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What a crochet factory should ask you before it can quote properly
A crochet quotation is only as good as the inputs behind it. When a maker replies with a single number to a single photograph, that number is not a price — it is a guess with a safety margin folded in, and the margin is paid by whoever did not ask what it was covering. The nine inputs below are the ones that actually move a crochet price. Sending them together converts a quotation from an opening position into a calculation you can compare against another supplier.
Why the inputs, not the design, decide the price
Two buyers can send the same photograph and receive prices forty per cent apart, and both quotes can be honest. The difference is what each buyer left unspecified. An unspecified fibre becomes the cheapest yarn that will hold the shape. An unspecified fill becomes whatever is in the workshop that week. An unspecified quantity becomes a minimum the maker is willing to run. None of those are tricks; they are the natural consequence of a maker having to price a gap.
In hand-crochet the gap costs more than in most categories, because labour is the dominant line. A piece is built stitch by stitch by a person, so the hours per unit are a direct function of stitch count, yarn weight and how much finishing the construction needs. Change any of those and the price moves. That is also why a factory that can answer precisely tends to be the one with a real pattern library rather than a photo album — our own production capacity and SKU library exists so that a quote can be built from a known construction instead of an estimate.
The nine inputs that actually change a crochet price
| # | Input | What it decides | What goes wrong without it |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Drawing or multi-angle reference | Pattern drafting hours, and whether the piece is a new build at all | The maker prices a shape they imagined from one photo |
| 2 | Finished size in centimetres | Stitch count, hook size, yarn weight, and therefore the largest labour line | Size is treated as a scale factor and labour is under-priced |
| 3 | Fibre and colour direction | Yarn cost, shrinkage behaviour, and whether a certification path exists | Cheapest yarn that holds shape becomes the default |
| 4 | Fill type and firmness (stuffed pieces) | Material cost, weight per carton, and freight | Fill weight is never written down, and reorders slump |
| 5 | Packaging format | Whether retail packaging is bought in, printed or assembled, plus carton dimensions | A factory-gate price grows once cartons are measured |
| 6 | Quantity per SKU and per colourway | Setup amortisation and the artisan team size assigned | Small colour runs are quoted as if they were large |
| 7 | Destination country | Labelling, responsible-person requirements, and duty treatment | Compliance work is discovered after production |
| 8 | Required arrival date, not order date | Whether the work fits the calendar, and whether rush capacity is needed | The date is achievable on paper and not in the workshop |
| 9 | Certification the end customer inspects | Testing cost per SKU and per colourway | Testing is quoted for one colour and needed for six |
Read the fourth column as a list of things you will pay for later. Every gap is filled by the maker's assumption, and assumptions are priced conservatively because the maker carries the risk of being wrong.
What you can leave out, and what it costs you
Some inputs are genuinely optional at quotation stage and can wait for the sample. You do not need a barcode number, a carton marking layout, or a final retail copy. You also do not need a signed contract to get a comparable number.
Three things should not wait, because they change the structure of the quote rather than its detail:
- Size. It is the single largest driver of labour and the one most often summarised as "about twenty centimetres", which is a range wide enough to hide a third of the cost.
- Quantity, including colour split. A thousand pieces in one colour and a thousand in eight colours are different jobs with different setup, and a maker quoting them at the same unit price is quoting the first and hoping for the second.
- Market. A toy sold in the European Union and the same toy sold domestically are not the same product once testing, labelling and the responsible-person requirement are counted.
Sending it in one message
The practical format is a short brief rather than a folder. Six lines, in this order, will get a usable answer from any serious maker:
- What it is — one sentence, plus drawings or photos from front, side and top.
- Size — finished height and width, and which dimension matters most to the customer.
- Materials — fibre preference or constraint, colour count, and any yarn the end customer has already approved.
- Volume — pieces per SKU, per colour, and whether a first order and a repeat order are expected to be the same size.
- Market and compliance — destination, sales channel, and the certificates your buyer actually checks.
- Timing — the date the goods must be in the warehouse, and whether that date is fixed or negotiable.
A brief like this also protects you later. When the sample arrives and something is wrong, the conversation is about a written input rather than a remembered instruction — which is the same discipline that keeps a reorder matching its first run, covered in our note on how a crochet sample is built and signed off.
Reading the reply you get back
A quotation worth comparing states its basis. Four things to look for:
| In the reply | What it tells you |
|---|---|
| Unit price broken into material, labour and packaging | The maker knows where the cost sits, so a design change can be priced instead of re-quoted |
| A stated MOQ per colour, not just per style | Colour setup has been counted, which is where small orders usually break |
| Named certification path and who pays for it | Testing has been treated as a cost rather than a promise |
| A statement of what is excluded | The maker is telling you where the risk sits, which is more useful than a lower headline number |
With a network of 30,000+ certified artisan weavers across four provinces in China, the constraint on a crochet programme is rarely hands. It is calendar and colour sequencing. A brief that states volume and timing precisely lets a maker answer the real question — whether this work fits the window — instead of the easier one about unit price. Buyers who want the fuller picture of how orders are scheduled and inspected can start from our sourcing FAQ.
Have a brief ready and want a comparable number? Send the six lines above with your drawings. You will get a quotation that names its basis, its MOQ per colour, and what is excluded — or a straight answer that the shape needs drafting first. Write to bianhaitao@kivastitch.com or start from OEM and ODM development.
Frequently asked questions
What information does a crochet factory need before it can quote?
Nine inputs, in practice: a drawing or reference photo from more than one angle, the finished size, the fibre and colour direction, the fill type for any stuffed piece, the packaging format, the quantity per SKU and per colour, the destination country, the date the goods must arrive rather than the date you hope to order, and any certification the end customer demands. Every one of those changes either the material cost, the labour content, or the risk the maker has to price in. Send all nine at once and a quotation becomes a calculation; send six and it becomes an estimate with an invisible margin of safety buried inside it.
Why does a quote change when I only asked for a different size?
Because in crochet, size is not a scale factor. A piece that grows by thirty per cent in height usually needs more stitches per round, a change of hook, and sometimes a different yarn weight to keep the same surface density, which means the pattern is redrawn rather than resized. Labour rises faster than material, because the number of stitches rises roughly with surface area while the yarn cost rises with volume. This is why a maker who quotes a larger size at a proportional price is usually quoting from the material only, and will discover the labour later.
Do I need to give a target price up front?
It helps, and withholding it rarely produces a better outcome. A target price tells the maker which construction the design has to live within — a denser stitch and a heavier fill at one price point, an open stitch and a lighter fill at another — and it prevents a quotation that is technically correct and commercially useless. What a target price should not do is invite a maker to shave the specification silently. State the target and state which attributes are non-negotiable, and the conversation stays on the design instead of on the number.
What does a factory need to know about packaging?
Three things: whether the piece is sold loose, in a polybag, or in a retail box; whether the retail packaging carries your branding and barcode, which decides whether it is bought in or printed; and what the outer carton has to say, because carton markings and labelling for the destination market are a compliance item, not a decoration. Packaging also drives freight, since a crochet piece is mostly air. A maker who knows the packaging format at quotation stage can quote a realistic shipped cost instead of a factory-gate cost that grows once the cartons are measured.
How detailed should the drawing be?
Detailed enough that two people who have never spoken could make the same object. In practice that means a front, side and top view at minimum, the finished height and width in centimetres, a note on which parts are separate pieces sewn on rather than worked in, and a colour reference that is a physical swatch or a named yarn code rather than a screenshot. A single photograph of a finished sample is not a drawing; it hides the back, the joins, and the scale.
What certifications should I mention when requesting a quote?
Name the market and the channel, then let the maker map the certification. Toys for the European Union generally need EN71 testing with a notified-body report, the United States generally needs ASTM F963 and CPSIA tracking, and textile components usually want OEKO-TEX Standard 100 on the yarn. Say which of these your buyer actually inspects, because testing is a real cost per SKU and per colourway. A maker running its own 90N pull-force check in-house, above the EN71 requirement, is testing for the failure that matters most on a soft toy.
Is a sample fee normal, and is it refundable?
Yes, and yes in most working relationships. A crochet sample consumes artisan hours that cannot be recovered if the order never happens, so a sample fee is the normal structure rather than a red flag. The commercial question is what happens to it: the common arrangement is that the fee is credited against the bulk order once it is placed, which keeps the sample priced honestly while removing the cost from a buyer who commits. Ask for that in writing, and ask what the sample fee covers — one colourway or several, one size or a size set.
How quickly can a factory respond with a real quotation?
A quotation built from an existing construction can usually be returned within a working day, because the artisan hours per piece are already known for that pattern family. A quotation for a genuinely new shape needs the pattern drafted first, which is where the time goes, and a maker who answers a new shape in an hour is answering from intuition. The useful question to ask is not how fast the number arrives but what it is based on: an existing pattern, a similar piece, or a draft that still has to be built and tested.