How to Price Crochet Items to Sell (Formulas, Examples & a Free Calculator)

“How do I price my crochet so I make money, but my customers don’t have to pay crazy prices?”

It’s the question I get asked most as a crochet business coach. So before we start, take a deep breath with me. In through your nose… and out through your mouth.

Pricing feels scary because it feels personal. But it doesn’t have to be a guessing game. By the end of this post, you’ll have a simple formula, three ways to measure your work (by the hour, by the stitch, or by the yard), and real examples you can copy.

Want the math done for you? Grab my free Handmade Product Pricing Calculator. It prices by time, stitches, or yardage.

The quick answer: Add up your supplies, your labor, and a small share of your business expenses. Multiply that by 1.75 for your retail price, or by 1.3 for your wholesale price. That’s what I call the Balanced Method:

(Supplies + Labor + Business Expenses) × 1.75 = Retail Price (Supplies + Labor + Business Expenses) × 1.3 = Wholesale Price

WATCH ON YOUTUBE

What Goes Into the Cost of a Crochet Item?

Every crochet item you sell has four costs built into it. Most underpriced crochet is missing at least two of them.

1. Supplies. Yarn, plus everything else that goes into the piece: stuffing, safety eyes, buttons, labels, tags, and the pattern itself if you bought one. (Selling items made from someone else’s pattern? Check this first: Can You Sell Crochet Items Made from Someone Else’s Pattern?)

2. Labor. Your time and skill. In this post, I use $15 an hour in every example. That’s a reasonable, relatable starting point for a lot of makers, but it’s not a rule. Choose a number that reflects your skill and your local cost of living, and adjust it as your business grows.

3. Business expenses. This is the one almost everyone forgets. It’s everything you spend to run the business, not to make the item: your website, Etsy or Shopify fees, shipping supplies, booth fees, software, marketing, and so on.

Here’s the simple way to find your number: add up last year’s business expenses and divide by the number of items you sold. That gives you a per-item cost. For me, it usually comes out to about $3 per item, so that’s what I use in the examples below. If you’re just starting out, make your best estimate and update it once you have a year of real numbers.

4. Profit. Profit is not the same as paying yourself. Your labor pays you. Profit is what your business earns, so it can grow, handle a slow month, replace a worn-out hook, or one day pay someone to help you. Without it, you have a job you’re paying to do.

Common Crochet Pricing Formulas (and Why They Fall Short)

Before I show you the method I use, let’s look at the three formulas you’ll see most often online. We’ll test each one on two products:

• A baby hat: $3 in yarn, 1 hour to make
• A lacy beach coverup skirt: $8 in yarn, 4 hours to make

Both use $15/hour for labor and $3 per item for business expenses.

1. The Ridiculous Method (“3x Supplies”)

Supplies × 3 = Price

Baby hat: $3 × 3 = $9 Beach coverup: $8 × 3 = $24

I almost don’t want to spend time on this one. That $9 hat pays you $6 for an hour of work, and nothing at all for your business expenses or profit. If you price this way, you’ll be busy, exhausted, and broke. Let’s not even consider it.

2. The Conventional Method

Supplies + Labor = Wholesale Price Wholesale × 2 = Retail Price

Baby hat: $3 + $15 = $18 wholesale, $36 retail Beach coverup: $8 + $60 = $68 wholesale, $136 retail

This is the most common formula on the internet, and it’s much better than 3x. But look closely at that wholesale price. It covers your yarn and your time, and that’s it. Every wholesale order costs you your business expenses, with zero profit. The more wholesale you do, the faster you lose money.

3. The Profit-Minded Method

(Supplies + Labor + Business Expenses) × 1.5 = Wholesale Price Wholesale × 2 = Retail Price

Baby hat: $21 × 1.5 = $31.50 wholesale, $63 retail Beach coverup: $71 × 1.5 = $106.50 wholesale, $213 retail

This method covers everything that matters, and the most profitable crochet businesses use something like it. But unless you’ve built a well-known boutique brand, a $63 baby hat is likely to sit on your table collecting dust. And unsold inventory doesn’t pay anybody.

Side by side

Method	Baby hat (retail)	Beach coverup (retail)	The catch
Ridiculous (3x supplies)	$9	$24	Barely pays you; no expenses, no profit
Conventional	$36	$136	Wholesale price loses money
Profit-Minded	$63	$213	Too high for most markets
Balanced (below)	$36.75	$124.25	Covers everything and stays sellable

No wonder crochet prices are all over the place. Everyone’s using a different formula.

The Balanced Method: How I Price My Crochet

Here’s the formula I’ve used for years, including when Made with a Twist had an assistant and 20 contract crocheters during the messy bun hat craze. It still made a profit, and it still sold.

(Supplies + Labor + Business Expenses) × 1.3 = Wholesale Price (a 30% markup) (Supplies + Labor + Business Expenses) × 1.75 = Retail Price (a 75% markup)

Baby hat: $3 + $15 + $3 = $21

• Wholesale: $21 × 1.3 = $27.30
• Retail: $21 × 1.75 = $36.75 (I’d round to $36 or $38, whichever fits your shop)

Beach coverup: $8 + $60 + $3 = $71

• Wholesale: $71 × 1.3 = $92.30
• Retail: $71 × 1.75 = $124.25 (round to $124 or $125)

Notice the retail price for the hat lands right around the Conventional Method’s. The real difference is underneath: every Balanced price, wholesale and retail, pays you for your time, covers your business expenses, and leaves profit for your business. That’s what keeps a crochet business going for years instead of months.

The Problem with Pricing by the Hour (Especially If You Crochet Slowly)

Here’s a question I hear all the time: “How do I price by the hour when I crochet slowly?”

It’s a great question, because it points to the one weak spot in hourly pricing. Watch what happens when three crocheters make the exact same baby hat using the Balanced Method at $15/hour:

Crocheter	Time to make the hat	Labor	Retail price
Fast	40 minutes	$10	$28.00
Steady	1 hour	$15	$36.75
Slower	2 hours	$30	$63.00

Same yarn. Same hat. Same customer. Three very different prices.

From your customer’s side of the table, that doesn’t make sense. She’s buying a hat, not an hour of your time. She won’t pay $63 for a hat she can buy from the next booth over for $36, no matter how carefully it was made.

So if you’re a slower crocheter, hourly pricing can push you right out of your market. And if you’re a fast crocheter, it actually punishes you for being good at what you do.

The fix is to price the item, not your speed. Instead of measuring your labor in hours, measure it in something that stays the same no matter who’s holding the hook: stitches or yards.

There’s no shame in crocheting slowly, by the way. It’s just information. Your speed should affect how much you earn per hour, not how much your customer pays.

How to Price Crochet by Stitch Count

Pricing by stitch count means paying yourself a set amount for every stitch in the piece. The bigger or more detailed the item, the more stitches, and the more it costs. Fair and consistent.

Step 1: Pick a standard pace

Many crocheters work somewhere between 15 and 35 stitches a minute, depending on experience, the stitch, and the yarn. I use 20 stitches per minute as a steady, middle-of-the-road benchmark. That’s 1,200 stitches an hour.

Step 2: Find your rate per stitch

Hourly rate ÷ stitches per hour = rate per stitch

$15 ÷ 1,200 = $0.0125 per stitch (that’s $1.25 for every 100 stitches)

Step 3: Count the stitches in your item

Your pattern may list stitch counts at the end of each row or round. Add them up. If it doesn’t, count a few rows and multiply.

Example: Our baby hat has about 1,200 stitches.

1,200 stitches × $0.0125 = $15 labor

From here, it’s the Balanced Method as usual: $3 supplies + $15 labor + $3 expenses = $21. Retail is $36.75.

Here’s the beautiful part. That price is the same whether the hat took you 40 minutes or two hours. Your customer pays a fair price for the hat. And as you make that hat again and again and naturally get faster, your hourly earnings go up while your price stays steady and competitive.

What about bobbles, puffs, and other fancy stitches?

Some stitches take a lot longer than others. A bobble made of five double crochets is much more work than one single crochet. So count each special stitch by how many stitches it’s really made of:

• A 5-dc bobble or popcorn = 5 stitches
• A 3-dc cluster = 3 stitches
• Simple sc, hdc, and dc = 1 stitch each

Colorwork, tight amigurumi, and fine thread take more time and care, too. Add a little extra for those pieces, or set a slightly higher rate per stitch for them.

How to Price Crochet by Yardage

If counting stitches makes your eyes cross, pricing by yardage is a simpler option. Instead of paying yourself per stitch, you pay yourself per yard of yarn the item uses. Most patterns list yardage right up front, and it’s easy to check against the yarn label.

Step 1: Find your standard yards per hour

Use a project you make often, worked at a comfortable, steady pace. Divide the yards it uses by the hours it should take at that pace.

Example: Our worsted-weight baby hat uses about 100 yards and takes about an hour at a steady pace. That’s 100 yards per hour.

Step 2: Find your rate per yard

Hourly rate ÷ yards per hour = rate per yard

$15 ÷ 100 = $0.15 per yard

Step 3: Multiply by the yardage in your item

Baby hat: 100 yards × $0.15 = $15 labor, which gives us the same $36.75 retail price.

One important note: yarn weight matters

Bulky yarn uses up yards much faster than fingering-weight yarn, because each stitch is bigger. So one per-yard rate won’t work for everything. Set a separate rate for each yarn weight you work with often. Bulky will have a lower per-yard rate, and fine yarns will have a higher one.

Example: How much does a crochet baby blanket cost?

Let’s price a worsted-weight baby blanket using yardage:

• Supplies: about 1,000 yards of yarn, roughly $30
• Labor: 1,000 yards × $0.15 = $150
• Business expenses: $3
• Subtotal: $183

Wholesale: $183 × 1.3 = $237.90 Retail: $183 × 1.75 = $320.25

If that number made you gasp a little, you’re not alone. Blankets are one of the hardest crochet items to price, because they take a lot of yarn and a lot of time. That doesn’t mean you can’t sell blankets. It means you’ll want to make some careful choices about which ones you sell, and to whom. More on that in a moment.

Hourly, Stitch Count, or Yardage: Which Should You Use?

Method	Best for	Watch out for
By the hour	Custom orders, one-of-a-kind pieces, and anyone who crochets at a steady pace	Your price swings with your speed
By stitch count	Slower crocheters, detailed or textured pieces, amigurumi	Takes a little counting up front
By yardage	Simple, repeatable items: hats, scarves, blankets	Needs a separate rate for each yarn weight

There’s no wrong answer here. Pick the one that feels easiest, use it consistently across your product line, and adjust as you learn. A lot of makers use hourly pricing for custom work and stitch or yardage pricing for their regular inventory. My free Handmade Product Pricing Calculator lets you try all three.

Don’t Forget Your Selling Fees

If you sell on Etsy, every sale comes with fees: right now, that’s a $0.20 listing fee, a 6.5% transaction fee on the order total (including shipping), and payment processing of 3% plus $0.25 for US sellers. Ads add more.

On our $36.75 baby hat, that’s about $3.94 in Etsy fees before shipping.

You have two simple ways to handle this:

• Include your selling fees in your business expenses. If you figure your per-item expense from last year’s real numbers, your fees are already in there.
• Or check your price after fees. Subtract the fees from your retail price and make sure you’re still covering your supplies, your labor, and your expenses.

Either way, don’t let fees quietly eat your profit. Fees change, so double-check the current numbers on your selling platform once a year.

How to Price Custom Orders and Commissions

Custom orders take more of your time than items you’ve made a dozen times: messages back and forth, choosing colors, sometimes figuring out a design from scratch. Price them with that in mind.

• Price custom work by the hour. It’s the most honest way to cover the extra planning and communication.
• Add a custom fee for special colors, sizing, or personalization, so you’re not doing that work for free.
• Ask for a deposit before you start, especially for big items like blankets. Many makers ask for half up front, enough to cover the yarn at minimum.
• Put the price in writing before you begin, so there are no surprises for either of you.

What If the Price Won’t Sell?

What if I do all of this, and the price I need is more than my customers will ever pay?

Ugh. I know. You may not want to hear my honest answer, but here it is.

If I work out the price with the Balanced Method and it isn’t reasonable for my market…

I simply don’t add that product to my regular inventory.

I may love the pattern. I may love the product. But if I can’t make it at a price that’s profitable and sells, I don’t make it to sell. I tuck that pattern away for gifts, charity donations, or a giveaway. It just doesn’t go in my product line.

That’s not failure. That’s you making a smart decision as the CEO of your business.

Before you give up on a product, though, it’s worth asking a few questions:

• Can I make it more efficiently? A simpler stitch, a slightly smaller size, or a heavier yarn can cut your time a lot without changing what your customer loves about it.
• Am I selling it to the right people? A price that’s “too much” at a small-town bazaar may be just right online or at a high-end holiday market. How to Identify the Target Market of Your Crochet Business can help.
• Can I raise its value? Better photos, packaging, and descriptions change what people are willing to pay. Here’s how: Best-Selling Crochet Items: Raise Your Perceived Value for Higher Profits.

Your Price Is Yours to Decide

Here’s the thing nobody tells you about pricing: there isn’t one perfect number out there waiting to be found.

Your final price will always come down to what works for you, your goals, and your customers. The formulas in this post aren’t a cage. They’re a framework, a solid place to start so you’re not guessing, undercharging, or lying awake wondering if you’re getting it wrong.

So start with the Balanced Method. Pick the way of measuring your work that fits how you crochet. Check your numbers against what your customers will pay. Then adjust, and keep adjusting as your skills, your costs, and your business grow.

You’re the kind of person who can figure this out. You already are.

And remember: a business that pays you fairly is one you can keep doing without burning out. That’s the whole point. (If you’re already feeling worn down, read Crochet Business Burnout: Why It Happens and How to Find a Better Way.)

Frequently Asked Questions

Keep Going

Ready to look at pricing as one piece of your whole business? Read Stop Asking How Much to Charge for Crochet—And Start Asking CEO-Level Questions. And if you’re planning your next craft fair, Craft Fair Items to Sell: How Much Inventory Do You Really Need? pairs perfectly with your new prices.

Got a pricing question I didn’t answer? Leave it in the comments below. I read them all.

Cheering you on, Pam

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