Maggie writes: << I used to spin much more bulky yarn, taking less time and using more fiber. Now that I spin on a Robin most often, my handspun is much thinner (finer?) using less fiber but taking FOREVER to fill up two big bobbins and plying them.>>
Some people charge by the yard, which is particularly nice if you're spinning singles, then plying them, as *all* the spinning time is accounted for, not just the final yarn. I've heard of spinners being paid (by farms to spin 'their' wool for 'their' sale) US 1 cent per yard when spinning wool roving, making 3 cents per yard for a finished 2 ply yarn. An ounce of 2 ply yarn of about 150 yards/ounce would then be US $4.50, excluding the cost of the fiber. Which works out about right to the other method I've heard of being paid $4/ounce to spin someone else's prepared fiber. Spinning your own fiber, I would at least double the price of the actual spinning, and charge high retail for the fiber, since it was raised for handspinning and is therefore 'better' from a marketing point of view than regular yarn in a store. That would bring an ounce of handpun yarn to about US $11, figuring $9 for the spinning (150 yards) and $2 for the fiber (assuming regular wool roving, nothing fancy in color or texture). At 600 yards an hour, that would be about $44/hour income for plain handspun yarn, from which of course you must subtract your expenses. Of course, this supposes you have educated customers willing to pay for the skill of handspinning :) Holly To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
