A step by step tutorial on the bobble stitch knitting pattern
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- Knitted Lace of Estonia: amzn.to/3otN7yb
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The bobble stitch is a lovely technique to add structure and a kind of 3-dimensionality to your knitting. In this video, I’ll not only show you how to knit the standard technique but also a total of 5 different alternative ways to do the bobble stitch and how to knit bigger and smaller versions.
One thing ahead: There is not THE bobble stitch and THE one method to knit it. Rather it’s just a more general classification for all kinds of knitting techniques that end up looking like a bobble.
Instructions
You start by knitting up to the position you want to place your bobble.
And then you knit a kfbf - knit front back front into that stitch. This will increase your stitch count by 2 so you end up with 3 stitches on your right needle. Here’s my kfb tutorial: nimble-needles.com/stitches/h...
And from here, things are pretty straight forward. You turn your work around, and then purl across. And then you turn around again and knit across those three stitches. And then, you turn around again, and purl across one more time. And then you turn around one last time, and now you need to decrease these three stitches into one. The best way is with a centered double decrease or k3tog centered: nimble-needles.com/stitches/h...
Here are some tips and tricks and here they are.
So, instead of increasing with kfbf, which can be a bit harder to knit at times, you can also increase by knit, yarnover, and knit into the same stitch again. This version is probably a tiny bit easier but I feel it’s less neat.
And likewise, some tutorials will show you the final decrease as a standard k3tog. Personally, I don’t see why this makes sense. First of all, it’s more difficult to knit. But also, it’s a slanted decrease and will look less neat.
You can easily knit the bobbles in different sizes as well
For a 4 stitch bobble, You start by knitting a knit front back front like before and then go into the back one more time so you end up with 4 stitches instead of just three. And then you turn around, purl, turn around, knit, turn around purl again.
The only mildly difficult part are the decreases. As before, you start by slipping 2 stitches knitwise, then you knit one. And then again, you pass the two stitches over. But now, you have to slip the resulting stitch back to the left needle and then pass this one stitch here over again, and you are finished.
And, of course, you can also do a 5 stitch bobble. You start by increasing to 5 stitches. So, knit, yo, knit, yo, knit. 5 stitches. And then you purl one row, knit one row, and purl one more row. And the decrease works just the same. Slip 2, k1, pass 2 over, slip to left needle, and pass 2 stitches over.
You can also knit garter stitch bobbles. Since garter stitch behaves a bit differently, I suggest you knit them like this:
Increase to 5 stitches any way you like. And then turn around and knit across. And now we decrease directly from here after only one row: K2tog, slip to the left needle, and then pass the remaining stitches over one at a time. Of course, if you want bigger bobbles, you can also add two more rows in garter stitch before you decease.
Now, this is certainly not all. You can also replace bobbles with the Estonian nupp stitch.
And then, you can also add bobbles with a crochet hook. I really like this version because it does not require you to turn the work around a couple of times. You start by adding 3 chain stitches through the stitch you want to place the bobble. And then you add a triple crochet. But here’s the important bit, you keep the final loop on your needles. And then you add three more triple crochets until you got 5 stitches on your hook. And then you crochet them together. And that’s how you crochet bobbles to your knitting.
Feel free to comment in case you got any questions on how to do the bobble stitch knitting pattern.
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