How Much For A Hand Knitted Scarf? $840

For a small while, I wondered how in the world did Pringle of Scotland priced their knit sweaters at over $1000. Understandably, their knit sweaters must be handmade in some fashion since their patterns can’t really be replicated by machine, they’re so complicated, I can only assume it had to be done by hand with the finest cashmere at their disposal.

I still didn’t quite understand the trouble of making knit items until I took a stab at it by buying myself a knitting kit at a local store called La Tricoteuse (The Knitting Machine) on the Plateau in Montreal. Many thanks and credit to Wool and The Gang (via Net-a-Porter) for making me discover the joys and hardships of knitting. Their website has several of handy videos for beginners from casting on to making bobble stitches.

Right from the get-go I had to go back and rewind the videos just to learn how cast on a single slip knot! This was going to take a while. The typical knitting project for beginners is the scarf, a simple task of knitting until the desired length. I had to learn along the way how to add a new ball of yarn to the previous one without breaking my knits. I also experimented and knitted bobbles on it with some success. I was also alternating knit and purl stitches to give it a nice texture, but that also meant counting and going back and undo my errors when I miscalculated. My second set of bobbles towards the end was proof of miscalculation when my knit and purl stitches had “aligned” and created visible knits! Thus I temporarily broke the flow of stitches but I was too far down to go back and fix the problem. Oh well.

I ended up paying for 4 more balls of yarn than I had anticipated, again, because I miscalculated the width of the scarf (it’s large enough to be used as a small shawl) and thus had to buy more balls of yarn to achieve a good length. Now obviously, I worked pretty slow for such a simple scarf, a skilled worker would have this scarf done probably in 8hrs. For a beginner like me, it took me about 24 hrs to complete.

The final result?

A near 5 foot long cream scarf, 1 foot wide. 60% Merino wool, 20% Alpaca, 20% Silk.

Were I to be paid for making my knitted scarf, what would the final price for this be? Let’s take the Band of Outsiders example as a model for my work.

$8 a ball of yarn x 8 = $64 (FYI, a cashmere ball of yarn was $55 a pop)

$13/hr salary x 8 hrs =$104 (let’s assume I’m a skilled worker and knitted this in 8hrs time, about a day’s work)

Double wholesale price to make up for losses, cover expenses, employee salaries. $336.00

If there are retailers involved, factor in 2.5.

Final price? $840

Too expensive? If I got the salary of a migrant Chinese worker at $0.10/hr, the scarf would cost an affordable $324.00.

Clearly, I can’t live like a migrant Chinese worker in North America, that would bring a whole new meaning to starving artist.

That means cutting corners on the materials used for the yarn. Maybe I could get some at $1 a ball, but that’s some pretty cheap material. My choice of yarn was done on purpose for it’s plushy texture and softness. Had I gone with the cashmere yarns, you would be looking at a total retail price of over $2700.

For a scarf.

Yes.

Materials matter.