You can do the stitches, and your panda still has white fluff showing through it. That is the point where it stops looking like a stitching problem and starts looking like a you problem.
The advice you will be given is to crochet tighter. It is the wrong lever, and someone has actually tested it.
And the right lever is one our own product descriptions do not print. We went through all ten kits on this store and read every product description end to end: every one of them lists a "Smooth Crochet Hook" in its contents, and not one of them states what size that hook is, or what the yarn weighs. We checked the Pippy the Panda product photographs, and the number is there.
Amigurumi are the small stuffed crochet figures these kits make. June Gilbank of PlanetJune, who designs them, ran the comparison and put it bluntly: "there's absolutely no advantage to changing the way you crochet when you make amigurumi by working extra-tightly." The thing to change is the hook.
Why the gaps appear at all
Amigurumi are stuffed, and stuffing pushes outwards. So the fabric does not stay the size you crocheted it. It stretches, and every gap between stitches opens up a little.
Stretching is why a fabric which looked fine flat can look full of holes once there is a toy inside it.
Which means the job is to start with a fabric dense enough that stretching it does not open holes. Hook size is what decides that.
What the testing actually showed
Gilbank stretched samples worked at three hook sizes to simulate the effect of stuffing. Her descriptions, in her words:
- At an H hook, 5 mm, the "gaps between the stitches are very noticeable".
- Down at an E hook, 3.5 mm, stuffing "would be far less visible".
- At a C hook, 2.75 mm, the gaps "are almost invisible".
Same yarn and same hands throughout. The only variable was the hook.
Why "crochet tighter" is the wrong instruction
The usual advice costs you something.
Gilbank compared a C-hook sample against an E-hook sample worked at deliberately extra-tight tension. The two came out nearly identical. The smaller hook did the same job that the straining was supposed to do.
So gripping harder buys you a result you could have had from a hook one or two sizes down, and it buys it with hand cramp. She is direct that tension means controlling the yarn, and that squeezing it is a different thing altogether.
If your hands ache, the hook is the thing to change.
How to choose the hook
The rule Gilbank gives is a ceiling rather than a number: use "the smallest size you can manage without starting to have problems from splitting your yarn".
Splitting is the limit that matters. Go too small for the yarn and the hook starts catching individual plies instead of the whole strand, and the work gets slow and messy.
Yarn is graded by weight, which means its thickness. On the Craft Yarn Council's chart worsted is the Medium weight, and light worsted sits one step finer, with DK (double knitting) yarn in the Light category. For light worsted she says she "might go down to a D hook for the best balance of small, tight stitches and not splitting the yarn", and for heavier worsted weights an E hook is her standard. She does not give millimeters for D; on the Craft Yarn Council hook chart a D-3 is 3.25 mm.
One thing the investigation does not address is the hook size printed on the yarn label. Gilbank's rule is about your yarn and your own hands, so the label is not what settles it.
Ten kits on this store, and not one description prints a hook size
We read the store's own product feed, which lists every kit rather than only the ones on the first page. The capture is dated 16 September 2026. Ten kits are listed: Pippy the Panda, Penny the Pig, Polly the Penguin, Polly the Penguin in purple, Pikaa, Pikaa Doo, Pika & Doo-Ball, Doodle & Woody, Squirdoo and Charmandoo.
All ten descriptions run off one template. The template lists a "Smooth Crochet Hook" in the contents while naming no hook size, no yarn weight, no fiber and no yardage. We checked the Charmandoo description in the store's product feed too: it carries a spec block headed "Polly The Penguin Info", so it is one description, reused across all ten kits.
It also explains why this problem keeps happening to people. If the single number that decides whether your stuffing shows is not printed on the page you bought from, you cannot match your next yarn to it, and the first thing you make off-kit comes out gappy.
The size is not in any of the ten descriptions. It is in the Pippy the Panda product photographs: 4.0 mm, molded into the blue grip of the hook, and "4mm crochet hook" on the kit's contents graphic. The molding is blue on blue and small, so the contents graphic on the Pippy the Panda product page is the easier place to read it.
If you are working from the Pippy the Panda kit, the hook is already chosen
It came in the box. The Pippy the Panda kit ships with its own 4.0 mm hook alongside the yarn, the pre-started body yarn, stuffing, eyes, a tapestry needle and stitch markers, so there is no hook to choose on your first attempt.
For scale: Gilbank worked her three samples at 5 mm, 3.5 mm and 2.75 mm, and for worsted amigurumi she recommends the middle one, an E at 3.5 mm. The kit's 4.0 mm sits between her recommendation and her loosest sample: half a millimeter above the hook she says gives a firmer fabric, and a millimeter below the one whose gaps she calls very noticeable.
What we cannot tell you is whether 4.0 mm is right for this kit's yarn. That depends on the yarn's weight, and the kit's description does not give it. So here is the test to apply yourself: work the first few rounds (the rings of stitches the piece is built from), and if the stuffing shows through when you stretch the fabric over it, go down a hook size before you go any further.
Where this matters is the moment you go off-kit. The first time you buy your own yarn and reach for the hook the label suggests, the gaps come back, and it looks like your stitching got worse. It did not. The hook got bigger.
What this does not cover
Hook size is one cause of visible stuffing. How you stuff, and how you close the final round, are separate skills with their own failure modes. Neither has a tested comparison in our sources to match Gilbank's on hooks, so both are left out. Our video on the invisible fasten off deals with the closing.
And Gilbank's millimeter figures above are one person's samples in one yarn. The principle transfers; the exact hook for your yarn is still something you find by trying it.
Frequently asked questions
What size hook comes in a Crochet Buds kit?
Four millimeters, in the Pippy the Panda kit. It is not in the product description. We read all ten kit descriptions on 16 September 2026, and every one lists a "Smooth Crochet Hook" in its contents while none states the size, the yarn weight or the fiber. We read the 4.0 mm in the Pippy product photographs instead: molded into the blue grip of the hook, and printed as "4mm crochet hook" on the kit's contents graphic.
Why does stuffing show through my amigurumi?
Because the fabric stretches when it is stuffed, and any gap between stitches opens up as it does. A fabric worked on a hook that is too large for the yarn has bigger gaps to begin with, so they become visible once there is stuffing behind them.
Should I crochet tighter for amigurumi?
No. PlanetJune's tested comparison found no advantage to working extra-tightly, and found that a smaller hook produced nearly identical results to an extra-tight larger hook, without the hand strain.
What hook size should I use for amigurumi?
The smallest you can work with before the hook starts splitting your yarn instead of catching the whole strand. For light worsted, PlanetJune suggests going down to a D hook (3.25 mm on the Craft Yarn Council's chart); for heavier worsted, an E. Treat those as a starting point rather than a specification. Her own samples were worked at 5 mm, 3.5 mm and 2.75 mm.
Source: Stitch Tension in Amigurumi: an investigation by June Gilbank, PlanetJune, 29 January 2018, read 8 September 2026. The letter hook sizes, the quoted descriptions and the 5 mm, 3.5 mm and 2.75 mm figures are hers, from her own samples.
Written by the Crochet Buds team. If you are starting out, begin with the magic ring, the adjustable starting loop most amigurumi are worked from.