Why Does My Amigurumi Have Holes? How to Close Gaps and Hide the Stuffing
If you can see white stuffing peeking through your amigurumi, the cause is almost always the same thing: your stitches are looser than the yarn needs them to be. A hook that is slightly too big, relaxed tension, or stuffing pushed in too fast will all open up the little windows between stitches. The good news is that every one of those has a simple fix, and none of them mean you are doing crochet wrong.
Here is how to work out which one is happening to you, and what to do about it.
Where the holes are tells you the cause
Before you frog anything, look closely at your piece and match what you see to this list:
- Small gaps spread evenly over the whole piece. Your hook is too big for your yarn, or your tension is loose. This is by far the most common cause.
- One hole right at the very centre of the first round. Your magic ring was never fully cinched shut.
- A single gap exactly where you swapped colours. Normal colour change slack, and easy to close from the inside.
- Gaps that only appeared once you stuffed it. Too much stuffing, pushed in too aggressively.
- A neat line of gaps running up one side. Your increases are stacking in the same column instead of shifting around the round.
Go down a hook size (this fixes most of it)
Amigurumi is the one place in crochet where you deliberately ignore the hook size printed on the yarn label. That label size is chosen for garments and blankets, where drape and softness matter. Stuffed toys need the opposite: a dense, closed fabric that holds its shape and keeps the filling inside.
Drop one or two sizes below the recommended hook and crochet the first few rounds again. The fabric should feel stiff, almost stubborn, and you should not be able to see daylight through it when you hold it up. If your hand is aching, you have gone too tight, so come back up half a size. If you are not sure what size you are starting from, our guide to what hook size beginners should use walks through the whole range.
Every Yon Crochet beginner kit ships with an ergonomic hook already matched to the yarn inside it, so if you are working from a kit, this step is done for you.
Cinch the magic ring properly
A loose starting ring leaves a hole that only gets more obvious once the piece is stuffed and the fabric stretches. After you finish round one, pull the yarn tail firmly until the centre closes completely. Give it a second tug after round three, because the ring often loosens a little as you work. Then weave that tail in well, since a ring can quietly reopen if the tail slips.
Every Yon Crochet beginner kit comes with a pre-started magic ring, so you can skip the trickiest first step in amigurumi entirely and start on round one.
Check which loop you are working into
Working into the front loop only creates a deliberate ridge and a slightly more open fabric. It is a lovely technique when you mean to use it, and a source of mystery gaps when you do not. Look at the top of each stitch: you want your hook going under both strands of the V, not just the one nearest you.
It is also worth confirming your piece has not flipped inside out on you, which happens most often around rounds four to eight. Our guide to telling the right side from the wrong side covers the quick test.
Stuff in small pinches, not handfuls
A big wad of fiberfill pushed hard into a small piece acts like a balloon, forcing the stitches apart from the inside. Instead, tear off pieces roughly the size of a grape and add them one at a time, working them into the corners with the back of your hook.
Firm enough that the piece holds its shape, soft enough that it still gives a little when you squeeze. If the stuffing is visible before you have even closed the piece, take some back out rather than trying to crochet over it. There is more on getting this right in our guide to stuffing amigurumi.
Closing a hole that is already there
If the piece is finished and you would rather not start over, you have options:
- Sew it shut from the inside. Before you close the final round, reach in with your yarn needle and take a few small stitches across the gap using a matching yarn tail. Nobody will ever see them.
- Line the inside with a scrap. A small square of felt or a folded piece of yarn placed behind the gap before stuffing will hide the white filling completely.
- Use darker stuffing. If the yarn is a deep colour, white polyester fill will show through even tiny gaps. A scrap of matching yarn tucked in behind the thin spot solves it instantly.
- Move a detail over it. An ear, an arm, or an embroidered cheek placed over a stubborn gap is a perfectly respectable fix, and one that experienced makers use all the time.
A note on yarn choice
Fuzzy or loosely spun yarns hide gaps, which sounds helpful until you try to count your stitches and cannot find them. A smooth, tightly spun yarn shows every gap honestly while you are learning, which is exactly what you want. Yon Yarn is 68% cotton and 32% nylon and does not split as you work, so your stitches stay clearly defined and easy to count as you go. If you are still deciding, our guide to the best yarn for amigurumi covers the tradeoffs.
Ready to try again with tighter stitches?
Gaps are a tension problem, and tension is the one thing that genuinely improves on its own with practice. Every Yon Crochet beginner kit gives you the matched hook, the pre-started magic ring, stitch markers, safety eyes and stuffing in one box, plus step by step video lessons filmed in both right-hand and left-hand versions so lefties are never mirroring anything in their head. You can also browse our video lessons, or check the FAQ if you have a question we have not answered here.