Wrist warmers

As the nights are drawing in and the clocks have been turned back for another year, I thought it was about time I shared this cosy pattern for my wrist warmers. As patterns go, it is decidedly simple!!! So great for a snuggly night in, in front of the fire with a cuppa & a hook in your hand. The stitch I have used is a lovely little number called the Crossed Treble Stitch. So as long as you know how to work a treble, then you can work a crossed treble stitch. Some of you might recognise it from my Year Of The Stitches CAL Blanket from last year. Really hope you like this one.

For these wrist warmers I have used some utterly wonderful 4ply yarn from the incredible Abby over at Luxury Yarns. It was part of my September Ōilyarns Club which I subscribe to every 2 months.

It’s a mega Yarn club where Abby sends you some of her amazing hand dyed yarn and a little bottle of the wonderful essential Dōterra oils, which has all sorts of uses and benefits. Abby usually adds a little treat in there too!! So it’s well worth a peak at her website if you fancy joining. Here’s a link to her website.

https://luxuryyarns.co.uk/oilyarns-club/

Now, I think I had better own up to my little yarny mishap that I had with this rather special yarn. So when my lovely yummy yarn arrived on my door step, it was a beautiful skein of heaveness. So being in a skein I would usually get my husband to help me make it into a ball with my yarn winder. (It’s a 2 man job!) But me being me, thought hey, I could just do it by hand. Not a problem. I’ve done it before!! So I started hand winding, whilst wondering around the house after my little man. He was quite happy, so I got about half of it wound. Dinner time was looming, so it was hung on my wardrobe door & left until the morning. Now for some reason I took it downstairs in the morning, thinking if I got a moment I could sneak a bit more winding. But stupidly l hung it on the kitchen door handle, in full reaching view of my little man!! And, yes you have guessed it, he just couldn’t resist! It was grabbed and whizzed up in his hands within seconds, whilst shouting ‘Look Mummy, I can wind wool too!!!’ Aahhhh! How can you be cross with him!! But it was unrecognisable! What a mess!!!! One not so happy Mummy!! Luckily for me, my Dad is my Yarny Knight in Shining Armour and he took it away in a soup container to be sorted out! (I wouldn’t have had a chance with it!!!)

If only I had kept it on this door!! It would never have ended up in the soup tub!!!

Heyho!!! My wonderful Dad brought it back to me in this little ball of yarny magicalness. Phew!! Thanks Dad! You’re my Yarny Hero!! Moral of the story – never leave it in full reaching view of any little bod who loves having fun!!!!

Right, so let’s get down to business!!

Level – Easy

Size – Ladies

Supplies –

So I have used the utterly gorgeous autumnal 4ply yarn from the amazing Abby at Luxury Yarns. It’s called Forever Autumnal and it’s a Ultra Merino 100% Superwash. The skein is about 450g/100m, but you don’t need very much for this pattern at all. I have also used a 3.5mm hook for this pattern, some scissors, a blunt ended tapestry needle and a yarn stitch marker. (I only really used my stitch marker for the thumb.)

Stitches –

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

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.

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.

Crossed Treble – So this is a stitch where you miss a stitch, work 1tr in the next stitch and then work 1tr in the stitch you have just missed. It’s a lovely stitch to work and gives a lovely textured effect.

Magic Ring – Fold over the yarn to make the 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 so that the knot tightens, but you still have a loop. This has created a magic ring.

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…

Wrist Warmers – make 2

1 – Start by chaining 43. Now turn your work and work 1tr in the 4th chain from the hook. This is where the arrow is pointing.

*Now miss a ch and work 1tr in the next ch. Then work 1tr in the ch that you missed.* This is your first crossed treble stitch.

Now repeat this ** across the row until you get to the last stitch. In the last stitch work 1tr. (40)

2 – Turn your work. Ch3 and work 1tr in the same stitch. *Miss a stitch and work 1tr in the next stitch and then 1tr in the stitch you just missed. Repeat this ** until you get to the last stitch. Then work 1tr in the last stitch. (40)


3 – Now it’s time to repeat step 2, 21 more times. This will give you a rectangular shape. So you will then have 22 rows. (40)


Now it’s time to sew up your wrist warmers. So place one half on top of the other and insert your hook in the front of the first tr stitch, then into the the first chain stitch on the other side of your rectangle. You can see this from the photo below.

Ok so yarn over and pull through both the chain and the tr stitch, then yarn over and pull through both loops to complete your first dc stitch.

Now work 1dc in the same way in each, sewing up the sides for 22 stitches. You should get a little ridge of stitches. You can see this on the picture above. Then fasten off your yarn. The reason you are only sewing up 22 stitches, is because you are now going to work the thumb.

The Thumb

Start by attaching your yarn into the front of the next tr stitch on the left side of your rectangle. (Don’t work the chain stitch!!) Now work 1dc in the next 7 stitches on the left side. You should now have 8dc stitches on the one side.

Then go over to the other half of the wrist warmer and you are going to work your way back down to the base of the thumb where you started. I tend to count 8 chains from the base of the thumb and insert your hook in the 8th chain. (You can see where you need to do the first stitch in the photo above.) Work 1dc like before in this stitch and then 7dc stitches back to the base of the thumb. You should now have 16dc stitches in your round. It should look like the photo below. (You can use your stitch marker here, to help you know where the round finishes and starts.) Finish the round by Ss in the first dc stitch.

For the second round of the thumb work 2dc in the first stitch and then 6dc stitches and then 2dc in the next 2 stitches. Follow this with 6dc stitches then 2dc in the last stitch then ss into the first stitch. (20)

In this round we are going to work some crossed treble stitches. So ch 3, then work 1tr in the first stitch. *Then miss a stitch and work 1tr in the next stitch. Then work 1tr in the stitch you missed.* Repeat this ** all the way around. Working 1tr in the last stitch and then ss into the first tr stitch. (20)

For this last round, ch 3, then work 1tr in the first stitch. *Then miss a stitch and work 1tr in the next stitch. Then work 1tr in the stitch you missed.* Repeat this ** all the way around. Working 1tr in the last stitch and then ss into the first tr stitch. Then fasten off and sew in your ends. (20)

Finally we need to finish sewing up the wrist warmers. So attach your yarn again by inserting your hook into the first of the last 8 stitches and then through chain stitch, like the photo below. Then yarn over and pull through both stitches, then yarn over and pull through both loops on your hook to complete the first dc stitch.

Then work 1dc in the last 7 stitches in the same way and finally fasten off.

Now it’s time to sew in all your ends and turn the wrist warmer inside out, so the sewing up ridge is on the inside. And there you have it.

 Now all you need to do is make wrist warmer number two!

Flower – make 2

As these are wrist warmers for a lady, thought it would be rather nice to decorate them with a little flower.

1 – Make your magic ring, chain 1 & work 12dc stitches into the ring. Pull your tail to close the ring. (12)

2 – Slip Stitch into the first dc, ch4, miss a stitch & work 1dc into next stitch. Now work *ch3, miss a stitch & work 1dc into next stitch.* Repeat this ** 5 more times. Ss into first ch. So there are 6 chain spaces altogether. (These are where your petals will go.) 

– Now in each of the ch1spaces, work *Ss, 1dc, 1htr, 1tr, 1dtr, 1tr, 1htr, 1dc and finally ss.* Repeat this ** 6 times. Finally ss into the first dc and fasten off. (6 petals in total) 

Now sew in one of your ends and use the other to sew your flower into your wrist warmer.

And there we have it. Your completed wrist warmers. They were definitely nice to wear by the sea the other day. Love this pattern, as they are not too bulky, so great to keep in your coat pocket and bring out when you need them!

Really hope you have enjoyed this pattern. Any questions or queries just give us a shout. Can’t wait to see all your creations, don’t forget to share them!!!

Happy hooking!!

🌈Xx

(Free pattern designed and brought to you by PipsRainbow. Thank you for not copying or recreating it. ☺️Xx)

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Year of the Stitches – Week 12 Crossed Treble Stitch

Crossed Treble Stitch 

Hello all! Hope everyone has had a good week. Can’t believe we have a week till Easter! Bonkers. Rather pleased I’ve already got my Easter crochet pressies all ready to go. I’ve promised myself that I wouldn’t leave anything till the last minute this year! Here’s hoping I can keep to that! So far so good.

Yesterday, I had the most incredible time on a hand dyeing workshop. It was so much fun. My friend and I went to the wonderful TOFT Studios near Rugby. We arrived quite early, so spent our time perusing the yarns and lovely crocheted creations. We saw the big highland cow called Morag that they made for the Edinburgh Yarn Festival! Wow – it was impressive!! Not sure it would fit in my living room though!!

So the workshop got under way with a quick demo with the 3 different methods we could use. And then it was straight into having a go. They had already soaked the natural yarn for us in citric acid. So it was a case of choosing your colours and off you go.

I managed to do 4 skeins, 2 for my daughter and 2 for my son. My son’s is a speckled yarn with orange, blue and green.

This one is rainbow stripes for my daughter. Yellow, orange, red, purple, green and turquoise.

There was a wide range of colours which you could mix and match and make them darker and lighter as you wished. For the rainbow effect, you poured the dye out of the bottles. This took a bit of a steady hand, as too much and it would go everywhere!!

For the speckled effect, the dye went into cups which you then used pipettes to then spot the yarn with each colour. Pleased I tried both techniques as each gave a different effect. The rainbow yarn colours are much stronger, but guessing that’s due to the amount of dye used.

Once we had dyed our yarn and massaged the dye in, we wrapped them in cling film like a sausage roll and popped them in the microwave for about 8 minutes.

Then they went outside to dry naturally before they were rinsed out and hung up.

This gave us all time for a cuppa and cake and another whizz around the shop too. Well it would have been rude not to buy some more yarn now wouldn’t it!!

Then it was time to collect our beautiful skeins and head home to dry them. Unfortunately there is a bit of patience required here as you need to wait till they dry, which can take up to 24 hours apparently, before you can get hooking with them!! Chuffed I’ve got my wool winder too. As skeins and me don’t mix at all! (My poor Dad would vouch for that!!!)

Will definitely share my creations when I get time to create them. I thought I would be doing a unicorn and a dragon for them, but my daughter is adamant she wants a rainbow bear and my son a monster. So a bear and a monster it is then. I would highly recommend a trip to the Toft Studio and the hand dyeing workshop. It really was great fun. There was a Tunisian workshop going on at the same time, think I might need to book onto that one next time!!!

So along side my new adventure into yarn dyeing, I have been exploring the world of shawls still. I’ve been having a play with a shawl, including quite a few of the different stitches from the Year of the Stitches blanket.

It’s lovely working from a few balls of merino wool and great to see which stitches work well. Can’t wait to get stuck into this beauty!!

It’s a Beregere de France Unic yarn cake, which is 100% do the softest merino wool I have ever felt. It’s seriously scrummy. It had a bit of a traumatic journey to me though! My first parcel arrived completely and utterly empty! I can safely say this is not a great feeling!!

I mean seriously, did it fall out, been taken out or not put in, in the first place! Well anyway, after a few emails from an apologetic LoveKnitting I received my ball of wool. And oh my it was soooooooooo worth it!! I’ve told myself I can’t start using this till Good Friday, but you never know. I may cave earlier than that!!

So onto the blanket and this weeks stitch. It’s a crossed treble stitch, which creates columns of rows of stitches. It is pretty simple to work, but gives a really beautiful effect. It has quite a lacy feel to it, which is nice. Definitely think it’s a stitch that could be used in a scarf or a shawl. Might have to have a go on one of the many shawls I seem to have started.

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.

Supplies

Right so this week I have chosen the wonderful Toft yarn. It’s 100% and ever so soft. (Seemed apt as I was there!!) It’s a lovely delicate white colour. Thought it would resemble last weekends snow. It was like a blizzard one minute and calm as anything the next! Very odd. I have used about 30/40g of this DK yarn, but you can use any kind of DK yarn you wish. You will need your 4mm hook, scissors and blunt ended tapestry needle.

1 – Ok so this week we are starting on the right side, so the side with last weeks spot stitches facing you. So attach your yarn and chain 3. Then work 1tr into the same stitch. *Now miss a stitch and work 1tr into the next stitch, then 1tr into the stitch you missed*. (So you are working backwards to the missed stitch.) Now repeat ** across the row.

Work 1tr in the last stitch in the row. (210)

2 – Now turn your work, chain 1 and work 1dc in the same stitch. Then work 1dc in each stitch across the row. (210)

3 – Now turn your work and chain 3. Then 1tr in the same stitch. 

Right so once again, *miss a stitch, work 1tr in the next stitch, then work 1tr in the stitch you’ve missed.*

 

Repeat ** across the row and work 1tr in the last stitch. (210)

 

And there you have it. Crossed treble stitches. It’s a quick and easy stitch to do isn’t it. Hope you are all happy with how your Year of the Stitches blanket is growing! I’d love to know if you are using all different colours like me or repeating colours. The blanket will be quite big by the time we’ve finished it. We’re just over a 5th of the way there. Scary to think we’re a 5th if the way through the year!! Crikey it’s going quick!!

Right well don’t forget to ask for help if you need any.

Happy hooking everyone!

🌈Xx

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