Alternate Stitch

To all those incredible, amazing, kind, caring and wonderful fathers out there – I salute you, from the bottom of my heart! Happy Father’s Day!! To all those who do so much for their families, who work so hard, who are there whenever they are needed – I thank you. We would be utterly lost without you. If you are sharing your day with your father, can’t be with them or for those who have passed away – you are always in our hearts and we are so very grateful to you. To my dear dear father-in-law, I send you so much love and thanks for all you do for us. You are such a wonderful Dad and Popabear to your grandchildren. We can’t wait to go off on lots more adventures with you. And finally to my own incredible Dad who is my solid brick. I truly would not be the person who I am today, without him. He has always been there through the thick and thin, never wavering or judging. Always guiding and supporting. He is a true treasure and I am the luckiest girl alive that he’s my Dad!!

I hope you are all having a good father’s day. We went to Calke Abbey, which is a National Trust place. It’s a fab day out!! It was a lovely day. They had a kite flying event on for all the fathers.

Such a lovely idea. And yep you’ve guessed it – we have a rainbow kite!!! The weather wasn’t the best, but at least it was windy for all the kites to fly.

Hope everyone has had a good week as well. It’s been rather a busy week in our household. It’s not only been Father’s Day, but it’s also been my husband’s birthday this week. What a week!! I do feel for him, as his two celebratory days come together every year. And it’s an age then, till Christmas. Oh well, he doesn’t seem to mind. We managed a sneaky night out at the weekend for his birthday. Nothing too crazy, after the rather disastrous birthday meal for myself, but luckily this time it was lovely to be out together. I remember someone saying that it’s nice to just go out and sit and be able to finish conversations with each other when you have kids. It’s definitely true. It’s always a bit more fun and crazy when you’re out with little ones. They definitely keep you on your toes, don’t they.

So for my husband’s birthday, my son and I made him a chocolate fudge cake. It’s was a recipe from my all time favourite chef, Mary Berry. She really is the Queen of Baking!!! The problem was, I think I put a tad too much apricot jam over the cake before the ganache went on, so it was a bit too fruity and took away from the chocolateness.

It kind of gave it a bit of a Black Forest Gateau feel to it! Crikey – I remember when those were all the rage! I bet my daughter doesn’t even know what one is!! Heyho. Will know better for next time. Anyways, so here’s to my husband – happy birthday and happy father’s day. You are my best friend, soul mate, hero and the most incredible Dad to our two gorgeous children. We are so so lucky. You literally make my world go round!!!

Phew, it’s all getting a bit emotional this week isn’t it. Sorry! Ok let’s talk fairies! So my daughter and I have been adding to and sorting her fairy world out this week. It’s really coming along now. She designed a stage for them and made it with her Daddy. Bless him. He was in the middle of cooking a bbq for my parents and yep he’s then sawing wood for this stage!! Serious multitasking occurring!! True Daddy Hero!! It was a good stage to, he even managed to get it painted!! You can see it in the bottom right hand side of the photo. She still wants it to have curtains, so I had better get onto that this week. What we do for our kids…

They definitely consume all of our love and thoughts. But this fairy world, has definitely taken over. Whenever I venture into shops, there’s always a little part of me that scans the shop floor for a fairy world addition. It’s amazing what you can find with a little imagination. The Works is a fab place for stuff and cheap too. They have great little craft leaves that have made our super leaf umbrellas. And flower buttons that have been strung up for decoration or for fairies to use as a slide.

I did find the most adorable shop ever the other day. It’s called Truly Creative Designs and it’s down Tudor Row in Lichfield. Oh my! I can’t wait to take my daughter there! She will be beside herself! It’s full of fairy houses like you have never imagined before!! I couldn’t believe my eyes when I walked in and I had no idea it was there!!! Definitely worth a visit if you are in the area and for all those of you who have little ones that need a fairy world. Will take a picture next time I’m in to show you.

So this week I have been carrying on with my 4ply sock pattern. Unfortunately, with everything going on. I haven’t been able to complete that much on my socks. But I always knew it was going to be a pick up and put down project. It lives in my bag, so I get them out and complete a few rounds as and when I can.

They ventured to the doctors surgery the other day. Luckily I had my flip flops on so I could check the sizing quite quickly when I was making them. I’m designing the pattern, so I can’t just leave it to chance. Oh boy – I had some funny looks from some of the others in the waiting room!! Haha! Love doing that! One guy was like – what on earth is she doing!?!? Hee hee!! Love it!! Better than sitting there on your phone like everybody else!! I am looking forward to finishing them though and wearing them. I still can’t get over how soft they are!! I will definitely be buying more HeyJay sock yarn. My feet are going to be seriously comfy one day in these little numbers and hopefully many more to come. Talking about crocheting anywhere, I did do some crocheting at my daughter’s swimming lesson the other day! (They weren’t my socks though, so no trying them on for size, i’m afraid!)

I think I turned some heads though, but I don’t mind! I would happily teach anyone, anywhere if they wanted to learn!! I managed to teach two mothers at a party to crochet the other day! They loved it! By the end of it, we were discussing a trip to the local pub and a crocheting lesson! So that sounds like a great plan!!! It’s been talked about at the school gates, so maybe there’s a possibility that it might actually happen.

In my little group, I taught two of my lovely ladies to crochet. (Well, one being my Mum.) But they did really well. They are both long standing knitters, but in time, I might be able to get them over to the dark side!! Hee hee. I needs name for my little group. Thinking it could be The Rainbow Stitchers! What do you think?!

If anyone ever questions my love of rainbows, they only need to ask what kind of socks I wear for biking!! Hee hee. Vans socks! Can’t beat them! Right, family bike ride here we go!!

And look at the yummy rainbow colours going on in the blanket now. It’s starting to get hard to get a good photo of the blanket with all the stitches. I reckon by the end I will need some step ladders!!

Ooo, it’s all about the colour this week. One of my all time favourite roses is in full bloom. It’s a Peace Rose and was given to me by my husband’s Grandma on my birthday, just before she passed away. It’s such a stunning rose, with all the dramatic colour changes it has. It really is quite precious to me. It used to be out the front of our old house, right by the front door. But now it’s safely in our back garden in full view of the kitchen window. Makes me think of Grandma and Bump every time. It’s little things like that, that can keep memories alive.

Oooo, last thing I just have to tell you about is the exciting news from one of my lovely local yarn shops!! Knitting Corner at Curborough has been relaunched. Ekkk!!! So exciting!!!! I managed a quick trip there on the relaunch day. We’d been on a family bike ride that day, so I only managed to go towards the end, but it was definitely worth it. The lovely Easy Knitter Jon Dunn-Ballam was there with some amazing hand dyed yarns. I managed to get a wonderful cerise double knit yarn for my mum. She would like a hat, so think that’s her Christmas present sorted. I also bought a stunning cornflour blue silk mix hank from Rosie’s Moments! Oh my! It’s beautiful!! So so soft. Oh and maybe some sock yarn too!! Hee hee! Can’t beat a bit of sock yarn!!

So here’s to the new Knitting Corner! I wish you the best of luck and will be venturing there as many times as I can squeeze in!!! Yey!!!

Hmmm, is it me or have I waffled on for much longer this week!! Haha. Right we had better get onto this weeks instalment of Year of the Stitches!! Now as promised it is a rather simple, no hang on it’s a very simple stitch this week. As I know last week was a little bit nuts. So it’s called the Alternate Stitch. It’s pretty simple comprising of the 2 double crochet stitches in one stitch and then miss a stitch. So nothing crazy there. So good luck and I hope you enjoy it.

Supplies –

Right then, so I have used a rather nice yarn from the Wendy merino range. It’s a rather delicate reddy salmon colour. It reminds me of a top my husband wears. Not sure what it is about that colour, but it definitely suits him. I think is goes rather well with the cream from last week too. Does anyone else love playing around with yarn colours? I can spend many a happy hour looking at colour combos. That’s why it’s so important to be able to touch and feel and play with yarn before you buy it. And don’t be afraid to take a project into a wool shop or even balls of wool that you have already bought to match colours to. I do it all the time and find I can really get to grips with what goes best. There’s always a friendly yarn lover either working in the shop or even one of the customers that will help you and share their thoughts on the subject. I know a lovely customer at the Knitting Corner helped me when I was struggling to match a yarn to go on the edge of my mum’s shawl. It was so nice for another opinion on the subject.

So as always, you need about 30g or so of double knit yarn, your 4mm crochet hook, scissors and blunt ended tapestry needle to sew in your ends.

Stitches –

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.

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.

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.

Double Treble Stitch (dtr) – A double treble is quite a tall stitch. So yarn over hook twice, insert hook through the stitch/space and then yarn over hook again. Now pull the yarn through the stitch. There will now be 4 loops on the hook. Now place the yarn over the hook and pull through the first 2 loops. Then yarn over the hook again and pull through the next two loops. Haha, now place the yarn over the hook again and pull through the last 2 loops. Phew! It’s a bit of a long process, but a lovely stitch with the height that it gives.

Treble 2 together (tr2tog) – *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 ** 2 times. (3 loops) Now yarn over your hook and pull through all the loops.

Ok so here we go …

1 – So in this first row, we are going to carry out a number of stitches to create a straight edge again. I am loving the wave effect of last weeks stitch. Think these two colours go really well together. So at the minute we have 250 stitches. So obviously we need to do a bit of tweaking and get our stitch count back down. To do this we will be working some decreasing stitches, as well as those important height stitches to give us back our straight edge.

So to do this attach your yarn into the first stitch on the right side of your blanket. Chain 1 and then work 1dc in the same stitch and then the next stitch as well.

Ok so now it’s time to work a 2trtog over the next 2 stitches. (This is how we are going to decrease our stitch count.) So to do this work a 2trtog stitch, so yarn over your hook, insert into the first stitch, yarn over your hook and pull through. This will give you 3 loops on your hook. Then yarn over your hook and pull through the first 2 loops. Now yarn over your hook again and insert in the next stitch. Yarn over your hook again and pull through the stitch. Yarn over your hook and pull through the first 2 loops on your hook.

Ok so you are now ready to finish the stitch by yarn over your hook and then pull through all the loops.

Right so in the next stitch, you are now going to work 1dtr in the next stitch. (This stitch is the middle stitch in between each Starburst.) So to work 1dtr remember you need to place your yarn over your hook twice and then insert into the stitch, yarn over and pull through. Then yarn over and pull through the first 2 loops. Yarn over again and pull through the next 2 loops and then yarn over and pull through the last 2 loops. Thus completing your double treble crochet.

Now once again we are going to work a *2trtog over the next 2 stitches. (If you are unsure of how to do this stitch you can always refer to the stitch guide above.)

Then work 1dc into the next 5 stitches.

Then 2trtog over the next 2 stitches.

Finally work a 1dtr in the next stitch.* Ok so it’s time to repeat this ** across the row.

Once you’ve worked the last 1dtr, then work a 2trtog stitch and then 3dc stitches. This completes your first row and you should now have 200 stitches. (200)

2 – Ok so now we can get started on this weeks stitch – the Alternate stitch. So basically an Alternate stitch is where you work 2dc in one stitch and then miss a stitch. Right so turn your work and chain 1. Right so work 2dc in the first stitch. *Now miss a stitch and work 2dc stitches in the next stitch.* Repeat this ** across the row.

For the last 3 stitches, miss a stitch and work 1dc in the next 2 stitches. Alternate stitch is usually worked with an odd number in the row, so this is why we have worked these two stitches. (200)

3 – Right so we are now ready to turn our work and chain 2. (This acts as 1dc.) Miss the first stitch and then work 2dc in the next stitch.

*Now miss a stitch and work 2dc in the next stitch.* Repeat this ** across the row.

At the end of the row, miss 1 stitch and then work 1dc in the last stitch. (200)

4 – Right then, so in this row, turn your work and chain 2. (This acts as 1dc again.) Now miss this first stitch and work 2dc in the next stitch.

*Right so miss a stitch then work 2dc in the next stitch.* Repeat this ** across the whole row. At the end of the row, work 2dc in the last stitch and then 1dc in the top of the chain 2 from the row below. (200)

5 – Ok so we’re on the last row now. So start by turning your work and chaining 2. Now work 1dc in the first stitch, then *miss a stitch and work 2dc into the next stitch.* Once again repeat this ** across the row. At the end you need to work 2dc in the last stitch and also 1dc in the top of the chain 2 stitches from the row below.

Now fasten off and sew in the ends. (200)

And there you have it. The rather simple, but effective Alternate Stitch.

It’s nice one to know. Would be good for bags or tablet cases.

I hope you have enjoyed this weeks instalment of Year of the Stitches. I wonder what next weeks will be.

Happy hooking everyone.

🌈Xx