Bobble Stitch Tutorial

Firstly, thank you for all the warm wishes on my last post, I'll be dropping by to say hi now that I have managed to finish this tutorial.  Now please be kind, it's the first time I've tried to explain any crochet stuff in this way, I fear it's not one of my natural talents.  But I've had a go and I'm putting out there in the hopes it does make sense to others not just to me.  

I did this whilst feeding my new born Mini Cuckoo and it took me many feeds to complete, I hope it makes sense. The photo's are worse than usual, very poor!  I've bunged it in my sidebar anyway.  Ever the optimist.

This tutorial requires knowledge of the crochet basics, specifically chain, double crochet and treble crochet (uk terms) There are great tutorials to be found all over the web, have a look here for a pictorial (edit: or, if I were you, I'd go here for a simple explaination and huge inspiration, so happy Lucy said I could to link away to her work).  However I am going to make the assumption that if someone is going to do a bobble they must already be hooked on crochet.

The spacing and pattern of the bobbles will effect how long your chain will be and where your first bobble is placed.  I'll go into more detail at the end as it'll make more sense then.

1. To start, make an appropriate length foundation chain.  

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2.  Row 1 Double crochet into the second chain from the hook and continue along the foundation chain.

3.  Row 2 and 3 Chain 1 and double crochet to end.

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4. 4th row double crochet along to the point where you want a bobble.

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5. The bobble! Do a treble crochet stitch but don't pull the yarn through the last two loops on the hook.  Leave the stitch incomplete. 

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6. Do this 3 more times in the same stitch till you have 5 loops on the hook.

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7.  When you have 5 loops on your hook, yarn over and pull through all of the loops.

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8. You now have a 4 treble cluster, to make this a bobble, simply double crochet into the next stitch along.

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9. This is how the bobble will look from the side that faces you.  The Bobble is always created on the reverse of the piece.

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10. Double crochet along to the place you want your next bobble, make a bobble and continue in this manner to the end of the row.

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And there you are! 

Bobbletastic!

You will have to do a bit of maths to work out how long a foundation chain you'll need and how many double crochets to do before you place your bobble.  It all depends on the design. You can vary how many rows of double crochet you do between bobble rows too.  So many variations!

My blanket had 7 stitches between bobbles and 3 rows of double crochet between the bobble rows.  Every other bobble row started with a bobble 4 stitches in so that the bobbles were off set.  The frill was made by doing two treble crochet stitches into every stitch all the way around for the first row, the second row alternated between two trebles and one treble as I didn't want it too frilly.

The patterns you can do with the bobble are endless...... I can't wait to experiment with fatter bobbles too, I figure if I did a larger treble cluster I'll get a fatter bobble?  If anyone gets to test this theory out before I do then please let me know.  Also, since I have done this tutorial over a few days and nights in a sleep deprived condition, I'm not sure if it is easy to follow, if I have explained every step clearly.  If you're having problems please leave a comment saying what you got stuck on so I can explain it better to you and edit the tute.

Happy bobbling folks!

xxx

Edited:

I have now done a tutorial for bobbles in a different colour yarn. Find it here. Imagine the bobbles in diferent colours, cool for a baby blanket.

Seen here too: