Hi fellow crafters! I feel like this is something that happens a lot to us, one of my family members asked me to make them something and offered to “pay for the yarn” how should I say - does my time and skill mean nothing to you?! If I’m making this you gotta pay for those too!- in a nice way lol!
Anyone with similar experiences, and how did you guys reply?
I give stuff to my family for free. Unless they insist on paying
Just kindly say something like “I can provide the yarn, and you just need to pay me for the item.” And then when they choose what they want you to make, you can tell them how much it will be. I have definitely had that before and most times I say “I prefer being paid based on how long it takes and how hard it is”
Honestly, it depends on my relationship to the family member and what they are asking for. If it is a small amigurumi and I’m close to them, I would just do it for the yarn. If they want a whole blanket, I would explain how much time and effort it takes and that I would have to charge for labor. If they don’t want to pay then they don’t respect your talent and don’t deserve it 
I don’t really charge them but usually they insist on paying (unless it’s my sister I make her pay, with discount, but she will abuse me making her stuff if I don’t charge). But usually i just give them discount and use my materials (all of my materials have been paid for).
But I would try to explain to them about how your time is taken into account when making an item and pricing it, and it’s not just materials that cost, your skills and time need to be paid for too. It’s also that people who don’t craft or understand this situation, don’t know that this is a job and you are taking time to make the item, and it doesn’t just make itself with materials, you are making it.
Sadly, I have learned to just say no. :(
Tell them that you could get the yarn(if you can) but that they would have to pay the same price as anyone else. You could tell them in a very gentle tone that you have to find time out of your life to crochet it and that you work hard to complete it. If they get defensive or angry tell them that you can’t do it. If so that’s no longer your problem.
Depends on what they want. Maybe if they want something like a keychain you could give it to them, but if they want something like a blanket, if they buy the yarn, tell them it could be their birthday or Christmas present (or whatever you celebrate)
It kind of depends on the nature of the relationship.
But if you’re going to do it, don’t regret it.
If you’re going to regret it, don’t do it.
Maybe just say I already have yarn for it but normally I’d sell for this much
This happened to me recently. What I said was if I use yarn I already have, are they happy to pay $.. for labour? (I still only quoted them what the yarn would have cost, but hopefully they’ll understand from the word “labour” that in future they’d need to cover time as well as materials for any requests that aren’t gifts).
samee
If they supply the yarn, then I just charge for labor. unless it’s something super small