Crocheters Thread

[Sally PB]

Have any of you crocheters/knitters out there had success with selling your work either in person or in online markets? If so, what types of items were sellers?

I had a spinning/knitting business for awhile. I washed, dyed, hand spun the yarn and knit one of a kind, original sweaters. I made a lot more money selling fiber and supplies to other spinners than I ever did selling yarn or sweters.

I am grateful that, back when I had both a steady & decently paying job, I took part in our state's Farm Show sheep to shawl bidding on competition shawls.

Way cool!

That is absolutely amazing and certainly worth the $ for the conversion work and the time - what detail!

That is gorgeous!

I think $300 is nowhere near enough. The $525 + cost of yarn is still a pittance, compared to all that work.

 

[Sally PB]

Back in the 90s, I actually had a woman ask me this question when she was looking at my sweaters:

"Why do you charge so much? You like what you do."

I think the (handknit, original, one-of-a-kind) sweater was the blistering, absurd, astronomical price of $150.

I had another woman ask me how much to knit a sweater out of her handspun yarn, for her to sell. She thought $60 was "way too much."

The people who will pay what the work is worth are few and far between.

 

[Love Donkeys]

A while back we were at a state fair and there was a booth selling knitting machines. When he tried to sell me a knitting machine I told the gentleman that I would rather knit/crochet by hand. He smiled and stated a human can make a machine that can Knit, but only a human hand can Crochet.

 

[ella2025]

Back in the 90s, I actually had a woman ask me this question when she was looking at my sweaters:

"Why do you charge so much? You like what you do."

I think the (handknit, original, one-of-a-kind) sweater was the blistering, absurd, astronomical price of $150.

I had another woman ask me how much to knit a sweater out of her handspun yarn, for her to sell. She thought $60 was "way too much."

The people who will pay what the work is worth are few and far between.

150$ for a hand knit sweater?! That's so generous of you. I finished the green knit sweater, and I didn't even count the hours, but took me 10+ days at 1-4 hours every day to finish! I underestimate the amount of time It takes to hand knit something. I haven't even blocked it yet. I would charge like 1000$ if I had the choice, lol. It's so frustrating when people don't respect small business owners who sell handmade stuff for more than 20$. While they would spend 200$+ on designer brands that were machine made and actually terrible quality... Every single one of my friends who found out I can crochet have told me " YOU SHOULD SELL YOUR STUFF!!!! ID GLADLY PAY 50$ FOR THAT SWEATER!!!" I spent 53$ on the yarn to make the sweater. I try to explain to people that it's not worth the hundreds of hours I pour into my work to sell it, but they never understand and it's so incredibly frustrating.

 

[Seaslug]

I want to encourage anyone who goes to charity events with hand made items to bid on them. I try always to be seen bidding on handmade items, even if I have to bow out early. I want the makers to know that I appreciate their items even if the piece isn't to my personal taste; I want everyone at the auction to know that handmade items are of interest and value to me (and hopefully this generates increased interest in the room); I want to increase the price that the piece gets for both the maker and the charity...
and if I end up with a handmade piece I did not intend to purchase, at least I have spent money supporting both a charity and someone who is a crafts person. Sometimes I gift the auction items to people and other times I donate them back to charity auctions.

 

[Seaslug]

I had a spinning/knitting business for awhile. I washed, dyed, hand spun the yarn and knit one of a kind, original sweaters. I made a lot more money selling fiber and supplies to other spinners than I ever did selling yarn or sweters.

That is because spinners are fellow craftsmen who understood what went into what you were producing.
I will attend craft shows and people are often stunned by the prices of handwoven items. But one rarely weaves with shitty yarn and the amount of loom waste is painful. Then, if you are going to take your handwoven and cut and sew it into anything... that was always a step too far for me. I admire those who do it, but it is not for me!

 

[muddy75]

I was almost caught up on my temperature blanket and I ran out of yarn

 

[Love Donkeys]

I have about 20 rows and approximately 110 crochet stitches per row of sky to go in my tapestry afghan. I'm never going to make it with the powder blue I'm using. I'm going out tomorrow but I might not be able to match it since it's an older color. Right now I don't know what to do if I can't match the color.

 

[Sally PB]

Put clouds in the sky.
If you can find the same color, but it's not the same dye lot, alternate colors rows for a few rows, then switch to the new dye lot. This might/might not work. I've seen it work, seen it not work.
If you can find the same color, but it's not the same dye lot AND there are blocks of sky broken up by something else (a tree or something?), use one dye lot on one block, the other on another.