V Stitch Blanket

Well hello Sunday evening. How are we all? Thought I would bring you some yummy yarny crocheting in the form of this lovely foot blanket. It’s one of my favourite little blankets that I made in the winter and as you can see it’s a firm favourite in our family. It finds itself living in different places in the house, but seems to like living here in between a very old carriage blanket and my Year of the Stitches Blanket.

When I designed this blanket, I had a few specific ideas in my head. I wanted it to be warm, but not too heavy. I also knew it needed to have the lovely fluid drape that a blanket can give, as I knew it would be placed over a bed or someone’s feet or lap. Thus why I used quite large hooks for the tasks and choose the magnificent, yet oh so simple V stitch. My first of these blankets was for my dear Grannie. She was in a care home at the time and her feet were getting cold. She had spent her life keeping our feet warm with knitted slipper socks, so it was about time we kept her feet nice and toasty. I visited her with my Dad and started the blanket that evening. It took me 3 evenings, so it’s ever so quick to make up. Unfortunately she passed away the next day, so I never got to give it to her. But it is now known in our house hold as the GG Blanket. So that’s nice. It even gets lent out to family members aka my sister, for camping trips or snuggle needing events!!

Supplies – 

Now you can choose to make this blanket in either Aran weighted wool or 2 double knit wools worked together. I love using up all my different odds and ends and mixing lots of yarns, so I choose to use 2 double knit yarns. My Gran did this a lot. She even used to undo unwanted jumpers and reuse the wool for other projects, so I think she would have approved of this one. Just remember when you are using multistrands of wool, all you need to do is work with them as if they are 1 ball of wool. It’s ever so easy, so nothing to worry about. Here’s a little snuggle pod I was making with 3 balls of wool!

So mine weighs about 600g and I have used the 2 strands of double knit wool method. So probably looking at about 12 balls of dk yarn, as they are usually in 50g balls. If you are using Aran, then you will need roughly about 7-8 balls of wool. Obviously it depends on your tension and how big or small you fancy making it. You will also need a 7mm and an 8mm crochet hook, scissors and a blunt ended tapestry needle.

Level – Easy

Blanket Size – 53inches wide and 23inches tall.

Stitches – 

Slip knot – Firstly fold over the yarn 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.

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.

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.

V Stitch – To make a V stitch, you need to work 2 Treble crochet stitches inbetween the two trebles stitches in the row below.

Ok so here we go … 

1 – To start the blanket you need to chain 120 stitches. Now remember when you are starting a blanket off, always use a hook size 1 whole size bigger for the chain stitches. So we are using a 7mm hook for this blanket, so work your chain stitches with an 8mm hook. Otherwise you will get a delightful curve on your blanket before you have even started. It helps you to have a nice straight edge to your blanket. So first things first make your slip knot.

Then work your 120 chain stitches.

Now that you have chained all of your stitches, change back to your normal crochet hook which is a 7mm hook. (120)

2 – Right so turn your blanket and chain 3. This will give you the height for your V stitch. Now in the 5th chain from the hook work 2tr stitches. (Don’t forget there is a recap at the top if you have forgotten how to work a Treble Stitch.) So you are working into the 5th chain from the hook – because 3 stitches are acting as your first tr stitch and one stitch you are missing.

Now *miss a chain stitch and work 2tr into the next stitch.* Repeat ** across the rest of the row.

Now work 1tr Stitch in the last chain stitch in the row. (120)

3 – Now turn your work and chain 3. This acts as your first tr stitch. Now you are going to work your V stitch inbetween the 2 treble stitches from the row below. This is where the arrow is pointing.

To work your V stitch, work your 2 trebles stitches here.

*Now miss a stitch and as before work 2tr inbetween the 2 treble stitches below.*Repeat ** all the way across the row.

So when you come to the last V, work the 2tr stitches as usual. Now work 1tr in then top of the chain 3 stitches from the row below. (120)

This completes your row. (120)

4 – Now turn your work and chain 3. This acts as your first tr stitch. Then *work 2tr inbetween the V stitch below (Inbetween the 2 tr stitches)*.

Repeat ** across the row. Now if like me you are using up lots of odds and ends of yarn, at some point in each row, balls of wool will run out. So I have created this blanket with colour changes randomly. Obviously you don’t have to change mid row, you can always change at the ends of the row or not at all. Up to you! But if you do then here’s how. So start your first tr in the next V stitch by yarn over hook, insert into your stitch, yarn over your hook then pull back through. So at this point, you are going to use your new yarn. So place the new yarn over your hook.

Now finish the tr stitch as usual, so pull the new yarn through the first 2 loops.

Then yarn over your hook and pull through the last 2 loops. Now work another 1tr in the same place to finish the V stitch.

Now carry on working V stitches as usual. At the end of the row, work 1tr in the top of the chain 3 stitches. (120)

5 – Now turn your work and chain 3. This acts as your first tr stitch. Then *work 2tr inbetween the V stitch below. (Inbetween the 2 tr stitches.)*

At the end of the row work 1tr in the top of the chain 3 stitches. (120)

6 – Now repeat row 5 until you are happy with the height of your blanket. For my foot blanket, I have worked 42 rows, but feel free to do as many or as little as you like. Once you have finished, fasten off and sew in all of those rascally ends and block your blanket.

Look at all those lovely V stitches. Love the colour change in this one.

Here’s one my dear friend has made, think it is loved by the dog too! Hers is a little bigger, so if you do want a bigger blanket, just repeat the pattern with the same rows, until the desired length.

You can see here the size of the 42 rows. It will fit easily at the end of a single bed or just as a simple lap blanket that lives on the back of the sofa.

So there you have the wonderful V Stitch Foot Blanket. Really hope you like this one. Great for a really quick blanket to make for someone. Might be nice for a Christmas present for someone or even a big bod off to Uni. Would be great to go at the end of a single bed too!! My very clever sister made one too. Love how her colours work together.

Well, happy hooking everyone.

🌈Xx

(Don’t forget that this pattern is brought to you from PipsRainbow, it has not been tech edited, but all attempts have been made to ensure it is correct and easy to follow. It is only to be used for personnel use only and not to be shared or used to create items for profit. Thank you.)

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Waiting Rooms

Well hello my lovely ones. How are we all? It’s a cold, wet and grim day here. Definitely a day that you need to stay in as much as possible. I’ve just managed a yoga class. I haven’t been in ages, so you can imagine that it definitely woke up some of my joints!! I have a funny feeling they won’t be happy later. Ouch! Oh well. Definitely important to keep the old dodgy joints ticking over. That’s always my excuse for crocheting and knitting so much – it keeps my hands warm and working!! Haha!!

How is everyone’s yarny projects going? I seem to have quite a lot of WIP’s at the minute. But really trying to finish some of them, so that I only have a few on the go at the same time. It’s definitely not a problem to have a few different ones on the go. I like to keep small, easy projects, that I can take with me for every eventuality. This is usually a pair of knitted socks. It’s so small, that it can fit in your pocket. So always have a pair on the go. Another slightly bigger project that goes with me, is my Around the World Cowl from the gorgeous yarn club from For the Love of Yarn. https://fortheloveofyarn.co.uk/

It’s 4ply yarn again and it’s at the beginning stages, so definitely one to fit in my bag on trips out. It’s coming along nicely and I hope to share the pattern soon.

I had one of those magical moments with it yesterday. It was actually the first time this has ever happened to me, which is a shame, but I am hoping it won’t be the last. I went to the hospital for my regular bloods and it was absolutely rammed. It’s usually only a waiting space of one corridor, but this stretched out to 3 corridors and 2 waiting rooms. Must remember, Monday is not a good day to go!! I did get a seat, so got myself comfy for a long wait with my Around the World Cowl happily being worked on my lap. But then there was an old couple that couldn’t sit together, so I jumped up to offer my seat. (As any normal human being would do!) But then as I roamed the corridors in hope of another seat, there she was. This lovely lady crocheting a blue flower blanket for one of her daughters! Well, the speed in which I sat down and started chatting, may have come across as a little alarming, but hey, I was a little bit excited and realised I wasn’t a crazy lady as soon as I got my crocheting out! In all my time of waiting rooms, I have never seen or sat by anyone crocheting! I am usually the one that gets the slightly funny looks or the questions as to what are you making. And how their gran used to crochet and they never learnt. So we wallowed away nearly an hour of yarny chatting before it was her turn to go in. It was so lovely. Her name was Ann and she’d been knitting for years, but learnt to crochet recently and even taught a couple of her friends too! She did put me to shame though. I had only got my small ball of wool with me and if I had been waiting much longer, I would have run out of crocheting. (Ekk, a shiver just ran down my spine!! Imagine that!) The lady on the other hand, had 3 other little balls of wool in her bag on the off chance that she might run out!! I felt very unprepared, which doesn’t come naturally to me. So in true Ann style, I think I may need to check myself in future and ensure that when you are out and about crocheting or knitting and definitely in a waiting room on a Monday, that – YOU DON’T RUN OUT OF WOOL!!

On other news, I have been having a little go on my sewing machine. I bought a box of canvas offcuts from Nu at Hide and Hammer. https://hideandhammer.co.uk/ She pops them on her website every so often, as she never throws anything away, it’s a great idea for others to use it. As some of you have seen I made these little pouches last week.

The iced bag one has been great attached to my drinks bottle for the gym. It houses my AirPod case and car keys. And phone too, if I’m not using it.

The mustard oil skin has housed my little The Yarn Badger Advent sock set that I am working on at the moment.

So I reckoning I could definitely make a few more. My son wants some for his lego and bits for when we go out. So that will be a little project. I am hoping to make myself a little knitted needle roll, which I have in the past made for my Mum. But I think my one might have to wait. Too many things to do. Too little time to do it! We shall see. I have invested in a little leather foot for my machine is great.

It’s so easy to go around corners and a great way to sew very near to an edge. Would highly recommend getting one for your own machine if you can. I bet you could use it for all sorts of things.

Well on that note I had better say my fair wells. I will be posting up the new Around the World Cowl pattern up for anyone that would like to make one. It’s a 5 stitch repeat, worked up in a circle. I am using 5 different colours each month from the Around the World Club from Lisa at For the Love of Yarn, but you can use any colour combo that you like.

I also have a little Easter crochet project coming out too! It’s another one of my Egglebert family! So hope you like the new addiction!

Anyways. Hope everyone has great days.
Happy hooking!
🌈 Xx

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