What is Crochet Worth?

This post is going to be an adventure. I am going to be part of an art show in two weeks, and I want my booth to include some educational resources about fiber arts in the modern age. Part of what I want to explore is defining the worth of slow art in this insanely fast world.

I am working on a beautifully intricate pattern that will result in a gorgeous drawstring pouch. It will probably be about 16" tall x 10" wide as I am using 8/4 cotton, a larger yarn than is recommended by the pattern. I will likely line it with cotton fabric as well. I have no idea what will fit in it when I am done. Here are a few questions I want to explore with this project as an example.

• Why am I doing this if I don't know how the pouch will be useful?

• What is it worth to me?

• What is it worth to other people?

• If I were to sell it, what would the dollar amount be to reflect that worth?

I will answer the first question simply. This pattern is complex and I want a challenge. I tend to make for the sake of making or for the practice, not because I particularly want the thing as an outcome. I will add the caveat that I rarely make something I have 0 interest in. Aesthetics do factor into my decision to spend my time on the making.

For the start of the second question, some of the worth to me is represented in the skill I will gain and the application of my choice in colors and yarn fibers. That is not something I can put a dollar amount on. The rest of this post is going to look at the things I can put a dollar amount on.

As an aside, the pattern I am referencing is the Elemyst Pouch by Julia Hart aka Draiguna. I would like to do a proper pattern review when I am done!

Let's continue by looking at raw numbers. I like numbers. They will give us a sort of baseline with which to proceed with this adventure.

I counted up all of the stitches in the pattern. There were a few varieties, so I grouped them all by type. Separating them this way will help to estimate the total time.

Totals	ch	dc	fpdc	sc	picot	3fpdc pop	4fpdc pop	sl st	tr	bpdc	puff	fptr	bpsc	5dc pop	bp hdc
	1988	1017	496	896	58	104	8	134	36	312	32	20	204	10	108

It is really interesting for me to see these counts! It puts into perspective what a pattern entails. No matter what pattern it is, you will always need to make all of the stitches in it, and those stitches take time. For those curious, the total count for ALL the stitches in this pattern is 5,423. This doesn't actually include making the motif a second time for the other side of the pouch though! Assuming stitches used for the joins and decorative edging only take 30% of the stitches represented in the above chart, the total count is probably closer to 9,219. I estimated this because I don't want to count them again. 🥲

The next table shows some average calculations based on rough measurements of my crochet speed.

Stitches	ch	dc	fpdc	sc	picot	3fpdc pop	4fpdc pop	sl st	tr	bpdc	puff	fptr	bpsc	5dc pop	bp hdc	Totals	ch	dc	fpdc	sc	picot	3fpdc pop	4fpdc pop	sl st	tr	bpdc	puff	fptr	bpsc	5dc pop	bp hdc	Totals	ch	dc	fpdc
Time/st (sec)	1	5	5	3	5	16	21	2	6	5	9	6	5	26	4
Time (min)	33.1	84.75	41.3	44.8	4.8	27.7	2.8	4.47	3.6	26	4.8	2	17	4.3	7.2
Total Est Time (hours)	5.14

Keeping in mind the note above, one side of this pouch, plus joins and decorative edging is going to take me approximately 5 hours to complete. Since I need to make two sides and join them together, and since 70% of the total stitches need to be duplicated, I can estimate 70% of 5 hours to be an additional 3.5 hours. To complete the crochet of this project will take roughly 8.5 hours! And that is assuming that I do everything perfectly the first time, which is not a feasible assumption. In fact, I have already redone 2-3 rounds because I work too fast and miss details in the text of the pattern sometimes. However, we are going to proceed with the assumption that everything is done perfectly the first time for simplicity's sake. We are also not going to dive into the presence of mistakes and imperfections, because that is a whole other can of worms!

Now we get into the part of the calculation that becomes subjective. What is that time worth? What is it worth to me?

This is where I get a little personal. If I converted the hourly rate at which I earned as a crochet teacher, this time would be worth approximately $130. At my day job, it would be worth considerably more. Can I say that my time as a crocheter is worth the same as my time as a tech industry professional? I have been crocheting longer than I have been in that industry. I have as much dedication to my attention to detail in my crochet work as I do at my day job. My work is consistent, accurate, and an artistic expression given the palette of my yarn and the stitches defined by the pattern I am working from, as well as a representation of the skill I have built over the past 10 years.

Patterns are also a great point to discuss. Is my work worth less because I am following someone else's instructions? This is a question I ask myself frequently! Should I not be making my own patterns and creating things to sell from them, to be asking so much for my time creating the object? But, the answer that I come to is that the pattern takes time on its own, and the time spent writing the pattern cannot be reflected in the finished piece. Patterns must stand on their own merit, and the application of the pattern is a work of art on its own and is worthy of its own value.

I am going to use the rate of $300 for 8.5 hours of work for the rest of this example. I believe someone's skilled time should be worth at least $20/hour, but I will be looking at a higher rate to illustrate a point. So I have a pouch that is about 16" tall that is "worth" $300 to me based on my time, just in crocheting it. I haven't explored the time it will take me to line the pouch with a cotton lining, and I have not explored the costs of the yarn. Let's do a brief calculation of those now:

• 1 yard of cotton quilting fabric was $4.87

• Skeins of 8/4 cotton from Hobbii are approximately $2 each and I am using a combination of 5 colors for this project

• Shipping from Denmark has skyrocketed, but I bought this yarn last year. Let's say it cost me $10 to get this yarn

• Cutting the fabric and sewing the lining will likely take about 45 minutes, provided I don't mess it up

All in all, this ends up being approximately $25 in material, and an additional $25 in time spent sewing. In my experience, when pricing things, the mark-up happens only on raw material used. Marking up prices for profits is also hugely subjective. What is the best method? The one that sells the item and covers the costs, in my opinion.

I have some experience with this in a different industry: commercial printing. The quality and demand of our services and products allowed for us to mark-up 3 times the cost of our material. We probably could have increased the mark-up due to being the sole printer in the area, but we opted not to increase it because we wanted to remain competitive and affordable. We had many repeat and happy customers, and saw growth in profits for all 4 years that I was with the company full-time.

When I see people giving rote formulas for pricing crochet work for festivals, I don't often see them taking some of these contextual things into consideration. Demand for your work is going to have a huge impact on what your pricing is going to end up being. If it is viewed as "just another mass produced item", or if the area is flooded with crocheters all making the same "optimized for festival selling" patterns, the supply and perceived value is going to make your work worth less than it should be. You will work your hands to literal pieces trying to keep up with society's assumption that your time is worth the same as a machine that can churn out dozens, if not hundreds, of finished objects in the time you can make one. Alternatively, you will not be able to maintain your volume if you focus on uniqueness.

Ahem. Sorry, let me step off that soapbox before I get completely derailed.

My mark-up for my material will stay at 3 times what I spent for this example. Before marking up, I am at about $350 in just time and raw material, and after marking up, we are looking at $425:

• $325 of this is in time spent crocheting and sewing

• $75 of this is in material costs

Also, let's assume that I do not have a place to market this. I need to put it into a brick and mortar shop, and that shop is going to charge a commission. Let's assume that the commission is 30% of the price. If I account for this in the overall price, our final retail price is $552.50.

Remember, this is a 16"x 10" drawstring pouch.

If I were to put this pouch on a table with a price tag for $552.50 (plus tax!) in the area in which I live, I would likely be laughed at or treated with absolute shock and scorn. Hell, if I put this pouch on the table for $75, I would get similar responses!! And that is just covering my material costs with some profit built in! But I am just a person who is trying to represent her time with a value appropriate to what it took for me to create what I did. Just because the pouch has a utilitarian purpose, regardless that I don't know what that is yet, doesn't make it less artful or unique.

How do we reconcile this with society's view? When someone can go get a larger bag from Walmart that is, not only probably far more durable than the one I made, but has absolute purpose and a smaller price tag by leaps and bounds, how can I possibly put this drawstring pouch out on my table for so much money? How can I expect that anyone would buy it? How can we, as fiber artists, hope to sustain our skill monetarily with our craft if our time cannot be represented accurately?

Please note that I used the word skill, and not hobby. We engage with fiber arts as hobbies, yes. But when you spend so much time practicing, it does become a skill.

I honestly believe that it is not sustainable. I will not be able to sell this drawstring pouch for what it is worth to me. I have to compromise with society and reach a point where our idea of its worth is the same. I live in society too, and I experience the rising costs of survival. The cost of this single pouch would take me to the grocery store 5 times. I know for many many many people, this number becomes 8 or 10, because their budgets are even tighter than mine. To be fair, these are not the people who I would try to sell this pouch to. These are also not the people who are walking through art shows, looking for things to buy with disposable income. They do not have disposable income.

In order to sell this pouch, my market becomes the same as the one shared with fine arts. Fine art is not utilitarian, and utilitarianism seems to reduce worth in the eyes of people who would spend so much on a single item. So my beautiful pouch is swimming against the current already. And this is a project that will only take, by my approximation, 9 hours to complete. Blankets, sweaters, and other larger projects will take upwards of 20-40 hours to complete. Could they be considered fine art? When Target has blankets and sweaters for $30, can you sell yours for the $1000 it is worth in time and material?

Many people have reached a similar conclusion, I think. There are lots of explorations of this by experienced knitters and crocheters on Instagram Reels and other short form videos, and I hear many of them saying that they will never sell their work because they can never reach that compromise with society. I don't think I'm saying anything new, just offering my own opinion and sharing how I have reached it.

In a sense, I want to finish this pouch by the time the art show opens and have it on my table with its $552 price tag. I want to accompany its price tag with a link to this post, or at least a breakdown for why it is priced that way. It feels like a way to do my part in lifting the veil of what we do. Of how much love and effort we pour into it. Of how much it means to us to keep doing it.

I hope this post has been an interesting discourse. For those who have stumbled on this post who are fiber artists or other crafters, perhaps this is some validation for you. Or perhaps you are looking for the ways that this craft can support itself monetarily, and this has helped you to ask yourself some questions. If you are here and you are not a maker in this way, I hope this helps to put the creation of handmade goods into perspective. If you have ever received a gift from a maker, please honor and respect the time and heartfelt energy that your person has spent on you. It truly cannot be represented in dollars.