Advice needed - what to charge for knitting

[melmac51]

3 million dollars. Whenever you knit for someone, they have no idea how much time and effort it takes, and if you have to frog back a great deal of it for whatever reason and do it again, not to mention the time it takes to do a gauge swatch (although you said they're scarves), and if the skein has tangles in it you have to un-knot it, and if you lose one needle you have to search your whole house for it . . . Yup, 3 million dollars would be about right.

[Fiddler2]

My advice is that no matter what you charge, and you should either charge or barter, that you tag the finished product with how long it took to make it.

[ArtLady1981]

My knitting instructor charges 1/2 cent per stitch. It certainly doesn't come out cheap, but it's a fair-ish rule of thumb. And it makes you calculate how many stitches are in a project. You'll shock yourself.

Oh I like that idea! 1/2 cent per stitch!

Now I just gotta do some math, don't I! This will bug me to now end if I don't figure out how much I would charge for knitting SYLVI for someone who asked the Sylvi group over Rav! (NO ONE accepted. I stated IF I knit for money, I'd charge $600 for the labor. I'll bet I wouldn't even get 1/2 cent per stitch at that price!)

But oh my...then I will have to face exactly how many stitches my ole hands have knit! Ack!

[ArtLady1981]

It's been buggin' me and buggin' me! I just had to know...how many stitches in an average cardigan (worsted weight yarn, size M, cropped-to-med length).

The recent LARA cardigan that I knit for my DD...I figured that it was at least 32,000 stitches, maybe 200-300 more. But, based on the 32,000 stitch count @ 1/2 cent per stitch...would total $160 labor.

Figure in the 14 skeins (1,008 yds) of yarn @ $7 each = $98 for yarn

TOTAL COST, yarn and labor: $258

I couldn't see the average person paying that amount.
I couldn't see the average person even wanting to pay for the yarn, however, a less expensive yarn would bring the cost of yarn down.

I knit my first LARA for Lauralee using Red Heart SOFT. She loves it, too, and still wears it around all the time. She said it's her 'throw on to go anywhere' sweater. It pills a lot, being 'SOFT', but she keeps them clipped and trimmed.

If I were going to knit this cardigan for someone, I would charge $200 labor minimum, to allow for the blocking, seaming and final polishing.

So there's the rub. You can't make a living BY KNITTING for others. You can only make money BY DESIGNING, and PUBLISHING your designs.

So every time I fall in mad love with a pattern that is only available as a PDF download for $1.29-$5.50......I am happy to pay it. I never "jones" around trying to get someone to give it to me for free. The designer deserves her monetary compensation. If I can't afford it at the time...I visit the online free patterns indexes.

And you couldn't pay me to design either. No desire to do anything but knit knit knit out of love for knitting and those who get my knits!

[sideways]

I won't even attempt to sell hand knitted items. I've learned thru my sewing that most people do not understand the individual hand labor that goes into it.

We are competing against mass produced, machine made stuff in foreign countries where the standard of living & costs of doing business are much lower. I refuse to sell my abilities for less than they are worth. If people are only willing to pay mass-produced prices, then they can go buy mass-produced garbage from department stores. Or learn to do it, like I did.

Yes, I'm very snarky when it comes to this subject!

[psquidy]

YOu can be sure of one thing when you sell knitting-you won't get nearly what it's worth.

[Lisa R.]

You know, this is such a tricky thing. Obviously, our time is worth a reasonable amount...but even a minimum wage for our time is going to put the price out of most people's range.

I *love* hand-knitted socks, for instance, and love to knit my own. I am on a tight budget and would certainly have trouble justifying spending $20 for a pair of socks in general--but I do buy yarn that costs that, because I throw in the enjoyment of the knitting as my "hobby" or "entertainment" budget, not just my sock budget.

If I were a non-knitter, there's no way I'd pay $20 for socks! (You can buy 'em for a dollar at Wal-mart, after all! ) If you figure even 10 hours for a simple pair of socks, you'd have to charge $100 for minimal compensation.

So, IMHO, each knitter has to decide if it's a labor of love--either love of the recipient or or love of knitting. But a love of money or a love of "fair compensation" will not do much for the average person.

If someone wanted me to knit for pay, I'd have to decide if I wanted to enjoy the process or not. If not, I'd say 'no.' If I felt I could be satisfied with charging 2-3 times the price of the yarn for the project, and would enjoy doing it without bitterness for the unfairness of it all, I'd go for it.

[Crycket]

My knitting instructor charges 1/2 cent per stitch. It certainly doesn't come out cheap, but it's a fair-ish rule of thumb. And it makes you calculate how many stitches are in a project. You'll shock yourself.

I love this idea too....