Your other hobbies.

TastyReuben said:
Where do I send you a check for that?!?! I LOVE IT!!!

We watch a lot of older Brit TV, and there’s always someone wearing a sweater like that, that kind of pattern, and they just don’t sell them here - I can’t even find them in the UK any longer (or maybe I’m just looking in the wrong places), but I’m dying to get one (or five :laugh: ), and it’s alway on the top of my list of things to bring back whenever we go over.

That’s just beautiful!
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The problem with knitting is that most people have no idea as to how much it actually costs... it's described as slow fashion for a reason.

There's 10 balls of yarn in that in 7 colours in that size. That's $190 of yarn... in Aussie dollars that is. Half it for UK £.

Then, it's taken just over 3 weeks work to knit it. OK I don't knit 8hrs a day, everyday but they're is easily about 100hrs work there. I knit whilst I nebulise in the morning and evening, plus I knit when watching TV and with that top, because I needed to get it finished before Jan 30th, I did sit down during the day and knit as well. I find it best not to think about the hrs of knitting it takes!

But all that said, I don't mind knitting for knitworthy people. They're the ones who know what it takes and costs and won't try drying it in a tumbledrier. And they will wear it year in year out.

Even plain vanilla socks in a semi decent yarn cost a lot. AU$20 for a skein of OK yarn, and about 20-25hrs work for a plain vanilla pair of socks. Most knitters who sell socks don't get more than AU$50-55 a pair.

But if you are serious, I don't knit for money, just the cost of the yarn...
 
I once knit a teddy bear for a craft auction they were having at work to benefit charity. When I donated it, they asked how much I thought they should start the bidding at. I added up the cost of materials (which was roughly $20 CAD…it was a while ago, it would be much more these days) and suggested they start the bidding there. They emailed me and said “that seems a bit high, we’ll start it lower”. I was miffed, but whatever.

When I arrived at the event, I check the silent auction table, and discovered they had started the bidding at $3. The pattern alone had cost me $5! And then to add insult to injury, hardly anyone bid on it, and it ended up selling for that $3!

I was absolutely furious that they’d started it so low, and somewhat hurt that nobody wanted it after all that. Needless to say I never donated a craft to the auction again.
 
Herbaceous said:
I once knit a teddy bear for a craft auction they were having at work to benefit charity. When I donated it, they asked how much I thought they should start the bidding at. I added up the cost of materials (which was roughly $20 CAD…it was a while ago, it would be much more these days) and suggested they start the bidding there. They emailed me and said “that seems a bit high, we’ll start it lower”. I was miffed, but whatever.

When I arrived at the event, I check the silent auction table, and discovered they had started the bidding at $3. The pattern alone had cost me $5! And then to add insult to injury, hardly anyone bid on it, and it ended up selling for that $3!

I was absolutely furious that they’d started it so low, and somewhat hurt that nobody wanted it after all that. Needless to say I never donated a craft to the auction again.
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Yep, you're pretty lucky to get more than a couple of dollars an hour labour costs!

I do a lot of test knitting, that usually gets you the pattern free, and often a complimentary pattern of your choice from the designer. You provide the yarn and the item is yours to keep. The only downside is that you need to be able to knit it to a deadline (often it's flexible but not always) and you need to be able to realise something is a miss with the pattern of there's an issue. Right now, although I've finished the vest, the pattern designer has an issue with the number of stitches for the neckline and armholes. The directions said to pick-up 94 sts for the armholes. I needed 146 sts and still it was pulling the fabric of the vest in. Blocking has dealt with that but that's part of test knitting. You're checking the instructions work!
Ordinarily you'd wait for the designer to come back to you with the correct number, but in this case she's away for the weekend, in a USA time zone and I needed to finish it before Tuesday evening because I've committed to a test knit that requires me to start knitting on Wednesday. Usually you can start when you want to, but this is for other reasons and I know that if I didn't get the knit finished, it could be up to 2 weeks before I could carry on with it which was after the original deadline (I had an extended deadline agreed with the designer just in case). If she needs me to redo the neckline and armholes I can do... you have to be flexible with test knits.
 
I had to reposition the Qsnap on my current cross stitch work in progress, so I decided to take a progress pic while I was at it.
IMG_8759.jpeg
 
Herbaceous said:
I had to reposition the Qsnap on my current cross stitch work in progress, so I decided to take a progress pic while I was at it.View attachment 109633
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Very nice!

When I first saw that, I thought it was a hooded spectral figure of sorts:

IMG_7408.jpeg


Ear is the hood/head, and the side/back of the horse’s neck looks like it could be an arm. I suppose the eye is a magical belt buckle that allows them to capture souls for the underworld.

Or a horse. It could be a horse. :wink:
 
We're doing some kitchen rearranging because we got a new countertop oven. So, I started a new project for storage of a quasi kitchen item. Still in progress, but can you tell what it's going to be?

20240214_122916.jpg
 
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