The crochet Puff Stitch is a great stitch for adding texture to your crochet projects. The Puff Stitch forms fluffy, raised bump in your fabric that is double-sided so it looks great on both sides of your project. Today I’ll show you how to do the crochet puff stitch with this tutorial which is available as a photo, written and video tutorial formats so no matter how you learn, I’ve got you covered.
The Puff Stitch is a variation on the Half Double Crochet (HDC) Stitch (check out my HDC stitch tutorial). To create a single Puff Stitch, you start working as if you’re creating a HDC stitch but instead of completing it as normal, you add more yarn overs and loops which is what gives the Puff Stitch it’s bulky, puffy look.
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The crochet puff stitch is a bit of a yarn eater, depending on how many yarn overs are needed in the pattern you’re using. The more yarn overs you do, the puffier/bulkier your crochet puff stitches will be. It can be used in a variety of different configurations, most of which depend on how many yarn overs you do and where the puff stitches are added to your rows/rounds (i.e. staggering them, stacking them, etc).
You can use any hook and yarn combination with this stitch but today I’ll be using a Furls Odyssey 5.5mm crochet hook and a Brava Worsted Weight Yarn from We Crochet.
Free Crochet Patterns on My Blog That Feature the Crochet Puff Stitch:
Practice doing the crochet puff stitch with these free crochet patterns:
- Polar Puff Messy Bun Hat
- The Ava Cowl
- Strut Your Puff Cowl (coming soon)
Abbreviations:
- CH = Chain
- Puff = Puff Stitch
- SK = Skip
- ST(s) = Stitch(es)
- YO = Yarn Over
Notes:
- The instructions that I’m giving you below are for completing a fabric made completely out of puff stitches, however, the mechanics of how to do a single puff stitch are the same, but you would not need to worry about the stitch multiple information I have provided.
- The instructions that I’m giving you below are for completing a 5 HDC puff stitch, however the mechanics for how to do a 3 HDC or 7 HDC puff stitch are similar, you’re just using less or more yarn overs than I am showing you here.
Video Tutorial for How to Crochet the Puff Stitch:
How to Crochet the Puff Stitch
Yarn over (YO) and insert your hook into the stitch you want to create your puff stitch in. YO and draw up a loop to the height of your previous stitch (there should be three loops on your hook).
YO, insert into the same stitch and pull up a loop four more times, always pulling them to the same height. When you are done, you should have 11 loops on your hook (this is for a 5 HDC puff stitch. Your pattern should indicate how many YOs you will need).
YO and pull through all the loops on your hook.
Sometimes, puff stitches use a CH 1 to close the puff stitch. Many of my patterns use this to give space to the puff stitches, close them securely and/or to help with crowding. The pattern you’re using should indicate if this is needed or not.
That’s it! Isn’t that’s so simple? What kind of project would you use the Puff Stitch for?
Want to learn something else? Check out these other great free crochet tutorials:
