Fifty-Five Hours

I have 39 more rows to go. Then the tassel ends.

I have not bothered to actually time myself every time I have worked on this. Lets face it, this is the second piece I have made with crochet thread and my technique has gotten better with each row. When I first started it could take me anywhere from 5 to 20 minutes per row. now it takes 5-12 minutes per row.


I have decided to make a few pieces that I could take to arts and crafts shows. I have looked into consignment and it seems the best place for consignment is actually Once Upon a Child. They don't want 50% up to %80 commission. They do not want to charge me fees after anywhere from 30-90 days without a sale and everywhere else wants me to buy back any piece I have made. The only catch would be is they are only interested in baby blankets that catch there eye. Ebay wants monthly and other costs to list and, Esty has similar commission percentiles and fees to list items which may not be as ridiculous as consignment shops, but I am on a budget and well... It's a bit ridiculous how much money the middle men want for MY hard work. I am sure most can identify with that so I will not preach to the choir.

55 hours is the estimated time I am averaging, if each row took 15 minutes to do. I have spent more then 37 hours on this already, so averaging 10 minutes per row is not happening.

People hate when I do the math for what I plan on asking for this piece.
55 hours is overtime on a normal work week, but I am not going to ask for time and a half on anything. My work isn't exactly priority. My son is.

Minimum wage in Ontario is $10.25 hourly. I don't think anyone would buy a shawl for $563.75, so to be more realistic I will be asking $250 (OBO.)

My next question is, is that really an unfair price to ask? Or are we all just use to cheap foreign made products. I honestly hate to shove this in any hard working person's face but face it, the reason why this would be $25-50 at a chain store would be you are buying a product that was made by paying someone pennies an hour to make this.

Would you want someone to under value your hard work?
Do you feel that your hard work is already under-valued as you read this?