The formula that includes your time, the hourly rates makers actually use, and how to know which products can carry a fair price.
By Susi, founder of Crochets · left-handed since day one · updated September 2026
The most-shared crochet pricing formula — materials times two or three — has a fatal flaw: it ignores time. A blanket that uses £40 of yarn and 30 hours of your life prices at £120, or £2.67 an hour. A tiny amigurumi with £3 of yarn and 2 hours prices at £9. Neither is a business; both are you paying customers for the privilege of making things.
The formula that works: (materials + time × hourly rate + overhead) × profit margin ÷ (1 − fees). The pricing calculator runs it for you.
Yarn is the obvious cost, but count the whole skein you opened, not the fraction you used — the remainder rarely becomes another sale. Add safety eyes, stuffing, buttons, labels, and the ribbon on the packaging. The yarn calculator tells you skeins before you start, so the number isn't a guess.
Time a full item once, start to finish, including weaving ends and blocking. Most makers underestimate by 30–50%. Then choose a rate: £10–14 ($12–15) for simple pieces, £14–20 ($15–25) for intermediate, £20–32 ($25–40) for advanced work, more for custom design. If the resulting price 'feels too high', the answer is a faster product, not a lower wage.
Overhead is £1–5 per item: packaging, hook wear, listing fees, the electricity for your lamp. Profit (15–30%) is what lets the business grow — buy stock, upgrade tools, cover slow months. Fees come last: an Etsy sale costs roughly 6.5% transaction + ~4% payment + listing, so divide by (1 − 0.10) rather than subtracting afterwards, or the fee eats your margin instead of the customer's price.
Search the finished item on Etsy and sort by best-selling, not cheapest. Ignore the £8 blankets — many are drop-shipped machine knits, and the rest are hobbyists subsidising buyers. If your honest price sits above the best-sellers, look for a product change: smaller items, chunkier yarn (faster), simpler stitches, or a bundle. Reposition rather than underprice.
In the UK you can earn £1,000 a year from trading before registering; above that, HMRC expects records of income and costs. Log every sale, every yarn purchase and your hours. Crochets Maker keeps a per-project cost/time log and a sales & profit ledger so this is a download, not a panic in January.
A minimum of £12–15 ($15–20) per hour for simple work, rising to £25–40+ for advanced or custom pieces. The Crochet Guild of America's guidance starts at $15–25.
An honest price for a worsted-weight throw is £350–900+ once you include 20–40 hours of labour. If the market won't pay that, sell smaller items or take commissions.
Include the whole skein for one-off items; partial skeins rarely turn into another sale. For repeated products, you can amortise across items.
Yes — Etsy adds ~10% in fees, so divide your base price by 0.9 for online listings, and you can offer a small discount in person.
Crochets Maker tracks hours and materials per project, prices with this formula, and keeps your sales & profit log.
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