Crochet Pricing: What to Charge Per Hour (Really)
The honest math of pricing crochet — why hourly formulas break on 20-hour blankets, what actually sells profitably, and a worked amigurumi example.
Crochet has a pricing problem no formula fixes: machines can't crochet, so every stitch is human time — and shoppers compare your 20-hour blanket to a $40 machine-knit one. The way through isn't a cleverer formula. It's choosing what to sell because of the formula.
The formula still comes first
Standard maker math: (yarn + notions) + (hours × rate) + overhead → ×2 wholesale → ×2 retail (full explanation here). Run at $20/hour minimum. If that produces a price the market laughs at, the answer is a different product, not a $4/hour wage.
Worked example: a 6-inch amigurumi octopus
- Yarn: ⅔ skein at $4.50 = $3.00; safety eyes + stuffing = $1.20 → materials $4.20
- Time: 2h 15m at $20/hr = $45.00... at full formula that's an $98+ retail toy. Reality check: batch experience cuts a practiced pattern to 1h 30m, and amigurumi shoppers pay $25–45.
- Recalculated: materials $4.20 + labor $30 + 20% overhead $6.84 = cost $41.04. Even ×1 barely fits the market ceiling.
- Decision: this octopus is a $38–45 item sold direct only, or you shrink it (a 3.5-inch version takes 40 min → cost ~$20 → retail $34–40 with margin), or you sell the pattern at $5.50 with effectively no marginal cost.
That three-way decision — resize, reposition, or sell the pattern — is the entire crochet business in miniature.
Price-per-hour league table
What tends to survive honest pricing (typical practiced make-times):
| Item | Hours | Viable retail | $/hr after materials |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beanie (chunky yarn) | 1.2 | $32–38 | ~$22 |
| Small amigurumi | 0.7–1.5 | $25–45 | $18–28 |
| Plant hanger | 0.8 | $26–32 | ~$25 |
| Market bag | 2.5 | $45–55 | ~$15 |
| Baby blanket | 8–12 | $120–180 | $9–14 ⚠️ |
| Queen blanket | 20–30 | commission only | — |
| PDF pattern | 0 per sale | $4–8 | ∞ after first sale |
Two structural notes: chunky yarn is a wage raise (fewer stitches per square inch), and patterns are where crochet skill scales — if you write them, the printable packaging rules apply to your PDFs too.
Fees and the small-price squeeze
On a $32 beanie + $5.50 shipping via Etsy: about $3.89 in fees (listing, 6.5% transaction on item+shipping, 3%+$0.25 processing) — roughly 12% of the item price. Run your own numbers in the fee breakdown, or let the Pricing Calculator's crochet preset do the whole stack: yarn cost, minutes, rate, fees toggle → wholesale/retail/Etsy-adjusted prices. Selling at markets instead? Booth fees change the math — see the craft fair pricing strategy.
Handmade Pricing Calculator
Materials, minutes, overhead and margin in — wholesale, retail and an Etsy-adjusted price out, with craft presets.