Saturday, July 5, 2008

Rose Colored Glasses

Here's what I'm working on now:

Won't that make a lovely yarn when plied together? (I am already in the process of plying them, which is why I haven't taken them out into the sunshine for a more clear/accurate photo)
The singles on the left is merino, and the one on the right is 70/30 merino silk - I used flash here, so the happy shiny factor of the silk is rather excessively played up, but you get the idea.

So far, I've got one whole skein of yarn ready to sell on Etsy - eventually. And this rosy lovely will be ready to set and dry soon. When I have a few more skeins, I will list them all at once...

The delay will hopefully inspire me with some idea as to how to price them, since at the moment the prices I see listed elsewhere for handspun yarn seem entirely random. I'm certain that they're not, but I haven't yet puzzled out a discernible pattern. Some skeins seem incredibly cheap, and others are priced high enough that I marvel that anyone could possibly afford (or want) to spend that much on a single skein - and as often as not I see both types of pricing being used by the same spinner/seller. And neither seems to determine whether a particular skein sells or not.

Of course some of the price difference has to do with the type of materials used - merino/silk is probably going to price a bit higher than corriedale. But from what I can tell, this sometimes has a relatively minor role in pricing, compared to other mysterious considerations. Yardage and weight, of course, have some bearing - but again, they don't seem an entirely reliable deciding factor.

Now, I KNOW that these people are not just pricing things randomly - so what is going on?
Advice from experienced others will be received very gratefully!

2 comments:

mrspao said...

That is going to be such beautiful yarn!

timary said...

Yes, it will be beautiful! I'll be watching your etsy store for it... :)