Truth. I enjoying making all kinds of different things and almost anytime I show anyone whatever my latest project is, it’s always “oh, you should make and sell these!” No. I want to enjoy my stress-free hobbies, unbeholden to the requests of customers.
this post was submitted on 01 Aug 2023
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I recently lost my job and have the luxury of not having to immediately find a new one. I love to cook and always have, but I'm also a parent of 5 kids. Now everyone is suggesting I open a restaurant. I keep having to explain that while I might be successful, I don't want to turn the one thing that's a labor of love into a labor of business. Especially a business that I know will keep me away from my kids during the exact hours I usually bond with them the most. I would hate to hate cooking, especially for my family.
It reminds me of the story where these kids played music loudly each night.
No matter what he tried, the neighbor could not get them to stop practicing late at night.
Eventually each time they played, he started to give them money. Eventually they stopped playing.
It was trashcans, the way I remember it. They were making noise beating on the trashcans coming back from school and no complaint would get them to stop.
Once he said, "hey, that sounds pretty good, love your youthful energy!" and promised to pay them each a quarter every day of they would come by and play the trashcans every day, then it became A Chore.
I really haven't thought of that in years, but it's still right. I more or less can't take commissions at all, regardless of hobby, because it makes it a chore and I get hyper stressed out.
You will have no free time. All of your time will be spent at work, even when you aren't clocked in.
I knit and crochet for my mental health. There was a point where when I was a naive teenager I did try to make money off the hobby, but it made me utterly despise the hobby as a whole and turned something I used to relieve stress into a new stressor. I don’t sell my projects, and never will. I gift projects to those close to me, as well as on very rare occasion I let people buy me yarn in exchange for a project for them in my spare time. As well on occasion making projects to donate or give to be used in charity raffles.
I don’t know if it’s the psychological aspect of money or what, but it just ruins it for me and creates a stress I just can’t deal with. I also feel with my current approach it makes my projects even more priceless since you literally can’t put a price tag on it. If you get a gift from me, it means I feel that I know you well enough to cherish it and enjoy it. It’s why I love to knit for my grandma.
I also knit/crochet as a very industrious hobby. When people tell me that I should sell my items, I reply that they couldn't afford my items. It took me 100+ hours to make this sweater and the yarn alone cost me over $200. This sweater is in the ballpark of $1500 in value. You can't afford me.
I feel you, I'm a knitter as well and the amount of people who have suggested I start selling...they don't understand the real value of hand-made items because they've been used to buying mass-produced crap from the other side of the world.
Ran into this issue with my daughter when she was trying to sell her stuff at local business and craft fairs. Some of her stuffed animals would take her 5 to 10 hours to make, and would price them accordingly, with some of her largest items being close to $200us.
People would get sticker shock, and even after explaining that not only did she spend a full work days amount of time crocheting the item, she would also hand spin a lot of the yarn she used as well, they never seemed to realize the actual value of her stuff. It seemed to usually be people of my generation and older that had the most issues. She sold most of her stuffies to people in their teens and twenties, and a surprising amount of yarn to really old ladies.
Old ladies know the value of a decent small batch yarn, especially if they're of the generation that knit around the clock as a necessity. Boomers and Gen X largely didn't knit, at least generally, so they're pretty out of touch. They may perceive knitting as something with little value - either taking it for granted that knit goods cost little due to slave and machine labor, or taking it for granted that their mother or grandmother gave them knits for free.
Many millenials and Gen Z have tried yarn crafts, and at least vaguely know it's a shit ton of work.
The oldest boomers are 77 right now. I'd definitely put that into the old ladies category.
Most of the boomers I know all knitted or crocheted (or sewed!) because it was still required for Home Ec classes.
Most of the millennials & Gen Z folks I know haven't touched yarn or crafting hobbies and would have no clue on pricing.
We must live around very different groups of people.
I just got into knitting and I'm already dreading wearing anything I make around my family. "Can you make me a sweater, oh come on, why are you so selfish?" I dunno because it would be a month of work and hundreds in materials and no matter what I explained to them, it would just get treated like a random polyester sweater and they'd probably ruin it or toss it when they decided they don't like the style anymore... And my family is the kind to criticise any imperfections that didn't look machine produced.
People are used to fast fashion prices, it's disheartening.
For years, I used to make soap as a hobby. Then I started earning money by selling them. Whaddya know, after 2+ years in business I had a mental breakdown and didn't want anything to do with soap anymore. The day I had to close down my business I was heartbroken but relieved.
nope.