Year of the stitches – Page 7

Year of the Stitches Week 39 – Blossom Stitch

September 30, 2018 No Comments

Blossom Stitch

Awww – I think my blanket is being used as some kind of Lego mat!!! Bless my daughter. You can’t beat a bit of Lego making! My daughter made this up with her Daddy yesterday afternoon. It’s pretty cool, it’s a little ice cream van and shop. There are so many incredible Lego kits now isn’t there. I remember having a pile of bricks and just having to try our best and use our imagination!! Amazing how things have evolved. Lego is in a whole different level of playing now!! I remember watching a Lego documentary and there are adults that will literally wait for a kit to be released and make it within 24 hours! There was one guy that had his poor girlfriend, sorting pieces so he was quicker to make it! Crazy!! Once he had made it, the finished article would be displayed and never played with. Can’t quite get my head around that, but hey, each to their own!! Fun fact alert from my husband – apparently Lego are the biggest manufacturers of wheels in the world! Who would have thought! Bonkers!!! Anyways!! Lego is definitely back in business and I reckon it’s here to stay!!

Well I think we need a big YEY to the weather this week!! Just incredible! I have to say these are my favourite kind of days. You can keep your scorching hot suns – give me a clear blue sky with crisp but warm sun, any day. Boots and gelert weather and some sunnies on top of your head! Just the best. Look at those skies!!

As I was reading in Simply Crochet magazine, we are entertaining our season at the minute!! The season of crocheted scarves, socks and yarnny hats!!! Ekkk!!! Proper weather!! Hope you are all enjoying your seasonal projects! I seem to be getting through all the birthday pressies at the minute. I made this little lady for daughter’s best chums sister. Hope she will like her.

Think it’s the colour combo I love so much! It’s a mix of a lovely soft dusty pink from Sublime and a West Yorkshire Spinner rainbow sock yarn. I had a bit of duh moment the other day. I’ve realised that some of my all time favourite projects have been with multistranded yarn. And if I ever just want to create something, I will always grab a couple of different colours to create something. I’ve decided it’s because it’s like painting. I get to choose what colours I use, rather than being dictated to by yarn suppliers. I reckon when I have a little more time on my hands, hand dyeing is the way forward. How amazing would it be to create your own colour scheme – I mean think of the rainbow possibilities!! It’s definitely on the to do list!!

So this weeks stitch is called the Blossom stitch. Now I know I should have used this in the spring, but hey, hind sight is a wonderful thing. So the Blossom stitch is another one of those stunning stitches that is made up of V shaped stitches in columns. It works well with pale colours such as this weeks dusty pink Toft wool. It creates quite a dense shape, which would work well for hats or scarves. You could use it with some lovely 4ply or lace weight to create a stunning shawl. Oooo, the possibilities!! Hope you enjoy this one.

Supplies –

This week I have once again used the wonderful Toft wool in this lovely pink colour. It’s quite a contrast from the deep purple from last week but they sit well together. Couldn’t resist matching it with the stitch again. Now I know it’s not blossom season and I probably should have used this stitch in the spring, but this colour is definitely a blossom colour. You will need about 30g of DK yarn and don’t forget the 4mm hook, scissors and blunt ended tapestry needle to sew all the ends in.

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.

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.

Ok so here we go…

1 – Attach your new yarn onto the right side of your blanket. Now chain 1 and work 1dc in the same stitch.

Now work (1tr, 1ch, 1tr) in the next stitch.

Now miss a stitch and work 1dc in the next stitch.

*Now miss a stitch and work (1tr, 1ch, 1tr) in the next stitch. Then miss a stitch and work 1dc in the next stitch.*

Repeat this ** across the whole row.

Ending with 1dc in the last stitch. (200)

2 – Right so turn your blanket and chain 4.

Now miss the first tr stitch and work 1dc in the first chain 1 space. This is where the arrow is pointing in the picture above.

Now chain 1, miss 1tr and work 1tr in the next dc stitch.

*Ok so now chain 1, miss 1tr and work 1dc in the next ch1sp, chain 1, miss 1tr, then work 1tr in the next dc stitch.*

Repeat this ** across the row.

Finish with 1tr in the last stitch. (200)

3 – Ok so first things first, turn your blanket, chain 1 and miss the first tr and first chain.

So now you are going to work (1tr, 1ch, 1tr) in the next dc stitch. This is where the arrow is pointing in the picture above. Then miss 1ch and work 1dc in the next tr stitch. This is where the arrow is pointing in the picture below.

Now *miss 1ch, work (1tr, 1ch, 1tr) in the next dc, then miss 1ch and work 1dc in the next tr stitch.* So repeat this ** across the whole row.

At the end work 1dc in the top of the chain 4 from the row below.

4 – So now we are going to repeat row 2. Right so turn your blanket and chain 4. Now miss the first tr stitch and work 1dc in the first chain 1 space. This is where the arrow is pointing.

Now chain 1, miss 1tr and work 1tr in the next dc stitch.

*Ok so now chain 1, miss 1tr and work 1dc in the next ch1sp, chain 1, miss 1tr, then work 1tr in the next dc stitch.* Repeat this ** across the row.

Finish with 1tr in the last stitch. (200)

5 – In this row we are going to repeat row 3.

Ok so first things first, turn your blanket, chain 1 and miss the first tr and first chain stitch.

So now you are going to work (1tr, 1ch, 1tr) in the next dc stitch. This is where the arrow is pointing.

Then miss 1ch and work 1dc in the next tr stitch. This is where the arrow is pointing in the picture below. Now *miss 1ch, work (1tr, 1ch, 1tr) in the next dc, then miss 1ch and work 1dc in the next tr stitch.* So repeat this ** across the whole row.

At the end work 1dc in the top of the chain 4 from the row below.

And there we have the beautiful Blossom Stitch. I’m thinking a scarf in this stitch next year!! It’s so delicate, yet so easy to work.

Hope you have enjoyed this weeks CAL instalment.

Happy hooking everyone!!

🌈Xx

Year of the Stitches Week 38 – Up and Down Stitch

September 23, 2018 No Comments

Up and Down Stitch

Well hello lovelies, how are you all? Hope you have all had good weekends. Ours has been quite a quiet one in the grand scheme of things. We seem to have been under the illness umbrella again this week. We’ve had a serious amount of snot, coughing, ear ache and conjunctivitis this week. So it’s been a bit of a tough week again. Saying that we’ve had a lovely family outing and a wonderful family get together for my sisters’s birthday, so I reckon the name for this weeks stitch is rather apt – the Up and Down stitch. A week of Ups and Downs!!

One thing I did love doing was publishing my little Conky the Conker pattern. Rather chuffed with him. I’ve already had an order off someone for him.

We had a lovely trip to the SeaLife Centre this weekend. My son hasn’t been before, so his eyes were on stalks! Guessing it’s a bit of a sensory overload in there as there’s so much to see, smell and hear. He loved it! Think the penguins were his favourite – they came up so close to the glass to see him. He was just mesmerised.

Loving the clown fish tunnel too. This was at the start, so he kept on trying to run back to it! Think we will definitely be going back there.

So it was my sister’s birthday party this weekend too. Now when there’s a party, there is always cake!! Well you can’t have a party and make a wish without a cake now can you! So this year I made my sister, my favourite Chocolate Malteser cake from the wonderful Mary Berry. She is just the creme de la creme of all bakers – the Queen of bakers if you like. I can safely say I haven’t made one of her recipes that hasn’t worked!

And no birthday would be complete without a crocheted pressie. So here’s my second V stitch Grannie Blanket for my lovely sister. She’s back to university this week, so hoping this little blanket will come in handy. I’ve made it up with all sorts of bits and bobs from my Grannie’s and Nanna’s wool stashes and even my Mum is going to add some rows, so it really is a family affair. If you fancy making one for yourself, the free pattern can be found in the pattern page.

Awww – a pair of Grannie Blankets. I wonder what my Gran would have made of them.

Right then, onto this weeks blanket stitch. So I have chosen the Up and Down stitch. Hee hee – Now is it me or is that a cool name for a stitch! I mean who thought of that! I reckon the stitch namer was having a bad day that day!! Poor stitch, you think of some of the other names – Pique, Wattle, Iris, Offset Filet Stitch and this one is called the Up and Down Stitch!!!! Love it!! Jokes aside the reason it’s called this is because it literally goes up and down – Up with the trebles and Down with the doubles! Funny. So it’s ever so simple this week. And it’s a good one to know, as it’s quite a tight stitch, but does have this very delicate subtle texture.

Supplies –

This week I have used a rather deep purple colour from the Wendy mention wool range. It’s a lovely range, I made my husband’s scarf last year in this. It is quite a deep colour though. Hoping you can make out some of the pictures, as think with the dark colour, it doesn’t show the texture and pattern as well. Definitely something to remember when you are choosing your colours with certain stitches. So you will need about 30g of DK yarn and don’t forget the 4mm hook, scissors and blunt ended tapestry needle to sew all the ends in.

Stitches –

Chain (ch) – To make a chain, place the yarn over the hook then pull it through the loop on your hook.

Half Treble (htr) – A half treble crochet is basically one less movement than a treble. So yarn over hook, insert through space/stitch, yarn over hook, pull back through space/stitch. There should be 3 loops on your hook. Then yarn over hook and pull through all 3 loops.

Ok so here we go…

1 – So first things first, we need to make a nice straight edge for our Up and Down stitch. So, attach your new yarn into the first stitch on the wrong side of your blanket. Now chain 3 and work 1htr in the first stitch.

Now work 1htr in the next 2 stitches. Then work 1dc in the next stitch. (You are working your way up the one side of the little point from the previous row.)

Now miss the 2chsp (The 2chsp is where the arrow is pointing in the previous photo.) Then work 1dc in the next stitch and then 1htr. You have now worked your way over the first little point from the previous row.

*Now work 1htr, 1dc, miss 2chsp, 1dc then 1htr* then repeat this process ** across the row.

In the last stitch work 2htr. You now have a nice flat edge for this weeks stitch. (200)

2 – Right then, so let’s get started with the Up and Down stitch. So once you have turned your blanket, chain 3. Then work 1tr in the first stitch. Ok so work 1dc in the next stitch.

*So now work 1tr, then 1dc in the next stitch.*

Repeat this ** across the row.

In the last stitch work 1dc. (200)

3 – Right then, so turn your blanket and chain 3. Now work 1tr in the first stitch.

Then *1dc in the next stitch and then 1tr.* Repeat this ** across the row. So you are basically working them alternatively. So if the stitch below is a double then you should be working a Treble. So if you forget where you are, you can work it out that way