Saturday, December 03, 2005

You could sell these!

Don't you love it when friends compliment your work by suggesting you sell your hand knit goods? It really is meant as a compliment, and I try so hard to take it that way. I always ask, "Oh? How much would you pay for this hand-knit baby sweater?" The response is usually around $35, which is probably inflated from what they would truly be willing to part with so that they don't hurt any feelings. It's so fun to then clarify that of that $35, $12 of it would cover the yarn (newborn size at least), leaving me $23 pay for 10+ hours of work. Hey $2.30/hour's not bad (in Taiwan)!

I recently attended a purse party where a friend launched her hand-made purse business. She had a beautiful display of hand-knit and hand-made gifts. Such beautiful items! I love the way she's creatively shopped for sweaters that she can recycle into purses - you get a discount if you bring her a 100% wool sweater. She felts them and cuts the fabric, which is then sewn into her own purse designs. I bought myself a very cute black clutch-style purse for the odd occasion when a diaper bag is not needed. The prices here (staying on topic) ranged from $59-$150 - much more on target for what a hand-crafted item warrants. Could I buy something similar at Target? Yes, something similar would be $15, though not one of a kind, and not special, and not recycled!

1 comment:

Lystessa said...

You are not kidding! Even if the yarn is cheap it is still impossible to get anywhere near what you put into it.
Although I guess it's still better than hearing "that looks really homemade..."