How to Price Crochet Items

The crochet pricing formula

Most handmade pricing works the same way, and crochet is no exception:

1. Materials: the yarn and any extras you used for this one piece.
2. Labour: hours spent × your hourly rate.
3. Overheads: packaging, labels, a share of listing or postage costs, per item.
4. Unit cost = materials + labour + overheads. This is break-even.
5. Wholesale price = unit cost + your wholesale markup.
6. Retail price = wholesale price + a retail markup.

A wholesale guide from Craft Professional describes the traditional retail approach called keystone pricing, where the wholesale price is half the retail price. In markup terms that is 100% on top of wholesale. Our guide on how to calculate wholesale price goes into the formulas and the difference between markup and margin.

What makes crochet different is that two of those inputs are easy to get wrong: yarn and time.

Costing yarn properly

You rarely use a whole skein, and you often use part of several. Pricing by the skein overcharges small items and undercharges large ones. Cost yarn by the amount you used.

By length: cost per metre = skein price ÷ metres in the skein. Multiply by the metres used.

By weight: cost per gram = skein price ÷ grams in the skein. Weigh the finished piece, or weigh the leftover yarn and subtract.

The skein's length and weight are on its label. Weighing is often easier for crochet, because you cannot easily measure the length you have worked into a finished piece.

Do the same for everything else that goes in: stuffing for amigurumi, safety eyes, buttons, labels and tags. Each one is a pack price divided by how many you get, times how many you used.

Handmade Pricing Calculator

Prices handmade items by itemizing every material, your time, overheads and markup.

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Handmade Pricing Calculator gives every material its own line. You enter what you paid for the pack, how much came in it and how much this piece used, and it converts the bulk cost to the amount you actually used. Time, hourly rate, overheads and markups sit on the same screen, with the result updating as you type. You can save named rates and saved products, and pull materials you have entered before from your library.

Timing your work

Crochet is slow, and labour is usually the biggest number in the price. Guessing the time is where most prices go wrong.

• Time a real piece from first chain to woven-in ends. Include blocking, attaching parts and finishing.
• Time the second or third one too. You may get quicker once you know the pattern, and the time you can repeat is the fairer one to price on.
• Leave out design time for a one-off pattern you will reuse, or spread it over the number of pieces you expect to make.
• Count the extras that are easy to forget: photographing the item, writing a listing, and packing an order.

Choosing an hourly rate

There is no official hourly rate for crafts. Two official figures can act as a floor to compare against:

• UK: the National Living Wage for workers aged 21 and over is £12.71 an hour from April 2026, according to GOV.UK.
• US: the U.S. Department of Labor gives the federal minimum wage for covered nonexempt employees as $7.25 an hour. Check your state's rate as well.

These rules apply to employees, not to self-employed sellers. They are still a useful reality check. If your price pays you less than the minimum wage where you live, you are subsidising your customers.

Remember that your rate is before tax. In the US, the IRS says you must file an income tax return if your net earnings from self-employment were $400 or more. Other countries have their own rules, so check with your tax authority.

Worked example: a crochet beanie

Here is a beanie priced step by step. Swap in your own figures.

Labour is about 85% of the unit cost here. That is why time, not yarn, is the number to get right.

When the formula gives a price that will not sell

If the full price is more than people in your market will pay, you have real choices. Hiding labour is not one of them.

Work out your actual hourly rate at the price you can get. Suppose the beanie sells for $60 direct. Take off materials and packaging ($6.80) and you keep $53.20 for 2.5 hours, which is $21.28 an hour. That is above the $15 rate in the example, because $60 is more than the $44.30 unit cost. What you give up is most of the markup, so at that price there is no room to sell through a shop. Now you know what you are actually earning, and you can decide whether it is worth it.

Then consider:

• Make it faster. A simpler stitch pattern or chunkier yarn can cut the time sharply.
• Change the yarn. A cheaper yarn lowers materials, though in crochet that is usually the smaller number.
• Sell direct instead of wholesale. If you only sell to your own customers, you keep the whole retail price, so a lower retail price can still pay you properly. Wholesale only works if the shop's price leaves room for both of you.
• Offer smaller items. Coasters, keychains and flowers take less time and can sell at prices more buyers expect.

Checklist before you set a price

• Yarn costed by metre or gram used, not by skein
• Extras such as stuffing, eyes, buttons and labels included
• Time measured on a real piece, including finishing
• An hourly rate you have chosen on purpose
• Packaging and per-order costs added
• A wholesale price only if a shop's retail price would still sell

Try the numbers in our free handmade price calculator. For pieces made from many small components, see how to price handmade jewelry.