Knitting on Commission

This seems to be a really touchy topic among knitters so I'm gonna be a coward and I'm going to post on my own blog where 8 million people are not going to flame me for my opinions. If the three of you who read this want to yell at me, I think I can deal.

There are various ways of calculating the cost of a handknitted garment.

Some people charge 3x materials. The problem with this is that a scarf made with Red Heart would end up costing $6, and a scarf made with Muench Touch Me (sounds so dirty) would end up costing $75, all other factors being equal.

Aside from that, mention that you use this formula on a knitting board and prepare to get flamed. The responses will range from "Honey, your time is valuable, you should get more!" to "People like you are the reason all crafters are undervalued and can't make a living!" Certainly if you're using a yarn that falls into the extremes--extremely cheap or extremely pricey, the 3x materials formula produces an unsatisfactory result. But if I'm using yarn that costs $10, I consider $30 as payment a worthy effort. If it takes me 4 hours to complete the scarf, I've garnered a $5/hour tax free income for something I would have been doing anyway.

Besides, this is a free market economy. If I want to purchase something, hand knit or not, I'm going to buy it from the person charging $35 rather than the person charging $350, all other things being equal. It only makes sense. Of course, you're saying that a $35 item and a $350 item would be vastly different. Which brings me to the next formula.

Many people say you should charge per hour for labor to make something. This is not a bad idea in itself, but the question is of course what to charge per hour. I have seen one woman declare that since she made $150 an hour at work, (she was a lawyer), that she should also garner that same wage for knitting. Which would make a pair of socks that took her 10 hours to knit cost a whopping $1,500. This seems a bit steep. Especially when you consider that the knitting done by a McDonald's worker and the knitting done by a lawyer are not really different. There are individual differences but there is no reason that a food service worker might not knit just as well as a lawyer. Lawyer-knitted socks are not more prestigious than food-service worker-knitted socks, yet using the above formula the latter's socks would rate a comparatively tiny price tag of $57.50 assuming she knit at the same rate.

Which brings me to my next point. Who in their right mind would pay even $57.50 for a pair of socks? There might be an occassional taker (maybe that lawyer!) but this hypothetical knitter is not exactly going to be raking in the profits, even at a hefty $42.50 markup over the price of the yarn. Now, if one of our hypothetical knitters reduced the price to $30 a pair, (2x the price of the yarn), she might sell a whole lot of socks, thus realizing a larger profit over the other knitter after just three pairs. ($15 profit/pair x 3 pairs = $45 profit total). If this knitter really wants to make some money off of her knitting, she would be wise to consider the reduced price and sell more socks.

Now for the ethical question. Is our economically prudent knitter somehow hurting the artistically principled knitter? Some would say that by selling her socks at $30 a pair, she is undermining the efforts of all knitters everywhere. I think that is a lofty charge. At a rate of 10 hours per pair of socks, there is no way this knitter is going to be able to produce enough socks to put all knitters everywhere out of business, so to speak. Once her supply is exhausted, potential sock customers will move to other supplies. If they want the socks bad enough, they may even cough up $1,500 for the lawyer's socks. It's the law of supply and demand in action.

For me, it comes down to this. Knitting is not a job. Even when you are getting paid. It is relatively unreasonable to expect that you should be able to quit your day job and knit to pay the bills. Certainly it can happen, but in general I don't think it has the potential to happen very often. You don't have to knit on a particular schedule--you can do it during the afternoon or the evening, whenever you want. You can watch TV while you do it, or watch your children, or talk on the phone. You have no overhead costs and require no special clothing or education to do it. Therefore, you should not expect to be paid as though it is a job.

Secondly, charge what makes you feel good. If you sell a pair of socks for $30 and feel good that you've made a small profit and gotten to do your favorite hobby for free, then good for you. It all comes down to what you are willing to sell something for and what someone else is willing to pay for it. If you are lucky enough to find people willing to pay you $500 for a pair of socks, well, get out your needles and start knitting!