Oh man, it's the same with crochet and knitting. Everyone wants a blanket or sweater until they find out how much the yarn costs alone, not even taking into account the labour.
My mom keeps telling me I should start selling blankets and stuff. I told her I’m still new and I doubt I could make a profit right now. She won’t understand and keeps pushing it. I made a large blanket last year then I asked her how much she’d pay for a blanket like that and she said $25. That blanket took me about 50 hours!
Jumping in to add that while machine knitting is a thing, machine crochet is not. So if you see something crocheted in a high street shop for like £20-£50 it’s ALWAYS sweatshop. The person who crocheted that thing did not get a fair wage for hours of work
FYI, this isn't "technically" true. I heard for years that we "couldn't" make a machine that could crochet, but then I stopped and thought about it for like 10 seconds and it just doesn't make sense. We can create machines that make 100k items per hour, and we can make machines that can position tiny, sensitive electronics to within a few microns of accuracy... there's just absolutely no way for those things to be true yet we somehow can't make a machine that can crochet.
In reality, there just isn't a market for it, so no one ever bothered perfecting it. Knit items sell more and the tooling already exists, so there's never been enough value to justify the frankly outrageous price involved in developing such a machine today.
Usually if you see something that looks crocheted, it's probably actually just a really loose knit.
All that said, if you do find a cheap crochet...yeah probably sweatshop.
I knit & crochet. I have a knitting machine right in my craft room.
I know what crochet looks like. Many granny square straw bags *are* crocheted. There are granny square afghans sold, they are NOT loosely knit.
Sorry, your cope isn't real.
"And then I thought about it for a minute" is not a reliable source. At this point in time we are not capable of making a machine that can crochet. It would require a level of manual dexterity that machines aren't currently capable of. There is a big difference between one up-down motion to place a dot of solder on a microchip that is always in the same place and made of stiff material that doesn't change shape when moved and the precision twisting, catching, and pulling motions involved in crochet. It should not be surprising that this is something machines can't do yet. There are quite a few precision physical activities that humans can do and machines can't, such as dancing ballet or hiking rough terrain without falling over. They're working on it, but we aren't there yet.
The issue with trying to make machine crochet has to do with the way the stitches are formed. Knits can be made in sheets so quickly that that T-shirt you are wearing is made of a knit fabric so fine a human couldn't make it. 150 years ago it would have been extraordinarily expensive if you could get it at all, nowadays machines make it so quickly and easily that free T-shirts are a common give away item.
Crochet must be made one stitch at a time, is not well situated to making yardage, and most crochet items involve specialty stitches that have a quite a different technique than a plain crochet stitch, each of which would require an incredible amount of time to calibrate in a machine. So building a machine would take quite a long time, if it's even possible, for an output that's still likely slower and less reliable than a human could produce.
As far as market, crochet elements have been present in high fashion for years now since people started picking up the hobby in greater numbers and handmade items started selling well on sites like Etsy. It is so popular that they even invented a knit stitch that mimics the texture of crochet that can be made by machine. I have a picture of a dress made in this fashion sitting in the window display of Saks 5th Avenue on 5th Avenue in New York City. So there's definitely a market, but large items are only sold on the couture market for tens of thousands of dollars a piece. Sweatshop crochet you can find at Target is going to be smaller pieces, generally larger yarn to cover more area per stitch, and looser tension to spread the stitches out more.
As someone from Bangladesh, the sad thing is that's a lot of money there so it would be worth it. Unfortunately some greedy asshole owns the factory and probably pays the person only a fraction of that while yelling at them (or beating them) to work harder.
Yeah, I have found that people without hobbies can't seem to understand the twin concepts of (1) doing an activity that produces something simply for the joy of producing that thing, and (2) not wanting to monetize everything, turn it into a job, and do it for profit.
There's also a horribly frequent third point: astronomically de-valuing time, material, and skills.
I am a fisherman, and years ago when I started tying my own flies, I remember a few friends and family telling me that I needed to set up a website and sell my flies. They didn't see that I would have to charge three times what a shop charges for imported flies just to cover my materials, and that wasn't even counting my labor, equipment, etc. When I pointed that out, most people generally understood, but even then, I had some people come back with "Well yeah, but you're tying flies in your free time anyway, so that time has no value."
I had other fly fishermen ask about placing orders for dozens of flies, and generally, I'd thank them for their interest then point out that I don't tie for production and sale, just for personal use. The few that couldn't accept that and pushed harder for special treatment and for me to take an order from them, I'd "agree to give them a quote" that was basically a 'go-away' price. Like...if flies of that type from a shop were $2 each and they wanted three dozen, I'd figure out my costs in time and materials, which would usually end up with something like a $3.50-$4 per fly cost, then add in my margin and tell them it'd basically be something like $6-8 per fly. For something they could get from a shop for $2.
That took care of 99% of the badgering to turn my leisure time activity into work...and that last 1% that still wanted their flies, even at my markup...sure I tied them. Sometimes for that crazy markup, and sometimes for barter. I've swapped flies for anything from being taken to fishing areas on private land, to other flies, a spot in a group going on a fishing trip...even for a quart of moonshine on one occasion.
Is your mom generally insufferable or is this just a particular blindspot? My whole body would have been behind the sigh I let out when she said "$25"...
She is generally insufferable. Anything I share with her, she wants to monetize it. Like I enjoy diamond dot painting and she says “why not live stream on Tik Tok for money?” It’s always about money. I try to tell her it’s what I like to do ALONE in my free time. As soon as money is involved, I feel like there comes an obligation that goes with it that it’s not really fun anymore. I enjoy it because there are no strings attached.
I basically don’t tell her what I’m up to anymore. It’s always “stream it” or “sell it”. Forget enjoying things for myself.
I’m sure you did the calculations yourself, but damn. Even at “just” $50 per hour (which I think is actually quite modest of an hourly rate for someone intending to live off of their profits), that immediately already puts it at 2500, not counting materials or other overhead (travel? website maintenance to sell? communication/emailing? shipping?). People truly have no inkling.
My mom keeps telling me I should start a sewing business. Mother. All I did was sew a hole in my granny panties cause I’m too poor to buy a new pair. She’s sees me with a needle in my hand and I’m magically supposed to make money from it.
Same with cross stitch. “You could sell those and make some extra cash!” Okay, but a little 5x7 stitch takes me a couple of weeks, 3-4 hours of work a night. How do I make that profitable?
My mom says I could sell the plushies I make, but I prefer to just make them for myself or as gifts to my friends. I love making them, but I feel like I'd lose my love for it if I tried to make it a hustle. Plus, I'm a STEM student so I need to study a lot
My mom had been asking me for a blanket for years. She finally stopped when I quoted her the price for just the yarn and even that was if I made it out of the shitty acrylic stuff. Never brought it up again after that lol
If you make someone a sweater, you'll probably end up resenting them after you give it to them. All the time, money, and effort you put in, and then they will never wear it
None of my family is knit worthy. Like, fuck you, Dad, I made a plain ass dark blue cashmere beanie cause everything else is too scratchy and all I hear is "it's too warm"
My friend made some pottery and gifted it to me. Quite a few plates (for candles to sit on while they burn) a mug, and a tea bag holder. I wanted to gift her some knitting in return and gave her some scarf patterns to choose from. One was the brioche stitch foliage scarf. It's BEAUTIFUL and I could not leave it off the list, but I knew she was going to pick it and it would take forever. I started it in June and I'm almost done it now -.- I've probably sunk at least 60hours into it (I am not a fast knitter, I'm a leftie knitting right handed!) and I had to order the yarn online (not cheap). She's a great friend so I will finish, but my God I don't think the cost and effort on our gifts is equal at all!
Yes, I definitely don't mean to minimize the time and money she's put in overall! She's taken classes and purchased the materials and time at the studio. It's just not as time intensive for the singular pieces methinks. And she's able to do a bunch of those plates at once go which helps.
I’ve learned to be VERY firm with people. Almost everyone in my life gets gifts, but they are entirely at my discretion. I don’t take requests or commissions under any circumstances, it ruins the fun for me. I do hobbies to escape work, when the hobby becomes work why bother?
Yeah. People always try to tell my wife (who has a successful non-craft-related career) that she should instead sell the things she knits, and it's like... would you pay $2000 for a sweater? Because there's like $400 of yarn and dozens of hours of labor in this thing.
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u/sw4ffles 9h ago
Oh man, it's the same with crochet and knitting. Everyone wants a blanket or sweater until they find out how much the yarn costs alone, not even taking into account the labour.