3 piece set and pricing commissions

Recently a friend of mine showed me this picture and asked:

'Can you make this?'

'Sure, why not?'

I puzzled over the pattern for a few days and once I thought I had it figured out, I bought some super-soft acrylic yarn and set to work.  After a week of leisurely paced knitting, I had this:

Colours were slightly changed as per my friend's request, but otherwise I think I got it pretty close, don't you?

I was promised pictures on a live model but they are slow to materialise, so for now I only have flat (and not so great - apologies!) shots.  I'll be sure to post the pics here as soon as they arrive, and believe you me, the little girl looks adorable in her new clothes!

Flower on the hat is stitched on permanently...

...but the rest are only tied on, so they can be moved around.  On poncho, I placed them to hide the seam but they might look even better elsewhere.

It was my very first attempt at a triangular shawl and as you can see, I don't yet have full control over the angles :).  I didn't bother with writing a chart, I just improvised all the way.  To a degree, the shape was forced by the stitch pattern but there might be a way to get around it.  I quite like the irregular look though, so fighting geometry will be left for another day.

The set was such a success, that I almost got a commission to make another one.  Almost, because eventually the project fell apart over price.  I requested 35 euros (around 6 of which I would have to spend on materials) and to tell you the truth, I think it's a very lousy pay for three days of fairly intensive knitting.  Yet, my prospective client was not prepared to accept the price tag. 

Not that I'm terribly heartbroken.  Knitting the same pattern twice is boring and 30 euro one way or another doesn't make any difference to my budget.  Still, the whole situation got me thinking.  Is it even possible these days to make money knitting?  With workers in Asian sweatshops churning pieces out for pennies and general public simply not giving a crap?  I'm inclined to say 'no', but perhaps you have different experiences?  Please share!

PATTERN:

Improvised from the picture found online (see link above).