Share this page: 👍 Facebook · 📌 Pinterest · 💬 WhatsApp · 📸 Instagram · ✉️ Email
← Back to the Stitch Library
How to Work Bobble Stitch
A bobble is a plump little ball of crochet that pops right out of the fabric — several half-finished double crochets worked into one stitch and closed together, so the bump stands proud of the work around it. In our shop bobbles do the pretty work: wattle blossom hems on tiny angels, the pom-pom flower heads on the wattle doily, and a whole round of them making a guardian angel’s curly hair.
Step by step
- Work up to the stitch where the bobble belongs and stop there — a bobble grows out of a single stitch, and it counts as just one stitch in your row’s total, however mighty it looks.
- Yarn over, insert your hook into that stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop, then yarn over and pull through 2 loops. You’ve worked the first half of a double crochet and parked it: 2 loops sit on your hook. (UK friends: read treble wherever this page says double crochet — the bobble is identical.)
- Do exactly the same thing again into the very same stitch: yarn over, insert, pull up a loop, yarn over, pull through 2. Now 3 loops sit on your hook, and the bump is beginning to gather.
- Repeat until you have worked five of these half-finished double crochets into the one stitch — our patterns’ standard bobble, written as a 5-dc bobble — leaving 6 loops on your hook. Some patterns use four; always follow your pattern’s number, because that’s what its counts were built on.
- Yarn over one last time and pull through all 6 loops at once. The cluster closes with a satisfying gather, and the bobble is made.
- Give the bobble a gentle push from behind with your fingertip so it pops out to the front of the fabric where it belongs. Bobbles worked on the front of the work spring out happily; if your pattern works them from the back, the push matters even more.
- Carry on with the next stitch of your row — many patterns work a single crochet straight after the bobble to seat it, and some add a chain to lock it. Whatever your pattern says, keep the stitch after a bobble snug, or the bobble will slouch.
- Keep every one of the five partial stitches at the same height: pull each loop up to the same level as the first, or your bobbles will come out in mixed sizes like a bunch of grapes. Even loops, even bobbles.
- Space and count as written, and turn the work over to admire the texture every so often — a field of bobbles, like our wattle doily’s flower heads, only shows its full effect from the front, and checking keeps the pattern of bumps honest.
Patterns that use it
Aussie Flora Doilies Crochet Patterns Vol 1 Waratah Wattle Banksia Thread Crochet Lace Table Decor
Cushion Covers Crochet Patterns Vol 1 | Aussie Flora Wattle Blossom & Bottlebrush Pillow Cover PDF
Guardian Angel Dolls Crochet Pattern | Three Amigurumi Angels 25cm 18cm 12cm, Halo & Wings PDF
← Back to the Stitch Library
Common mistakes
- Losing count of the half-finished double crochets, so one bobble gets five partial stitches and the next gets four. Mixed counts make mixed sizes, and a row of uneven bobbles can’t be disguised.
- Never giving the finished bobble its little push from behind. Left to itself a bobble often sits half-sunk into the fabric; that fingertip nudge is what makes it stand proud and round.
- Spearing the same stitch so briskly that the yarn splits on the third or fourth pass. A split strand makes a scruffy, hairy bobble — ease the hook in and watch each insertion go under the full strand.
Tina’s tips
- Say the count out loud as you build each bobble — “one, two, three, four, five, draw through.” It sounds daft and it works; I’ve never lost my place mid-bobble while my mouth was doing the counting.
- If your bobbles lean, check your hands before you blame the stitch — most of us pull the yarn a touch harder with one hand’s rhythm than the other. Working the stitch straight after each bobble good and snug stands them all back up.
