Boba crochet pattern — 36 rounds in one continuous spiral, straw to base
A free boba crochet pattern for a sealed cup about 14 cm tall including the straw and about 9 cm across the lid, worked on a 4.0 mm hook in five colours, around three hours. Two rounds do all the structural work — round 8 goes into the front loops of the straw and doubles nine stitches into eighteen so the lid can open out sideways, and round 14 goes into the back loops and pulls forty-eight down to forty-two, turning the lid over into the wall of the cup. All 36 rounds are written out below, each carrying the count it ends on, and not one of them is sewn to another.
Maths verified, not yet made. Every one of the 36 rounds was checked against the round before it by machine — the counts, the increases and the decreases all add up. What nobody can promise you yet is how it sits in the hand.How we check
6 of 8 checks ran on 2026-09-04
- 1 format and stitch chainscripts/validate.py — 113 patterns, all counts chain.
- 2 catalogue auditscripts/audit-patterns.py — 113 audited, 0 errors, 66 warnings.
- 3 geometrygeometry-check.py — 113 checked, 0 errors, 4 warnings.
- 5 not a duplicate113 distinct display names across 113 patterns
- 6c target on the recordseo.headKeyword, confidence and demand present and cross-checked by scripts/validate.py
- 8 page readinessscripts/check-completeness.py --gate — 0 required fields missing, 114 editorial flags, 0 unearned claims.
Not yet checked
- 4 render matches the pattern — no image has been compared against its own prompt, so a render showing a piece the rounds do not make would not be caught here. Nothing has counted how many do.
- 6a recognisability — provenance.recognisability is empty in every pattern, so there is no feature list to check the parts against.
Why it is rated Medium
Medium for the two loop-direction rounds and the pearls: rounds 25 to 29 carry black behind the beige and change colour twelve times in a single round of forty-two stitches.
Sell what you make. Anything you crochet from this pattern is yours to sell — any quantity, no fee, no credit required.
00
00What you need before you start
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What you need before you start
Yarn — five colours, all weight 4
~40 gWorsted / aran cotton or acrylic, CYC 4
~8 gWorsted / aran cotton or acrylic, CYC 4
~12 gWorsted / aran cotton or acrylic, CYC 4
~6 gWorsted / aran cotton or acrylic, CYC 4
scrapsWorsted / aran cotton or acrylic, CYC 4, split to two plies for embroidery
Tools
5 you probably own, 2 to buyYou likely have
Tapestry needle
Scissors
Stitch markers
Pins
A chopstick or knitting needle for pushing stuffing down into the cup
You need to buy
Polyester stuffing (~40 g)
One pipe cleaner, about 10 cm, to keep the straw standing
Optional
A stitch marker in a contrast colour for the round start
A yarn bobbin for the black, so the carried strand does not tangle
Gauge and finished size
the last check before you cast onTension
Work tight enough that the stuffing cannot show between stitches. Gauge is not critical — a looser hand gives a taller cup on the same counts.
Finished size
~14 cm tall including the straw, ~9 cm across the lid
The straw needs a pipe cleaner or a length of stiff wire inside it to stand up; without one it leans. A smaller hook gives a firmer cup, which matters more here than the finished size does.
How to make the boba milk tea, piece by piece
Switching rewrites every round:US9 sc in mrUK9 dc in mrWork a US sc as a UK single crochet and the fabric comes out looser and taller.
1
01The straw and lid
Seven rounds of nine stitches make the straw. Then round 8 goes into…13 RNDS
starts in strawBlack· magic ring· Piece 1 of 2
First six rounds[9] [9] [9] [9] [9] [9]
The straw
RND 1–71[9]
2[9]
3[9]
4[9]
5[9]
6[9]
7[9]
The lid opening out
RND 8–138[18]
9[24]
10[30]
11[36]
12[42]
13[48]
US termsmrmagic ringscsingle crochetincincreasedecdecreaseFLOfront loop onlyBLOback loop onlyst(s)stitch, or stitches
When this piece is doneDo not fasten off. The cup carries straight on from these forty-eight stitches, so leave the loop on the hook.
2
02The cup
Round 14 works into the back loops of the last round and pulls in six…23 RNDS
starts in milkTeaBeige· picked up· Piece 2 of 2
First six rounds[42] [42] [42] [42] [42] [42]
Turning down into the cup
RND 1–114[42]
Straight sides
RND 2–1115[42]
16[42]
17[42]
18[42]
19[42]
20[42]
21[42]
22[42]
23[42]
24[42]
The tapioca pearls
RND 12–1625[42]
26[42]
27[42]
28[42]
29[42]
Straight sides again
RND 17–1830[42]
31[42]
Closing the flat base
RND 19–2332[35]
33[28]
34[21]
35[14]
36[7]
US termsmrmagic ringscsingle crochetincincreasedecdecreaseFLOfront loop onlyBLOback loop onlyst(s)stitch, or stitches
When this piece is doneCinch the last seven stitches closed with the tapestry needle and lose the tail inside. Then embroider the face and give the cup a squeeze to even the stuffing out.
You are here
Nine notes on the boba milk tea
Read themClose
01An original Crochet Genie design.
02Worked in one continuous spiral from the tip of the straw down to the base of the cup. Nothing is sewn to anything.
03Round 8 is worked into the front loops of round 7 only. It is still nine increases — nine stitches in, eighteen out — so it counts as an ordinary increase round. The nine back loops left free become the collar where the straw meets the lid.
04Round 14 is worked into the back loops of round 13 only. Again nothing changes about the counting: forty-eight stitches in, forty-two out. The free front loops of round 13 stand up as the lip of the lid.
05The lid grows six stitches a round from an eighteen-stitch start, so it domes gently instead of lying flat. That is what a sealed cup lid does.
06Rounds 25 to 29 carry black through the beige for six tapioca pearls. Carry the colour you are not using loosely along the inside — pulled tight it puckers the cup wall.
07Slide the pipe cleaner into the straw before you reach round 20, while the cup is still open, and bend the bottom end flat so it does not poke through.
08Stuff the cup firmly as you work rounds 32 to 36. Once the round is down to twenty-one stitches you cannot reach the middle.
09The face goes on last, in charcoal: two small eyes on the cup wall around round 20, a short curved mouth between them, and a blush oval on each side. Embroidered rather than safety eyes, so it stays safe for a small child.
Four questions this pattern answers
Not questions anybody asked. Each one is written from this pattern's own record, and every answer is read off the fields it names.
How is the colour worked into the boba milk tea?
How much yarn will the boba milk tea take?
What hook will the boba milk tea need, and what is the finished size?
How long will the boba milk tea take to crochet?
A round that will not add up?
Tell us the piece and the round number — the stepper already knows where you are.There is nowhere to send one yet.
Put the laptop down mid-round
The iPhone app keeps your place — piece of 2, round of — and hands it back where you left it.
