birthday cake – PipsRainbow

Up and Down Stitch

Well hello lovelies, how are you all? Hope you have all had good weekends. Ours has been quite a quiet one in the grand scheme of things. We seem to have been under the illness umbrella again this week. We’ve had a serious amount of snot, coughing, ear ache and conjunctivitis this week. So it’s been a bit of a tough week again. Saying that we’ve had a lovely family outing and a wonderful family get together for my sisters’s birthday, so I reckon the name for this weeks stitch is rather apt – the Up and Down stitch. A week of Ups and Downs!!

One thing I did love doing was publishing my little Conky the Conker pattern. Rather chuffed with him. I’ve already had an order off someone for him.

We had a lovely trip to the SeaLife Centre this weekend. My son hasn’t been before, so his eyes were on stalks! Guessing it’s a bit of a sensory overload in there as there’s so much to see, smell and hear. He loved it! Think the penguins were his favourite – they came up so close to the glass to see him. He was just mesmerised.

Loving the clown fish tunnel too. This was at the start, so he kept on trying to run back to it! Think we will definitely be going back there.

So it was my sister’s birthday party this weekend too. Now when there’s a party, there is always cake!! Well you can’t have a party and make a wish without a cake now can you! So this year I made my sister, my favourite Chocolate Malteser cake from the wonderful Mary Berry. She is just the creme de la creme of all bakers – the Queen of bakers if you like. I can safely say I haven’t made one of her recipes that hasn’t worked!

And no birthday would be complete without a crocheted pressie. So here’s my second V stitch Grannie Blanket for my lovely sister. She’s back to university this week, so hoping this little blanket will come in handy. I’ve made it up with all sorts of bits and bobs from my Grannie’s and Nanna’s wool stashes and even my Mum is going to add some rows, so it really is a family affair. If you fancy making one for yourself, the free pattern can be found in the pattern page.

Awww – a pair of Grannie Blankets. I wonder what my Gran would have made of them.

Right then, onto this weeks blanket stitch. So I have chosen the Up and Down stitch. Hee hee – Now is it me or is that a cool name for a stitch! I mean who thought of that! I reckon the stitch namer was having a bad day that day!! Poor stitch, you think of some of the other names – Pique, Wattle, Iris, Offset Filet Stitch and this one is called the Up and Down Stitch!!!! Love it!! Jokes aside the reason it’s called this is because it literally goes up and down – Up with the trebles and Down with the doubles! Funny. So it’s ever so simple this week. And it’s a good one to know, as it’s quite a tight stitch, but does have this very delicate subtle texture.

Supplies –

This week I have used a rather deep purple colour from the Wendy mention wool range. It’s a lovely range, I made my husband’s scarf last year in this. It is quite a deep colour though. Hoping you can make out some of the pictures, as think with the dark colour, it doesn’t show the texture and pattern as well. Definitely something to remember when you are choosing your colours with certain stitches. So you will need about 30g of DK yarn and don’t forget the 4mm hook, scissors and blunt ended tapestry needle to sew all the ends in.

Stitches –

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

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.

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.

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.

Ok so here we go…

1 – So first things first, we need to make a nice straight edge for our Up and Down stitch. So, attach your new yarn into the first stitch on the wrong side of your blanket. Now chain 3 and work 1htr in the first stitch.

Now work 1htr in the next 2 stitches. Then work 1dc in the next stitch. (You are working your way up the one side of the little point from the previous row.)

Now miss the 2chsp (The 2chsp is where the arrow is pointing in the previous photo.) Then work 1dc in the next stitch and then 1htr. You have now worked your way over the first little point from the previous row.

*Now work 1htr, 1dc, miss 2chsp, 1dc then 1htr* then repeat this process ** across the row.

In the last stitch work 2htr. You now have a nice flat edge for this weeks stitch. (200)

2 – Right then, so let’s get started with the Up and Down stitch. So once you have turned your blanket, chain 3. Then work 1tr in the first stitch. Ok so work 1dc in the next stitch.

*So now work 1tr, then 1dc in the next stitch.*

Repeat this ** across the row.

In the last stitch work 1dc. (200)

3 – Right then, so turn your blanket and chain 3. Now work 1tr in the first stitch.

Then *1dc in the next stitch and then 1tr.* Repeat this ** across the row. So you are basically working them alternatively. So if the stitch below is a double then you should be working a Treble. So if you forget where you are, you can work it out that way