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