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The axiom that a well developed special interest has a market value applies as well to needlework as to science. So if you are bored hanging around the house, if you want to do something useful but don't know just what or how to go about doing something constructive, why not try knitting your way to contentment?

There is money to be made in handknits. Comfortable money—not big money. Truth is always better medicine than a sugar-coated pill so let it be said here in the beginning that marketing a home-produced item involves plenty of trials and tribulations mixed with the pleasure. The road is not an easy one to follow. It takes thought, knowledge, imagination, and hard work to sell what you make at home. The volume of business you do will, of course, depend on the amount of time you can spare from other duties; but whether one or six hours a day is given to your work you must let nothing (not even a family crisis) disturb you.

MY FRIENDS' enthusiasm for the handknits I'd made for years for a foundling hospital made me feel that the items I made had commercial possibilities. So one day I sat down and tried to figure out what steps would have to be taken before I could actually begin to sell handknits. Experience has shown me that the making of an item is the easiest part of the whole approach. Such things as a neat looking label to sew into each item, boxes, announcements, and the all important price tag are the prime factors in whether or not your product sells.

One of the most difficult things for the home worker to comprehend is the question of the price tag. There is no point in spending time and energy and then selling an item at a loss because you don't know how much your cost has actually been. Strict account of your expenses and the time spent in making the item must be kept. When, for instance, you are making baby bootees you must bear in mind that you will make the tenth pair far more quickly than you made the first, so your price tag should be set on the quicker time. Allow something for packaging, too—box, wrapping paper, ribbon, etc. As most of the things I make are gift items, I include a suitable gift card free, with each article. Another thing to take into consideration when setting your price tag is whether you are going to sell directly to customers or whether you are going to place your handmade item in shops. Few shops take less than one-third off the retail price and most shops ask at least 50 percent off the retail price. To the home worker this may seem out of all proportion to the effort and money she has expended; but you must realize that a shopkeeper has to pay rent, salaries, other expenses—so he needs that mark-up.

Fifty to seventy-five cents an hour is about average for homecraft work such as knitting. Your big payment is more likely to be in experience and friendship, in a new sense of functioning usefulness and broadened horizons. A good yardstick to use in setting a price tag is that given out by the New York State Department of Commerce. Once you have a record of your costs and labor, they tell you to add 10 percent in case you ever wish to get wholesale orders, take these total costs and double them. You then have your top retail price.

Next, ask yourself: would I pay this price for an item like this? If you would, your price is probably a fair one. If you think it is expensive, so in all probability will your customers. Then you must go back and see if you can cut your expenses or improve your working time. Never surrender quality to lower your price, though. If you can't reach a suitable price, try making something else. At present I sell bootees for $1.50, mittens for $1.25 and up, infants' sweaters from $4 up. Because of other commitments I can devote only about three hours a day to knitting—yet I average between $50 and $60 a month in profits.

WHAT ARTICLES can you sell? The wise move is to decide on one item—something you make well and enjoy making. You can always add to your line after you have a few good outlets. A unique potholder usually sells readily. And anything for babies. In doing handknitting you can't compete with factory made items either in quantity or price. So make something that is different from machine mades—something that is earmarked "handmade." Remember, too, that success in selling depends not only on skilled workmanship, but on demand for the product turned out. The choice of your item should be made in relation to the needs of the people it will serve. Experience has taught me that the over-all profit on a tiny item far exceeds that on, say, an afghan which takes many weeks to make. So if you are seriously thinking of going into business at home, try doing it with small items—inexpensive in time as well as materials used.

When I started to sell handknits I chose children's mittens for my first selling item. I had made them for years for nieces and nephews and felt I could make them better and faster than I could make anything else. To give the mittens a distinctive touch, I ran a contrasting color yarn through the two cables on the back of the mitten and put two big pompons to match at the wrist. Gradually I added little sweaters to my line—a surplice cardigan has proved to be very popular, perhaps because this style sweater is difficult to find in a manufactured item. Then came bootees! Babies, like time and the tide, go on forever and the demand for something to take to a new baby holds up throughout the year! So I designed my bootees with a gift market in mind. The bootees feature pompon tie strings in place of the customary ribbon ties, and they are packaged in a round transparent plastic box which adds considerably to their appeal.

Just for fun why not follow these directions and see how easy it is to make a pair of bootees?

Using 3-ply baby yarn and No. 2 needles, cast on 37 stitches. Work in Moss Stitch (K 1, P 1, across row and on return row K above the P stitch and P above the K stitch) for 1¼ inches. Rib in K 1, P 1, for 2 inches. Slip first and last 13 stitches on separate holders and work in Moss Stitch on center 11 stitches for 20 rows. Pick up 12 stitches along each side of gusset and pick up 13 stitches from each holder. Work even in Moss Stitch on 61 stitches for 10 rows. Place a marker on center stitch and, still continuing in Moss Stitch, decrease 1 stitch at each end of needle and decrease 1 stitch on each side of center stitch every other row 4 times. Work 2 rows even. Bind off. Now, fold bound-off stitches in half and join for sole of bootee. join sides for back seam. Run a crochet chain about 14 inches long through center of ribbing. Make 4 pompons and fasten to each end of tie-string.

MOST PEOPLE breaking into the selling field, learning to make contacts and handle customers, need more help than they usually get. I was pretty, green when I started out to sell my handknits and maybe my experiences will help other women who are eager to go into business on a "from home" scale.

My first bit of advice to anyone planning on selling any homemade item is this: Be able to meet stiff competition. This comes not only from others as skilled as you are, but from commercial sources able to command hand labor at low cost. Technical skill lies at the base of everything you make. You can never drop or twist a stitch. Anything you make must be finished perfectly, no matter how much extra time it takes. Ignore this, and you lose the touch that marks the difference between an amateur's and a professional's performance.

Once my handknits began selling and were placed in a few stores, I had labels made to sew in each item. These give a professional touch to your work and the cost is very moderate. My labels are white, the name and address woven in green. Cash's (the well-known label manufacturers) has a wide selection of stable two-line labels suitable for business use; and you can buy as few as six dozen at a time. A commercial printer duplicated these labels in paper for me to use on the boxes in which I packaged handknits. As for boxes—these presented something of a problem. I looked through the classified telephone directory and found listed the names of six dealers in boxes. The first four I went to see smiled when I said I wanted two or three dozen boxes, and promptly dismissed me with a "we never sell less than a dozen gross lot!" I wrote a letter to the fifth man and he turned out to be a real friend in need. He did not stock any oblong boxes for sweaters, but he agreed to sell me as few as six dozen round transparent boxes for bootees at a cost of 12 cents each. His boxes proved to be a sound investment, for they have eye-appeal and also keep the bootees fresh and clean. White gift boxes bought at the dime store served for sweaters and mittens until I was well established and could buy boxes in large quantities.

Marketing a home produced item is at first a matter of personal contacts. I am lucky in that I am one of a large family, have a number of in-laws, and they all have a lot of friends. So when I was ready to go into business, I prepared a mailing list and sent out simple announcements, using government postal cards. Such announcements are inexpensive to get out. In the right hand corner I pasted a small baby seal (the kind you use on gift wrappings). This gave the card a bit of color and also suggested the purpose of the announcement. Down in one corner of the card I typed my name and address. Across the middle of the card I typed something like this: "Babies love handknits. Custom handknit pompon bootees are a specialty—attractively gift wrapped for only $1.50!" Prospective customers are often swayed into buying when they see an inviting price tag.

On a Monday morning off went fifty announcements by mail. By the following Monday I had orders for seventeen pairs of bootees! All of which made me confident that something for babies is always in demand.

FILLING THE needs of family and friends is one thing. To attract strangers as customers is a lively game of chance. But I now wanted to take that chance; so I looked around for potential outlets. First, I placed my handknits at a woman's exchange. This type of outlet is the most receptive market for home-produced articles. A woman's exchange operates on a nonprofit making basis, or cooperatively for their members. They are as eager for you to sell quickly as you are to produce. Woman's exchanges exist in practically all cities. There is no national organization—each exchange is run independently but most exchanges pattern their rules after those set by the New York Exchange (founded seventy years ago). Your classified telephone directory, or almost any woman's club will give you the address of the exchange nearest you. Here are a few advantages of selling through an organization like this:

1. You get your item before the public. Things are placed on consignment and if your item doesn't sell within a specified time you must then take it back. Thus you determine what people buy.

2. The aim of woman's exchanges is to help women help themselves. The 20-25 percent markup over your price tag goes toward administrative help.

3. The patrons behind the organization of an exchange are usually women of prominence, who know fine goods and what is a fair price, They compose the "jury" which will pass on your work before it is accepted—give constructive criticism to you if your work has potentialities and yet is not quite up to prevalent selling standards.

4. The exchanges do not demand your exclusive output. You may place your things in other shops at the same time and thus build a reputation for your items.

Having an "in," or a friend who operates a shop, can help a great deal when you are ready for a plunge into commercial channels. It was my good fortune to know the manager of an exclusive specialty shop in New York City and she agreed to take a few of my things. At the time she gave me some advice that has proved invaluable. I pass it on now to you. This friend told me that the most important consideration in selling any handmade item is to choose an item that is unusual—not something that has been done time and time again. Keeping this in mind I have through the years always tried to fashion distinctive handknits.

But you don't have to know a store manager. You can do it on your own. How? Just walk into some shops that carry merchandise of a quality similar to yours. Show a few samples and talk up the special appeal of your item, the quality that will make it sell readily to the type of customer the shop attracts. You'll learn a lot from the reactions of these experienced merchandisers. No matter how unprejudiced your friends say they are—trust outside opinions. Small shopkeepers are keenly interested in an individual idea; and will be grateful to you for bringing an attractive item to their attention. At first, you may have to leave your items on consignment (which means you get paid when they sell); but this is a good way to learn what people want and like.

Another way of finding customers, especially if you live in a small town, is to write up your story briefly, putting in some human interest details such as how you happened to get the idea for the business, and take it to your newspaper editor. You might take him one of your items! If he shows interest in it he is certain to print a little piece about you.

A HOME business of handknits can be built on a piggy-bank scale, for most of the operating costs will be absorbed in usual living expenses. There is no big investment for equipment. No change in the home set-up. All you actually need to get started is some yarn and knitting needles; and these may be purchased in whatever quantities you feel you will need.

You can't do much about cutting down on your costs until you begin producing on a fairly large scale. But once you are sure of a couple of outlets, look around for a wholesale dealer from whom you may buy materials. Study the classified section of your telephone book for the names of a few jobbers who sell the things you use. You can buy limited quantities from these men and save a good bit over the retail price. When you can't get what you want from them, ask your local department stores if they will sell to you at a discount. Tell them you are in business. You may only get 10 percent off; but no matter what it is, it is a saving that will add to your profits at the end of each week.

Inventiveness persistence, and enthusiasm are the prime requisites for any home business. But you also need to be a bookkeeper. Be sure to keep records of all your sales. You may operate on a very small scale and not be concerned with tax problems; but it is nice to know when you are making a profit, and you should know how much your customers buy. So get a small order book at your dime store, or at a stationery store; date every order, specify whether it has been paid for or charged. Note any essential information—such as the color dye lot number of the yarn used, whether the item was sent as a gift to another name and address, the size and price of the item.

Why women fail to sell their handwork can constitute a casebook of what not to do. Based on experience I would cite sloppy workmanship, failure to meet promised datelines, unwillingness to adapt to suggestions of customers, as the principal reasons for the failure of a home business to pay. In putting a handmade item on the market you must follow everyone of a large manufacturer's practices, but on a small scale. Keep improving your item without raising the price, package it attractively, make sure that each item is made to the standard you originally predetermined.

I have found that in selecting an outlet for my handknits, money is not the only consideration. I try to look around for a shop that will bring an item the prestige it deserves, and that will prove to be a stepping stone to broader contacts. Do this and you, too, will find your place in the sun.

There are a number of books to help you toward your goal. Two books you ought to make a point of reading are "How To Make A Home Business Pay," by Julietta K. Arthur, and "How To Make Money At Home," by Polly Webster. Then, too, the Superintendent of Documents, U. S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D. C., issues a number of helpful booklets. Establishing and Operating Your Own Business (25 cents) and Record Keeping for Retail Stores (15 cents) are brimful of suggestions that will make it easier for you to get started in a business enterprise.

AN INTERESTING and highly profitable sideline, developed in connection with my knitting business, is the selling of original designs to women's magazines. Whenever I turn out what seems to me to be a particularly attractive item I send it, with complete instructions for making, to a magazine that carries a section on needlework. And in almost every instance, a sizable check has come back to me for the design. For instance, only the other day I received a check for $25 for a baby sweater made with a fancy yoke. Another magazine paid me $37 for an unusual mitten design!

Yarn manufacturers are in the market for good, free lance designs, too. You will find their names in magazines dealing with the type of models you intend to sell. So if you have a yen to create (and who doesn't) there's no time like now to give it a whirl. Because designing is one-of-a-kind work, you must be able to think up new ideas constantly—you can't sell the same idea more than once. But if you have a flair for working out new patterns, or combining various stitches, you need never worry about running out of ideas. Creativeness is a skill that develops with use. Remember, though, to keep your item basic and simple. As your design will be sold to people who write instructions, it must be an easy design to describe. The original touch must be in an unusual detail.