Time Trials for Crafters

I have been estimating.  Over and over, people ask, "How long did it take you to make this?"  And I, being the earthbound, factual person I am, make a wild guess.  It isn't that I haven't tried to recreate how long I have spent on items.  I have.  For example, when I price an item, I like to imagine that the price has something to do with the amount of time it took me to make it.  I even hope that I am charging a few dollars an hour for my time.  But honestly, have no idea, not really.  I pick it up and put it down.  I knit a few rows on the bus, in line, while waiting for an appointment, between helping kids with homework, while the coffee brews.  Knitting is marvelous (as compared with machine sewing) because it can be done while watching tv or listening to a lecture.  So, I really don't know.  Do you know how long it takes you?

Well, I have taken up a challenge.  I am timing my projects.  A good friend that has done development work with small crafting cooperatives in Africa told me that he had crafters make the same thing 10 times and time their work.  Then, they all took the averages of their times for that product and averaged them together.  The final average was the time they used when determining a price.  I am not going quite that far.  After all, this is a cooperative of  only one (with a large support staff of family and friends, of course).  I have made a little chart (on paper) with a list of products and four columns: three trials and the average.  Very systematic!

Now I know why I have resisted doing this. First, it is hard.  I have a little notebook where I jot down elapsed times each time I start and stop.  Imagine, you answer the phone, jot.  You check the food, jot.  "Mom!" jot.  Only, of course, I don't wear a watch, so the process is, find a clock, jot.  Annoyed with this non-system, I have begun to do more of my knitting during the quieter, school hours of the day when I have fewer interruptions.

And, I am discovering the second reason why I have resisted doing this.  It is depressing.  My products take me a long time to knit, a good while to felt, and many have very involved sewing/finishing that they require.  Oh well.  I have only just begun and I am simply "gathering data" as another dear friend would say.

All ye crafters out there in the blog-o-sphere, do you or have you ever done time trials?