Treble Crochet Stitch

Hello all,

Hope everyone has had a good first week of 2018. Seems to have gone quite quickly in our household. I have started the crazy sort and tidy up that everyone seems to do in January. Not sure why we all feel the need to do this. Maybe because the house has been filled with christmas decorations for so long and then there’s always that moment when you need to find a little place for all those lovely Christmas presents you’ve been given. The toys seem to have hit a whole other level, now that there’s two little bods in the house!!!

I have to confess I have managed to do a little bit of crocheting and been able to finish two projects – a rather nice scarf for my husband and some very colourful slipper socks for my sister. Well you can’t clean and sort all the time, can you!!! But while cleaning, your mind does tend to wonder, well mine does and it mainly wonders in the direction of crocheting and crocheting projects. I’ve come to realise that the variety of stitches that I use on a regular day to day basis is pretty slim. So 2018 is the year of stitches!!! It’s official. The year of stitches has begun. The other main aim, is to use up some of my yarn stash and all the half balls of yarn left over. (That means I can replace them with lovely gorgeous yarn!! Haha!!)

So I’ve decided the best way to do this is to make a 2018 blanket. Each week I will crochet a few rows on to the blanket, hopefully using up some yarn and having a go with new stitches. So over the year it will grow with lots of yummy wonderful stitches and by the end of the year I will have a super blanket with some seriously cool new stitches. I was also thinking that each week I can use yarn that represents the week I have had or something exciting we have done. So basically if its really hot, then use a warm yellow colour or if we have been swimming in the sea, for example, then a mega blue. Loving this idea, feel like I will really have a 2018 blanket by the end of the year. Love the fact that there are no rules to this blanket and we have no pattern to follow. This could be fun. I hope you are going to join me on this one. Great for beginners too or anyone wanting to up their crocheting stitches.

So let the 2018 CAL begin. Yey!! The beauty of this blanket is that you are only doing a little bit at a time. So it’s great for any of you that don’t have much time on your hands or have a gazillion other projects to finish at the same time. I will post each week on a Sunday evening, which will then give you a week to crochet before the next one. Also means, if you miss a week or have a sneaky holiday planned, then you can catch up from the blog.

Now my yarn for this week is going to be green. Today me and my wonderful NCT crew have had our yearly trip to a show and lunch together. There are five families altogether with two children each, so we are a pretty big force to be reckoned with!!! Our lunch out is a bit of crazy affair, but all the kids are getting that little bit older now, so are quite happy to sit together and play with all their toys and books that they have brought with them. It’s lovely to see them altogether. They don’t see each other that often, yet they fall in with each other so quickly!!! Bless them. So the reason for my green yarn, is that we saw the Stickman at the Town Hall. Such a lovely show, the kids were all mesmerised! Even my little one year old watched in wonder. So my lovely green yarn comes from the leaves and woodlands of the Stickman. Happy days!!

Supplies –

So basically each week you will need a 4mm hook and one type of double knit yarn. About 40/50g. It can be cotton or wool and in any colour you choose. This first week you will need a 5mm hook to hand as well. Don’t forget you will also need a pair of scissors to fasten off and a blunt ended tapestry needle to sew in all those ends.

Stitches – 

Slip Knot – Firstly place the yarn over each other to make a 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 tight to create a knot on your hook. (See the Slip Knot tutorial if you are still unsure.)

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.

So here we go…

First of all you need to use your 5mm hook to chain 200 stitches. So make a slip knot first.

Then chain stitch 200 times. (I usually do it in chunks of 50, as I tend to loose count!) Now the reason we use a 5mm hook for the chain stitches is to prevent the edge of the blanket from curling. For some reason, if you use the normal crochet hook size, it seems to kink, so I find going up a size or two will stop this from happening. Hope that makes sense.

For the rest of your blanket, you will use your 4mm hook.

1 – So as this is the first few rows of our blanket, we are going to keep it simple with a treble stitch. (We will get to the more exciting stitches later on in the blanket.) So firstly chain 3, then 1tr into the 4th chain from the hook. Then 1tr in the rest of the row of stitches. (200)

2 – Now turn your work and chain 3 again.

Then work 1tr into the same stitch.

As before work 1tr into each stitch of the row. (200 tr)

3 – Now repeat the whole process. So turn your work, chain 3 and work 1tr into the same stitch. Then work 1tr into each stitch in the row. Now fasten off and sew in the ends. (200 tr)

And there you have it – week one of your 2018 blanket. 2018 – it’s my sister’s favourite number 18, so seems apt that the year 2018 brings my first CAL on PipsRainbow. Exciting!! Hope you all enjoy it.

Good luck with your first week of crocheting and all those other wonderful projects that you are working on. (And I suppose the big spring clean too!!) Don’t forget I am here if you have any questions or queries. And remember to look at any of their tutorials on the blog for help if you need it.

Happy hooking everyone.

🌈Xx