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