Lefty left!

Hello my lovely ones, how are we all? Good weekend? So a new challenge has begun in the PipsRainbow household!! And it’s a bit of a corker!! My dear dear niece is left handed and I had the opportunity to teach her crocheting this week. Myself, my daughter and I, sneaked out of the house the other day, for an amazing coffee and crochet session in the amazing Melbourne in Lichfield coffee bar.

Now it hadn’t really occurred to me before now, how utterly different it is for left handed people to crochet. I think my main overriding concern is the fact that most photographic tutorials and videos are all right handed. And then I realised that my own patterns and photographic tutorials are all in a right handed prospective.

So it got me thinking….

Left handed crocheters…

Definitely need some PipsRainbow craziness!!

Basically – I need to get going with the left handed world of crocheting!!!

So on that note – the new PipsRainbow challenge is to learn how to crochet left handed. It was so interesting trying to teach my dear niece how to crochet left handed! I had to totally rethink the world of crocheting and how to position my hand and how to place my yarn over my hook!!! Bonkers!! I think I am in a good place to learn, in the sense that I used to be able to play rounders left handed and play cricket left handed. So hoping there’s a little bit of crossing over of cords in my brain, to help me with this new challenge.

Watch this space chaps…

Watch this space…

Serious love going on for Melbourne’s Flat White coffee art!! The amazing Paul at Melbourne made me this Flat White with an incredible magical Phoenix (Harry Potter style.) It was so mega – didn’t want to drink!!

So…

If you are a left crocheter, then definitely get in contact, as I am definitely hoping to help with any issues you guys have with crocheting. Hoping to create some simple left handed photographic stitch tutorials and videos to help anyone get started.

Anyways, I hope you all have a good start to the week.

Happy hooking everyone.

🌈Xx

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Year of the Stitches Week 48 – Honeycomb

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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