I didn't really forget.......

Since the stroke I seem to have ADD and have a lot of trouble sticking with things. I have so many things that slip through the cracks only to resurface eventually and require attention. It's quite frustrating! I am aware that I left some loose ends on previous postings and thought I'd rectify that.

About a year ago I said I would try to figure out how many hours went into a particular item - particularly as that related to the price I was asking for that piece. (Basically someone said my work was under-priced.) I kept track of the hours involved in a shawl. It got to be a royal pain and ultimately I quit counting. I can tell you that when I quit, the number of hours stood at 55 and the shawl was maybe 3/4 done. I can't remember exactly what minimum wage rate is, but assuming it is 7.15 an hour and that I worked 60 hours (a VERY minimal estimate), the price would be $429 and that doesn't include the price of the materials. Because most of my crocheting is done in conjunction with another activity - watching tv, riding in the car, etc. - I don't 'pay' myself even minimum wage. At one point I roughly estimated the hours involved in crocheting the blue bedspread that's currently on Etsy. I think I paid myself $5 an hour and the estimated price came up as $2200!!! With a price tag that big, I'm likely to die being the proud owner of that bedspread! So I start with the cost of the materials and then add enough to hopefully strike a happy medium between what I think it's worth and what I think people will be willing to pay for it. Most of my work involves large items and it's unrealistic to think I can equate the time spent on that to someone whipping out a scarf or two every evening. That might prove to earn $10 an hour. So I'll continue to crochet the items I like and then try to find someone else who likes the same thing. Hopefully I'll make a little money, the Shelties will make some money and I'll be satisfying the creative juices that flow in my veins and there will be customers out there who are happy with a handmade whatever!

My other dangling project was a 'new project' from June 2009. It was to be a round tablecloth. The thread was on a big cone that came without any labels for yardage, size, fiber content, etc. I really like the thread and enjoyed working with it. Not long Thanksgiving, I realized that the cone did not hold nearly enough thread to finish the piece. So I put it away for a while until I could decide that I wanted to do about/with it. Ultimately, I elected to unravel a couple of rows and then finish off the round of pineapples. It turned out to measure about 45" in diameter and I sold it a month or so ago.

So now you know what happened to those two things - I am sure you were all waiting ever so impatiently to know ;-)