Crochet Puff Stitch (+ Puff Variants) Tutorial

Ah, the puff stitch. With its big, puffed texture and interesting visuals, this crochet stitch is a leader in adding fun textures and personality to your crochet projects. The puff stitch belongs in the same category as a bobble or popcorn stitch, which means this stitch has several “stitches” worked into one to create bigger, fluffier texture than a standard crochet stitch would.

If you’re intimidated by the crochet puff stitch, there’s no reason to be! In this tutorial, we will walk step by step through how to work a crochet puff stitch, including the different variants of the puff stitches, and include some tips that will make creating these stitches easier than you’d think!

This image shows both types of the crochet puff stitch, which are talked about in the tutorial. The top swatch is created using the closed puff stitch and the bottom swatch is created using the standard puff stitch.

What is the crochet puff stitch?

Technically speaking, a crochet puff stitch is a cluster of half double crochet stitches all worked into the same stitch or space.

Designers typically refer to puff stitches by their name but you may also see them written in a cluster form, like this: “hdc4tog in ch 1 spc”. It is unlikely that you will see it written this way, but you might.

A cluster stitch is created by working a stitch to its halfway point and then beginning the stitch again in the same stitch or space. For the crochet puff stitch, we use half double crochets. For the cousin of the puff stitch, the bobble stitch, we use double crochets.

So, for example, a 4 hdc puff stitch will have you: [Yarn over and insert your hook into the indicated stitch. Yarn over and pull up a loop.] Repeat inside of the brackets 3 more times in the same stitch. You should now have 9 loops on your hook. Yarn over and pull through all 9 loops. Chain 1 to close the puff.

Don’t worry if the paragraph above is a little confusing – It will all make sense when we begin going step by step through the crochet puff stitch.

There are variants to the puff stitch?

Yep! There are two main types of puff stitches.

There’s the “standard” puff stitch (shown in the text example above), which instructs you to yarn over and pull up loops in the same stitch a specific number of times. Then, you would pull a loop through all the loops you have on your hook and then chain 1 “to close” the puff. Depending on the designer, sometimes the chain 1 counts as a stitch and sometimes it doesn’t.

Then there is the “closed” crochet puff stitch, which instructs you to yarn over and pull up loops in the same stitch a specific number of times. Then, pull a loop through all the loops except the last loop on your hook which will leave you with 2 loops on your hook. Then, yarn over and pull through the remaining 2 loops. This type of crochet puff stitch creates an obvious “top” of the stitch that looks similar to the top of a double crochet.

Again, don’t worry! We are going to go through both of these variants in detail so you can see the differences and feel confident working both types.

In addition to the two different techniques to creating these stitches, they can also be different sizes. Crochet puff stitches can be made thicker and puffier by adding more stitches to the cluster. Some designers might use a puff stitch made of 4 half double crochets and some designers may use a puff stitch made of 5 half double crochets – or more!

This is why it’s always so important to check the abbreviations of a crochet pattern before you get started! You may be used to creating puff stitches in one way but the designer has used a different variant or size. If you don’t use the same puff stitch they did, your work will look different.

Designers should always specify how the crochet puff stitch is worked in their patterns, so be sure to check the notes and abbreviations!

What stitches should I know before I try this stitch?

Before you try this crochet stitch, you should know the basic crochet stitches. This means you should know and feel at least somewhat confident creating chains and working single crochet, half double crochet and double crochet stitches.

Essentially what this means is as long as you can work a half double crochet and understand the technical parts to working a half double crochet (how to insert your hook into a stitch, how to yarn over, how to pull through loops, etc.), you can work a crochet puff stitch

There’s nothing super advanced or fancy to this crochet stitch. The hardest part of learning to crochet a puff stitch is making sure your tension doesn’t tighten but there are tricks for that!

How is the puff stitch abbreviated?

The crochet puff stitch is most usually abbreviated as PS or simply “Puff” and this is for both variants. Again, make sure to check the specifications by the designer to make sure you’re using the same stitch they are!

How to Crochet the Puff Stitch (And its variants!)

This crochet puff stitch tutorial will show you step-by-step how to work this stitch with photos along the way. There will be highlights and arrows to help identify the steps as clearly as possible.

First we will walk step by step through the standard puff stitch, including the different sizes.

Then, we will walk step by step through the “closed” puff stitch.

Because puff stitches are usually accompanied with a skipped stitch after the chain 1, that is how we will work it in this tutorial. Puff stitches can be worked next to each other, though, so make sure to follow the instructions in the pattern you’re using.

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YARN AND HOOK USED IN THIS TUTORIAL

To practice the crochet puff stitch, you can use any yarn you like! Choose a hook size that corresponds with the yarn weight you’re using and you’re good to go.

In my tutorial photos, I’m using Bernat Maker Home Dec in colorway Aqua and my Furls Ebony Streamline Wood 8mm (M).

How to create a standard crochet puff stitch

This image shows a swatch of standard puff stitches, worked in offset rows. This is the type of crochet puff stitch we will be learning first.

The “standard” puff stitch instructs you to yarn over and pull up loops in the same stitch a specific number of times. This can be 3 times, 4 times, 5 times or even 6 or more times!

Then, you would pull a loop through all the loops you have on your hook and then chain 1 “to close” the puff. Depending on the designer, sometimes the chain 1 counts as a stitch and sometimes it doesn’t.

Written Standard Puff Stitch Example:

To work this puff stitch, you will: [Yarn over and insert your hook into the indicated stitch. Yarn over and pull up a loop.] Repeat inside of the brackets 2 more times in the same stitch. You should now have 7 loops on your hook. Yarn over and pull through all 7 loops. Chain 1 to close the puff.

Step by Step Instructions

For the standard puff stitch tutorial, we will begin with the smallest size and then work up to the largest size.

When working crochet puff stitches in rows, the starting and ending stitches of the row will almost always be one of the standard crochet stitches and usually a half double crochet. This gives the work even, clean sides and is much easier to work a border on. Placing border stitches on a puff stitch isn’t technically impossible but it doesn’t look right and is hard to do.

With this in mind, we begin our row with 1 half double crochet in the first stitch and a chain 1.

This image shows the half double crochet and chain 1 started, as specified in the tutorial.

We will skip one stitch and then place 1 puff stitch in the next stitch (an arrow points to it in this image).

It’s important to note that crochet puff stitches absolutely can be worked next to each other. They are usually worked with chain spaces between them, though, so that’s what we will do here.

3 Half Double Crochet Puff Stitch – The smallest of puff stitches

This image shows the beginning steps to working a 3 hdc crochet puff stitch as specified in the text.

To begin our crochet puff stitch, we will yarn over and insert our hook into the indicated stitch. Then, we will yarn over and pull up a loop.

We will have 3 loops on our hook.

TIP: Pull the two new loops up a bit to be at least as tall as top of the first half double crochet created in this row.

You will do this every time you pull up new loops to ensure that your tension doesn’t tighten over time, making it hard to finish the puff stitch.

This image shows the next steps as specified in the text.

Yarn over and insert your hook into the same stitch.

Then, yarn over and pull up a loop. You will have 5 loops on your hook so far.

Remember to pull these two new loops up!

This image shows the next steps as specified in the text.

Yarn over, insert your hook into the same stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop.

You will now have 7 loops on your hook.

This image shows the next steps as specified in the text.

Now we yarn over and pull a loop through all of the 7 loops on our hook, as the yellow arrow in the image indicates.

TIP: Pulling your hook through these loops, even if you’ve made sure to pull the loops up a bit, can be difficult to get used to and may put crocheters off using puff stitches at all. Here’s how you can make it easier:

Rotate your hook until the nose of your hook is pointing downward, as shown in the picture. A black arrow in this image is pointing downward to indicate this rotation. This helps the actual hook portion to not accidentally grab any of the 7 loops and will pull through much more smoothly.

This image shows the next steps as specified in the text.

With a loop pulled through all 7 of the loops, we have nearly completed our standard puff stitch.

Here you can see why the standard puff stitch needs the chain 1 to secure it. All of the 7 loops we created are now sort of just hanging out and will become loose and move over time.

We need to make sure to secure these so that they puff up and stay in place, instead of laying flat or going wonky.

So, we chain 1.

This image shows the next steps as specified in the text.

Here we have finished the smallest of the puff stitches.

In this image, I’ve highlighted the chain 1 prior to the puff stitch in pink and the top of the puff stitch in yellow.

It is important to know the anatomy of the puff stitch and where the top of the stitch actually is because some patterns will ask you to work into the puff stitch, not the chain 1.

4 Half Double Crochet Puff Stitch

This image shows the first steps to working a 4 hdc crochet puff stitch as specified in the text.

Now that we know the technicalities of making a standard puff stitch, we can move on to creating the larger sizes! So, let’s skip 1 stitch and place a 4 Half Double Crochet Puff Stitch into the next stitch.

To do this, we will: yarn over, insert our hook into the indicated stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop 4 times total. In the 3 hdc puff stitch, we completed these steps 3 times.

When we have completed this, we will have 9 loops on our hook.

This image shows the next steps as specified in the text.

Then, of course, we yarn over and pull a loop through all 9 loops and chain 1 to secure the puff.

You can see how the 4 hdc puff stitch is a bit bigger and puffier than the 3 hdc puff stitch.

5 Half Double Crochet Puff Stitch

This image shows the first steps to working a 5 hdc crochet puff stitch as specified in the text.

Next up: The 5 Half Double Crochet Puff Stitch

Once again, we are going to skip 1 stitch and place a puff stitch in the next stitch.

To create this even bigger puff stitch, we will: yarn over, insert our hook into the indicated stitch, yarn over and pull up a loop 5 times total.

When we have completed this, we will have 11 loops on our hook.

This image shows the next steps as specified in the text.

Then, of course, we yarn over and pull a loop through all 11 loops and chain 1 to secure the puff.

You can see how adding the extra yarn over, pull up a loop adds a bit of bulk to each puff stitch and they get progressively bigger across the row.

This image shows the different sizes of each crochet puff stitch worked in a row, as specified in the text.

Here is my “finished row”. I’ve added 1 more 5 hdc puff stitch, skipped 1 and placed 1 hdc in the last stitch.

I’ve notated the size of each of these puff stitches with text and arrows in this image so you can see how adding the extra loops makes them bigger and puffier.

Why would designers choose a 4 or 5 hdc puff stitch over a 3 hdc puff stitch?

Regardless of the variant (standard or closed crochet puff stitch), designers can choose the size of their puff. They will do so according to how they want the finished piece to look. You will find some projects with the smallest of puff stitches and some with even larger ones than we have shown here.

It all depends on what the designer intends the finished project to look like. Of course, if you are making something on your own using a puff stitch in the work, you can choose the best option to fit your idea!

How to create a “closed” crochet puff stitch

This image shows a swatch created with the closed crochet puff stitch with a row of single crochet worked in between. This is the crochet stitch we will now be learning.

Now we can go over the “closed” crochet puff stitch, which is finished slightly differently than a standard puff stitch is. You can see in the image above that this type of puff stitch works especially well with patterns or projects that will have solid rows of stitches following them.

The “closed” puff stitch instructs you to yarn over and pull up loops in the same stitch a specific number of times. Then, pull a loop through all the loops except the last loop on your hook which will leave you with 2 loops. Then, yarn over and pull through the remaining 2 loops.

This type of crochet puff stitch creates an obvious “top” of the stitch that looks similar to the top of a double crochet.

Written “Closed” Puff Stitch Example:

To work this puff stitch, you will: [Yarn over and insert your hook into the indicated stitch. Yarn over and pull up a loop.] Repeat inside of the brackets 3 more times in the same stitch. You should now have 9 loops on your hook. Yarn over and pull through 8 of the 9 loops. 2 loops remain on hook. Yarn over, pull through 2 loops.

Step by Step Instructions

For the “closed” puff stitch tutorial, we will work 1 size of the puff stitch for brevity – the closed 4 half double crochet puff stitch.

While these puff stitches can absolutely be made in different sizes just like the standard crochet puff stitch, this portion of this crochet puff stitch tutorial is simply going to show you the difference in how these stitches are worked. Making the different sizes of the puff stitch is the same regardless of which variant is used. It’s only how we finish the stitch that changes.

This image shows the half double crochet and chain 1 started, as specified in the tutorial.

Just like with the standard puff stitch, we begin our row with 1 half double crochet in the first stitch and a chain 1.

We will skip one stitch and then place 1 puff stitch in the next stitch (an arrow points to it in this image).

Just like with the standard puff stitch, these puff stitches can also be worked next to each other. This type of puff stitch would likely be the chosen stitch to work side by side. However, they are usually worked with chain spaces between them, though, so that’s what we will do here.

This image shows the next steps as specified in the text.

For this closed puff stitch, we start a 4 Half Double Crochet Puff the same way that we started a standard puff stitch. This means that we yarn over, insert our hook, yarn over and pull up a loop 4 times total.

We will have 9 loops on our hook.

Now, instead of yarning over and pulling a loop through all 9 loops like we did with the standard puff stitch, we will: Yarn over and pull a loop through 8 of the 9 loops.

An arrow shows how we will pull through all the loops except the last loop.

Remember the tips from before: Pull your loops up so that your tension doesn’t tighten and make it difficult to pull the hook through and point the nose of your hook down to make sure that it doesn’t catch the loops as you pull through.

This image shows the next steps as specified in the text.

We now have 2 loops remaining on our hook.

We will yarn over and pull through the 2 remaining loops.

This image shows the next steps as specified in the text.

We now have a finished “closed” puff stitch!

The pictures in this image are the same but I have highlighted the bottom image for clarity.

I have highlighted what is the top of the “closed” puff stitch in pink and the chain 1 prior to the stitch in yellow.

You can see how the closed puff stitch has a much more obvious top of the stitch than the standard puff stitch does.

This image shows the next steps as specified in the text.

In this image, I have chained 1, skipped 1 stitch and placed another “closed” puff stitch in the next.

I have also highlighted the stitches the same as in the previous image. The tops of the stitches are highlighted pink and the chain 1’s between the stitches are highlighted yellow.

The tops of the stitches are what you would insert your hook into if you were instructed to work into the top of a closed puff stitch. This is the same as if you were inserting your hook into the top of a half double or double crochet, for example.

This image shows both types of the crochet puff stitch worked on 1 row so that the differences can clearly be seen.

In this row, I’ve worked 2 closed puff stitches (right most stitches, black arrows point to them) and 2 standard puff stitches (left most stitches, red arrows point to them).

This is to highlight the difference between the variants so that you can clearly see their anatomy when worked next to each other.

The tops of the closed puff stitches are much more obvious than the standard puff stitches and therefore will be easier to work into, if it is required to work into them for the pattern.

It can be very easy to confuse the top of the standard puff stitch with the chain 1 that closed it when working the next row. So, when you’re practicing the standard puff stitch, make sure to watch how it forms and the anatomy of the stitch so that you can be prepared if the pattern your working requires that you work into the top of the stitch.

This image shows the row worked with both types of the crochet puff stitch after turning, to see the wrong side.

Here is the same row turned as if we are going to work an additional row. Red arrows point to the tops of the standard puff stitches (now on the right) and black arrows point to the tops of the closed puff stitches (now on the left). Yellow highlights indicate the chain 1 spaces between each of these stitches.

Notice how much more apparent the chain 1 spaces between the closed puff stitches are compared to the chain 1 spaces between the standard puff stitches.

When turned, the tops of the standard puff stitches look just like chain spaces. This can make it difficult to identify the correct placement of your next stitch, if the pattern requires you to place a stitch in the top of a standard puff. If instructed to put a stitch in the top of a standard puff, you want to make sure that you are actually placing it in the top of the puff, not the chain 1 space. If you place it in the chain 1 space on accident, it can make the project you’re working look different from the designers.

So, what do I do now?

To continue practicing the crochet puff stitch and its variants, you can simply continue creating swatches of single crochets to work puff stitches into. You can move up rows and practice placing stitches in the chain 1 spaces and the tops of both variants of the puff stitches. You can even place puff stitches in the chain 1 spaces, chain 1, and skip 1!

How you practice the crochet puff stitch is completely up to you, of course!

Either way, you should now feel confident to practice the crochet puff stitch and use it in your future projects. If you’re looking for projects that use puff stitches (specifically closed puff stitches), you can check out my Radiant Bath Set! 5 of the 6 patterns in the bath set use puff stitches to create pretty, interesting texture!

This image shows all of the 6 patterns for the Radiant Bath Set, 5 of which use the closed crochet puff stitch.

I hope you’ve enjoyed this tutorial and that you can move forward crocheting all your favorite patterns that use Front Post Stitches with confidence. Thanks so much for hanging out with me today!

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This image is a Pinterest Pin for this crochet puff stitch tutorial.

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Shannon | Designer & Editor

Shannon helps crocheters find their next project and build their skills with in depth tutorials and crochet patterns on her blog, theloopholefox.com.

With more than a decade of crochet experience, Shannon knows that understanding why we do something matters just as much as how we do it. She teaches new techniques and crochet stitches in depth so you can crochet with confidence.

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