Pricing Handspun Yarns

Article by Teresa Simons

 

Hand spinners invariably spin up too much yarn for their own use.  So, what do we do with the yarn after we have saturated all the knitters and crocheters in our family?  We think about selling the handspun yarn.  The first thing most hand spinners want to know, when they think about selling their yarn, is how much do I charge for it?  There is no easy rule of established price to follow.  There a lot of hand spinners out there that charge anywhere for a few dollars for a 4 ounce skein to several dollars an ounce.  How do you know who is right?  Is it the person that is selling their yarns cheaply all the time, or the person who sells an occasional skein of higher priced yarn, correct?  I will attempt to answer the pricing question in this article.  Remember, these are guidelines and not rules.  I have been spinning for about 20 years and selling my yarns for almost as long. This question of pricing handspun yarns has been going on for longer than that.

 

Here’s how I price my yarns, I go by several factors in pricing the yarn: first I consider the grist (yyp) then the type of fiber. For wool 2 ply worsted I figure 10 cents a yard, 3 ply worsted 12 cents a yard.  For finer yarns that are 3 ply 15 cents a yard.  On exotic fibers a double the cost of the fiber (i.e. Qiviut or cashmere) and then for a fine 3 ply figure 20 cents a yard.  Total up the yardage of the one ounce, say 150 yds of 3 ply cashmere, would be 24 plus 30 for a total of 54 dollars for the ounce skein.  And, yes I do get those kind of prices for my handspun.

 

Now, that covers regular yarns, but what about bulky yarns?  Bulky yarns take less time to spin, but they can have as little as 100 or so yarns to the pound.  What I do with bulky yarns is take the cost of the fiber, say a nice roving has cost you two dollars per ounce retail.  Then you can triple that price and price the yarn at $6.00 per ounce.  Again, when you start to think about the total cost of a pound of the bulky yarn, you think, that’s $96.00 per pound!  Yes, that is correct!  I sell yarns in my shop and I just got in some bulky spun yarns that are 100 grams (3.5 oz.) and the retail price is $21.50 per skein.  Nothing special about the yarns, except they are lightly spun so the knitter can knit projects that require felting on large needles.  This is a popular yarn in the shop.  For novelty yarns, I figure the price of the materials doubled plus ten cents a yard to cover my spinning time.

 

The next question you will have after pricing your yarns is where do I sell my handspun yarns?  Today, many spinners are selling their yarns on eBay, in their own etsy.com store and on their web sites.  There are other places to sell your yarns besides the internet.  I do many spinning demonstrations and since I am donating my time or charging a nominal fee when I spin at an event, I always ask if I may bring a basket of priced hand spun yarns to sell.  The answer is usually yes. 

 

Another outlet that is often overlooked is your local yarn shop.  Most yarn shops will take your yarn in on consignment, and expect to pay a consignment fee of up to 40% for this, as the yarn shop wants to make money also.  If you do plan on selling to yarn shops, you can also adjust your prices up by about 20% to cover some of the consignment fees.  To sell to a yarn shop, you should meet the owner, show them your yarns, and ask how much of each yarn they need before they will consider selling it in their shop for you.  When presenting your yarn to the owner, make sure your skeins are neatly tied and twisted.  Make sure you have a tag on them with the fiber content and yardage and a weight.  Most yarn shops would like at least a pound of the same yarn spun for sale, as they want to have enough for a customer to make a multiple skein project out of that particular yarn.  Also, let the store owner know if you can do more of a particular yarn in case a customer runs short and needs more.  Tell the yarn shop owner that you would be willing to bring your spinning wheel sometime and sit and spin for them in their shop.  This will help create an interest in your yarns with their customers.

 

I hope this short article has answered some of your questions.   

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Teresa Simons has a business, Mountain Shadow Ranch, located in Creswell, Oregon.  For more information check her web site, and her eBay store.