2018 CAL – Year of the Stitches Blanket – Page 19

Year of the Stitches – Week 16 Pike Stitch

Pike Stitch

Well, what a lovely week. Been rather sad that my little lady has gone back to school, but she has settled back in really well, so that’s good. I’ve had a mega busy week with crocheting. Feel like I have got one hundred and one jobs on the go at the minute and they all seem to be needing to finished very soon!! I seem to have made a serious amount of slipper socks this week. They seem to be coming out of my ears!!

I’ve put the finishing touches on the children’s pattern, so will be posting that soon. Seems funny publishing it with the weather being so nice this week. But I think some of you might want to get ahead with presents and the oncoming Christmas craziness.

All my slipper socks have been made up in the fabulous West Yorkshire Spinners yarn! It’s so lovely to work with and the colour mixes are mega! Look at this one!!

The children’s pattern is for 4 different sizes, so hopefully you will find a size you need. I have borrowed a few children’s feet for drawing around, to work out sizes and scales of patterns, so big thank you to all the little bods! Very much appreciated!! I love making the children’s ones as they are ridiculously quick to make up.

I have also started a new shawl for a present. Really chuffed with how it’s going. Sadly I have had to lay done my own two shawls as this one is needed for the middle of May! Ekk! That birthday is fast approaching, but hopefully I will do it in time. I’m going to use my seaside shawl pattern, so it will be nice to see the finished product in a different yarn and colour. This one is from Araucania and it’s the Botany Lace range it’s extra fine merino wool so I am using a 3.5mm hook. I bought this from the fabulous shop at Curborough called The Knitting Corner. Another little haven of yarn that I like to visit!! They were so helpful when I wasn’t sure what to get for the shawl and what colours! My son had a lovely time babbling to the knit and natter group they have there! Definitely worth a visit if you’re in the area!

As it’s my birthday next week, I managed a sneaky trip to a new shop called Sitting Knitting in Mere Green yesterday. I have been longing to go there ever since I was told about it. My girl and I were dropped off for a quick nip in, while the boys stayed in the car. So I knew I only had a little time, but gosh it was worth it. Wow! They have some beautiful yarns in there and they even dye their own yarn which is incredible. Can’t wait to go back and explore some more. As it was my birthday I bought these three to make another shawl for myself. I know I might not get to make it for a while, but will be lovely to when I do. It’s a mix of mulberry silk, baby alpaca and extra fine merino wool and it’s from the Mirasolperu company, Sulka Legato from Peru. It is a rather luxurious yarn from the Peruvian Highlands. So pretty mega. Can’t wait to get stuck into it. We did end up buying some buttons too, as my daughter has been collecting them since she was about two!!

So onto this weeks stitch. It’s a fab one called the Pike Stitch. It creates quite a loose weave, which would be wonderful for a throw or a blanket.

It uses quite an unusual stitch called the extended double crochet, which basically means that it is going to be taller than the chains from the previous row. I really hope you like it. I can definitely see me using it in a blanket one day.

Supplies –

Right so this week I have chosen a wonderful dusty pink yarn. This time of year the trees are usually full of the beautiful pink and white blossom. Today I walked back home and found our beautiful tree in front of the house covered in little pink buds!! Yey!! Here comes spring. Can’t wait to see it in full bloom.

The yarn is from the wonderful Wendy range of 100% merino wool bought from our lovely local wool shop, Knitique. It’s a lovely little shop in Tudor row. They have the full range in there. I used this wool for my husband’s scarf that I made for him for Christmas. It’s ever so warm and soft. They also have my all time favourite yarn, Sublime, with every colour you can imagine! So it’s always a firm favourite place to visit when i’m in town. So as usual I have used about 30g of this DK yarn, but you can use any kind of DK yarn you wish. You will need your 4mm hook, scissors and a blunt ended tapestry needle.

Stitches –

Chain stitch (ch) – To make a chain, place the yarn over the hook then pull it through the loop on your hook.

Double Crochet (dc) – Right so insert your hook into your stitch, yarn over your hook and pull back through. (2 loops) Then yarn over your hook and pull through both loops on your hook.

Extended Double Crochet (exdc) – Ok so insert you hook through the stitch, wrap your yarn around your hook and pull through the stitch, now yarn around your hook and pull through the first loop only. (2 loops) Now wrap your yarn around your hook and pull it through both the loops. So you now have 1 loop left on your hook.

Ok so here we go …

1 – Ok so we are starting on the right side again. Attach your new yarn and chain 1. Then work 1dc in the same stitch. Then chain 1, miss a stitch and work 1 extended double crochet in the next stitch. (exdc) Ok so to crochet a exdc, insert your hook into the stitch and yarn over hook, pull through (2 loops) then yarn over your hook again and pull through 1 loop (2 loops). Then yarn over your hook again and pull through both loops. This completes your first exdc.

Now *chain 1, miss a stitch and work 1 exdc* and repeat ** across the row. (200)

2 – Ok so turn your blanket and chain 1 and work 1exdc into the same stitch. Now chain 1 and miss a (1 exdc & 1ch) stitch.

Ok so now work *1exdc into the next exdc stitch, chain 1 and miss 1 chain.* Repeat ** to the end of your row ending with 1exdc second chain 3. (200)

3 – So you are going to repeat row 2. So turn your blanket and chain 1 and work 1exdc into the same stitch. Now chain 1 and miss a (1 exdc & 1ch) stitch. Ok so now work *1exdc into the next exdc stitch, chain 1 and miss 1 chain.* Repeat ** to the end of your row ending with 1exdc second chain 3. (200)

4 – And once again you are going to repeat row 2. turn your blanket and chain 1 and work 1exdc into the same stitch. Now chain 1 and miss a (1 exdc & 1ch) stitch. Ok so now work *1exdc into the next exdc stitch, chain 1 and miss 1 chain.* Repeat ** to the end of your row ending with 1exdc second chain 3. (200)

And there you have it – the pike stitch. It’s a beauty isn’t it! Can’t wait to try it out on a blanket. I reckon it would be lovely in different coloured rows.

I hope you have enjoyed this week Year of the Stitches Instalment. Please let me know if you need any help with anything.

Happy hooking everyone.

🌈Xx

Year of the Stitches – Week 15 Floret Stitch

Floret Stitch

Well hello everyone!! Hope you have all had a good week. It’s been our last week of the Easter holidays and we’ve definitely had some fun. I have loved having my girl at home with me!! We have not ventured out much, but made the most of no school runs!! It’s been great spending time with her, whilst the little one is asleep! You can’t beat a bit of painting or lego building, but it does seems to end up that I do the building and she plays with the bits I’ve finished! Haha, I don’t mind to be honest!!

We’ve had a rather successful week of finding smile stones. Not sure if you have heard of them, but they are great fun. They are painted stones that are being hidden mainly in Staffordshire, but I think all over the country now, you can find them and publish them on their Facebook page! Can’t wait to make our own!

So my lovely friend’s daughter came up to me the other day with the outline of her foot. It was so sweet. I said I would write the pattern for children’s slipper socks for her Mum to crochet! I have already made my daughter some, so just needed to adapt the pattern. Hoping to share the pattern on here soon. It’s going to have 3 sizes ranging from a 9 to a size 3. It will then link on to the adults slipper sizes. My niece is a size 3, which is lucky, so making her a pair. Loving the colours from the amazing West Yorkshire Spinners range. Think these are going to be the watermelon design!!

Right so we had better get onto the blanket. This week it is a beautiful stitch called the Floret Stitch. It’s combines different heights of stitches to create a pretty cool pattern! It’s usually made up of two different rows, so if you ever use it for something else, make sure you have an even number of rows.

Supplies –

So this week I have carried on with the seaside theme and used a light grey, hopefully resembling where the water breaks into waves. The wool I have used is from a lovely range called Millamia. It’s merino wool and is incredibly soft and lovely to work with. Hoping to use more of it in the blanket.

As always I have used about 30/40g of double knit wool. Remember you can use any kind of yarn, just make sure it’s double knit weight. Don’t forget your blunt ended tapestry needle and scissors.

Stitches –

Chain stitch (ch) – To make a chain, place the yarn over the hook then pull it through the loop on your hook.

Slip stitch (ss) – This is where there is no height to the stitch. It’s usually used to join rounds. So insert the hook into the front of the stitch you are joining to. This is usually the first stitch you made in that round/row. So yarn over hook and pull through that first stitch then also through the loop on your hook.

Treble (tr) – To make a treble crochet, firstly yarn over your hook, insert through space/stitch, yarn over your hook, pull back through space/stitch. There should now be 3 loops on your hook. Then yarn over hook and pull through the first two loops, yarn over hook and pull through the last two loops.

Decrease by 2 treble crochet (2trtog) – So start off by yarn over your hook, then insert into the stitch. Yarn over your hook and pull through. (3 loops) then yarn over your hook and pull through the first 2 loops then yarn over your hook and insert through the next stitch, yarn over your hook and pull through. (4 loops) Then yarn over and pull through the first 2, then yarn over your hook and pull through the last 3 loops.

Ok so here we go …

1 – So you are starting with your blanket on the right side. Attach your new yarn and chain 3. Then work 1tr into the same stitch. Now during this row, we are going to reduce the stitch count again to the original 200 stitches. So we need to reduce it by 3 stitches. So you are going to work a 2trtog at the beginning of the row, one in the middle and one at the end. So firstly work 1 2trtog stitch and then carry on with 1tr in each stitch. If you are unsure of how to work a 2trtog stitch, please refer to the stitch information above.

Once you are roughly in the middle of the blanket, work your second 2trtog stitch. Once again carry on working 1tr stitches into your row. Finally with 3 stitches to go, work the last 2trtog stitch and then finally work 1tr in the last stitch. This finishes your first row and your stitch count is now back to 200. (200)