Bobble Crochet Pattern

I learned how to crochet when I was a young girl but all the projects I attempted usually ended in tears and wonky scarves or leaper bandages that were 3 inches long. But when my best friends mom started crocheting amazing blankets it inspired me to pick up a hook and give it another go.

Can I just say thank heavens for YouTube! There are thousands of videos on crocheting and I have learned so much! I have learned stitches I never knew existed and I may or may not now be hoarding yarn in our spare room. The poor Dr. probably wonders what happened to his hot young wife. Now she sits on the couch crocheting with her bags of yarn piled on the coffee table and goes to bed at 9 PM (that is partially because of Seminary but still).

30 balls of yarn in one trip to Michael's. What? They were all on sale.
Help me, I can't stop!

I will probably post some pictures later of all my recent projects but for now I want to talk about the bobble blankie I am making. I had such a hard time finding a good pattern for this and in the end I just patched together a bunch of things to make my own and so far it's working for me. I think this pattern is sometimes called the blackberry salad stitch but you can find it as the bobble stitch too.

The best YouTube tutorial I found for the double chain 5 together stitch that creates the individual bobbles is this one. I love the New Stitch a Day channel! I also found this blog post that was the inspiration for my blankie but her instructions aren't that clear and I had to do a lot of other digging to really figure it out. So without further ado here is my version of the Bobble Stitch pattern.

SC= Single crochet
dc5tog= bobble

Chain any odd number- for a 40" wide baby blanket I chained 101.

Row 1: SC in each stitch starting with the the second chain from your hook. Turn and chain one. This row of single crochets adds a little bit of extra foundation to the blanket and helps the first row of bobbles sit more nicely rather than curl under.

Row 2: SC in the first stitch, *dc5tog in next stitch, SC. Repeat all the way across from *. When you get to the end of your row your repeat should end with the SC in the last stitch of row 1. Change colors if desired and chain one to turn. Be sure to pull your yarn tight after each dc5tog stitch to make the bobble nice and round before stitching your SC between.

Row 3: SC all the way across to create the foundation for your next row. Chain one to turn.

Row 4: SC in first two stitches, *dc5tog in the next stitch, SC. Continue all the way across. You will end this row with an extra SC in the last stitch. Change colors if desired and Chain one to turn.

**The two SC at each end of row 4 means there will be one less bobble in this row than row 2. Your bobble rows should alternate between having one SC on each end and 2 SC on each end. This will help your bobbles offset so they aren't stacked on top of each other.*

Row 5: SC all the way across to create the foundation for your next row. Chain one to turn.

Repeat rows 2-5 until you reach your desired size. I will probably end my blanket with a row of SC and then do a border of some sort but I haven't decided yet. It does take a lot more time to crochet this blanket since there are so many stitches in each bobble. I also have no clue how much yarn it's going to take me but I will update this post when I finish.

Here are a few helpful pictures to help things make sense:

See how the row ends alternate with one SC and then two SC

This is what your blanket will look like from the back

When working your foundation SCs for each row you will be working from the front

When you are working on the bobble rows you will work from the back of the blanket and they will poke out to the front.  Be sure to pull the dc5tog stitches tight before adding your SC between- it helps the bobbles be more round.

Let me know if this doesn't make sense or if you need some clarification and good luck!

This is what mine is looking like so far