Jun
okay so here’s how you make a pokeball
I made one of these back in spring 2022 when I was supposed to be studying for like a certification exam but needed something to do with my hands. turned out pretty good actually, gave it to my nephew who was obsessed with pokemon at the time.
So the basic idea is you’re making a sphere in two colors – red and white – with a black stripe in the middle and that little button thing in front. I used Red Heart super saver for mine because that’s what I had lying around, the bright red and white. Some people use amigurumi yarn which is probably smoother but honestly the acrylic works fine and it’s way cheaper.
what you actually need
You’re gonna need red yarn, white yarn, black yarn, and a tiny bit of gray or white for the button. Also stuffing obviously. I use a 3.5mm hook but some patterns say 3.75mm, doesn’t matter that much as long as your stitches are tight enough that the stuffing won’t show through. That’s the main thing.
Oh and you need a yarn needle for sewing it together at the end. And stitch markers help but you can also just use a piece of different colored yarn as a marker like I do half the time.
starting with the white bottom half
Make a magic ring with the white yarn. I do 6 single crochets into the ring to start. Then you’re gonna increase every round for a bit to make it grow into a sphere shape.
Round 2 is 2 sc in each stitch around, so you end up with 12 stitches. Round 3 is increase, sc, repeated – that gives you 18. Round 4 is increase, 2 sc, increase, 2 sc, all the way around for 24 stitches. You see the pattern right?
Keep going like this until you have 54 stitches. That takes like… I think 9 rounds total? The pattern I loosely followed said 54 but honestly anywhere from 48-60 works depending on how big you want it. Mine ended up about the size of a tennis ball maybe slightly smaller.
Once you hit your max number of stitches, you work a few rounds even with no increases. This makes the sides of the sphere. I did like 3 or 4 rounds even.
the annoying black stripe part
Okay so this was the part that annoyed me SO much. You have to switch to black yarn and do exactly one round, but you want it to look clean and not have weird color changes showing. What I did was finish the last white round, then cut the white (leave a tail to weave in later), and join the black yarn.
Do one full round of black single crochet. Just one round. Then you’re gonna switch to red but here’s the thing – if you just start with red, the color change looks messy on one side. So I actually started the red yarn by pulling it through on the last stitch of black, if that makes sense? Like you insert hook, pull up the black loop, then grab the red yarn and pull through both loops to complete the stitch.
Some people do slip stitches for color changes but I never really figured that out properly so whatever works for you honestly.
red top half time
Switch to your red yarn – I used Red Heart again, just the regular red. Now you’re basically doing the white section in reverse. Do a few rounds even first (matching however many you did on the white part), then start decreasing.
Decreases are just invisible decreases, or regular sc2tog if you don’t care about it being perfect. Insert hook in first stitch, insert in second stitch, yarn over and pull through both, yarn over and pull through all the loops. That’s one decrease.
You’re gonna mirror your increases basically. So if you did increase, 8 sc pattern before, now you do decrease, 8 sc. The rounds get smaller and smaller.
IMPORTANT – start stuffing before you close it up completely. I always forget this step and then have to try shoving stuffing through a tiny hole which is a pain. When you get down to like maybe 18-24 stitches left, start adding your polyfil or whatever stuffing you use. Pack it pretty firm so the ball keeps its shape and doesn’t get all lumpy.
My cat kept trying to steal the stuffing while I was doing this btw, had to lock her out of the room.
Keep decreasing until you have like 6-8 stitches left, stuff it really full, then close up the hole. I just do a few decreases then pull the yarn tail through all the remaining stitches and cinch it tight, then weave in the end.
making the center button thing
This is optional but it makes it actually look like a pokeball instead of just a random red and white ball. You need to make a small circle and a slightly bigger circle.
For the small circle use white or light gray – magic ring with 6 sc, then increase all around for 12 stitches. Finish off and leave a long tail.
For the outer ring use black. Magic ring with 6 sc, increase all around to 12, then one more round of increase every other stitch for 18 total. Or you could do it bigger if you want, I’ve seen people do different sizes. Finish off with a long tail.
Actually now that I think about it some people crochet around a button or a plastic ring to make it more structured but I just did it flat and it worked fine.
assembly which is always tedious
Position your button pieces in the center front of the pokeball, right over where the black stripe is. The white circle goes on top of the black circle obviously. Pin them in place if you have pins, or just hold them and hope for the best.
Thread your yarn needle with the tail from the white circle and sew it onto the black circle. I just do a whip stitch around the edge. Then use the black circle’s tail to sew the whole thing onto the pokeball. Make sure it’s centered on the black stripe or it looks weird.
Weave in all your ends and you’re done basically. I was watching some true crime thing while doing this part because the sewing is boring and doesn’t require much attention.
alternative methods I’ve seen
Some people make the pokeball in two separate halves and then sew them together instead of making it all in one piece. That might give you a cleaner black stripe actually, because you’d crochet the black stripe as an edge on each half. I haven’t tried it that way though.
There’s also flat pokeball patterns where you make two circles and sew them together like a coin purse kind of thing. Those are faster but don’t look as good in my opinion, they’re more like… I dunno, decorative wall hanging style rather than a actual 3D ball.
Oh and I’ve seen people use safety eyes for the button which is kind of clever, like the ones you’d use for amigurumi animals. You’d put the safety eye in before you finish stuffing the ball, and it gives it a nice raised button look. Might try that next time.
trouble shooting common problems
If your pokeball is coming out lumpy or misshapen, you’re probably not increasing evenly enough. Make sure you’re using a stitch marker to track where each round starts and ends. It’s easy to lose track and accidentally do increases in the wrong spots.
If the stuffing shows through the stitches, either use a smaller hook or crochet tighter. Your stitches should be pretty tight for amigurumi-style stuff. Some people go down to a 3mm hook with worsted weight yarn to get a really tight fabric.
If your color changes look sloppy, try doing the last stitch of the old color with the new color like I mentioned earlier. Or look up jogless stripes tutorial on youtube because there’s definitely better explanations than what I can write out here.
The black stripe being wonky is probably the most common issue. It should be one round of black but sometimes it shifts or spirals because of how crochet works in the round. You can either accept it (it’s handmade, it doesn’t have to be perfect) or you can try joining each round with a slip stitch and then chaining one to start the next round, which makes it more even but also more visible where the rounds connect, so pick your poison I guess.
what yarn actually works best
Like I said I used Red Heart Super Saver which is the basic acrylic yarn you can get anywhere. It’s cheap and it works. The colors are bright which is good for pokemon stuff. I think I also used some Caron Simply Soft once for a different pokeball and that worked fine too, maybe slightly softer feeling.
If you want to get fancy, Paintbox Yarns cotton aran is really nice and comes in good colors. I haven’t used it for a pokeball specifically but I’ve used it for other amigurumi and it has a nice smooth finish. Scheepjes Catona is another good cotton option but it’s thinner so you’d need to adjust your hook size.
Honestly just use whatever you have. The yarn police aren’t gonna come after you for using acrylic instead of cotton.
sizing variations
You can make these any size really. For a smaller one like keychain size, start with fewer stitches in your magic ring and don’t increase as many rounds. Maybe max out at 30 or 36 stitches instead of 54.
For a bigger one you could max out at 72 or even more stitches. I saw someone make one that was like the size of a soccer ball once which is honestly kind of excessive but it looked cool. Would take forever though and use so much stuffing.
The pattern is basically the same no matter what size, you’re just adjusting how many rounds of increases you do and how big your final circle gets before you start working even and then decreasing.
other pokeball variations
Once you figure out the basic pokeball you can make other types too. Great ball is blue and red with the red triangular sections on top – that one’s more complicated because of the color work but same basic sphere shape. Ultra ball is black and yellow with a yellow H shape which is definitely harder to execute.
I tried to make a master ball once with the purple and pink/magenta colors but the color changes for the pattern on top were really difficult and I kinda gave up halfway through, it’s still sitting in my UFO pile actually. Maybe I’ll finish it someday or maybe it’ll just live there forever with all the other projects I started and abandoned.
Premier ball is just white with a red stripe which is actually easier than the regular pokeball since you don’t have to do as much color changing.
Timer ball, dusk ball, luxury ball – there’s so many types and theoretically you could make any of them with the same basic sphere technique, just different color patterns. Most of them would require more advanced color work though.
Anyway that’s basically everything I know about making a crochet pokeball. It’s a pretty satisfying project because it works up quick – took me maybe 2-3 hours total including the button and assembly. Good for using up scrap yarn too if you have red and white and black bits lying around. Makes a decent gift for pokemon fans or just a fun desk decoration thing.
