Handmade socks, realistic price
£208.70
(The exchange rate at the time of listing makes this US$325.83.)
I've had a lot of practice at knitting socks, so I've gotten pretty good, & quite a lot faster too. I can knit a plain pair of socks using 2.5mm needles & average sock yarn (75% wool, 25% nylon) in 30 hours. (Obviously, lace or cables or even ribbing is harder on the hands & takes longer.) As I like the idea of starting a knitting business, I thought I'd try selling the socks I've made.
Minimum wage in my country, the UK, is currently £5.80 per hour. http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/nmw/
I think it's reasonable to charge a little more for skilled labour that's taken me years to perfect; £6.30 per hour.
30 hours x £6.30 per hour = £189.00
(I could knit these in 3-4 days, but if I knit for more than 4 hours every day I get repetitive strain injury in my shoulder; this isn't unusual for knitters. So these would take 7.5 days, £25.20 per day. Some people can do a pair in 10 hours; that's £63.)
I'll add the cost of the yarn, usually around £7.50 for some pretty sock yarn.
(This could go down to £5 or up to £20, depending on whether it's hand- or machine-spun, hand-dyed or painted, etc.)
I'll add wear & tear on equipment - my hands, my needles - £4.
(Generally speaking, the more expensive the needles, the faster you can knit.)
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I've seen other people selling knit items. The going rate seems to be about £10 for a pair of wristwarmers using chunky wool, which would take me 6 hours (£37.80 in time alone). I am not a slow knitter.
Some people think that crafters who undercharge are devaluing the craft for others. Since no one can afford the true price anyway, perhaps this is a little redundant. How much would these be in Primark?
Who can afford these socks? Would you like to buy them and pay me a realistic amount of money for my time, effort & skill?
Destination: EU
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Destination: WORLDWIDE
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Destination: United Kingdom
Shipping cost: £1.50
Shipping cost for each additional +1 of this item: £0.00
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Thanks for your comment. :) You can find a discussion group here, by the way, which will probably get more people replying: http://www.ravelry.com/discuss/needlework-on-the-net/1003976/1-25
I hear what you're saying, and you are surely based in reality to say the things you do! So, you are right. But as I posted this to provoke some thoughts, I do have a couple of responses.
First of all, I dispute the idea that I should earn less because it's something I enjoy. If I was lucky enough to find a 9-5 job that I enjoyed, I would possibly take it even if it meant I was a little underpaid. But certainly not for a quarter of minimum wage, which is the going rate. Also, the fact that I am getting money in return usually means that I'll be knitting something I might not enjoy knitting, and *definitely* means I will be knitting something for someone else, possibly even someone I don't know.
The reason most handmade goods are priced "below value" is because no one in their right mind would pay a fair price for something made in this country, or any developed country, unless it was made on a machine.
I understand that there is no demand for my socks, because they're so expensive. I'm more pointing out that when knitters (or any crafters) undervalue their work, they are selling themselves short.
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Economically speaking:
You value your time at the going wage rate (or slightly above), forgetting that minimum wage is paid to workers doing jobs, like customer service or fast food, that they would otherwise never consider doing. It seems that your knitting provides you with some additional amount of utility (think of it as an economic way of saying it makes you happy), such that you would do it for fun even if you were not financially compensated in any way.
The equation you are using is marginal cost (materials, time, etc.) = marginal revenue (the money you are paid). The problem is that the equation should be marginal cost = marginal revenue + utility. Since your costs seem, at this point, to be constant, revenue should decrease to make up for the fact that you also derive utility from the work.
Think of it this way: A minimum wage worker has a set amount of leisure time. He or she is willing to trade said leisure time at a specified rate (the wage), for money. The amount you would have to pay that worker to get him to work an additional hour is the value he places on that hour of leisure time.
You, on the other hand, might spend that leisure time doing this work for no compensation at all. The question of compensation arises when you are asked to knit more often that you would have normally (e.g. to finish a custom ordered pair of socks), at which point you still derive utility from the work, but not as much utility as you would have derived from spending your leisure time in some other way.
The reason most handmade goods are priced "below value," as you put it, is that their producers are using the sale of those goods to supplement other income (which they derive from working at a given wage, for the number of leisure hours they are willing to trade for that wage), or compensating for the decreased income relative to spending their time at a minimum wage job with the enjoyment they derive from knitting.
Additionally, the availability of mass produced substitute goods at low prices (socks from rite aid, for instance) decreases demand for the goods you're selling, forcing a lower price if you would still like to make sales. It's not that your socks aren't better - it's just that consumers have to decide which would make them happier: your socks, or cheap socks and $300 to spend.