Having been invited to have a stall at the Mayor’s “Festive Craft Fair” at Halifax Town Hall this December, I’ve been knitting lots of little Yorkshire Hobs (see below for information about the place of Yorkshire Hobs in local folklore). My Yorkshire Hobs are to be tree ornaments. My dilemna is, what price should I attempt to sell them at?
I say attempt, because I’m not willing to set a price that I think most folk would be willing to pay for them. I believe most folk would expect to pay between £5 and £10 for tree ornaments because they are used to the low prices that mass manufacture make possible. However, these little chaps take around 4 hours each to make, so in that price range I’d only be making between £1 and £2 an hour for my labour in a country where minimum wage is £9.50 an hour. Instead I’m considering pricing them at £20 each. That would still be only around £5 per hour, and they will probably not sell at that price. However, I’m happy with them not selling; they can go on my tree, and I’m sure I’ll be able to sell the pattern going forwards.
I’ve written the pattern up with 12 different options for the pattern on the hat. It just needs photos and checking by my technical editor before I publish.
Hobs are the name in Yorkshire folklore for helpful little household spirits. Generally they are depicted as wizened and hairy little men, and many readers will be familiar with them in this guise under the more widely used name of “hobgoblin”. However, whereas hobgoblins are generally understood to be wicked, in Yorkshire folklore hobs are often very helpful, albeit easily offended. They inspired Tolkien’s “hobbits” and Rowling’s “house-elves”.
From Wikipedia:
“Hobs are generally considered household spirits, who preferred to be about at night. Hobs were not tied to a particular place, but seemed to come and go as they chose. A hob would help the farmer in the field or the shopkeeper in his store. The householder had to be careful in dealing with a hob, so as not to offend it. If a farmer were to speak poorly of a hob on his farm, the hob might retaliate by breaking dishes and turning loose livestock. Most importantly, a hob must not be given a gift of clothing, as this would be greatly resented and might cause a helpful hob to leave immediately. This was said to have happened at Sturfit Hall in Yorkshire, where the well-meaning family left a small hat and cloak for their helpful hob; however, when he encountered the gift, he exclaimed “Ha! a cap and a hood, / Hob’ll never do mair good!” and was never seen again. Another Yorkshire hob, this one at Hart Hall, refused with a warning when offered a work shirt: “Gin Hob mun hae nowght but a hardin’ hamp, / He’ll come nae mair nowther to berry nor stamp.”
Various places in Yorkshire are associated with hobs, including a number of “hob holes”, these being caves and creeks in which local lore tells us they lived.
