Hey guys…
My friends all want to buy scarves or pay me to teach them now because our school has no sort of rule against that and it’s one thing to keep me warm.
How much should I charge for a lesson and how much should I charge for a perfectly made scarf?
Thanks!
Sara 
It’s always hard to decide what to charge for knitting, especially when it is your friends who are the clients. The old rule used to be double the price of the yarn, but some charge 3 times the yarn now. Or whatever you can get.
For lessons I don’t know. I know some folks pay a lot for lessons, especially from popular teachers, but I have never charged anything. It is safe to say you aren’t going to get rich this way but you could make a little spending money. Private lessons ought to be worth a little more but if you try it as a group, if they each gave you five dollars, you’d come out pretty good. I think it depends a bit on the economic status of your customers. As long as every body is happy, it works.
A fortune! (about $100 )
a hand knit scarf is one of kind, custom made clothing… it should be priced as such… if you try to ‘compete’ price wise with off shore machine made (in mass quantiy) stuff, it won’t cover the cost of the yarn. (unless, you too buy pallets of cones of yarn!)
feel bad about charging that much? have them make the check out to your favorite charity…
Good advice Merigold! 
Thanks for the info!
I have 2 sugestions:
1: Don’t!!! Mixing friends and money usualy isnt the best idea. If you do, be carefull.
2: Stop by Etsy and take a look at the knit goods to get a kinda feel for what people are charging for what. Also, for the people that you dont want to knit a scarf for but are still asking, you can point them there to get one.
100.00 for a scarf??? it costs me 5.00 in yarn to make one.
I did think 100 dollars was a little too much… because the yarn i use is like 2.79 at hobby lobby…my now favorite yarn place because the yarn is cheap, but good quality.
So lessee…if the yarn is 2.79, the needles are 5.99 (bamboo is the BEST), then I guess that rounds out to about 8-9 dollars…
Should i still multiply that by three though?
Does that mean your time, your talent and your experience are worth nothing?
It is very difficult to sell hand knit items at a price that compensates for your time. If you think about how many hours goes into a scarf over and above the yarn cost you probably couldn’t find anyone to buy it.
Personally I am opposed to charging my friends for knitted items such as hats, scarves and even baby blankets. I have had many offer to pay me for them when they admire others that I have made and typically I just ask them to cover the yarn. Likewise if a friend wanted to sit and have me teach them to knit that is the ultimate compliment and I would not charge for that either. It’s not that I feel like my time or talent is worthless, it’s just that I like doing things for my friends and family. I think we all worry too much about money/compensation and it has ruined many a friendship.
If you are going to charge them for materials I am not sure you should include the cost of your needles as those were purchased for the production of your own scarf and are not purchased specifically and only to make one scarf as a hank of yarn would be.
You might want to consider trading something too. I am making a sweater for a co-worker and she is making me a quilt. So maybe there is something they can teach you or make for you in return.
If if gives you pleasure to knit for family and friends, then payment really isn’t an issue. They enjoy the knitwear, you get the satisfaction of doing something nice for them, everybody is happy.
But if you’re selling knitwear commercially, I think you should be paid as a creative professional. Which is to say, paid well. The Original Poster says “all her friends” want her to make scarves for them, and she believes the scarves should be “perfectly made.” That begins to sound like free-lance work, not a loving favor.
Some guidelines:
I just took a look at the scarves on etsy.com The average price seems to be between $40 and $60 for fairly plain designs.
Flory Loughead is a knitting expert and designer who was on the TKGA’s Master Hand Knitting Committee. She has a formula for computing prices based on the cost of the yarn, the yards knitted and a few other factors. It’s simple and I think it is fair to both knitter and customer. http://floryknits.com/howmuchforknitting.html
I just finished a scarf for my best friend. We went to the yarn store together and she picked out and paid for enough yarn to finish her scarf. I finished the scarf, and as a tip, she went back to the store and bought me the yarn I had been looking at to make a scarf for myself. I think, so long as these people are your friends, letting them pay for just the yarn is a good option. Scarves are some fabulously cheap and meaningful gifts too. But for people you aren’t as close to, I charge at least double the cost of the yarn.
I’m knitting things (scarves mostly) for people all the time, and I just give it to them as gifts.
I’m not really into making profit, even if the yarn costs me half a fortune. I just enjoy knitting, and when it’s finished I don’t have much use for it, so I’m giving it away.
It’s just hard to find people who want the things… but mostly there are people willing to take the items. I’m against just giving someone a scarf as a present, and they won’t wear it at all…
About the money, I did already think about it, when I made a scarf for my niece (for her 10th birthday). I thought her mother might ask to give me money, and what I should tell her, because I started the scarf because my niece gave me some kind of eyelash with felted pieces yarn, she found it too difficult to work with. So I proposed to make her a scarf out of it, but I had to buy quite a lot of other yarns to make the scarf, which, by the way, turned out quite good and is a huge success at school 
I’m against taking money for hand-made items. I think they are worth so much that no money could ever match them. Only gratitude is able to express the degree of worthiness of such pieces. So that’s what I take.
Take it, and wear it with pride.
I don’t think I you should charge for the needles since those are yours to keep and use on lots of things. You get the yarn for only $2.79? If the yarn is that inexpensive I think your work is worth more than the yarn. If you only use one skein I would think $10 is still a good bargain for your friends if they like your scarves. Even more might be fine if they still feel like they are getting a bargain. In my mind it kind of depends on the kinds of prices they are used to paying where they shop. $10.00 seems pretty good if they are used to a place like Wal-Mart (I don’t actually know what they are in Wal-Mart), but if they shop at expensive stores and your product is comparable they might consider $15.00 or $20.00 a bargain.
As Plantgoddess said you can’t really charge what something is worth time wise or hardly anybody would be able to buy hand made things. Settle on a price with your friends where your work has some value, your friends feel treated fairly, and where you all stay friends. Good luck.
I would teach them… make it fun, have a small group over, they bring all their supplies - you could even shop for them together first, have each girl also bring something to eat/drink… etc…
Teach them the basics - have them practice, talk, eat, knit…
From your post I’m assuming you attend a private school with uniform requirments - keep your friends your friends and if you decide later to sell your knitwear - set up your business and deal with it as a business. A previous post mentioned you can’t mix friends and money - very true. Start your own knitting circle, maybe if your friends are insterested - once they get the hang of knitting, maybe you could, as a group, make items for charity or sell and profits go to a charity- options are endless.
Happy knitting
this subject is a hot button for me.
sure, you can knit a scarf for under $10 --if you don’t include your time.
your time (and effort) is part of the productions costs.
Ok, so you are not knitting for profit…
then don’t!
tell your friends
1–i don’t knit for profit. i will:
A–make you a scarf as a gift
B–teach you to knit so you can make your own
C–knit you one, but you have to comp a charity the value of the scarf
(and lets face it, a scarf is about 6 to 10 hours of knitting… (ok that’s just a few evenings… but its still 6 to hours of work)
at MINIMUM (unskilled labor!) wages, that is still $35 to $60 worth of labor.
if the scarf has any skill (and purling is a skill, and ribbing is a skill (hell basic knitting is a skill!) even a $2.79 skein of yarn scarf is worth $75!
If you or your friends want a HAND MADE, one of kind item… then it is an artisan article of clothing–it’s not something they can pick up at Walmart–and it shouldn’t be priced to compete with walmart.
they should realize that. YOUR TIME IS VALUABLE. (and if you wish to give it away, fine do so, but don’t say oh, i spend $3 on the yarn, 3 times that is the right price ($12!) for something that took you 10 hours to knit.–your time is worth more than $9!–
if you charge “wal mart prices” for Madison Avenue boutique goods, you’ll find yourself in a sweat shop of your own making!
The more you “under sell” knitting… the longer hand knit things will be considered worthless (that is, worth less than the labor it takes to create them!)
the only way to get respect for knitting, it to respect it.
if your friend want a hand knit scarf, let them learn how to knit, or let them pay through the nose!
i stand by my recommendation… $100 is a reasonable price for a hand knit scarf. (it represents 10 hours of work–plus materials… and it is a perfectly reasonable amount!)
What a difficult topic! I get approached all the time about making things for people.
I politely smile, thank them for whatever compliment they are giving me, and explain that I have a lot of projects going on right now and that it’s difficult to put a price on the knitting, which takes much longer to do than it appears.
Then I tuck away the request and will sometimes knit the item the person requested as a surprise…for a birthday or thank you gift.
I don’t think there’s money to be had in knitting for profit, unless you’re a speed demon or can do intricate colorwork, which would cost a pretty penny.
Plus, when you start knitting for $$, it becomes less of a hobby and more of a job. No way, Jose.
Exactly what I was thinking. I don’t shop in boutiques. I’ve never even paid $100 for a coat, let alone a scarf. There are very few people willing to pay that much. Plus, if we’re talking kids in school here (HS, College, whatever) they don’t have $100 to spend on anything anyway. Much better to teach them I think. I would never think of charging someone to teach them to knit or crochet but that’s just me. It’s really hard for me to say what’s a good price to sell something at because I know I wouldn’t pay anything myself, I’d just make it. If it was an intricate pattern and I couldn’t do it myself, I’d just have to do without.
Thank you so much all…I think i’m just going to make them their christmas presents
The extras I have I can give to family
Thank you sooooo much!!!
Sara