Originally posted 2009-01-16 18:03:00. Republished by Blog Post Promoter
Being affordable means different things to different people. I, for one, walk around with relative prices of things in my head. If gas is over $1.50 a gallon I think about where I drive, over $3.00 and I turn my car off in the drive-thru line.
Recently I was doing some research about needlepoint and what people searched for on the Internet. One common search was for “affordable needlepoint.”
To me affordability has a price, it’s $25. If a canvas or a kit is under that and I like it, most of the time I will buy it, even on impulse. Over that and I think about it.
An Elizabeth Bradley kit is expensive, but is it affordable when you factor in the cost of the wool?
I don’t know.
But I’d love to hear you opinion, what makes needlepoint affordable to you?
If a kit costs x and only has partial skeins of thread is that OK? If it costs x + y and has full skeins of thread are you more likely to buy it?
Let me know, I’m really interested in this question.
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When considering a needlepoint purchase I try to determine how many hours of stitching pleasure I will get for the price. A very large or very intricate pattern that costs $100 but will take over 100 hours of to complete is a better value than a simple $25 kit that I can stitch in a day or two. Also I would consider the quality of the threads. Mass market kits with thin threads are no bargain no matter what the price.
I think affordability is one of those relative terms that moves up and down on a scale somewhere.
When I first started stitching, when my husband and I were first married, I started with cross stitch. One of the reasons I did, was that it was relatively easy and the other was that it was inexpensive. I was in law school at the time, and not working at a wage paying job, so we had to get by on my husband’s salary and buy books and make tuition payments and make the house payment. So x-stitch was exactly what I needed.
After I got out of law school and my husband and I were both working, I could afford to spend more on projects. I remember I use to love those Shepherds Bush Gatherer kits, though for x-stitch, they were kind of pricey.
When I made the move to needlepoint, I started with geometric pieces. I did Carole Lake’s Santa Fe Steps and liked it because it was not only beautiful but it was relatively inexpensive; canvas, a skein of Watercoulors and a spool of Kreinik braid. Probably more expensive than I paid for my first cross stitch project which was aida fabric, a free DMC pattern and floss at 10 for a $1 or something equally low.
Now that I’ve begun doing more painted canvas, I just know if I want to do something, it’s going to cost a whole bunch of money. However, I find I don’t buy as much stash stuff as I did when I was doing the less expensive x-stitch. So maybe I’m using my stitching dollars more wisely than I once did.
I guess I’m not sure what my point is here, except that expensive thing seems to move around in time depending on what’s going on in my life.