2018 CAL - Year of the Stitches Blanket

Year of the Stitches Week 48 – Honeycomb

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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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2018 CAL - Year of the Stitches Blanket

Year of the Stitches Week 46 – Treble Crosses

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Treble Crosses Stitch

Well hello my lovelies! I hope you have all had lovely weekends!! We have had a rather activity weekend, so I think these two have earnt a movie night. They seem to be enjoying a double whammy of blanket yumminess!!! Surely you can’t have enough snuggly blankets around you can you?!?! The back one is a granny square blanket that I made for my daughter a few years ago!! It’s a firm favourite in our house.

So this weekend we have managed two big walks. The Long Mynd on Saturday and Thorpe Cloud today. It was so nice to get out and about in the fresh air. Unfortunately as you can see, we didn’t have the best of weather yesterday. It was like we were walking in the clouds. I don’t think it dampened our spirits though.

But by the end of the walk, it was clear blue skies and bright sunshine. The walkers seem to appear out of the woods at that point! My old faithfuls are still going strong!!

I think we were the only crazy ones that were out early in the morning. Just to give you an idea, we had got up, cooked and ate a big breakfast, driven to the Long Mynd (over an hour away,) walked up and around the The Mynd (9km to be precise) and then managed a yummy pub lunch by 1pm. So I reckon that’s pretty good going!! Either that or it’s just usual life with a little one that needs to sleep early afternoon!! Bless him. I know it’s not forever, so we don’t mind arranging our day around him!! And definitely don’t want his naps to end just yet!! Ekk!!

We have definitely had an active weekend – so today  we ended scrambling up Thorpe Cloud!! And we had the amazing weather that we had hoped for!! Wow!! We were so lucky!!! Just incredible!

If you are ever in the area, it is definitely worth a trip!! There’s the famous stepping stones that you can walk to, but then the adventurous ones go up Thorpe Cloud! It’s a bit of a scramble at the beginning and definitely not easy for my poor husband with a back pack and a little boy who is getting bigger by the minute on his back!! Totally worth it though!! The view was amazing! My daughter kept saying how easy it was and why were we taking so long!! Bless her!! She has so much energy!!

This walk had definitely earnt a mulled cider at the Old Dog Inn afterwards!!! Dare I say it – felt like the beginning of chrimbo!!

We ended up in Ashbourne afterwards and had a lovely cuppa in the F’coffee cafe!! My son even had a babychino, but it’s wasn’t any normal one!! He absolutely adored it!! Mega coffee bar if you are ever in Ashbourne!!! Hmm, just looking at this photo – do you think he likes diggers?? Haha! Bless him!!

Well we have definitely had a lovely weekend making lots of family memories!! Happy days!!

So onto a spot of crocheting. So this weekend I have published my Simply Snuggly Hat pattern. Now this is a great pattern for any of you who are new to crocheting and want to make something easy, but also for crochet addicts like me who love giving crocheted pressies to everyone. This one uses a  back loop double crochet stitch, which is extremely easy to make up. So no worries there!!

My other Weekend Hat pattern, will be ready to go mid week I think. This will be my second hat pattern and once again it is extremely easy to make up. It uses the back loop treble stitch, so it’s a lot quicker than the back loop double crochet hat, but obviously gives you a different look.

This is one I am making for my Mum. She adores this cerise colour, so hope she will like it. The wool has been hand dyed by the wonderful Easy Knitter!! Hoping to find a matching pom pom for it!!! Definitely needs a pom pom, doesn’t it!!

So onto the blanket and this weeks instalment of Year of the Stitches CAL. So this week I have chosen a lovely stitch called the Treble Crosses Stitch. It’s a pretty cool stitch. It’s kind of like a spike stitch in the sense that you work trebles in the row below, but crossed!! Hope you like. It’s good fun to work up. Just watch your tension. Make sure your tension is quite loose, as otherwise it will pull the stitch down!! Hope you like it!

Supplies –

This week I have used a 100% Double Knit wool from the Cascade range!! It’s ever so nice to work with!! As always I have used about 30g of yarn. Remember you can use any double knit yarn you like. Don’t forget your 4mm hook, scissors and a blunt ended tapestry needle.

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 Crochet (tr) – Yarn over your hook and insert the hook through the stitch, front to back, then yarn over hook and pull back through stitch. You will have three loops on your hook. Then yarn over your hook and pull through the first 2 loops. Then yarn over your hook again and pull through the last 2 loops.

Ok so here we go …

1 – Attach your new yarn onto the wrong side of your blanket and chain 3. Now work 1tr in the same stitch. Then work 1tr in each stitch across the row. (200)

2 – Now turn your work and chain 3. Then work 1tr in the same stitch. Now miss 2 stitches and then work 1tr in the base of the next stitch. So work the tr stitch around the back of the tr post. Can you see where the arrow is pointing.

So to do this, yarn over your hook and insert your hook around the back of the stitch like so.

Then yarn over and pull back through and up to same height of the row. You should have 3 loops on your hook.

Now finish the stitch by placing the yarn over your hook and pulling through the first 2 loops and then yarn over your hook and pull through the last 2 loops to complete the stitch.

Now work 1tr in the 2nd of the missed stitches. This is where the arrow is pointing.

Ok so now you are ready to work 1tr around the base of the first tr stitch that you missed. So we are going to put the yarn over your hook and insert your hook where the arrow is pointing.

So place it around the back of the stitch like last time.

Now yarn over your hook and pull through. This will give you 3 loops on your hook.

Then finish the stitch by yarn over your hook and pull through the first 2 loops and then yarn over your hook and pull through the last 2 loops.

Now work 1tr in the next 3 stitches. The first stitch needs to go where the arrow is pointing. You need to make sure this is the stitch that hasn’t had a treble stitch underneath. If you start in this one you will end up with a higher stitch count!

Son once you have worked the 3 trebles you have finished the treble cross stitch.

Ok so now it’s time to repeat. So *miss next 2 tr stitches, work 1tr in the base of the next tr stitch.

Then work 1tr in the second of the missed tr stitches.

Then 1tr in the base of the first tr stitch missed.

Now work 1tr in the next 3 stitches.*

Repeat this ** across the row. (200)

3 – Now turn your work and chain 3. Now work 1tr in the same stitch and then 1tr in each stitch across the row.

End with 1tr in the last stitch and then fasten off and sew in your ends.  (200)

And there we have the wonderful Treble Crosses Stitch. Hope you like it. Still a bit shocked that we are on week 46 of Year of the Stitches!! I really hope you are enjoying this CAL as much as I am!! Think it’s going to be a magnificent blanket once it’s finished. Fingers crossed!!

Anyways, happy hooking everyone!

🌈 Xx

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