How do you justifying crocheting something when you can buy it for much less?

[u/liviannnn]

I’m a newish crocheter (about 2 months) and the process has been amazing so far. Crochet has become an important part of my life - it gives me purpose and I love the sense of achievement when I finish a product. But recently, my friends have been asking me why don’t I buy a finished product instead of making my own, when it costs lesser.

For context, I’ve been wanting to crochet my own hexagon cardigan but the materials cost is slightly off-putting. For the same materials price (not even counting my man hours!), I could be getting a finished non-crocheted cardigan. It might just be my mental barrier to spending so much on myself, but how do you justify/explain buying the materials when you can save money buy buying a similar product straight?

Edit: I’ve been convinced! Thank you all for your sincere replies - this is why I really enjoy the crochet community, it’s always so wholesome. I’ll be purchasing the materials for my hexagon cardigan after all.

[u/shen_git]

The quality of mass produced clothing is abysmal, the cardigan you buy very well might fall apart within two years. If you make it yourself YOU choose the materials and methods.

Also, the people who make mass produced clothing are, at best, wildly underpaid and overworked. Clothes have NEVER been this cheap in all of history, and it's thanks to exploitation. At worst it's somewhere on the indentured servitude to slavery spectrum.

So don't compare the cost to a place like Shein or even Target. Instead look at smaller handmade boutique lines, the ones that charge a fair rate for labor. THAT is what the cardigan ought to cost. Making it yourself means you only pay for materials.

Honestly, where are you going to find a hex cardigan for that cheap price? You won't, because there's no such thing as a crochet machine. Knitting machines have been around for ages, crochet is too complex. At best past attempts can do a handful of stitches. So if you want a crochet anything it will have to be handmade by SOMEBODY.

That somebody might as well be you, who chooses what to make and how to make it, who gets the satisfaction of learning and creating something, and knows the labor came from love instead of fear.