8 Tips for Crocheting with Bouclé Yarn

Don’t you just love the look of a crocheted garment made using bouclé yarn? While wearing said item is cozy and snuggly and pleasant, crocheting said item may not be. Here are my top 8 tips for crocheting with bouclé yarn.

Bouclé Yarn Best Practices:

1. Keep it simple. I’ve found that if using bouclé yarn with a traditional crochet pattern, keeping the stitches simple is the way to go. Single crochet is the best stitch to use. Any fancier stitch or textured stitch will lose all definition with this yarn. Save yourself the headache and start with simple stitches, such as single crochet or maybe half double crochet.

2. Use plenty of stitch markers. Stitch markers help to easily show the first stitch or the last stitch of a row, or mark a certain row number, or they can be used to mark the right side vs wrong side of the fabric. It can be very difficult to tell right side from wrong side so using a marker to indicate the right side when you start the project will help significantly.

3. Don’t use too small of a crochet hook. It is imperative that you can see the main loop of the yarn (the nylon cord portion) and if your stitches are too small this is nearly impossible. I find that with traditional crochet I need to go up at least one hook size, possibly two.

4. Stay a bit loose. Let the fuzzy loops of the bouclé yarn help to dictate how large the stitches are and let them settle into place. The fuzzy loops are fairly consistent so it helps your stitch size to be, too.

5. Take your time! Mastering your tension and staying consistent with sizing of your loops is key. Don’t rush the process or you’ll find yourself fighting the process in the meantime.

6. Try Tunisian if you can! I’ve found that not only do the Tunisian stitches lay flatter and the loops are easier to see, but the project requires MUCH less yarn. This makes for a lighter weight garment as well, which I always love. I caution you to stay loose on the backward pass lest the project start to narrow in on you.

7. Use a light pad. If you are crafty in other areas you may already own a light pad, say for weeding vinyl cut on your Cricut machine.

8. Frog carefully. While frogging (ripping out) your project is never fun, doing so with bouclé can be doubly tiresome.

Here are some tips for frogging bouclé yarn:

Don’t yank. Never pull the yarn tight while frogging, this promotes bunching of the smaller bouclé loops and may snap the yarn.

Keep the fabric you’re frogging taut. If you hold the width of the piece and pull gently to spread the loops open frogging goes much easier. It may be super helpful if you have a second (or third!) person to help hold it while you wind the yarn back into a ball.