Sep 19, 2011

hooker: £10 an hour

today we were at craft central to see the lovely and talented jo angell's pop up shop of her gorgeous and sexy textile designs.  i've already pre-ordered a silk scarf and want more more more of her items, but didn't want to deplete her stock.  the rest of the show was pretty meh, saw some nice crocheted dance slippers - but other than that nothing else that was interesting or inspiring...well, actually it WAS interesting to see how much is being charged for these craft items!

i really really really don't charge enough...
which brings me to another dilemma.

while we were at craft central we saw a sign for crochet classes, and one of my new hooker colleagues asked me why i didn't have my own crochet teaching group...my reply was, well, i have LOADS of stitch groups that i attend.

see, i've been giving up most of my lunchtimes to teach my colleagues to crochet, and we have a great 'house of hooks' collective going now that i've taught them all to make granny squares. they are working up their very own versions of the house of holland scarves...but out of acrylic rather than posh wool...as they are just learners!

then i got thinking...at my lunch groups, my evening groups, other people's evening groups, even my friend gerard's shop groups...basically everywhere i go i tend to get roped into showing someone how to crochet.  in fact, the couple times i've been at a stitch up and NOT taught someone i have actually realised how lovely it is to just chill.

other than not feeling like i can ever just chill out, i've never resented spending my time teaching others to crochet - i love giving the craft more visibility. but now i make limited edition holiday specific items - i don't have time to teach when i need to be hooking...

...unless i start charging.  and then i could offer my time properly, and planned.

so now i'm wondering - if i was to set aside a weekly time to teach, when should it be and is £10 an hour a reasonable amount to charge for my time?

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

£20-£25 is standard for teaching!

cherie... said...

thanks honey!
i'll probably be doing this from home for friends of friends rather than in a venue that i need to rent, so maybe i should charge somewhere in between?

xx