A Remembrance Poppy

There aren’t really any words to describe the sheer sadness of all the lives that have been lost in wars and the brutality of the life that has been taken away from so many. We all live our busy lives and all have our own problems and woes. But for one day each year we remember. We remember those who have fought for us. Who have been to war for us and those you have lost their lives for us. One day when we remember them…

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old. Age shall not weary them. Not the years condemn. At the going down of the sun and in the morning. We will remember them. Lest we forget. 

Our Remembrance Day on Sunday and Armistice Day on Monday always makes us remember and take the time to thank those who fought and given their lives for us. And for that reason I have made this little pattern for a poppy. I hope you like it. I have been asked a few times if I sell them, but alas I seem to always be running low on time to make theme But I hope next year, to make as many as I can and give them to my daughter to sell and donate the money to the Poppy Appeal. Think it might be my New Years Resolution!! One poppy a week. Definitely do able!

Anyways, so let’s get down to business.

Supplies –

For each poppy, you will need a little bit of red, black and green double knit yarn. You will also need some scissors, a safety pin and blunt ended needle. And don’t forget a safety pin so that you can attach it. If it’s for a child, you can always leave a little yarn tail to tie it to a coat. I did this for my son. Daren’t Trust him with a safety pin!! Ekk!!

Stitches –

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.

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

Magic Ring – Fold over the yarn to make the loop. Insert your hook through the loop and grab the working yarn (long piece) and pull through the loop. Hold the tail and the working yarn and pull so that the knot tightens, but you still have a loop. This has created a magic ring.

Half treble (htr) – A half treble crochet is basically one less movement than a treble. So yarn over hook, insert through space/stitch, yarn over hook, pull back through space/stitch. There should be 3 loops on your hook. Then yarn over hook and pull through all 3 loops.

Double Crochet (dc) – Insert the hook through the stitch, front to back, then yarn over hook and pull back through stitch. You will have two loops on your hook. Then yarn over your hook and pull through both loops.

Ok so here we go…

1 – Start with your black yarn and make a magic ring. Then chain 1 and work 6dc stitches into the ring. Finish by pulling the tail tight to create the ring. (6)

2 – Now work 2dc in each stitch in the round and finish by ss into the first stitch. Fasten off your black yarn. (12)

First Petal –

3 – Now change to your red yarn and attach into any of the dc stitches. Then ch1 and work 1dc in the next 6 stitches and then ss into the last stitch of your 6 stitches. This is the start of your first petal. (6)

4 – Turn your poppy and work *1dc, then 2dc in the next stitch.* Repeat this ** 3 times. Ss into the last stitch. (9)

5 – Turn your poppy and work *2tr, then 2tr in the next stitch.* Repeat this ** 3 times. Ss in the last stitch. (12)

6 – Turn your poppy and work 1dc in each stitch. Ss in last stitch. (12)

Second Petal –

7 – Now you are going to work the other petal. So ss into the first black stitch and work 1dc in the last 6 stitches. Ss in the next stitch, which is the bottom part of the first red stitch you made In the first petal. (6)

8 – Turn your poppy and work *1dc, then 2dc in the next stitch.* Repeat this ** 3 times. Ss into the last stitch. (9)

9 – Turn your poppy and work 1dc in each stitch. Ss in the last stitch. Now ss in the bottom of the first stitch on the other petal, then fasten off your red yarn. (9)

Now sew in your black ends in the centre of your poppy using your needle. Now with the red yarn ends, use these to first sew up the sides of the poppy petals back down to the centre of the petal, this will help to keep the petal shape. You can see in the photo below how I am picking the top stitch of the petal and then in the photo below that, sewing it back to the centre of the poppy.

Now use the two ends to sew on your safety pin to your poppy and then fasten off each end.

Leaf –

Start by chaining 10. Then work 1dc in the 2nd chain from the hook. Then work 1dc, 1htr, 1tr, 2tr in the next stitch, 1tr, 1htr, 1dc and then finally 1dc. That will take you to the end of the foundation chain.

Now you are going to work up the other side of the foundation chain. So in the second chain work 1dc, then 1dc, 1htr, 1tr, 2tr in the next stitch, 1tr, 1htr, 1dc, 1dc then finish by working a ss into the last stitch. Now fasten off leaving a tail to sew your leaf to the poppy. Sew your other little end into your leaf and the longer one you can use to sew your leaf on to your poppy.

And there we have it. Your little poppy. I hope you have enjoyed this pattern. My little lady had me making them for the whole family & all your friends, bless her! She even reminded them to donate their money when they saw a poppy penny box. Bless.

Anyways, happy hooking chaps.

🌈Xx

(Free pattern designed and brought to you by PipsRainbow. Thank you for not copying or recreating it. ☺️Xx)

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Wrist warmers

As the nights are drawing in and the clocks have been turned back for another year, I thought it was about time I shared this cosy pattern for my wrist warmers. As patterns go, it is decidedly simple!!! So great for a snuggly night in, in front of the fire with a cuppa & a hook in your hand. The stitch I have used is a lovely little number called the Crossed Treble Stitch. So as long as you know how to work a treble, then you can work a crossed treble stitch. Some of you might recognise it from my Year Of The Stitches CAL Blanket from last year. Really hope you like this one.

For these wrist warmers I have used some utterly wonderful 4ply yarn from the incredible Abby over at Luxury Yarns. It was part of my September Ōilyarns Club which I subscribe to every 2 months.

It’s a mega Yarn club where Abby sends you some of her amazing hand dyed yarn and a little bottle of the wonderful essential Dōterra oils, which has all sorts of uses and benefits. Abby usually adds a little treat in there too!! So it’s well worth a peak at her website if you fancy joining. Here’s a link to her website.

https://luxuryyarns.co.uk/oilyarns-club/

Now, I think I had better own up to my little yarny mishap that I had with this rather special yarn. So when my lovely yummy yarn arrived on my door step, it was a beautiful skein of heaveness. So being in a skein I would usually get my husband to help me make it into a ball with my yarn winder. (It’s a 2 man job!) But me being me, thought hey, I could just do it by hand. Not a problem. I’ve done it before!! So I started hand winding, whilst wondering around the house after my little man. He was quite happy, so I got about half of it wound. Dinner time was looming, so it was hung on my wardrobe door & left until the morning. Now for some reason I took it downstairs in the morning, thinking if I got a moment I could sneak a bit more winding. But stupidly l hung it on the kitchen door handle, in full reaching view of my little man!! And, yes you have guessed it, he just couldn’t resist! It was grabbed and whizzed up in his hands within seconds, whilst shouting ‘Look Mummy, I can wind wool too!!!’ Aahhhh! How can you be cross with him!! But it was unrecognisable! What a mess!!!! One not so happy Mummy!! Luckily for me, my Dad is my Yarny Knight in Shining Armour and he took it away in a soup container to be sorted out! (I wouldn’t have had a chance with it!!!)

If only I had kept it on this door!! It would never have ended up in the soup tub!!!

Heyho!!! My wonderful Dad brought it back to me in this little ball of yarny magicalness. Phew!! Thanks Dad! You’re my Yarny Hero!! Moral of the story – never leave it in full reaching view of any little bod who loves having fun!!!!

Right, so let’s get down to business!!

Level – Easy

Size – Ladies

Supplies –

So I have used the utterly gorgeous autumnal 4ply yarn from the amazing Abby at Luxury Yarns. It’s called Forever Autumnal and it’s a Ultra Merino 100% Superwash. The skein is about 450g/100m, but you don’t need very much for this pattern at all. I have also used a 3.5mm hook for this pattern, some scissors, a blunt ended tapestry needle and a yarn stitch marker. (I only really used my stitch marker for the thumb.)

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.

Crossed Treble – So this is a stitch where you miss a stitch, work 1tr in the next stitch and then work 1tr in the stitch you have just missed. It’s a lovely stitch to work and gives a lovely textured effect.

Magic Ring – Fold over the yarn to make the loop. Insert your hook through the loop and grab the working yarn (long piece) and pull through the loop. Hold the tail and the working yarn and pull so that the knot tightens, but you still have a loop. This has created a magic ring.

Double Crochet (dc) – Insert the hook through the stitch, front to back, then yarn over hook and pull back through stitch. You will have two loops on your hook. Then yarn over your hook and pull through both loops.

Ok so here we go…

Wrist Warmers – make 2

1 – Start by chaining 43. Now turn your work and work 1tr in the 4th chain from the hook. This is where the arrow is pointing.

*Now miss a ch and work 1tr in the next ch. Then work 1tr in the ch that you missed.* This is your first crossed treble stitch.

Now repeat this ** across the row until you get to the last stitch. In the last stitch work 1tr. (40)

2 – Turn your work. Ch3 and work 1tr in the same stitch. *Miss a stitch and work 1tr in the next stitch and then 1tr in the stitch you just missed. Repeat this ** until you get to the last stitch. Then work 1tr in the last stitch. (40)


3 – Now it’s time to repeat step 2, 21 more times. This will give you a rectangular shape. So you will then have 22 rows. (40)


Now it’s time to sew up your wrist warmers. So place one half on top of the other and insert your hook in the front of the first tr stitch, then into the the first chain stitch on the other side of your rectangle. You can see this from the photo below.

Ok so yarn over and pull through both the chain and the tr stitch, then yarn over and pull through both loops to complete your first dc stitch.

Now work 1dc in the same way in each, sewing up the sides for 22 stitches. You should get a little ridge of stitches. You can see this on the picture above. Then fasten off your yarn. The reason you are only sewing up 22 stitches, is because you are now going to work the thumb.

The Thumb

Start by attaching your yarn into the front of the next tr stitch on the left side of your rectangle. (Don’t work the chain stitch!!) Now work 1dc in the next 7 stitches on the left side. You should now have 8dc stitches on the one side.

Then go over to the other half of the wrist warmer and you are going to work your way back down to the base of the thumb where you started. I tend to count 8 chains from the base of the thumb and insert your hook in the 8th chain. (You can see where you need to do the first stitch in the photo above.) Work 1dc like before in this stitch and then 7dc stitches back to the base of the thumb. You should now have 16dc stitches in your round. It should look like the photo below. (You can use your stitch marker here, to help you know where the round finishes and starts.) Finish the round by Ss in the first dc stitch.

For the second round of the thumb work 2dc in the first stitch and then 6dc stitches and then 2dc in the next 2 stitches. Follow this with 6dc stitches then 2dc in the last stitch then ss into the first stitch. (20)

In this round we are going to work some crossed treble stitches. So ch 3, then work 1tr in the first stitch. *Then miss a stitch and work 1tr in the next stitch. Then work 1tr in the stitch you missed.* Repeat this ** all the way around. Working 1tr in the last stitch and then ss into the first tr stitch. (20)

For this last round, ch 3, then work 1tr in the first stitch. *Then miss a stitch and work 1tr in the next stitch. Then work 1tr in the stitch you missed.* Repeat this ** all the way around. Working 1tr in the last stitch and then ss into the first tr stitch. Then fasten off and sew in your ends. (20)

Finally we need to finish sewing up the wrist warmers. So attach your yarn again by inserting your hook into the first of the last 8 stitches and then through chain stitch, like the photo below. Then yarn over and pull through both stitches, then yarn over and pull through both loops on your hook to complete the first dc stitch.

Then work 1dc in the last 7 stitches in the same way and finally fasten off.

Now it’s time to sew in all your ends and turn the wrist warmer inside out, so the sewing up ridge is on the inside. And there you have it.

 Now all you need to do is make wrist warmer number two!

Flower – make 2

As these are wrist warmers for a lady, thought it would be rather nice to decorate them with a little flower.

1 – Make your magic ring, chain 1 & work 12dc stitches into the ring. Pull your tail to close the ring. (12)

2 – Slip Stitch into the first dc, ch4, miss a stitch & work 1dc into next stitch. Now work *ch3, miss a stitch & work 1dc into next stitch.* Repeat this ** 5 more times. Ss into first ch. So there are 6 chain spaces altogether. (These are where your petals will go.) 

– Now in each of the ch1spaces, work *Ss, 1dc, 1htr, 1tr, 1dtr, 1tr, 1htr, 1dc and finally ss.* Repeat this ** 6 times. Finally ss into the first dc and fasten off. (6 petals in total) 

Now sew in one of your ends and use the other to sew your flower into your wrist warmer.

And there we have it. Your completed wrist warmers. They were definitely nice to wear by the sea the other day. Love this pattern, as they are not too bulky, so great to keep in your coat pocket and bring out when you need them!

Really hope you have enjoyed this pattern. Any questions or queries just give us a shout. Can’t wait to see all your creations, don’t forget to share them!!!

Happy hooking!!

🌈Xx

(Free pattern designed and brought to you by PipsRainbow. Thank you for not copying or recreating it. ☺️Xx)

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