You Could Sell That...for $20
A few months ago, I was wearing a felted bowler hat which I had made myself.
I enjoyed making this hat. I was especially happy that it had actually turned out to be the shape I'd intended. That doesn't always happen with my knitting.
I was out with some friends when someone made a few comments about my hat. He liked it. He liked it so much that he said I could sell hats like this. Because I knew he hadn't thought through the economics of what he was suggesting, I asked him what he would be willing to pay for such a hat. He said $20. I laughed and said that was why I would never consider selling my knitting.
That particular hat took four skeins of Reynold's Lite Lopi. A store I used to buy from sells this yarn for $3.50/ball.This hat takes four balls. That means this hat cost me $14 in materials, not including the time. If I sold the hat for $20, I would be paying myself $6 to make the hat. That hat took me more than $6 of time. I didn't keep track of how long it took me to make the hat. I'd guess it was at least 5 hours, probably much more than that.
The math doesn't work.
This is why I won't consider selling hand knit items. This time, the price this person said he would pay was higher than the cost of the materials. That's unusual. Most people say they would be willing to pay something much less than the cost of the yarn, let alone paying for the time involved in knitting.
2004.10.22