Year of the Stitches – Week 20 Double Crochet

Double Crochet

Well hello week 20. Golly, this year is flying by!!! Hope everyone has had good weeks. I’m not entirely sure where this week has gone!! It’s been a beautiful weekend though hasn’t it. Ours seems to have consisted of BBQ’s, walks through the park and family gatherings. Today we have had a special birthday celebration for my Mum. She absolutely loved her shawl I made her, so really chuffed with that. There’s something quite special about giving someone something that you have made! I can’t describe it really. She said that the last shawl that someone had made for her was her Grandma, which was her Mum’s mum. She was an incredible lady apparently. Very kind and caring, just like my Mum. She owned a corner shop which my Mum spent many a happy hour in (possibly raiding the sweets jars in the big glass cabinet, i’n told!!) It definitely sounds like fun. I think she was my mum’s best friend!! So I was rather chuffed when she told me that. Already planning the next shawl!! Think I might finish my own seaside shawl first though. So a huge happy birthday to my wonderful loving Mum. You are an inspiration to me! Love you all the world!

So other than BBQ’s and birthdays, I’ve been on a bit of a slipper sock mission this week! I think this is my third pair in a week. So not bad going. I wanted to make some for my nieces and nephews. They are nearing their teenage years now, but I think they will all appreciate some toasty toes.

And this week I have finally published my children’s slipper sock pattern. Think my Gran would be proud.

Oh and I may have made myself a pair!! I never make anything for myself, but I was playing around with all the yummy colours from the West Yorkshire  Spinner’s sock range and found this mix. So I couldn’t resist! It was far too rainbowy to be put to oneside!!

So all good. I think we had better get on to this weeks blanket. My gorgeous little boy seems to be enjoying it at the minute. He’s quite happy being snuggled up in it. Bless him. Can’t wait to see him wrapped in it when it a full size. Thinking I should start one that’s in boy colours for him, so they have one each. Can’t quite make up my mind. Anyways on to this weeks stitch.

Supplies

This week I am dedicating my colour to the birthday girl, my wonderful Mum. She absolutely adores this wonderful bright and rich cerise colour. Mum even had her outfit for my wedding made with cerise handdyed silk. It was just stunning and complimented the wedding party really well. This one is from the wonderful Sublime range of soft merino and cashmere wool. It’s just divine. 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.

Ok so here we go…

1 – So we are going to work 5 rows of double crochet. So we will start on the wrong side. So attach your new yarn and chain 1. Then work 1dc in the same stitch. Now work 1dc into each stitch. (200)

2 – Now turn your blanket and chain 1. Then work 1dc into the same stitch. Now 1dc in each stitch across the row. (200)

3 – For this row, repeat row 2. (200)

4 – Once again, repeat row 2. (200)

5 – And again for this last row, repeat row 2. (200)

And there you have it, the one and only Double Crochet stitch.

 

I hope you have enjoyed this rather simple, but lovely week of crocheting. It’s such a versatile and wonderful stitch. I think we can safely say it’s a rather legendary stitch!! Anyways, hope you’ve all had a fab weekend and have a lovely week ahead with some serious lovely crocheting on the go.

Happy hooking everyone.

🌈Xx

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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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