I was a bit negligent last night. Well, maybe I should say I was a bit selfish. I spent some quality time on Dot last night when I should have been working on the blanket. I just like the way the dots come out on it. I only have 2 dot rows so far, so it's not like I have finished it or anything. I did figure out that each repeat on the blanket takes me 11-12 minutes to do, at a good clip. (Yes, I was timing myself.) That means the main body of the blanket should take me about 40 hours to complete. Plus the edging, that means that for the amount I have been paid to make it, I am really doing this blanket as charity work.

That brings up a question that I have grappled with in the past that I will pose again. If you are making something to be sold, how do you come up with a price for it? I have been using the 3X the price of the materials logic for most of my stuff. Now, for this blanket, if I were charging that amount, it would be nearly $300 for the blanket in total (as they paid for the materials already, I would only see about $200), and I would be looking at about $4/hour after materials. Now, the materials are not extremely expensive (Tahki Cotton Classic). Which brings up the thought of why should I charge 2X to 5X as much for something made of merino or cashmere than 100% cotton? I mean, I put in the same amount of time, don't I? If the materials are twice as much, should my time cost twice as much? So, my question is, what is the going rate for a knitter's time?

Maybe I am having a hard time with the whole hand knit objects being SOOOO much more than other comperable, mass produced objects. I mean, if my knitting should be paid at $10 per hour, for example, a cotton blanket like the one I am currently working on would cost $450. That seems quite high for a blanket. Yet, should I be short changing myself the cost of my time for the sake of others' frugality? Any thoughts?