crocheted blanket – Page 3

Year of the Stitches Week 40 – Crunch Stitch

Crunch Stitch

Hello all. How are we? Well we are officially one year old!! Wow! Genuinely quite surprised how quick that has gone! I feel like PipsRainbow has come so far in just a year. I was only saying to my husband today how much quicker I find writing up my patterns. I try to use a similar format for each of my patterns, so hopefully you guys can work your way around them quicker and I make sure I include all the information you need. I can’t wait to bring you all my new projects in Year Two. My head seems to be bursting with ideas, that I can’t seem to get them made up, yet written down, quick enough! Ekkk, exciting!!

Here’s little Uni the Unicorn that I published on PipsRainbow’s birthday. I really hope you enjoy this one. She’s definitely a special one. She can be made to be so unique and tailored to each little owner. I love how each person can be their own designer and put their own colour scheme on the mane and tail. I know the two I have made, are well and truly loved by their little people. Happy hookimh on this one chaps. She’s a keeper in my eyes.

So we have had a rather strange week in our household with illness from the little man. Poor lamb!! He’s been snuggled under my blanket for the majority of the week. So strange when he is ill, as there’s no squealing of fun and noises of his little feet, pitter pattering around the house. I hate when they are ill and we seem to have had our fair share in the last few weeks! I’ve never known anything quite like it! It’s officially now known as the illness umbrella! I am wondering when it will lift! Heyho, it’s surely at an end now! Fingers and toes crossed. I think this cuppa was well and truly deserved this morning.

Through the craziness of all the illness, I did manage to sneak the pattern for these two little munchies out. Olly and Olive Octopus. Hoping this pattern will be loved by you guys as much as me. I think I like it so much because you can play around with crazy rainbowy lovely colours. And they are just the best aren’t they!!! 🌈

Hmmm, can you tell I like rainbow colours – love how these two patterns are just so colourful and have so much potential. Have fun!!!

So, think we had better get on to this weeks blanket stitch. So this week it’s the Crunch Stitch.

Hee hee, loving the name of this stitch!! Crunch!! Love it!! I’d really like to meet the guy who got to name all these mega stitches!! Funny. I wonder where the inspiration came from. So this week is a rather simple one, but again one I can see me using in many projects. I reckon it would be mega for a hat!!! It’s made up of Half Trebles and Slip Stitches, so ever so easy to make up!!

Supplies –

So this week I have chosen a beautiful clean white from my all time favourite super soft Sublime range. Couldn’t resist using it this week. It’s just soooooo soft. Like how it sits with the Toft pink from last week. Feel like it’s a goo colour to represent the start of a new PipsRainbow year. As usual, you roughly need about 30g of yarn. Don’t forget your scissors, blunt ended tapestry needle and of course your 4mm crochet hook.

Stitches –

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.

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

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.

Ok so here we go…

1 – Start by attaching your new yarn onto the right side of your blanket and chain 2. Then work 1htr in the same stitch.

Now work a slip stitch into the first ch1sp.

Then work 1htr in the next stitch and slip stitch in the next.

*Now work 1htr, ss in the ch1sp then 1htr, then 1 ss into the next stitch.* Repeat this ** across the row.

Work a ss in the last stitch. (200)

2 – So turn your work and chain 2. Then work 1htr in the same stitch.

Then work ss in the next stitch. (This will be a htr stitch from the row below.) Then repeat. So work *ss, then 1htr* across the row. If you get confused which stitch you are on, just remember that the slip stitches are being worked in the Half Treble stitches and the Half Trebles are being worked into the slip stitches.)

Finish by working a slip stitch in the last stitch. (200)

3 – So we are going to repeat row 2. So turn your blanket and chain 2. Now work 1htr in the same stitch. Now work *ss, then 1htr.* Repeat this ** across the row, finishing with a ss in the last stitch. (200)

4 – So we are going to repeat row 2. So turn your blanket and chain 2. Now work 1htr in the same stitch. Now work *ss, then 1htr.* Repeat this ** across the row, finishing with a ss in the last stitch. (200)

5 – For the last row, we are going to repeat row 2 again. So turn your blanket and chain 2. Now work 1htr in the same stitch. Now work *ss, then 1htr.* Repeat this ** across the row.

At the end work a slip stitch in the last stitch and then fasten off as usual and sew in your ends. (200)

Well there you have the wonderful Crunch Stitch. It’s a fab one isn’t it! Definitely going in the ‘must use’ list!!! Thank you so much for all your continued support!!!

Happy hooking everyone!!

🌈Xx

Year of the Stitches Week 38 – Up and Down Stitch

September 23, 2018 No Comments

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