Advent Wrapdigan – Part 5

Well hello my lovely ones, how are we all? We have finally had a kind of illness free weekend! Yey! So relieved! Still a spot of snot, but I can cope with that! I really hate when any of my three are ill. The whole makeup of the house seems to be thrown. Heyho. We are definitely all on the mend now! Yey! So I have been carrying on with my 4ply Advent Wrapdigan! I am loving how Abby’s yarn is working up! The 4ply is so different to the DK! So nice to see how different they work up.

I really hope you are enjoying the CAL. I know I am. Not long to go now. Few more stages and we are nearly there.

Now, as with all my patterns, they are all here for you to enjoy. And in exchange for these patterns, I would be very grateful if you could give, however little, a donation to our chosen charity Child Bereavement UK. Here’s the link to the Just Giving Page. 

https://www.justgiving.com/page/pippa-morris-1666714185876

#crochetforcharity 

Level â€“ Medium (There are a few new stitches and techniques)

Yarn â€“ 600g 4ply Advent Yarn (24 colours) with 1 x 100g skein of grey yarn. 

I have used Abby’s gorgeous 2022 4ply Advent Yarn. Here’s the link to her website. 

Hook

4mm crochet hook

Notions –

Scissors, darning needle for ends, set of weighing scales, blocking tiles and pins

Finished size –

Wingspan – 100cm 

Centre spine depth – 90cm

Abbreviations – 

mr – Magic Ring 

ch – Chain

chsp – Chain Space 

dc – Double Crochet 

sk – Slip Knot 

htr – Half Treble Crochet

blhtr – Back Loop Half Treble Crochet

tr – Treble Crochet

bltr –Back Loop Treble Crochet 

dtr – Double treble Crochet 

pf – Puff Stitch â€“ [Yrh, insert hook where required, draw through a loop] repeat 4 times in the same place. You now have nine loops on the hook. Yrh and pull through all the loops on the hook.

rp – Rope Stitch – Crochet 1tr, 1ch, 1tr in same chsp or stitch.

dtr – Double Treble Crochet

bpdc – Back Post Double Crochet 

dcsp – Double Crochet Spike Stitch 

Changing colours tips – 

Half treble change – yarn over your hook, insert in the stitch and pull through (3 loops on your hook.) Yarn over your hook and then place your new yarn over the hook as well and pull both through the 3 loops to finish the htr stitch. Then with your next stitch, just use your new yarn. 

Treble Stitch change – yarn over your hook, insert in the stitch and pull through (3 loops on your hook.) Yarn over your hook and pull through 2 loops, then yarn over your hook and place your new yarn over the hook as well and pull both through the last 2 loops to finish the tr stitch. Then with your next stitch, just use your new yarn.

Right let’s get down to business…

So this week it’s all about sewing up our mini square mandalas and attaching them to the main mandala. It’s an important part of your wrap, as it creates the centre of the wrap. After this it will be creating the border and the turning the wrap into a rectangle.

Assembly Part 2 –

With your large square mandala in the middle, place your mini mandalas around the edge and work out your positioning of each colour. Mine are in a gradient rainbow, well you know I have a thing for rainbow!! 

So you should have 7 by 7 squares, with the main mandala in the middle. To sew two squares together, use a 4mm crochet hook and a small amount of yarn of one of the colours of the squares you are working on. With the right sides together, align the stitches up and using a crochet hook work 1dc stitch through both 3chsp and then into back loops only of the crochet stitches. Once you have finished in the last 3chsp, fasten off your yarn. This will give you a neat line of stitches in between the squares. Don’t forget that the 4 corner squares, will have two edges sew on and remember you are crocheting them together in order, so keep checking your colours. Once you have finished, your squares will be sew together like a picture frame. 

Round 32 – Attaching your main square mandala to your squares. 

Use you grey yarn. 

As there are 100 stitches on each side of the main square mandala and there are 100 stitches on the 5 mini square mandalas that attach to the mandala, it is just a case of aligning them up correctly before you start to sew them together. So with right sides facing each other, align one of the 4 corners of the main mandala and the inside corner of your sewn up squares. Insert your hook into 3chsp of the first mini square mandala and then the back loop of the first dc (after the 2chsp corner) and work 1ch and 1dc. [Then work 1bldc in each stitch along the row of both the mini square mandalas and main mandala to sew them together. Work 1dc in each 3chsp when you come to them. Finishing with 1dc through the last 3chsp of the mini square mandala and back loop of the last dc on the main mandala. At the second corner, insert your hook through both the 2chsp on the main mandala and 3chsp corner of the last mini square mandala in the row and work 1dc to attach them together. (You can see here where the arrow is pointing.)

Then work 1dc in the 3chsp on the next square and the back loop of the main mandala stitch.] Repeat until you have all 4 sides of the main mandala attached to your squares, then Ss into the first dc and fasten off. 

Anyways, until next time. Don’t forget to shout if you have any questions.

Happy hooking.
🌈Xx

As always, these patterns are brought to you, in the hope that they are all correct and easy to follow. It is only for personal use and not to be copied or reused. Thank you so much.

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Year of the Stitches Week 48 – Honeycomb

Honeycomb Stitch

Well heeeeellllllooooo December!! How exciting!! Can’t quite believe we are here and the world seems to be going Christmas crazy already!!! There’s Christmas decorations popping up everyday near us!!! The shops seem to have had some kind of Christmas explosion of joy!!! Everywhere we look, there are twinkly lights and bright shining baubles!! Just wonderful!! My son seems to be walking around with his eyes on stalks!! Quite sweet really! Think he’s going to really get all the festivities this year and enjoy them. My only worry is our decorations!! He has a very enquiring mind like his Daddy!! So our decorations will have to be checked, prodded, probably Bob the Builder fixed and dropped before he has happy that they can stay! I don’t think the breakables had better come out! Let me give you an example of my little man. So this year, we have invested in some lovely wooden advent calendars, so we won’t have to buy the paper ones each year. My thoughts behind them are that they are much better for the environment and a lot more special. Something to keep. So my daughter’s is a beautiful fairy magical little chest of drawers and my son’s is a train, of course. Now he did carry it all the way home in his pram from town, so I’m guessing this would make him think it was a toy!! Well it went on the tall cabinet in the hall, already for Advent.

In about 2 hours of it being in the house, he had managed to reach it, pull it off, resulting in it coming crashing to the floor, shattering into pieces! Heyho. It is his, I suppose. Luckily my husband is a dab hand with the wood glue!! Well you would have to be good at fixing things with a little Scrumble Bod like mine running around!!

So you may have noticed a little carrot sitting on my blanket!! Well if you read my blog yesterday, you will know he is the wonderful Kevin the Carrot from the Aldi Christmas advert. He’s become a bit of legend and very sort after in the world of Aldi shoppers, so thought he needed a spot in the crocheting world too. Hope you like him. Pattern to be found in the pattern list under Kevin the Carrot, if you fancy making him.

So this week, we may have sneaked in a few Melbourne in Lichfield cuppas and of course there is always time for a yummy cruffin for the little man!!

We did create some excellent window art with the wonderful owner – Debs. Bless her, I think I should take some window cleaner next time!!!

So onto Christmassy jobs and this weeks job was the Christmas pudding!! I’m a couple of weeks late really, but it was still November so I’m happy with that. Christmas puddings are like Christmas cakes – they get better with age!! They like maturing. The puddings need about 6 weeks, so we’re a little shy of time, but sure it’ll be fine! The house smelt incredible when she was cooking away!! Love my pressure cooker – 2 3/4 hours versus a steamed one that takes 8 hours!!!

Can’t wait to try her! Now the only decision now, is what to serve with her….

Right then, we had better get onto the blanket and this weeks stitch. So the honeycomb stitch is quite a dense stitch with lots of texture. Because the clusters are worked into the stitch rather than a chain space, the stitches are more prominent. Hope you like this one. It’s an easy stitch to create and works up quite quickly.

Supplies

This week I have used a magnificent purple from the incredible Sublime range. Thought I would start the Christmas count down with a rich and deep colour and think it works really well with the turquoisey blue from last week. So as always you will need about 30g of double knit yarn, 4mm crochet hook, some scissors and a blunt ended tapestry needle.

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.

5trtog – This is the same as a large cluster stitch. *So yarn over your hook and insert into the stitch, yarn over your hook and pull loop through, yarn over your hook and pull through 2 loops.* Repeat this ** 5 times. You will now have 6 loops. Then yarn over your hook and pull through the first 5 loops. Then yarn over your hook and pull through the last 2 loops on your hook.

Ok so here we go

1 – Ok so start off by attaching your yarn into the wrong side of your blanket. Chain 1 and work 1dc in the same stitch. Now work 1dc in each stitch across the row. (200)

2 – Now turn your work and chain 1. Then work 1dc in the same stitch and then next stitch. Now it’s time to work 5trtog in the next stitch. So to do this *yarn over your hook and insert into the stitch, yarn over your hook and pull loop through, yarn over your hook and pull through 2 loops.* Repeat this ** 5 times. You will now have 6 loops.

Then yarn over your hook and pull through the first 5 loops.

Then yarn over your hook and pull through the last 2 loops on your hook.

Now work 1dc in the next 2 stitches.

Ok so *now work 5trtog in the next stitch and then 1dc in the next 2 stitches.* Repeat this ** across the row. Finish with 1dc in the last stitch. (200)

3 – Right then so now turn your work and chain 1. Then work 1dc in the same stitch and then 1dc in each stitch across the row. (200)

And there we have the Honeycomb stitch. Hope you like it!! Thinking it would be a great stitch for a hat!!! Ooooo the possibilities!!

Now chaps, please don’t forget to share your blankets with us. This is one of my dear friend’s blankets. Isn’t it beautiful!! Love the range of colours!!! Can’t wait to see the finished blanket now!!

Happy hooking everyone!!

🌈Xx

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