copyright

Hi everyone,
I want to knit items from patterns that I have bought and then sell those items. I notice that on some patterns it states in the Terms and Conditions that the patterns are for ‘personal use only’. A friend has told me it means that the items cannot be sold for profit and that the pattern owners/designers can and will often send Cease and Desist letters to knitters. So I have gone down a rabbit hole of research and the first place I landed was on a UK GOv webpage https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/copyright-notice-knitting-and-sewing-patterns/copyright-notice-knitting-and-sewing-patterns

explaining this very issue. In one way it is quite clear that there could be an issue with selling items knitted from a pattern, on the other it seems vague saying it only applies if there is an image for example a SImpsons character. It also states that knitting patterns are Design Documents - not sure exactly what that means in practical terms.
To be clear, I want to sell very few hand knitted items online and locally and have looked at all the patterns I have bought to see if I am ‘allowed’ mainly because, before I looked into this, I was going to credit the items I want to sell with the make of the pattern I knitted it from. But I am worried that I would be opening myself up to being pursued by the likes of Rowan, for example! Their Terms and Conditions are quite vague: a pattern I bought and downloaded states at the bottom to go to their website regarding T’s and C’s but their T’s and C’s only refer to copying the actual pattern.
I’m hoping that being a newby to this someone more experienced will tell me not to worry and just get knitting and selling!
I am desperately looking for work to do from home because of health condition and I feel I now have another issue to overcome.
Apparently in the US it is not an issue and I assume that projects from knitting books are also OK?
thanks

It’s a confusing area in both the US, UK and elsewhere. Why not get in touch with the designer or design company and explain what you would like to do, citing the particular pattern involved. Ask their permission to make some number of items from the pattern for sale and see what they say.

I’m sorry to read about the health condition that has started this question but I hope you can resolve it soon.

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Thank you for the reply.
I have been googling and googling about this issue - the section on Ravelry only refers to US and there doesn’t seem to be anyone who has contacted the designers directly.
Unfortunately the health condition is here to stay. :frowning:

I’ve emailed Rowan - be interesting to see what they say.

Please let us know how this turns out. I’ll be interested.

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I have a had a lovely reply from one company who were pleased that I had bothered to ask.
The long and short of it is that in their case ‘commercial’ means (as I suspected) a wholesale systematic selling of items knitted from one of their patterns. In other words ‘taking the p***’ :smile:
When I have some finished items I will make sure to reference the company (and yarn) in the description.
Still waiting to hear from a well known British brand!

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Good to hear that at least one company was so responsive. Thanks for reporting back.