I don’t know about you, but I get tired of hearing how knitting is an expensive hobby, and it frustrates me almost to tears. Of course there’s a number of ways to look at this, so let’s get into it.
If you’re going to calculate it on cost per garment produced, yes it can be very expensive, depending on which yarn you buy.
Let’s take an example of a pattern currently appearing in the “Hot Right Now” page on Ravelry, the Field Sweater by Camilla Vad. I’ll be talking in Australian dollars here.
The pattern costs around $14.00. That’s fine. I can use that pattern over and over again once I’ve paid the initial cost.
It uses 1050m – 1800m of yarn. I’m small, so let’s assume I use 1200m of yarn for mine. That would be 8 balls of Eco Baby yarn by Isager. I could get it for $17 per ball at a local online store. That would be $136 for the yarn. For the largest size, it would be $204. So let’s say it’s $150 – $200 for a pullover. That sounds expensive, but you’re getting a hand knitted pullover in pure Alpaca and Cotton that you’ll wear for years, and love. You certainly wouldn’t be able to buy a pullover of that quality for that price.
I could use a more economical alpaca/cotton yarn, say Lana Grossa Puno Due, which would work out to around $80 for a smaller size. Or I could use a much more economical yarn with a totally different fibre composition, assuming I can achieve a fabric that I’m happy with. I can buy a pullover at a charity shop, unravel it, and reuse the yarn.
Now, as I’m looking at this as a hobby, which happens to produce a gorgeous garment, there’s a totally different way to look at this, rather than cost per garment/item.
A hobby is an activity which you do on a regular basis, because you enjoy the activity. Your hobby might be writing, pottery, model building, or any of other multitudes of hobbies. They all require supplies, some more than others, and the more you love your hobby, the more you’ll be tempted to spend on it.
The thing I want to focus on here is that you spend time on your hobby on a regular basis. If knitting is your hobby, not your occupation, then most likely you’ll be doing it on the evenings in front of the TV, and if you’re lucky enough to have some spare time, on the weekends and holidays.
- If drinking wine is your hobby, you might spend $12 a week if you have one bottle. Ha, ha!
- If going to the movies is your hobby, you might spend $16 a week, per person.
- If playing golf is your hobby you might spend $50 on green fees
- If writing is your hobby, there are minimal costs.
- If pottery is your hobby, you’ll be buying clay, glazes, tools, use of a wheel, use of a kiln.
- Model making will cost you the price of the kits, plus any extra paint, glue, brushes you choose. This again can depend on how much time you spend and how many kits you’re getting through.
You get the picture.
As an evening and weekends knitter, I would be very lucky to get through a ball of yarn in a week. That varies greatly depending on the weight of the yarn and the size of the needles, and the meterage of the ball. Sure, you might spend $100 on yarn, but you won’t be using that all at once. It’s spread out over the time it takes to knit the item.
You can spend anywhere from $6 to $50 for a ball of yarn, and there’s nothing to make you buy the highest priced yarn. Knitting needles are available very cheaply from charity shops and from discount craft outlets.
Here is my Rainbow Hussar Pullover, made for under $50. I’ve used Lily Sugar’n Cream, which is about as economical as it gets, and I love the result. It’s a sturdy, comfortable pullover, which will soften with age.
Last year I spent $197 on yarn. If I’d had to buy my patterns, rather than designing them, I’d have paid $36 on patterns. That’s a total of $233 for the year; less than a dollar a day. And, as always happens, there’s unused yarn left at the end of these projects, which is free to use for other projects. I’m not saying that this is an average year, just what happened this particular year. I belong to my state’s knitters guild, at a cost of over $100 per year, which gives me a discount on yarn at certain outlets. If I include my guild membership, it’s still less than $1 per day!
You may have much more time available for knitting than I do, or you may prefer expensive yarn. Your costs will then be much higher. But costs don’t have to be high at all. You can be a savvy knitter, and gauging your costs as a per week amount you’ll see that it compares super well to many other hobbies or crafts. And as a bonus you end up with a useable or wearable item for yourself, or to gift to others. I call that a win-win!
Let me know, how do you keep your knitting costs to a reasonable level? Or do you allow yourself to splash out on something special now and then? I’d love to hear from you. Happy economical knitting!
