Setting Boundaries and Fairly Pricing Knitting Projects

My Takeaway from the Holiday Season as a Knitting Blogger and Designer

One of my biggest struggles and persistent frustrations in knitting hasn’t been any particular skill. It’s not a technique that has eluded me (That isn’t to say that I haven’t had my share of challenges). But rather, it’s been setting boundaries and fairly pricing knitting projects.

Let’s unpack this a bit more. I’m a people pleaser. When my work is complimented and someone asks me to make them one of my designs, my natural inclination is to say yes. On the other side of the coin, I’m a knitwear designer so I knit a good number of projects which I don’t sell, so they’re there to give. Too often I don’t set the boundary of asking for money in exchange for my knitting.

Why don’t I sell my finished projects? Because part of setting boundaries is establishing the value of your time plus your materials and thus pricing your work fairly. Finally we have arrived at the larger problem of our society’s obsession with fast fashion devaluing handmade goods and its affect on this knitter.

Setbacks in Setting Boundaries:

The process of setting boundaries and fair pricing for my knitting has been long and fraught with self doubt. Its taken a years for me to feel “accomplished enough” to charge anything for my works: Patterns and Finished Projects. Even though I feel that now I’ve gotten to a healthy place with knitting and gifting for only the knit-worthy people in my life, and for pricing my works somewhat fairly, I still hit setbacks. A few of these setbacks have happened recently.

Selling Patterns:

The first setbacks entail my patterns, my intellectual property. In the beginning I used to give my patterns away as a means of attracting traffic to my blog. Now that I am a mother and my time is even more taxed, I’ve had to make the difficult decision to charge for my patterns. Charging for your patterns requires a certain level of quality and professionalism, one that I have worked really hard to achieve.

Test Knitters:

I design knitted items as I go, jogging notes and then drafting the formal written pattern when the project is done. I’m dyslexic and so sometimes there are small errors in the notes which translate to the pattern. I’ve tried working with test knitters but have found that the ones I’ve attracted thus far are looking for a free pattern rather than to help establish a new design. Despite multiple emails and imploring them to follow the agreement, I don’t hear back from them let alone receive feedback or images of the finished projects.

I know that this is not true of all test knitters and that there are many out there who are amazing.  This is purely my experience.  On future patterns, I am open to working with new test knitters.

Pattern Feedback:

Two things recently happened. One knitter emailed me saying that my pattern was the worst ever. Knowing the vast amount of knitting patterns in the world, I highly doubt that this pattern was the worst ever. I tried offering the woman a refund to which she refused, and she continued her dislike and disgust. So that was fun. I rushed to look at the pattern and fought the urge to take all of my patterns down.

I hate that I have to ask for money in exchange for my patterns. I wish I could have continued offering them for free. But I’ve had to make the change – and I’ve explained it in previous posts so I won’t bore you again here. In making this switch, I try to keep my patterns reasonably priced. I know that I’m not perfect and that there are better patterns out there so I’m realistic when setting these prices.

The next thing was a series of events over Christmas. So many people have purchased my Christmas Tree Skirt Knitting patterns! Thank you to everyone who has knit or is knitting them. However over the holidays, I had a few people purchase the Snowy Christmas Tree Skirt on Etsy, which is a $5.00 pattern and clearly states as much. Then people proceeded to ask for a refund because they never received the tree skirt. Is Etsy turning into Wish all of a sudden. Just as I was growing excited that people are starting to appreciate handmade and pay fair price I get this.

Here’s a link to the Vintage Velvet Tree Skirt Listing (also looks great in other yarns).
And here’s a link to the Snowy White Christmas Tree Skirt Listing.

At the same time, I do have a listing for a full hand made tree skirt. I’ve had to set boundaries and price this fairly. The materials in the tree skirt are $70-80. And then there’s the factor of my time. I’ve priced it $275 and my friends and family tell me I should go even higher. For now that’s where my price will sit.

Do you have trouble setting boundaries? Do you squirm when you have to place a price on your work and try to do so fairly? Let me know in the comments.

Getting My Mojo Back

After these experiences, I knit a present for my aunt to give to a friend and that restored my energy. Both my aunt and her recipient loved the pieces and that refilled my heart with joy. It gave me so much joy in fact I’m knitting my aunt a scarf too…shh don’t tell her.

I’ve got loads more planned. I just ask for your patience with me. During the pandemic I had put pressure on myself to be just as productive as before: before I became a mom, before my husband was working so much overtime, before I learned that I needed to take care of myself more.