The Long (Lost) Scarf

Well hello there. Do you remember the scarf that I wrote about almost a year ago. Somehow it took me a year...ekhm, ekhm...to finish it, but it is finally done! Just in time for the coming winter. And considering, that the last couple of days smelled like autumn out here, I am pretty sure that "the winter is coming". 

This is pretty much my first finished knitted item so I am pretty proud of it (even if it is not 100% even). The next project on the agenda is a baby hat so I am working on my multiple-needle technique. I'll let you know when I get there.

I won't pay that much for a scarf!

I went winter-shopping the other day. I needed a new coat, hat, gloves and SCARF. It went fine with everything but the scarf. The coat and hat are black so I was looking for a nice, warm, and colorful scarf. I found one just like I wanted but it was in a fancy brand boutique and it costed too much for my taste. I thought about it and decided to save some money and knit the scarf myself!
And here is how it looks now. Yey! Right? Only detail, it didn't end up being cheaper then the shop version. Awesome. But I like making it myself. So still a win. I just hope that I will finish it by the end of winter cause I am not so good with knitting needles.

Putting the Price

It's been quiet around here the past couple of days. Partly because I've been working on a long term crochet project. To be perfectly honest, I am not a biggest fan of large projects. I'm the immediate gratification kinda girl. If it takes too long I get frustrated and toy with dropping the project all together.

But of course, large pieces are so much more impressive in the end. So, I pulled myself together and the past 2 weeks I spent working on this scarf. Now I already have all the 40 squares and it's only a question of connecting them into two lines. I promise that as soon as it's done, I will let you know.

The biggest problem I have with this kind of projects however, is setting a price. Making one square takes around 30 min. 30 min times 40 squares = 20h. Plus minimum 2h for connecting the squares into a scarf. Minimum hourly rate in Denmark is around 100kr per hour so I should get 2200kr for this piece. This amounts to around $400. Do I think this scarf is worth that much? Absolutely! I put my skill and effort into this piece and it is one of a kind. But would you pay that much? Probably not. After all, to you it is "just a scarf".

How do you deal with this kind of problems? How do you choose prices for your items?

Organic scarf

Thanks to the John Lewis sale I was able to buy a lot of beautiful naturally dyed organic cotton. My idea was to crochet a large shawl for which I had already found a pattern. But after reading Yoola's article and doing a quick analyzes of my shop I decided to produce several organic summer scarves - thanks to the sale I can sell them really cheap.


The pattern I used for the first two of the scarves is lacy but it also has regularly placed bobbles which gives it tick texture. I tested the prototype scarf on my trip to Belgium and the result is very good. The color fits summer outfits very well and the scarf can be worn loosely to act as an accessory or can be closely wrapped around the neck to protect you from cold summer evenings.

I will post the scarf on etsy very soon.

Creative process

I got this new crochet book 201 crochet motifs, blocks, projects and ideas and it looks nice and shiny. But to make absolutely sure that it in fact is nice and shiny I have started to crochet one of the patterns - lace summer scarf.

The picture above shows parts of the scarf in "creative chaos"... waiting to be connected. Then comes the finishing part.

So far I can say that the pattern has some flaws but once I'm done with the entire project I will write a full review of the book and post it on hook books so don't forget to check back.