this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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I knit and crochet for my mental health. There was a point where when I was a naive teenager I did try to make money off the hobby, but it made me utterly despise the hobby as a whole and turned something I used to relieve stress into a new stressor. I don’t sell my projects, and never will. I gift projects to those close to me, as well as on very rare occasion I let people buy me yarn in exchange for a project for them in my spare time. As well on occasion making projects to donate or give to be used in charity raffles.
I don’t know if it’s the psychological aspect of money or what, but it just ruins it for me and creates a stress I just can’t deal with. I also feel with my current approach it makes my projects even more priceless since you literally can’t put a price tag on it. If you get a gift from me, it means I feel that I know you well enough to cherish it and enjoy it. It’s why I love to knit for my grandma.
I also knit/crochet as a very industrious hobby. When people tell me that I should sell my items, I reply that they couldn't afford my items. It took me 100+ hours to make this sweater and the yarn alone cost me over $200. This sweater is in the ballpark of $1500 in value. You can't afford me.
I feel you, I'm a knitter as well and the amount of people who have suggested I start selling...they don't understand the real value of hand-made items because they've been used to buying mass-produced crap from the other side of the world.
Ran into this issue with my daughter when she was trying to sell her stuff at local business and craft fairs. Some of her stuffed animals would take her 5 to 10 hours to make, and would price them accordingly, with some of her largest items being close to $200us.
People would get sticker shock, and even after explaining that not only did she spend a full work days amount of time crocheting the item, she would also hand spin a lot of the yarn she used as well, they never seemed to realize the actual value of her stuff. It seemed to usually be people of my generation and older that had the most issues. She sold most of her stuffies to people in their teens and twenties, and a surprising amount of yarn to really old ladies.
Old ladies know the value of a decent small batch yarn, especially if they're of the generation that knit around the clock as a necessity. Boomers and Gen X largely didn't knit, at least generally, so they're pretty out of touch. They may perceive knitting as something with little value - either taking it for granted that knit goods cost little due to slave and machine labor, or taking it for granted that their mother or grandmother gave them knits for free.
Many millenials and Gen Z have tried yarn crafts, and at least vaguely know it's a shit ton of work.
The oldest boomers are 77 right now. I'd definitely put that into the old ladies category.
Most of the boomers I know all knitted or crocheted (or sewed!) because it was still required for Home Ec classes.
Most of the millennials & Gen Z folks I know haven't touched yarn or crafting hobbies and would have no clue on pricing.
We must live around very different groups of people.
I just got into knitting and I'm already dreading wearing anything I make around my family. "Can you make me a sweater, oh come on, why are you so selfish?" I dunno because it would be a month of work and hundreds in materials and no matter what I explained to them, it would just get treated like a random polyester sweater and they'd probably ruin it or toss it when they decided they don't like the style anymore... And my family is the kind to criticise any imperfections that didn't look machine produced.
People are used to fast fashion prices, it's disheartening.
Any time someone asks me to knit them something I ask them "do you support a living wage? How much should that be?" Then I quote them a price that makes them think I'm a jerk. If I'm knitting for them I'm either killing my personal time or not doing something else that makes me money. I need to be paid for my work.