Colorful hat squee

[magid]

Early last month, a friend asked me to make a hat with a triangle on top, and very colorful. I thought about it for a bit, then got some yarn (and her ok for said yarn) and started crocheting. Once I finally started, it took about a day and a half to make this (no clue how many hours crocheting during that time; definitely more than six, anyway). Friday we made plans to meet at Inman Oasis so I could give her the hat. She's very pleased with it, and one of the women who was working the desk asked about my hats and whether I had a web site. I don't, exactly, but I had just gotten new Moo cards last week mostly featuring things I've made (food, hats, painted T-shirts, etc.), so I was able to give her one of those, and point her to my Ravelry site. She asked how much a hat like the January one would cost, and I didn't know what to say, really. That one took a lot of time, and three crochet hooks with the different sizes of yarn. (It was my first hat; while I might make a similar one, that one's not available.) Even if nothing comes of it, I'm excited that some random person likes them enough to ask! (And if anyone has suggestions for how to price things, I'd love to hear them.)

Also pleasing: I've already more than accomplished my goal of averaging a hat a month for the year: I've made 15 hats so far (six in August).

Comments

[queue.livejournal.com]

Hmm, must have an account to even see those links.

Maybe you could do some Etsy browsing to see about costs of handmade things?

[magid.livejournal.com]

Sorry about that; I was being lazy about uploading yet more photos. The January one, at least, is here.
ETA: side view and top view. /edit

I browsed Etsy already; there are a lot of the same hemispherical hat, sometimes with a brim, sometimes with a buckle, sometimes with a flower, and those are all around $30. I'm working freehand to make each hat individual, rather than a simple repetitive pattern, and once I factor in yarn costs as well as something for my time, that's not appropriate. I wasn't sure where to look next.

[fetteredwolf.livejournal.com]

I was going to say Etsy as well, but then you set the base based on your feelings, in the end. I'm hoping to eventually sell a shawl or two, and the idea would be that lace shawls can go for around $100, but then the question is, who's buying it (a friend would get a discount), how intricate the design is, what the materials are, etc.
So exciting that someone would like you to make on!

[magid.livejournal.com]

Your shawls are gorgeous.

I didn't poke at Etsy for things other than hats, so I don't know whether it's just crochet things that are cheap, or hats, or what. My gut instinct for a hat like the January one is somewhere around $90, but that's just pulled out of thin air.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

There are about a million zillion different craft pricing formulas out there; somewhere (and I need to find it; apparently I did not file the bookmark where I thought I did) I found a nice one that took into account materials and time and overhead. A simple rule of thumb would be to start with deciding how much you want per hour (or how much you think your time is worth) and add cost of materials.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

Even if I consider a fairly low price per hour, the cost adds up faster than I'd think feasible (obviously, more so when using nicer yarn). I'm generally a fairly quick crocheter, but I've heard that for knitting and crocheting, a price per hour is less likely to be reasonable than for things like sewing or metalwork.

[hrafn.livejournal.com]

Yeah :\ Yarn can get really expensive really fast. And I've always been shocked at how long even small, quick crochet projects take to complete.

[bercilakslady.livejournal.com]

I've seen inexpensive handmade yarn things, but thet are all made of craptastic yarn, so it's not worth it.

That said, I love the colorful hat.

[magid.livejournal.com]

I hadn't thought about yarn quality. I mean, certainly, if there's something like alpaca or merino or something like that, the price has to go up. But I avoid unpleasant cheap yarns, and forget that they exist for a reason...

And thank you :-).

Shana tova!

[cellio]

Fun hat! Congrats on the inquiries -- a nice feeling even if you're not ready to field them yet.

[magid.livejournal.com]

Thank you!

I may have another commission for a friend, too :-)
(One of my campmates at Burning Man, whose dreads make it harder to find hats that fit...)