V Stitch Foot Blanket

Grannie’s V Stitch Foot Blanket

Well hello Monday goers. Here we are again at the start of a new week. 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.

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

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!!

Well, happy hooking everyone.

🌈Xx

(Free Crocheted Pattern brought to you by PipsRainbow.)

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Year of the Stitches – Week 2 V Stitch

V Stitch

Well hello. I hope everyone is getting back into the swing of things after all the festivities. Feels like it was ages ago!! This week seems to have flown past in our house. It’s been good fun though. It’s consisted of school runs, washing, swimming, farm trip, play dates, road trip and a rather cheeky night out with the hubby! Thai food, wine and cocktails. What’s not to like!! I’ve even managed quite a lot of crocheting! But the highlight of the week was a trip up north with my wonderful Dad, to give my sister, whose at uni, a rather quick but big squidge and to see my dear Grannie. Grannie is now in a care home and unable to get around which is so sad to see. So I want to dedicate my yarn colour to her this week.

She has always adored a beautiful pale powdery blue colour. I remember in her house, her whole bedroom was this light, subtle blue. It seemed to adorn every corner. She even had many clothes in the colour and no word of a lie, nearly all her nighties were pale blue! Well, why not! My Grannie was a true knitting trooper. I think I have said before that she taught me to knit, but she didn’t crochet. Her sister did, mainly lace work, which, wow, hats off to her! Gutted that I never saw any of her work. But my Gran would knit jumpers, slippers socks, anything really. There was always a big bag of wool by her side and knitting needles were always jumping around on a mission to finish a project. My Grandad was adamant that she could fall asleep and still Knit! I hope I can do that with crocheting – think how much you would get done!!! So yeah, this week my yarn is a pale blue super soft cotton from the wonderful King Cole range. Here’s to you Gran! Happy days and precious memories.

So this week we are going to be adding 3 rows of a lovely stitch called the V Stitch. It’s a beautiful stitch that’s used quite a lot in shawls and blankets as it’s quite decorative, but still simple at the same time. It uses the treble stitch but in a slightly different way.

So a quick recap on 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.

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

Ok, so as this blanket is being made with Double Knit wool you need your 4mm hook, scissors and blunt ended tapestry needle. Yarn needs to be of double knit weight, but can be any colour or type you like. Roughly 40/50g.

Right so at the minute your blanket looks like this and you have 200 stitches in each row.

1 – So first of all join your new yarn by pulling it through the first stitch with your hook and then chain 3. This acts as your first tr stitch.

Now *miss a stitch and work 2tr into the next stitch.* Repeat ** across the rest of the row until you get to the last 2 stitches. (Don’t forget to see the recap at the top if you are unsure on how to do a treble crochet.)

 

For the last 2 stitches, don’t miss a stitch. So work 2tr then in the next stitch work 1tr in the last stitch. (200)

2 – Now turn your work and chain 3. This acts as you first tr stitch.

Then work 2tr inbetween the 2 treble stitches from the row below to create the V stitch. *Now miss a stitch and as before work 2tr in between the 2 treble stitches below.*Repeat ** all the way across until the last few stitches.

So when you come to the last V, work the 2tr stitches as usual.

Then work 1tr into the last space in the row. (200)

 

3 – 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.

The picture below shows the last 2tr being worked in the row to create the V stitch.

As before, work 1tr into the last space in the row. This completes your 3 rows. (200)

Now fasten off and sew in the ends using your tapestry needle.

Well done. You have completed week two of Year of the Stitches blanket. Hope you enjoyed the stitch – I love this stitch. I have actually made a foot blanket for my Grannie in 3 evenings, with this stitch. It’s so quick to work.

In true Grannie fashion, I have used up all my bits and bobs and double stranded a V Stitch blanket using a 8mm hook. Hopefully it will make its way up to her soon and keep her feet warm.

If you did want to have a go at a V stitch blanket. You need to start off with an even amount of chain stitches of the width you want it to be, say 200 for example. Then add two more on so 202. Remember to do your chain stitches in a bigger hook size, to reduce the risk of that kink we’ve talked about before.

1 – So you have a chain of 202 stitches. Now work 1tr into the 4th chain from the hook. *Then miss a stitch and work 2tr into the next stitch.* Repeat ** till the end of the row. For the last two stitches miss a stitch then work 1 tr into the last stitch, then turn your work. (118)

2 – Firstly chain 3, then miss a stitch and work 2tr inbetween the 2tr stitches below. This creates the V stitch. Now repeat ** across the whole row. As before, for the last stitch work 1tr into the last chain space. (118)

Now repeat row 2 until the blanket is the length you wish. As mine is a foot blanket it’s only about 70cm long and about a metre and a half wide. Now for changing colour, I changed colour randomly on each row. As I was using lots of bits and bobs, I didn’t want to have the worry of running out of yarn. Think it gives it a nice natural effect. But obviously you could change your yarn colour every 3 or 4 rows or even make a blanket in one colour.

Hope you have enjoyed week 2. Can’t wait to see all these wonderful blankets grow. So exciting. As always, if you need any help just give us a shout.

Happy hooking everyone.

🌈Xx

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