"Wow, that's really great, make me one!"

[hyper_azn_girl]

I just learned how to knit and i have only made a scarf. I was looking on the internet and I couldn't find anything that I wanted to make, but i wanted to knit. My friend wants me to make her fingerless gloves that are striped like the spirited gloves on gaia, so I am making hers for free (plus she has a ton of yarn that no one uses at her house and she said that i could take as much as i want whee )  

[Silver Mist]

I sometimes get asked by friends to make them stuff, but I only do it if they pay for at least the supplies. I've been amking scarfs like crazy ately because it helps calm my nerves. So those I'm doing for free, on the condition I get to take as long as I feel like taking and they pay for the yarn.

The request I get most often is for corsets. My offer now is, "Sure. It'll take up to three months, and you have to come with on the shopping trip. You pay for all supplies, bones and grommets included, and you pay me $100 for labor." When they hear supplies run at up to $75 per corset, they normally go away, or admit they dont have that kinda of money and leave me alone. For strangers, my cost for labor on a corset is normally up to $200. Those things can be a b***h. And the larger a person is (no offense, but in corsets, every inch bigger a waist is is another 20-30 minutes worth of work past about 30 inches), the more I charge. Same for women with odd figures. (I started corset making because my chest and waist are so far off in size, making me corsets is a huge pain).  

[Kanhoro]

i usualy make a huge legal loking order form with a long legal sounding area that i typed for them, if they really wanted it they would do it( so far only 3) and a teacher asked for a poncho for her mother as a bday present one time, she was very nice and stuff but that poncho that i did was a bit small bc of the time it needed to take to do it.. but it stil had nice stripes..  

[Story From The Stars]

Luckily for me people dont' really ask me to do stuff, but that's mostly because they see me working on something all the time so they know I'm too busy.
On top of that most of my friends are afraid of me getting mad for asking them. People seem to think I have anger issues. whee
But when they do it's usually a close friend, so I'll tell them sure, as long as they don't care what color so that I can use up stash yarn. Otherwise they have to pay for supplies.
And my dad wants me to make him an afghan. I told him ok as long as he buys ALL of my supplies, and I think I'm gonna ask him to pay me for it, since I don't get paid for chores or anything else.  

[sparklingbutterfly]

Zahra Ovaci

So, when did demands of work become a standard conversation starter? I recently got a new staff worker semi-supervisor at work, and I had just finished a lace shawl that took me three months to make, so I was showing it off. Everyone else in the office (who've seen me dragging the yellow beast around since thanksgiving) complimented me, but the new lady started giving telling me how much she'd like a stole, and started giving me the details for it and asking how long it would take! I mean, is it me, or is a staff working asking that of a student wildly innapropriate? I laughed and told her I don't knit for anyone outside my family (LIE!), but since it would take me three months she was more than welcome to give me three months salary ($1200; I'm poor) for one.

Has anyone else ever had people start asking you to make things with no idea of the kind of work that goes into it? What do you do when that happens?

if someone said that too me and i didn't know them i think i would have to freak-out! that is disgustingly rude!  

[AriRashkae]

I agreed to make another Mario afghan for only $50 for one of my husband's friends, but I also made it quite clear it was only because I had almost all the yarn I needed left over from making the forst one (which was a gift). I also told him that it took several months to make when I worked on it every day, and I expected payment on delivery, or we had a new afghan for our bed.

If I was to go buy materials and get compensated for my time, I'd probably ask at least $200-$300. For cheap acrylic. And only that little because I spend a lot of time visiting my grandmother, and need something to do with my hands. xp  

[Chibi Kiku-chan]

I don't know how to knit (Though I would really like to learn), but I can sew, and I'm going to learn cross-stitching (Or was it needle point?). All I really sew are Kitty Head things, but I've managed to make 2 bunnies (I tried 4, but only 2 survived) and friends like the kitties so they ask me to make them for them, and I say sure, but I make it on my watch since I don't charge anything and whatnot (My fabric stash doesn't shrink easily, my mother usually buys me fabric remnants which last me a while, she bought me 4 half yards of different colors of fleece to make gifts for friends for Christmas, and my grandmother just gave me a huge bag filled with fabrics) but if I were to make one for someone I didn't know well or really at all, I'd probably charge some money. (For some reason, people like the kitty thing, lol, I used it as my item to sell for Market Day in my World History Class, and I had 15 up for sale, and they sold quickly, though they were sold w/ Charlie Bucks, not real cash, but I did win most creative, lol)  

[Maer^ier]

The same thing happened to me with the duct tape shoes. The cheerleaders and preppies were all gathered around my lunch table [[which is dark due to the amount of black worn by my friends that gradually sucks the light right out of the bulbs in the ceiling]] telling me they wanted them in black, or pink, or red even though they normally wouldn't dream of talking to a geek like me. I finally told them it'd be $20 a pair, which is good for me. They only take about 15 minutes to make.

The cheerleaders left.  

[kochi~mochi]

Maer^ier

The same thing happened to me with the duct tape shoes. The cheerleaders and preppies were all gathered around my lunch table [[which is dark due to the amount of black worn by my friends that gradually sucks the light right out of the bulbs in the ceiling]] telling me they wanted them in black, or pink, or red even though they normally wouldn't dream of talking to a geek like me. I finally told them it'd be $20 a pair, which is good for me. They only take about 15 minutes to make.

The cheerleaders left.

don't you love how they'll pay three times that for a pair of shoes, but when they go to the unpopular kids they expect to get it for free? rolleyes  

[gemini6184]

kochi~mochi

Maer^ier

The same thing happened to me with the duct tape shoes. The cheerleaders and preppies were all gathered around my lunch table [[which is dark due to the amount of black worn by my friends that gradually sucks the light right out of the bulbs in the ceiling]] telling me they wanted them in black, or pink, or red even though they normally wouldn't dream of talking to a geek like me. I finally told them it'd be $20 a pair, which is good for me. They only take about 15 minutes to make.

The cheerleaders left.

don't you love how they'll pay three times that for a pair of shoes, but when they go to the unpopular kids they expect to get it for free? rolleyes

its like they think you should be grateful theyre just talking to you stressed  

[kochi~mochi]

gemini6184

kochi~mochi

Maer^ier

The same thing happened to me with the duct tape shoes. The cheerleaders and preppies were all gathered around my lunch table [[which is dark due to the amount of black worn by my friends that gradually sucks the light right out of the bulbs in the ceiling]] telling me they wanted them in black, or pink, or red even though they normally wouldn't dream of talking to a geek like me. I finally told them it'd be $20 a pair, which is good for me. They only take about 15 minutes to make.

The cheerleaders left.

don't you love how they'll pay three times that for a pair of shoes, but when they go to the unpopular kids they expect to get it for free? rolleyes

its like they think you should be grateful theyre just talking to you stressed

and most the time we're extremely un-grateful, due to the fact that we don't like them. mad D  

[pheonixearth]

Peppermint Elf

Best thing to do is offer to teach them how to make their own. If that doesn't work, tell them you knit for your own enjoyment and not theirs.

I knit at work, but the good thing was.... almost every girl who worked there ALSO knit/crocheted! So I never got asked at all! mrgreen (We all admired each others work, talked about yarn, asked about patterns and such on break. It was fun to have 3-4 girls sitting in the break room all knitting/crocheting and talking about it. heart )

I already "tried" to teach one of my friends. She is impatient, so she either she tried to take it all in at once, or she just complained. It got really nerve racking, and then her little brother asked me to teach him. I immeadiatly said no... I would rather do it for someone than teach them and go through every little bit with them. Actually, I'd rather do neither.  

[gemini6184]

pheonixearth

Peppermint Elf

Best thing to do is offer to teach them how to make their own. If that doesn't work, tell them you knit for your own enjoyment and not theirs.

I knit at work, but the good thing was.... almost every girl who worked there ALSO knit/crocheted! So I never got asked at all! mrgreen (We all admired each others work, talked about yarn, asked about patterns and such on break. It was fun to have 3-4 girls sitting in the break room all knitting/crocheting and talking about it. heart )

I already "tried" to teach one of my friends. She is impatient, so she either she tried to take it all in at once, or she just complained. It got really nerve racking, and then her little brother asked me to teach him. I immeadiatly said no... I would rather do it for someone than teach them and go through every little bit with them. Actually, I'd rather do neither.

i think the point of teaching someone is so that they appreciate the work that goes into it 3nodding someone at my work was talking about wanting to learn so i offered to show her. and my RA wants me to teach her too, we just never have free time that matches up sweatdrop  

[Annchen]

I got sock yarn, dpns and a bunch of other knitting stuff from my boyfriends father for christmas. He has hinted that he'd like a pair of socks for next christmas. My boyfriend also asked me for socks so we went to the yarn store to find a nice yarn, but he had to pay for it.

I don't mind making things for family, since I'll make it in my own time. They pay for the materials too so I can't really complain.

If someone else suddenly demanded socks or anything else for that matter I'd probably be pissed off but it's all about how they ask. A demanding person will make me defensive and in a bad mood. A friend who is asking nicely and offering to pay or buy yarn will probably get free socks for their birthday 3nodding  

[Silvander]

For friends, I will gladly wield my hooks/needles for gifts or simple cost of the materials. For family, they're paying for the materials darnit. I don't like them that much.

People who demand knitting get stabbed with the needles. It's rude to demand anything, especially something that time consuming. People who I don't know who ask nicely get charged materials and whatever I decide to give myself an hour, usually rounded up to the nearest dollar amount ending in 5 or 0. Of course, I'm nice enough that the longer I expect to take on something, the less likely I am to charge 15 an hour, tho I honestly would not go below 8 an hour. It's not worth it for something I don't get to keep and molest *shifty eyes*