yarn sponsorship

As a crochet and knitwear designer, I’m always working with yarn from a variety of companies. These are often Indie dyers or other small fiber businesses. By becoming one of my yarn sponsors, your yarn will be guaranteed to be used in one of my newest designs.

On this page, I explain what I’m offering to you, in exchange for becoming a sponsor through Patreon.

Here is what you’ll get:

1. I’ll use your yarn in an upcoming design:

When you join as my Patron in the Yarn Sponsorship tier I will send you a questionnaire, with questions about the kind of design you’re thinking of and the yarn you may have in mind. You can see what kind of patterns I design here. Based on the information in the questionnaire we can work together to create an outline for a design to present your yarn in the best possible way.

2. Social media sharing:

During the process of knitting or crocheting the design in your yarn, I will post about the progress on my Patron, Instagram, and Facebook accounts (both the business account as well as my personal profile). Throughout the process of creating the sample for a new design, I take in-progress pictures and post them whenever there’s something worth noting.  

Usual posts are:

  • A #stashdivesaturday post featuring the yarn (Instagram, Facebook)
  • An “about to cast on” post (Instagram, Facebook)
  • 2-4 progress posts, depending on size and type of design (Instagram, Facebook, 1 post on Patreon)
  • An “all finished and BO” post (Instagram, Facebook)
  • A call for testing (Instagram, Facebook & Patreon)
  • A teaser post before publishing (Instagram, Facebook)
  • 2 posts upon publishing (Instagram, Facebook)

In these posts, I’ll use your preferred hashtags for both your business and the yarn. And I’ll tag you on the various channels,  or insert a link to your website if preferred.

As of September 2020, I have:  

3. A feature in my newsletter and on my website:

Upon publishing, I always email my newsletter followers about the new design, usually with a 20% introductory discount. In addition to this, I want to include (an abstract of) a feature of you and your business, with a picture of your choice, with the complete article as a feature on the lavisch.com website. For the text, I’ll send you a short questionnaire with interview questions.

As of January 2020, my newsletter has 668 unique active subscribers. The average open rate was 58.71% with an average click rate of 13.55% per campaign. So, it’s a relatively small email list, but with high engagement.

The lavisch.com website has the following statistics over 2019:

  • Average page views: 12,253 per month (total: 147,039)
  • Average audience size: 6,726 users per month (total: 80,714)
  • My audience is heavily female (96%), with over 78% older than 45. About 40% is located in the United States, another 20% in Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, with the remaining 40% in other countries in Europe and worldwide.

4. Pattern testing:

As my Patron, you’re automatically invited to join in on the pattern testing. These tests take place in my group on Ravelry. Joining in will enable you to give feedback on the pattern instructions before they are published and will give you the opportunity to make your own sample prior to publication.
Also, all testers receive their own copy of the final pattern once published.  

5. Your own copy of the pattern:

Not able to participate in the test? No worries, upon publication you’ll also receive a copy of the pattern in pdf format for your personal, or in-office use for free through Ravelry.

Good to know about Yarn Sponsorship:

Wholesale purchase of the pattern for kits

You may be interested in wholesale purchase of the pattern for the use in kits, for example.  

Coupon codes for downloads of the digital pattern in pdf format through Ravelry will be available at 60% of the retail cost of the individual pattern. Hardcopy versions are available for wholesale purchase through Deep South Fibers after they’ve had the chance to upload it to their database.

How long to stay a Yarn Sponsor?

The creation of crochet and knitwear patterns is time-intensive. My current lead time is approx. 4–6 months per design counted from the reception of yarn. This means the over-all lead time is approx. 5-7 months. This, of course, also depends on the size of the design, a one-skein cowl or shawlette will require less time than a large shawl in 300 g of fingering weight yarn. I ask that you remain a sponsor until the completion of the design using your yarn. After this, you’re welcome to cancel or change your membership to continue being part of this Patreon community.  

Unsure when to start your Yarn Sponsorship? Send me a message and we’ll determine for which months there are openings in my publication schedule and when I should have yarn in hand to complete a design for that particular publication month.

The cost and benefits of Yarn Sponsorship

A Yarn Sponsorship is $35 / month, paid on the 1st of each month following your subscription. This means that the 5–7 months of your Yarn Sponsorship for this design would only cost you $175–$245, plus the yarn support you offer. This is very little when compared to outright commissioning a new design from a designer.

In addition to a new design in your yarn, you get all the advertising benefits from my social media posts, a feature in my newsletter, as well as all the benefits of being a Shawl level Patron.

How do I become a Yarn Sponsor?

To begin working with me in a Yarn Sponsorship, all you need to do is to become my patron and select the Yarn Sponsorship option. I’ll send you a questionnaire to kick off our collaboration.

I’m looking forward to working with you and your yarn to create a gorgeous new design!

Yarn and sticks