Anyone make money on the side by knitting?

[malificent7]

I plan to start knitting accessories...hats, scalfes, bags etc.

Perhaps branching out to jumpers.

If you do make a bit extra, how do you do it?

You will struggle to cover your costs let alone actually make any money. The only things I've ever seen sell are made with a loose knit and thick wool and are basic, like scarves. Beyond that, people aren't prepared to pay the price.

I think you'd have to go for handicrafts.

My friend handknits and sells quite a bit. I think you've got to love doing it, it's hard to make a good profit. She sells hats for £35 so not a big money maker. I guess if you're happy to use a machine rather than hand knit you could make more per hour.

Ive sold a few baby blankets. But I tend to get them to buy the wool or at least choose it and pay for it before I start. Some people have no Idea at all about costs and then of course they have to pay for the item on top.

It takes me an hour or two to make a hat. It is purely pocket money.I'd sell a hat for £10/15 only.

I think you will really struggle to make money from knitting, too few people nowadays are prepared to pay the price for the wool and time and effort someone’s gone to. I personally love knitted stuff but I only like modern patterns, I’ve have baby cardigans knitted for me, a receiving blanket and beanie hats, they’ve were gifted to me and I bought the wool and buttons etc, had they been made by someone trying to make a business out of it I’m sure the blanket Alone would of been £80-100 due to the design and size and sadly most will not pay that amount.
Things that I’ve seen that are knitted and seem to do well are-children’s Soft Toys, popular ones like fireman sam/teletubbies/postman pat/night garden etc

baby bootees(modern looking) seem to sell well and are (I’m told) relatively quick and easy to knit, I bought some for dd when she was born last year and paid about £6 for the one pair of knitted booties (fairly plain with turn over tops and a wooden button the side)

Baby blankets- rainbow designs with funky modern looking wool seem to sell well

I must admit apart from scarves/gloves I never really notice people wearing hand knitted garments much these days, I do believe the market is more in baby items

I found this through another site, worth looking into what it is? www.lochnessknitfest.com

I’ve found there’s really only money in using natural fibres for baby knits, anything else just isn’t worth the effort.

Do not make branded soft toys as mentioned above. It is illegal to copy the designs and sell them and you run the risk of being sued. Disney in particular have been known to take legal action over copyright against small time sellers.
Do not make items for babies and young children with things like buttons on without getting them CE certified. All it takes is for something to come loose and the child puts it in their mouth and you've got a lawsuit waiting to happen.

I bought a blanket from a woman at a craft fair. It had taken her a week to weave it, and was selling it for £35. I told her she was under-pricing herself but she said that no-one would pay cost of wool + minimum wage for the hours she'd worked so her options were underprice herself or not sell.

Selling a knitted hat for £10 either involves very cheap wool or you essentially giving money to someone else, as the customer would pay less than it cost you to make it.

Crochet tends to grow more quickly than knitting so may be more cost effective in terms of time it takes to produce an item, if you can do both.

I just rekon if i am only spending £2.50 on a ball of wool and i can make 2 hats in 2 hours then £10 per hat is ok. I knit in ftont of TV...dosnt feel like work at all! Just pocket money! Xx

I should add that 100 g ball of wool makes 2 adult hats

This is the kind of thing you are competing with
www.etsy.com/uk/listing/491950856/hand-knitted-hat
Once you've taken your cost of wool, postage and packaging, seller fees and payment fees off you're left with pennies. That isn't taking into consideration if one goes missing in the post or if a buyer decides to return one (and yes you must accept returns as you will be a business seller).
I think you will struggle to sell them for £10 each, looking at what else is out there.

Funny, I was thinking about this the other day. I think there is a market for knitted guernseys or such like for fishermen etc. I can’t seem to find a really good quality one, made in a traditional way from wool that is thick enough to keep the wind out.

I would use one for under a wax jacket or on its own whilst in the countryside, fishing (both sea and fly) or other activities.

How much would I pay? Dunno, but I pay £300 for a jacket and I expect it to last 10-15 years. A jumper? £120 to £150? But it would need to last.

I have been selling on Etsy for years (not knitted goods).
As others have said, avoid toys unless you are interested in CE marking what you make. Do not do anything with characters on like TV shows, that is illegal. Sure, other people do it but there are potentially large fines etc.
There is a market for nicely presented luxury baby goods. Use good quality yarn and try to present your work in the best possible way through excellent photographs, presentation etc. There are plenty of free sites giving advice on this. Don't worry about the cheapo sellers, your best bet is to appeal to the high end customers who are into genuine handknits. These exist. Pricing cheaply is a temptation but actually puts off the customers you want to attract. Seems weird but it's true!
Also, baby clothes and functional blankets don't need CE testing, just items for play.

This is what you want Flyingflipflop - www.guernseywoollens.com DH is in the RNLI and this is what the crew wear.

For a hand knitted jumper like these Ganseys you are looking at £350. Machine knitted ones are cheaper.

Precisely!! I’m ex RNLI and mine wore out!!! I shall order some!

I do think there is a market for them though, especially if you look at the fishing and hunting communities who are willing to pay for really good quality.

I’m all made up that I can get a new one! Thank you!

I knit something quite specialised (along the lines of fisherman's pullovers). I make a little money out of it, may be £20 an item. You will have a massively competitive market selling hats etc, the market is saturated and people won't pay the price you want when they can buy one on the high street for a couple of pounds.

Ha! How funny. DH also has one for 'personal' use and he is pretty much constantly wearing either the RNLI one or his own one throughout the winter.

Make dolls clothes?

We looked at buying clothes for DDs 18 inch doll for Christmas and each outfit was about 15 quid and really crap.

Luckily we have a good friend who knits and I sent her a pattern book from which she made about 20 outfits which are beautiful.

We found a couple of sellers on Etsy but it seems very limited and expensive. Because they are small, not too much wool which is so expensive now.

Might be worth researching?

They’re great! As MrsPestilence pointed out the garneys, although £350 plus they’re worth it. If I got one for Christmas, I’d be absolutely made up.

At the risk of sounding really sexist, 20 years ago I would of asked my mum to knit one. Nowadays, I don’t know anyone with that skill.

Plus, ask your knitting shop. They one in my mum's village provides the wool and pattern and then pays per item which they then sell in the shop

Is it really wool for £2.50? That sounds more like The price of something synthetic. If someone wants a synthetic hat they can get one at Primark, Tesco etc quite easily and even cheaper than your price - and they can try it on first

I'm not sure who you see your competitors as, but even as a hobby you'll have some.

And the time it takes you to knit one in front of the TV is not the time it takes you to sell one. For that you need to add in photography (DIY is fine but if you don't do it decently you'll never sell anything - so that takes a bit of time), then uploading and updating website/page, making sure your page/site is visible, writing descriptions, responding to inquiries, taking it to the post office etc. Point being that if you're doing it for pocket money, you might end up doing a lot more than just knitting in front of the TV and by the time you calculate all that in, it won't be £17/hr (2X€10 hats per hour minus £3 ball of wool). Or anywhere near it. And it will eat into whatever time you have when you're not watching TV.