Why I Don’t Sell on Etsy

Hey Everyone!

Over the years, I have gotten a lot of people tell me something along the lines of “you should sell on Etsy” or “selling what you make on Etsy should be your career”, or “you could make a living on etsy”. I know they mean well, but I always hear it from non knitters, and at this point I tell them that for someone like me to sell on etsy, I would lose money on everything I sell, just to get it sold. 

I will use a pair of socks for example, using KnitPicks Palette Yarn, that I had bought enough of to get free shipping and had paid full price. For an average woman’s foot, to get a pair of socks, I need one and a part of a second ball, so I buy two of every color I want to use, for a single pair of socks. Then I also have to factor in the electricity I use while knitting up the socks, as well as the cost of the wool wash, the water, and electricity to wash and dry the socks, then cost of shipping materials, the cost of shipping and the labor from the time I start the socks, to completing them, washing them, drying them, taking the pictures, posting it on Etsy, packing them up to ship, and then shipping the items, would take a good 50 – 60 hours. 

So let me break it down for you in the numbers:

Cost to post an item to my etsy shop: $.20

Cut etsy takes from price items sell for: 3.5%

Cost for two balls of KnitPicks Palette Yarn (based on having an order over $50 to qualify for free shipping) – $6.98

Electric bill allocation for electricity used while working on each project: $20

Water & Sewer usage to wash a pair of socks – $5

Shipping materials: $5+

Shipping: $5+

60 hours of labor at $15 an hour – $900

So in order to take a living off of selling socks on Etsy, I would have to charge, roughly $990.47 plus shipping for a pair of socks.

I don’t care who you are, and what your budget is, or the fact that they are a good quality sock, no one is going to pay roughly $1000 for a pair of socks, but that is why I would have to charge to make a living off of selling what I make on Etsy. That is why I don’t sell on Etsy, I know i can’t make a living that way off selling what I make. 

Not to mention dealing with small business taxes, and that is a definite deal breaker for me. I am the creative one, not the numbers one. 

8 Strand Braided Cable

Hey Everyone!

I had a request to post the pattern for the 8 strand braided cable, as used in the scarf I shared in yesterday’s post.

The pattern itself has 28 stitches within it

Row 1: Purl 2 Knit 24 Purl 2

Row 2: Knit 2 Purl 24 Knit 2

Row 3: Purl 2 Slide 3 to Cable Needle Hold to Back, Knit 3, Knit 3 from Cable Needle, Slide 3 to cable needle, hold to back, knit 3, knit 3 from cable needle, slide 3 to cable needle hold to back, knit 3, knit 3 from cable needle, slide 3 to cable needle hold to back, knit 3, knit 3 from cable needle Purl 2

Row 4: Knit 2 Purl 24 Knit 2

Row 5: Purl 2 Knit 24 Purl 2

Row 6: Knit 2 Purl 24 Knit 2

Row 7: Purl 2 Knit 3, Slide 3 to Cable Needle hold in Front, Knit 3, Knit 3 from Cable Needle, Slide 3 to cable needle, hold to front, knit 3, knit 3 from cable needle, Slide 3 to cable needle, hold to front, knit 3, knit 3 from cable needle,  knit last 3 Purl 2

Row 8: Knit 2 Purl 24 Knit 2

Repeat these 8 rows until the item you are working on is the correct length

*Note: For scarves I cast on an addition 6 stitches for a 3 stitch border on each side, and I knit 3 garter stitch rows at each end for a 3 X 3 border around the pattern.*

Knit Flat Finger-less Gloves!

Hey Everyone!

in the past few days I have been working really hard to get some finger-less gloves finished, using one of the skeins of yarn I had purchased at the craft store in my most recent craft store shopping trip/haul. Once I got the pair for the gift done, I had yarn left over, so I decided to see if I had enough to get another pair knit up for myself. I had just enough to make two full pairs of finger-less gloves.

The yarn I used was Patons Classic Wool Worsted yarn in Natural Mix. It comes in a 100 g/ 3.5 oz skein which contains approximately 192 m / 210 yds of 100% wool yarn to work with.

The pattern I used, was one I had come up with. I cast on 35 stitches, knit off the first row then I knit 8 rows of 1×1 ribbing before switching to stockinette stitch. I had also put cables in mine. I used the cast on edge as the bottom (or the highest part of my arm) and the cast off edge as the top (landing at my knuckles). I then did 30 rows of stockinette before finishing with 8 more rows of 1×1 ribbing.

For the Cables, on the right glove I started it in the left side of the front (so it was closer to the end of the knit row). How I did that was I knit over 17+4 then did the two purl stitches and knit six stitches, purled two more stitches and knit the last four. For the left glove I knit over 4 stitches, purled 2, knit 6, purled 2, knit 4+17. I did my cabling on the 5th row (of six in the pattern). for the right glove I held the stitches to the back when cabling, and for the right glove I held the stitches to the front.

Ravelry

Hey Everyone! 

This Week for pattern Friday, I am sharing with you another one of my favorite pattern resources. I have mentioned it in other posts, but I have not written a post about it yet. This week I am sharing with you guys Ravelry. It has plenty of patterns (some are free, others are not). It is also great because it has groups, and forums and such. I like that feature in addition to the patterns because there are often groups by location, or project (particularly charity knitting/crocheting). 

With Ravelry you will need an account to access patterns and the groups but creating an account is free, and allows you to save patterns to your library and keep track of projects you have completed if you so choose to use that feature. 

This is just one of the places I go to, in order to get ideas of what I want to make. 

Knitty

Hey Everyone! 

This week I wanted to share with you a website that I had been referred to by one of my former coworkers who knew about this site. The website is entitled Knitty and it is a free online knitting magazine full of knitting patterns and ideas. 

This had come up when I had been talking to my coworkers about projects I had in mind and trying to get some pattern ideas and bounce things off other crafters. 

I love getting new ideas, and seeing what others have made and what else is out there. I like getting ideas for future projects and for what I want to use some of my yarn that is just sitting for. I am always up for free patterns and trying new things. 

Saxon Braid

Hey Everyone!

This week’s Pattern is the Saxon Braid. The pattern that I used I found here. The pattern itself is a diagram on a graph square. There are no written instructions for this pattern, just the pictures.

Beings that I am a visual person, I figured it out on my own, with a couple restarts. I learned that the dots were purled stitches, and the slanted colored lines were where the stockinette stitches were being held to the front while a purled stitch was brought to the back (I would often look to the next row up to get an idea of what it should look like when the WS was complete).

I have made two scarves using this pattern, and for me it helped to print out the full pattern grid from the blog I found it on (which I linked above) and then in the little squares on the right it helped me, to write in the row number (1 being on the bottom 16 being at the top). This pattern repeats on itself to make the item you are working on as long as you need it to be. 

Rows 3, 7, 11 and 15 are “set up” rows where you are moving the purled stitched to set up for the cross over/under of the stockinette stitches which take places on 1, 5, 9 and 13.  So row 15 “sets up” for row 1. Row 3 “sets up” for row 5, row 7 “sets up” for row 9 and row 11 “sets up” for row 13. if that makes any sense to anyone else but me. 

This is one of my least favorite to work on, but one of my favorites once it is complete. It takes time and concentration for me to get a project complete. I love using this pattern in combination with Lion Brand Fishermen’s Wool yarn. 

Seed Stitch

Hey Everyone!

This week’s pattern is the seed stitch (or British Moss Stitch).

This pattern is super easy. All you do is:

Row 1: *K1 P1 Across*
Row 2: *P1 K1 Across*

So you start out like you are doing a single rib going across the first row, and then you do the reverse on the wrong side, and just keep repeating the 2 row pattern until you obtain the length you need.

Falling Leaves Wrap

I found this pattern while surfing ravelry for inspiration. I had purchased the yarn I wanted to use (two skeins of Patons Lace yarn). I am waiting until I have few projects going before diving into it. I have tried to start it several times, but I would get so far and then something would go wrong so I would frog it each time.

I want to start it when I have the time to focus on it, and actually make sure I do it right. I have found that I can’t do this kind of thing and watch vlogs/tv shows/movies at the same time.

I wanted to share the pattern with you all, and to see if anyone wants to try it along with me, to see how it turns out.

Six Strand Braided Cable

Hey Everyone!

Happy 4th of July to all my American readers!

Welcome to my sixth cable pattern post in my cable pattern series. This week’s cable pattern is the six strand braided cable pattern. This is my favorite of the “simple” cables. This pattern I picked up from a picture that I saw, and I figured out and wrote out the pattern just from that picture.

I have used this pattern for several scarves, adding a total of six stitches to the pattern, so that each side would have an edging of 3 garter stitch rows at each end, and three stitches on each side that I used the garter stitch for, just to give it a solid edging, and to help it not to roll.

It looked more complicated than it is, you just cable on two of the eight rows, and it did not take me long to get the hang of what was going on.

I also make up size spacings for use in sweaters. I have yet to try this in a sweater, but after having made three scarves with this pattern, it should be hard. If you try this pattern, let me know if you like it.

For those of you who have followed my cable pattern series, I hope you have enjoyed it, and found some patterns that you like!

Double S Cable

Hey Everyone!

Welcome to the fifth cable pattern post, in my cable pattern series. This week’s cable pattern is the double S cable. This pattern is based off the single s cable pattern that I wrote about in last week’s post. what I did was that I took the basic s cable and then mirrored it for the second one. So one is always doing the opposite of what the other is doing. It looks pretty cool.

I have used this pattern in making one of my fishermen’s wool scarves. I like that it adds something to the otherwise boring but functional garment, yet is still casual enough for everyday (during the cold season) wear.

I enjoy trying new patterns, and seeing how projects turn out. If you are anything like me, simple patterns that look nice are what I spend hours on Pinterest, ravelry, knitty and other sites looking for. The patterns that I use on a regular basis were hard finds, and I did not come by them easily. Since I found them, I want to share what I found and maybe help some of you who haven’t been knitting as long find some great knitting patterns.