Squeak Like the Wind

Value and price

Funny how value and price are very rarely the same thing, right?

Woke up to this post linked on Nicole Mallalieu's facebook feed, and thought I'd add my 2cents to it, since it ties in very nicely with where I'm at currently.

I've just finished (yes there will be photos later) the very first collar-and-cuffs shirt I've ever made. It looks amazing! And I'm very excited. I just need to adjust the collar stand button and tie up a few loose threads and we're gtg, so put it on Teh Man for its admire-and-coo fitting last night. It fits a treat and I'm really pleased with how it turned out. Since I'm fairly slow at the machine still and had to work out a few things from scratch (like how to use that button hole thang on my machine) etc, it took me a long time to make. Probably twice as long as it should have. I estimate about 16 hours or so from cutting and ironing the pattern pieces right to finishing off.

That's a lot of hours.

I've been comparing the detailing to a shirt David got from Anton's, and paid almost $300 for. In fact I adjusted the detailing to be more like the Anton's shirt - top stitching down the sleeve and side seams, etc. The extra work paid off. It looks pretty damn magnificent (if I do say so myself). It has a few dodgy bits, but hey, it was my first shirt ever, and those little corner-ey bits are bloody tricky. Chalk it all up to experience, and off we go on the next one.

But! The point is (I've been getting there), LOTS of hours for a shirt. Lots of work.

And suddenly, $300 for a really beautifully made shirt doesn't seem like such a big deal any more. I bought cheapass fabric and it cost $45 ($15 per metre) - so potentially when I buy kickass fabric like Anton's uses, I'm going to be at least $100 down just in materials (don't forget good quality thread and buttons and interfacings as well) - that leaves only $180 or so for labour time if I was SUPER QUICK AND SPEEDY and had taken 8 hours instead of 16, that's about $22 an hour. And if you have a shop front and staff to try to sell this thing... well. Like I said, suddenly $300 (while still a lot of money) doesn't seem so unreasonable.

It's a terrible shame that someone would attack the very lovely and talented Nicole for selling her patterns for $20ish each. It's not that big a deal, people. Her response was well thought out and polite; personally I would have been tempted to send the person a photo of my enthusiastically extended middle digit with (something suitably rude) written down it in red texta. I kinda feel her response to this obviously clueless nitwit was a pearl before swine anyway. But it was certainly worth putting out there on the web - as someone who sees people underprice their work constantly, I think it's really important to keep saying this: Charge what your work is really worth! My heart breaks every time I go to our local markets and see handspinners charging prices only slightly higher than commercially milled yarn for their beautiful handspun skeins. Tragic that they'd charge such pitiful prices, and tragic that people probably still think it costs too much.

The only thing I'm going to add to this is a brilliant post from the inestimable Franklin Habit about charging for work. My only regret is that he didn't actually state his price on the blog - even now is it so terrible to talk about money and prices? What a shame. It'd be wonderful to actually start putting those numbers out there, and I thought it most interesting (and just a tiny bit disappointing) that he didn't tell us what he had charged. I think it would make a difference for people if we did start publicly stating those prices, if only as a decent yardstick for comparison.

I'd love to hear from you!

One of my favourite podcasts is no longer being produced regularly. It's a wonderful mish mash of knitty goodness and music, and I miss it! There's an episode every few months, but over the past three years or so, Cast On has been more unplanned hiatus than even semi-regular podcast. This isn't a criticism: life trumps the internet every time, and the absolutely gorgeous and talented woman who produces the podcast has an interesting, busy and demanding life.

One of the things she would talk about regularly, though, was the need to have some feedback from listeners. I get it, I really do. It's hard motivating myself to keep up regular blogging when my last comment (thanks Beth!) was from March 2010. That's a year and a half without comments. Since then I've posted 28 times, and have had no comments. Friends have commented on the facebook link, but sadly they aren't carried over to the blog, so it all looks very much like:

... *crickets* ... *awkward silence* ...

There has been, in the past, a bit of a culture (especially on knitting blogs) for people to be what I call "comment snobs", where they roll their eyes at "me too" and "ooh that's pretty" comments. These, apparently, don't past muster. I dunno... right now I'd be pretty happy with a "me too". I got an email notification of a comment the other day and came over to click on it... and it was a spammer. LOL. Nevermind.

I'm not quite sure why I blog any more. I used to blog anonymously and quite fearlessly, over at my original blogdrive blog, but these days with inlaws, work colleagues and other must-keep-onside types having potential access to my writing, it's a different game. It's more just a sharing of things I'm doing, and so I guess it doesn't make for hugely exciting reading. I cancelled my account. I re-started it. I write enthusiastically for a couple of weeks, and then I just don't think about it for a while. I guess I see a bit of the Cast-On pattern here, and I'm not sure what to do to change it.

So, this is what I'm thinking. If you're one of my facebook buds, I'd like to see your comments here, if only because it gives me a warm fuzzy and is easier to re-access and read over than my facebook feed which seems to move at the speed of light.

If you're someone who's come here by redirection or search engine, I'd love to hear from you. Even if it's just a "me too" or "neat photo" or whatever it is. If commenting is difficult or clunky, let me know, so I can make it easier. And with any luck, it'll give me the little nudge I need to move things along and get them interesting and lively again.