Year of the Stitches – Week 17 Blackberry Salad Stitch

Blackberry Salad 

Well, what a lovely birthday week!! I’ve have had some lovely pressies and even some beautiful yarn!!! I think everyone knows me well enough now! I think the best moment was when my daughter presented me with a birthday bundle of yarn! She had asked my mum to take her to buy some for me without me knowing! She even knew to buy one of my all time favourites, Sublime and also bought me some 4ply sock yarn so that I can challenge myself!! Bless her!! She thought that was funny!

I was utterly blown away! What a sweetheart! She’s promised to buy me a ball of wool every birthday from now on. Thinking I could start a birthday blanket. Might be fun. She made sure I had a birthday cake too!!

We’ve had a super walk at the local wildlife reserve. I think my son was more excited about feeding the birds than the walk.

We also had a rather eventful trip to the Yoxall Bluebell Lodge. I won’t go into the eventful part of the trip, but let’s just say there was some washing to be done when we got back!! We were first there, but it was starting to get busy by the time we left. It is just a wonderful place of serious bluebell heaveness. I don’t think you can beat a carpet of bluebells. The colour is just divine!!! All the kids had an absolute ball & there was some rather yummy cake at the end of it as well!!

I don’t think you can beat the Spring in all it’s glory!!

Just magical.

Definitely worth a trip if you are in the area.

So all in all a pretty lovely birthday week.

Supplies

So as it was my birthday, I thought I’d better use one of my favourite colours and I absolutely adore this plum/purple colour. It is such a rich and beautiful colour and goes with all sorts of things. This particular yarn is from the Wendy 100% merino wool range and seems to be sitting really well with all the other colours in the blanket. I am loving now that the blanket is getting big enough for me to use it as a lap blanket when I’m working on it. Seems so snuggly already. Feel like it’s all coming together now. Can’t believe we’re on week 17 of 2018 already! Time is definitely flying!!

Stitches

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.

Treble 5 together (tr5tog) – *Yarn over your hook, insert into the stitch, yarn over your hook and pull through. Yarn over your hook and pull through the 2 loops.* Repeat ** 5 times. (6 loops) Now yarn over your hook and pull through the first 5 loops on the hook, then yarn over your hook and pull through the  last 2 loops on you hook. This completes the tr5tog or otherwise known as a large cluster.

Don’t forget that you can use stitch markers to help you count and check your stitches. I tend to use them in 50’s. So count 50, place a marker. It works quite well as I do tend to loose count towards the end.

 

Ok so here we go … 

1 – Right so we are starting on the right side of the blanket. Attach your new yarn and chain 3. Now work 1tr in the same stitch, then work 1tr in each stitch across the row.

This will give you 200 tr stitches. (200)

2 – Ok to turn your work and chain 1, then work 1dc in the same stitch and then the next stitch. Then work a tr5tog stitch into the next stitch. To do this place your *yarn over your hook and insert your hook into the stitch. Yarn over your hook again and pull through, then yarn over your hook and pull through 2 loops.* Repeat ** 5 times. (6 loops)

Right so yarn over your hook and pull through the first 5 loops on your hook. (2 loops)

Ok so to finish off your stitch, yarn over your hook and pull through the last 2 loops on your hook.

Now insert your hook into the next stitch. You can see where this is on the photo below. Work 1dc in this stitch.

Then work 1 dc in the next 2 stitches.

Now repeat *tr5tog and the 3dc stitches* to the end of the row.

The last 1dc should be worked into the top of the chain 3 stitches from the row below. (200)

3 – Now turn the blanket and work 3 chains. This counts as your first tr. Now work 1 tr in each stitch across the row.

Work the last 1tr stitch in the top of the chain 3 stitches from the row below. (200)

And there you have it! The Blackberry Salad Stitch! I think I say that I love each stitch each week, but this is an absolute corker!! Just love it!! I like that the raised stitch isn’t terribly high, but enough to give it a nice texture.

I really hope you have enjoyed this weeks instalment of Year of the Stitches blanket. So pleased how it’s coming on. It’s such a working progress, but really pleased how it’s coming on. Hope you are too. Here’s to many more weeks of lovely scrummy stitches and yarness!!

Happy hooking everyone.

🌈Xx

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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)

2 – Turn your blanket and chain 1. Then miss this first stitch and *work 1tr into the next stitch, then slip stitch into the next stitch.*

Repeat ** across the row.

Make sure you don’t work the slip stitches too tight as you will need to be able to crochet into this stitch in the next row. (200)

3 – Ok so turn your blanket and chain 3. (This counts as 1tr) Work 1tr into the same stitch this time.

*Now work 1tr into the slip stitch and 1tr into the next stitch.* Repeat ** across the row.

The last stitch is worked into the chain 3 stitch from the row below. (200)

And there you have it – the Floret Stitch. Let me know if you have any questions.

Happy hooking everyone!

🌈Xx

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