Crocheting is a wonderful hobby. You don’t need to be an expert in order to produce some lovely items. Indeed, just a few basic stitches can aid one in the creation of a wide range of beautiful, handmade pieces. The basic crochet stitches, however, combined in a variety of ways, can produce some interesting textural effects.
A crocheted puff stitch is composed of alternating blocks of cluster stitches and open spaces. This stitch gives an afghan or other handcrafted item a very recognizable and attractive pebbly or "puffy" texture. Before you tackle a crochet project or pattern that includes the puff stitch, take some time to practice your technique and get used to executing the stitch correctly.
Practice with some inexpensive yarn that is the same weight as your project yarn. This way, you can be sure that your tension and technique will produce the correct gauge (stitches per inch) when you begin the actual project. A sampler swatch of at least 4”-6” is recommended in order to give you the most accurate picture of how your natural gauge compares to that of your project. If, after completing your swatch and measuring it, your stitches are consistently too small or too large, you may need to switch to a crochet hook that is larger or smaller than that called for in the project instructions.
The directions given here will take you through the completion of a swatch of puff stitches. Practice your stitching until you achieve the desired gauge. Full text instructions, rather than those using abbreviation and symbols, are given here. Read through these instructions once or twice before you begin working, to give you a feel for the time, stitches, and techniques that will be required.
Puff Stitch Directions
Foundation: Create a foundation chain with an even number of stitches.
Row One: To crochet the first row, take a single crochet stitch into each of the foundation chain stitches made in the previous step. Make 6 chain stitches and turn your work.
Row Two: Bring the yarn over the crochet hook so that the yarn is caught in the hook portion. Make the puff stitch by first inserting the hook into the second single crochet stitch in from the hook. Bring through a 1/2" loop. Repeat this process twice, leaving 7 loops on the hook. Bring the yarn over the hook as you did at the beginning of the step, and pull the 7 loops through. Make 1 chain stitch, and repeat the following stitching sequence until you come to the end of the row: Make two chain stitches. Skip over 2 single crochet stitches, and (as you did above) insert the hook into the second single crochet stitch in from the hook and bring through a 1/2" loop. Repeat this process twice, leaving 7 loops on the hook. Bring the yarn over the hook as you did at the beginning of the step, and pull the 7 loops through. Make 1 chain stitch.
Row Three: Make a single crochet stitch into each chain stitch as well as each puff stitch until you reach the end of the row.
Finish the piece by repeating the instructions for Row Two and Row Three until your swatch is the desired size.
