t like that someone uses their pattern to sell FOs and make money.
And like, I get it, mostly there aren’t any legal rights for a pattern designer, and someone could make and sell hundreds of items after buying a $15 pattern and be within their rights to do so.
And maybe for something like a pattern from a big company I don’t really see the same ethical dilemma there, like selling stuff from a sewing pattern that comes from a big company. Or maybe patterns from Vogue Knitting, to stay within the craft in question.
But it always seemed a little bit of a gray area to me when it’s an independent pattern designer, and maybe just a little bit shitty to do something like that!
Idk, maybe I’m just out of the loop anymore, or had a wrong idea about it in the first place.
Also I’ve never wanted to monetize my knitting so I don’t really understand the urge. It takes too much time! You’d have to be the fastest knitter in the world to not have to charge a ton of money to make it worth your time!
Anyway, I’m glad I’m not involved the Insta or TikTok knitting worlds; it seems terribly dramatic and fairly toxic, for a crafting community.
