... is a penny earned.
I have to thank my friend Laura for the inspiration for this post. I recently made a cowl using The String Theory Scarf pattern. You knit and purl for ages and then at the end, you purposely drop stitches to create a string scarf. I had posted pictures on facebook and Laura asked me how many stitches did I drop. I did the math. I dropped 7,000 stitches of the 10,500 stitches that this cowl consisted of. Let's say that again- ten thousand, five hundred hand knit stitches.
So next time you're admiring something hand knit for sale, then exclaim at the price, please think of this post. Let's do some more math. Let's pretend we would sell a scarf like this for $60. The yarn cost $10. So now we have $50 left. At 10,500 stitches, you would be paying the knitter .48 cents per stitch. Less than a half a penny a stitch! And usually when one does sell their art or craft, you have to pay the fees (ebay, etsy, craft fairs, etc...) on top of that which means they get less that that half a cent.
Please pay artists what they are asking for. Do not haggle, do not barter. Please support your local artists.
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