How to Crochet the Bobble Stitch

A bobble stitch, written in patterns as dc5tog (double crochet five together), is five double crochet stitches all worked into one stitch and then joined at the top. That bundle of stitches stands up off the surface as a soft, rounded puff.

The puff is the whole point. It is what gives bobble blankets, baby blankets, and textured cushions their bumpy, hand-made feel. Once you can make one, you can drop them into any pattern that calls for texture.

Hold your hook in front of the working yarn with the tip facing you. Yarn over by bringing the hook below and behind the yarn, then push the hook into the next stitch, going from the front to the back of the piece.

Look at the hook now. You should see four strands of yarn sitting on it. That is your starting position for the first of the five double crochets.

Yarn over again and pull the yarn through only the first two loops on the hook. Yarn over and pull through two loops one more time, until you are left with two loops on the hook.

That is one double crochet, left deliberately unfinished. You stop one step short so that later you can gather all five together in a single move. This half-finished state is the trick behind every cluster stitch.

Repeat the same move four more times into that exact same hole: yarn over, hook in, yarn over and pull up a loop, then yarn over and pull through two loops so the stitch sits unfinished.

By the end you will have six loops crowded on the hook. An easy way to keep count is that you always have one more loop on the hook than the number of stitches you have finished, so five stitches means six loops.

With all six loops on the hook, yarn over one last time and pull that yarn through all six loops at once. Move the hook nice and parallel as you draw it through instead of wiggling it side to side, so you do not accidentally drop a loop.

You are done when a single loop is left on the hook. That one pull cinches the five double crochets into a single bobble.

Right after you make it, the bobble can fold toward the back as you keep crocheting. Work a few stitches past it, then push the bump through to the front of your work with a finger.

Now it sits proud on the right side as a clean raised puff. Make sure every bobble in a row faces the same way and your texture will look even and intentional.