Post-Call

The free time that I used to blog in has been taken up by overnight call and studying for shelf exams. Fortunately, I have managed to carve out enough time to keep crafting and maintaining the Etsy store. Unfortunately, my knitting projects have mostly fallen by the wayside as I've made the journey to more instant-gratification projects. Fortunately, my mother has been taking up my slack on the knitting front (read: helping me chip away at my SABLE) by knitting wonderful things in record time--for instance the gorgeous white cabled sweater above.
She wanted to sell some of her things on the etsy site so I went ahead and listed that sweater as well as a leaf-lace scarf that just sold:

Of course, the selling of my mother's handiwork on the site brings up a number of questions about pricing of handmade goods. Despite her lightning-fast needles, the prices listed for these items would be less than minimum wage for her labor, and I've seen a number (dare I say, the majority) of knitted items on Etsy sell for prices that would barely cover the price of materials. The argument of course that she (and many others) makes is that they enjoy their knitting, that projects can be done while sitting in front of the TV, etc. Also driving these prices is of course the fact that many people/consumers would not pay more than these prices for a handknitted piece.
The bottom line is of course that it's her decision. She set the prices that she felt were fair, and that she would be happy with. But...you see how I might be conflicted still--I don't want to feel that I'm exploiting my own mother!