2018 CAL - Year of the Stitches Blanket

Year of the Stitches – Week 3 Pineapple Stitch

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The Pineapple Stitch 🍍 

Hello all, I hope everyone has survived the rather windy weather this week. Crikey it’s been windy!!! And now it’s snowing too!!! Definitely nights that require a crochet hook in one hand and a cuppa in the other. Blankets and slipper socks are very close to hand at the minute!!

This week, I was lucky enough to be able to go on a school library trip with my daughter. She was so excited that I could come and be part of her special day. My lovely mother-in-law came and babysat the little man for me, so I was off on a trip with my girl!!!! It was so weird walking to school without the pram. My daughter is such a poppet, she pretended to be the pram so I wouldn’t miss him!! Bless her. So anyways, we headed out in a 60 children caterpillar to the local library, where the children listened to stories and then were able to choose one to take home. The excitement on their little faces when using their library cards, was a picture. They were so well behaved.

The stories they choose varied from fairies to monsters, quests to cars. No one child had the same book. I wonder which books were read that very same night? I know ours was – front to back! We love stories in this house. I just love being carried away into a whole other world of fantasy and fiction. I tend to get carried away in the moment when I read. It’s so magical!! The endless possibilities and the unknown endings – just brilliant!! My Dad once told me that books are like your friends – they are always there to keep you company. It’s so true!! (I always keep my books close by.)

Before my children, I used to read quite a lot, but as our house was starting to look like a book shop, my husband bought me a kindle. (I do buy special books in hard copy though!!) My time to read my own books, is a little bit sparse at the minute, but reading a story book to my children happens quite a few times a day. Some of my all time favourite stories are still my cherished children’s books, such as the Faraway Tree and the Naughtiest Girl in School and the one and only – BFG. Oh and of course the incredible Harry Potter!!!! This particular magical world came into my life when I was at university and I can safely say, it’s never left!! I will never forget being in a fitting room with my sister in law, a couple of days before we went on a family holiday. The cubicle next door were discussing the ending to the fifth Harry Potter book, which I was keeping for the flight!!! Oh my – she very kindly asked them to stop as I was currently in the cubicle next door with my hands over my ears – humming!!! Funny!! She was a life saver!!! So yeah, books are such a big part of our lives. I can’t wait to share these legendary books with my children!!! Yey!!

So this week, I would like to dedicate my colour of yarn to the pages of all those special books. It’s a slightly off white colour, which holds all those precious moving words. So my yarn had to be the beautiful Sublime cashmere/merino wool, which is so beautifully soft and one of my mum’s favourite yarns. It’s a very light cream colour, which also goes well with my Gran’s stunning blue colour from last week.

Right so onto the stitch. This week I have chosen a fantastic stitch called the ‘Pineapple Cluster’. It’s such a cool stitch as it’s a little cluster of stitches to make a beautiful little round bump, with a delicate twirl on the top. I really hope you enjoy this one as much as I do. It would be a great stitch to make a baby blanket out of as it give so much texture.

Stitches –

So here’s a bit of a recap on stitches:

Chain (ch) – To make a chain stitch, make a slip knot on your hook and then place the yarn over your hook and pull through the loop. Repeat this action to make a row of stitches.

Pineapple Cluster (Ps) – So *yarn over hook, then insert your hook into the stitch/space, yarn over hook and pull loop through.* Repeat ** 3 more times, then yarn over your hook and pull through the first 8 loops on your hook and then yarn over your hook again and pull through the last 2 loops on your hook. This completes one pineapple cluster.

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.

Supplies – 

Ok, so as this blanket is being made with Double Knit wool, you need your 4mm hook, scissors and blunt ended tapestry needle. Your yarn needs to be of double knit weight, but can be any colour or type you like. You roughly need about 40grams.

Here we go …

1 – Insert your hook into the first space and chain 3.

 

Then work one Pineapple Cluster Stitch into the same space, then chain 1.

For this row you are going to be working your pineapple clusters in the space inbetween the V stitches below.

So to work a pineapple cluster you need to start by *yarn over your hook, then insert your hook into the space, yarn over hook and pull a loop through.* Repeat ** 3 more times.

 

Then yarn over your hook and pull through the first 8 loops on your hook. You should now have two loops on your hook.

For the last bit of the stitch, yarn over your hook again and pull through the last 2 loops on your hook. This completes one pineapple cluster. Then yarn over your hook again and pull through the loop to make 1 chain stitch.

*Then work a pineapple cluster in the next space in between the V stitches and chain 1.* Continue ** across the row until the last space.  In the last space work 1 pineapple cluster and then 1 treble stitch to finish the row.(100 Ps)

2 – Now turn your work and chain 3. Then work a pineapple cluster in the space in between the tr and ps below and chain 1.

*Then work a pineapple cluster into the next space and chain 1.* Continue ** across the row until the last space. Work 1 treble stitch into the last space in between the tr and ps. (100 Ps)

3 – Now turn your work and chain 3.

Then work 1 pineapple cluster into the first space and chain 1.

*Then work a pineapple cluster into the next space and chain 1.* Continue ** across the row  in each space.

Now work 1 treble stitch into the last space inbetween the ps and tr stitch. (100 Ps)

Now fasten off and sew in your ends using your needle. And there you have it. Well thank you for reading my blog and I hope you have enjoyed this weeks instalment on the Year of the Stiches blanket!! Any questions or queries, just shout. Looking forward to sharing next weeks stitch with you. It’s beautiful!!

Happy hooking everyone!!

🌈Xx

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2018 CAL - Year of the Stitches Blanket

2018 Here we come! Week 1 Treble Crochet Stitch

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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

 

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