celticdragonfly (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
celticdragonfly) wrote2006-01-19 10:03 am
celticdragonfly) wrote2006-01-19 10:03 am
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Why I don't want to knit for sale
I frequently get people who look at my work and want to encourage me to try to turn it into a business or work for sale. And generally people don't seem to get why I don't want to. I appreciate the compliment, that they think my work is that good. But they just don't get the logistics of it. Someone who doesn't do fiber arts doesn't understand the amount of time invested into the work.
So I finally have an example. I've done a couple of lace bags as gifts - this pattern
http://pics.livejournal.com/celticdragonfly/pic/00088yd6/g6
and have been asked to do some more sorta on commission. And was asked things like how long does it take me. Trouble is, I don't sit down and do it all uninterrupted, I have to do it around kids and life and stuff in bits and pieces.
Due to the simple shape of this project, I was actually able to have Karl time me on a small part of it last night, and extrapolate to the total time for the project. It came out to 7.5 hours. Now, that's assuming I didn't have any mistakes and have to frog it out and restart or tink back and redo some rows. I'm not perfect. I'm pretty good, but not perfect. So figure more like 8 hours of work. That's a lot of my time. And that's not even taking materials cost into account - another thing that people tend to underestimate.
And, when I'm working on that kind of project, it's frustrating that I have to stick with it, I can't go work on another project or something for ME. And yes, work can be like that, and if I was getting paid reasonable rates per hour then it would be worth dealing with it. But if not, why?
So I finally have an example. I've done a couple of lace bags as gifts - this pattern
http://pics.livejournal.com/celticdragonfly/pic/00088yd6/g6
and have been asked to do some more sorta on commission. And was asked things like how long does it take me. Trouble is, I don't sit down and do it all uninterrupted, I have to do it around kids and life and stuff in bits and pieces.
Due to the simple shape of this project, I was actually able to have Karl time me on a small part of it last night, and extrapolate to the total time for the project. It came out to 7.5 hours. Now, that's assuming I didn't have any mistakes and have to frog it out and restart or tink back and redo some rows. I'm not perfect. I'm pretty good, but not perfect. So figure more like 8 hours of work. That's a lot of my time. And that's not even taking materials cost into account - another thing that people tend to underestimate.
And, when I'm working on that kind of project, it's frustrating that I have to stick with it, I can't go work on another project or something for ME. And yes, work can be like that, and if I was getting paid reasonable rates per hour then it would be worth dealing with it. But if not, why?
no subject
Yep, exactly. It's why I don't knit for sale (though I have made lots [literally dozens] of scarves and have sold some and bartered some and am still happy to do so). Knitting what interests me at any given moment allows me to enjoy the work - and it *is* work, whether a labor of love or whatever.
Same thing with music. I'm glad I have a day job that pays the bills, so that I can do music, my "art", on MY terms, and not have to play smoke-filled bars just to make the rent.
Trying to explain this to people who don't do and have never done any kind of time-intensive "craft" work, is indeed tough. Thinking about this, though, perhaps a couple of analogies would help... knitting is kind of like highway construction on a small scale - lots of prep time, materials gathering, building up bit by bit... all for something that people will drive over in minutes or seconds, without hardly thinking about the work that went into it.
Or, a shorter version: Rome wasn't built in a day. And a lot of it *was* built with slave labor.
Throughout centuries many beautiful things have been produced, not at a "fair" wage, but at a pittance if that, or by indentured people or slaves. That doesn't make them any less beautiful - but it does make it hard to calculate their "true" worth.
Bottom line: time is money. At least, in the world you and I inhabit.