Iris Stitch
Hmmm, it seems that my blanket seems to be being used in the garden this week. It definitely gets around this blanket! My daughter definitely enjoys many a happy moment in her Wendy house and it looks like my blanket goes in there with her!! Funny. Her Wendy house is on stilts, so it has a slide on the one side. When I was pregnant with my son, my daughter had me squidged up in there. She was quite happy making me tea and weirdly, vegetable stew in her little wendy house kitchen. Bless her. Happy days. Precious moments.
So this week, we went to see Matilda at the Hippodrome. Wow! It was just incredible!!! What a performance!! The guy that played Miss Trunchball, was possibly one of the most talented actors I have ever seen!! Just mind blowing. We ate at the Hippodrome reastaurant, which is called the Circle. It was nice and was lovely not to worry about what time we needed to be seated!! Would highly recommend it, if you’re in the area.
Anyone been strawberry picking yet? There’s something so utterly British about picking strawberries isn’t there. I used to do it as a job when I was a wee one, but it hasn’t taken the fun off it when you’re picking them with your little family. Picking them and well eating them!! Hee hee, surely nobody goes and doesn’t taste any do they? Our son was absolutely thrilled that you could eat them on route! Luckily I had some wipes with me, as he was completely covered in strawberry juice by the end!! Funny. Think we will be going again this summer.
Managed a few crocheting sessions this week. My main aim has been finishing my daughter’s unicorn. She has been absolutely desperate for this one. I’d have been able to make her quicker, but I wanted to take pics throughout so I could write up the pattern for you guys. She had me crocheting and finishing the mane at a family BBQ today! I mean to say!! I reckon she will be a good team leader one day – she definitely gets the job done!!! This is her cuddling her unicorn, before any ends have been sewn in. Oh why didn’t I sew them in as I was going along!!! Anyways, pattern out this week hopefully. Might be a nice holiday project!!
So, on to this weeks stitch. It’s the wonderful Iris stitch. It’s very similar to the rope stitch, so you should be able to get the hang of this one quite quickly. The difference to the rope stitch is that it has 2 Treble Stitches either side of the middle chain stitch. This gives the stitch a wonderful drape.
Supplies –
So this week I have used a stunning deep purple yarn from the fabulous Debbie Bliss range. It’s such a rich, wonderful colour and a lovely wool to work with. So once again you will need about 30-40g of double knit yarn and not forgetting your 4mm crochet hook, scissors and blunt ended tapestry needle to sew in the ends.
Stitches –
Chain (ch) – To make a chain, place the yarn over the hook then pull it through the loop on your hook.
Chain 1 Space – Otherwise known as ch1sp.
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.
Iris Stitch – So for this stitch, your work 2 Treble Crochets, 1 chain stitch and then 2 Treble Crochets in the chain 1 space in the row below.
Ok so here we go …
1 – Right so start off on the wrong side of your blanket and chain 3. (This acts as 1tr) Now work 1tr in the same stitch.
Ok so miss 2 stitches, then in the next stitch, work 2tr, 1ch, 2tr. This is all worked in the one stitch and this will be your first Iris stitch.
Now miss 3 stitches and *work your next Iris stitch, so work 2tr, 1ch, 2tr all in the next stitch. Then miss 3 stitches.* So you can now repeat this ** across the whole row.
At the end of the row, work 2tr stitches in the last stitch. (49 Iris stitches)
2 – Ok so start by chaining 3. (This acts as 1tr) Then work 1tr in the same stitch. So you are going to work an *Iris stitch in the next chain 1 space. Remember an Iris stitch is 2tr, 1ch, 2tr in the same stitch*. This is where the arrow is pointing to – it’s at the top of the Iris stitch from the row below.
Can you see how the Iris stitches are worked on top of each other.
Now repeat this ** across the row.
At the end of the row, work 2tr in the top of the chain 3 stitches from the row below. (49 Iris stitches)
3 – In this row we are going to repeat row 2. So start by turning your work and chaining 3. (This acts a 1tr) Then once again work 1tr in the same stitch. So you are going to work an *Iris stitch in the next chain 1 space. (Remember an Iris stitch is 2tr, 1ch, 2tr in the same stitch*.)
Now repeat this ** across the whole row.
And once again at the end work 2tr in the top of the chain 3 stitches from the row below. (49 Iris stitches)
And we’re done. 3 rows of the lovely Iris stitches. I hope you have enjoyed this weeks instalment of Year of the Stitches. How’s your blanket looking? This is mine so far. Really chuffed with how the colour combos are going. Loving the different textures of the stitches too. I can see me making this blanket again at some point. Would be nice with my all time favourite Sublime rainbow combo that I put together for my bag. Now that would be good. Ekk, exciting.
Anyways, happy hooking everyone.
Here if you need me.
🌈Xx