Hand knit kilt hose... What would you pay?

[thistlelass]

As a knitter of kilt hose, I agree she is not thinking of charging nearly enough for her time and skill. Unless, and it sounds like she is, she is a very,very fast knitter. Even at that, she is giving them away. I'd charge at least $100 for the most simple of patterns to anywhere from $150-up for the fancier ones. She's making handknit hose, not machine made.
I'm a fairly fast knitter if I am able knit without a lot of interruption and could possibly make two pair of hose a week, provided I worked steadily for 10-12 hours a day and depending upon the complexity of the pattern-even working two at one time I couldn't justify my time, skills and materials with such a small amount.
I hope she will re-consider and take into account what her time and skills are really worth and charge enough to pay herself a little salary for all her hard work.

[Carolina Kiltman]

As a knitter of kilt hose, I agree she is not thinking of charging nearly enough for her time and skill. Unless, and it sounds like she is, she is a very,very fast knitter. Even at that, she is giving them away. I'd charge at least $100 for the most simple of patterns to anywhere from $150-up for the fancier ones. She's making handknit hose, not machine made.
I'm a fairly fast knitter if I am able knit without a lot of interruption and could possibly make two pair of hose a week, provided I worked steadily for 10-12 hours a day and depending upon the complexity of the pattern-even working two at one time I couldn't justify my time, skills and materials with such a small amount.
I hope she will re-consider and take into account what her time and skills are really worth and charge enough to pay herself a little salary for all her hard work.

Well said. I also want to add, that $10.00/hr is $20,000/year, hardly a fit income for a highly skilled artisan!

My favorite wife paid $60+ for a pair of machine knitted, wool/acrylic blend hose. They look nice, but nowhere as nice as the patterned knit, or tartan patterned.

About 10-15 years ago, I was quoted a price of $150 (then 100 Pounds) plus shipping and possibly tarriffs for a pair. She needs to understand that while she wants to provide decent kilt hose at a reasonable price, she also needs to charge enough to make it well worth her time.

Perhaps some one of the Shop owners , such as Rocky, could give you an idea on the mark-up between wholesale/retail. I know in one instance, that for cloth, it is 25-35%, which considering the time spent and shop overhead, is very reasonable.

[affabletoaster]

I'm very glad that she doesn't want to take advantage of people, and wants to offer a quality product for little money. I, too, love knitting, and I refuse to charge my close friends and family for knitted items because I want those to be labours of love.

It saddens me that your fiance does not value her work, though, and I will point out (somewhat selfishly) that it does a disservice to all the other commission knitters when one knitter (or many, as is the case!) undervalue their work.
Becoming accustomed to the cheaper hose, those who request the commissions think they are being taken advantage of when a higher price is quoted to them--a reasonable price, for the work and time involved on the knitter's part. As noted above, $10 or less per hour is hardly an appropriate salary for the time and skill of an artisan, and your fiance deserves credit for that (especially if she holds the world record for knitting, as it seems she does.)

(Also, props to her for knitting them two-at-a-time, presumably on the same circular needle using the magic loop! I may be a bit biased, but it truly is the best way to knit a pair of socks!)