2018 CAL - Year of the Stitches Blanket

Year of the Stitches Week 51 – Waffle Stitch

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Happy Christmas Eve Eve lovely ones!!!! Yey!! Whoop whoop! Sooooo excited!!! It’s nearly here!!! There is some serious excitement going on in our house!! After some seriously late nights, I have managed to finish all the big jobs before I picked my girl up on Thursday. So we started the festive season with some serious Christmassy fun. Yesterday, we baked, painted, made, wrapped and crocheted. That’s some serious craftiness!! My list of ‘to do’ is definitely getting a lot smaller. Think I just need to concentrate on the food now. Still making little crocheted things, but nothing huge. Decided to whip up a little pair of rainbow slipper socks for daughter. They match my pair!!

I also finished my Dad’s hat yesterday, which I am rather chuffed with. I used my Weekend Hat pattern for this one.

So in true PipsRainbow fashion, my daughter, son and I have made our Christmas crackers for this year’s Christmas table. Hoping they will go down well. It’s was such a lovely idea of my daughter’s. They have both added little things within the cracker and she has even personalised them for each person. I bought a kit off amazon, as she was desperate for the proper cracker sound, but guessing you could make them with card without the crack bit. So my crochet hook has been going again ten to the dozen, as she thought we could make treats and pop them in a little christmas stocking for each person! Ekk!! Nearly finished them. Here’s one of them. Think I had better get a wiggle one with these!!!

We made these holly chocolate shortbread biscuits to pop inside. Some have been eaten though!!

I’ve even colour personalised each stocking for each person. I wonder what they will make of them. Wish we’d thought of this a little earlier, but what’s a Christmas without a last minute rush on the crochet hook!!!! Here’s my to do pile!!

Right we had better get onto the blanket and this weeks stitch. Now I know I say it most weeks, but this one is mega and oh so simple!! It’s rather fancy!! It’s called the waffle stitch and it’s a combination of 2 linked extended double crochet stitches and a chain stitch. Now we’ve seen the extended double crochet stitch before, so this is only a little bit different.

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.

2 Linked Extended Double Crochet ( 2 linked exdc) – Insert your hook in the first stitch, yarn over your hook and pull through the stitch. Then insert your hook into the next stitch, yarn over your hook and pull through. (3 loops) Now yarn over your hook and pull through the first 2 loops. Then yarn over your hook and pull through the last 2 loops.

Supplies –

Well it just had to be red didn’t it this week. And this one is definitely a Christmassy red!!! Reminds me of red berries and mulled wine. This one is from the wonderful Extra Fine Merino range from Sublime and it is oh so soft!! You will need about 30g of double knit yarn and then a 4mm crochet hook, some scissors and a blunt ended tapestry needle to sew in your ends.

Ok so let’s go …

1 – Right then so start by attaching your yarn into the right side of your blanket and chain 2.

Now work a 2 linked extended double crochet in that first and second stitch. So to do this insert your hook into the first stitch, yarn over and pull through.

Then insert you hook into the second stitch, yarn over and pull through. You will now have 3 loops on your hook.

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

Then yarn over and pull through the last 2 loops. This completes the 2 linked exdc. Now chain 1.

Now *work a 2 linked exdc over the next 2 stitches and chain 1.*

Repeat this ** across the row.

At the end of the row work a 2 linked extended double crochet in the last 2 stitches and then instead of working 1 chain, work 1dc in the last stitch. (200)

2 – Right then turn your blanket and chain 1. Then work 1dc in the same stitch. Now work 2 linked exdc in the next stitch and ch1sp. Then chain 1.

*Now work the next 2 linked exdc. Insert your hook into the middle of the exdc stitch from the row below (where the arrow is pointing.)

Yarn over your hook and then insert your hook into the ch1sp, yarn over and pull through. (3 loops)

To finish the stitch, yarn over your hook and pull through the first 2 loops and then yarn over your hook and pull through the last 2 loops. Then finish by chaining 1.*

Repeat this ** across the row.

At the end of the row, work the last 2 linked exdc stitch and chain 1, leaving 1 stitch. And then in the last stitch work 1dc stitch. (200)

3 – So in this last row, chain 1. Now work your first 2 linked exdc stitch in first stitch and ch1sp. Then chain 1.

*Now work 2 linked exdc in the middle of the next exdc stitch from the row below and the next ch1sp. And then chain 1.*

Repeat this ** across the row.

At the end of the row, work the last 2 linked exdc stitch in the last 2 stitches and then work 1dc in the last stitch as well. Then fasten off and sew in your ends. (200)

And there we have the magnificent Waffle Stitch. Really hope you have enjoyed week 51 of my Year of the Stitches CAL. One week to go!!! Will be quite sad to see the back of this CAL. It has been so much fun to create and share with you.

Well Merry Christmas everyone!! Wishing you all a wonderful day filled with love, happiness, excitement, fun, laughter and above all, wool!!!

🎄 🧶

Happy hooking everyone!!

🌈Xx

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2018 CAL - Year of the Stitches Blanket

Year of the Stitches Week 48 – Honeycomb

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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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