I mean, knitting a sock? Even assuming you don't have to buy a pattern, if you use hand dyed yarn you're looking at around $24 for materials, plus $6 minimum for needles, plus about - okay, let's be conservative and say 30 hours for fingering weight at $6/hour which is a gross undervaluing of a knitter's time - $180 in labour costs. Who pays $210 for a pair of socks?
And then there's shawls.
a/ how many shawls does one person need?
b/ how many shapes are actually practical for that one person's lifestyle, personal style, and body shape?
(in case you were wondering: no. we're not going to complain about hats here. hats are perfectly sensible to knit and it's necessary for everybody to have 437 of them, especially me.)
When I look at my supplies of handknit everything I think I must be totally crazypants. The socks, well, fine. They keep your feet warm and what's mean to show, shows the way it's meant. But I don't think I've knit a single shawl that I didn't end up just wrapping snug up around my neck to beat back the cold in the winter. Guess how much of a lace pattern carefully knit into such a shawl actually shows when you wrap it snug up around your neck? Not much.
Nope: I could stop knitting any minute now and I would not miss out on a single opportunity to get warm. In fact the only compelling reason to go on knitting at all is that I have a ridiculously huge amount of yarn to get through. It's just irresponsible not to knit something with it: almost as irresponsible as it would be to buy any more yarn, ever.
Ahem.
Did I mention that the latest Twisted club is over? and I have until Sunday night to decide whether or not to order any more of the yarn that came out in it?
This is 'Talisman'. My heart goes pitty pat over these colours.
And hello, Tomcat.
Wasn't I just saying the other day that nobody knits in black? Well, the coordinating semisolid to go with Tomcat is shades of black, which is perfect for me really because I wear a lot of black and it would be super nice if just one thing I knit could blend in with that. Plus the orange is a really nice depth. Sort of Halloween-y but suitable for all year round. Plus if the yarn showed up in July I'd have time to knit something for Halloween in it.
Or to be more succinct about this entire post,
CRUMBS.
I have less than three days to come up with some sort of project I absolutely must have some of these colourways for, and then justify the expense, and then figure out what yarn bases to choose.
Normally justifying expenses is my strength (you may have noticed) but this time, given all the stash already at hand... I don't know, guys. It's gonna be hard work; you'd better leave me to it and go have a great weekend!
2 comments:
Scuse me? Speak for yourself. I personally, never have enough shawls.
Helpful hint: Keeping most of it snug to your neck pull a bit of the edging free to sit just outside your coat so the lace pattern shows.
Yeah, I love shawls too, alhough I've got just two of them. But I've collected a great number of patterns and I should probably collect time for knitting. :) I see your point regarding costs of knitting things, or generally hand-made works: nobody understands why they are so expensive so if you want to sell anything, you have to lower the price.
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