February 2017

C17: Day 43 – Harlequin/Starburst stitch

February 12, 2017

Bit more of a fiddly stitch this one, with lots of counting. However, whilst it’s not strictly difficult, the harlequin stitch or starburst stitch is tricky because if you don’t get your tension right, it looks lopsided. The starburst motif is made up of two rows, so a bottom row of tr9tog – ie crochet together […]

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C17: Day 42 – V Treble (Double) Crochet

February 11, 2017

Another ridiculously easy stitch that produces a pleasant result, the V treble (US: double) crochet stitch is literally just two trebles in a single stitch and then skip one. It seriously couldn’t get simpler. In my photo, though, you can see that the first few rows I just did back and forth in brown. But […]

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C17: Day 41 – Picot Double (Single) Crochet

February 10, 2017

If you can do double (single) crochet and a chain, then the picot double (single) crochet will be a piece of cake. Of course, if you can’t count, like I can’t count, your picots will end up in the wrong place.

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C17: Day 40 – Side saddle stitch

February 9, 2017

This is the side saddle stitch, a variation on the cluster stitch which produces a very nice fabric. I rather like it!

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C17: Day 39 – Cluster stitch

February 8, 2017

Today’s stitch is cluster stitch, another easy one! The only issue I had with this stitch was that you really need a slightly stretchier yarn than cotton, and you need to make the loop of the stitch quite large so it can fit over the top of the next cluster.

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C17: Day 38 – Arcade stitch

February 7, 2017

Arcade stitch is a very pretty one, and I do like it! The written instructions aren’t very clear, but the video is better. It looks a bit wonky in the bottom left because I miscounted the number of double crochets in the that loop. Oops! However, once I got into the pattern it’s really quite simple.

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C17: Day 37 – Crossed ripple stitch

February 6, 2017

OK, the crossed ripple stitch is the first that I actively dislike. Maybe it’s that I’m tired, but I just could not get this to work out. The instructions aren’t the most detailed, but although I thought I’d got it sorted, I ended up totally the wrong number of stitches on several of the rows and have no […]

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C17: Day 36 – Cable stitch

February 5, 2017

Another really simple one today: Cable stitch. It’s really just three trebles and a fourth treble being done over each group of three into a gap left earlier (doubles in US parlance). If you want the cables to zig-zag, then repeat the same stitch on each row, but if you want the cables to all point in the same […]

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C17: Day 35 – Lemon peel stitch

February 4, 2017

I wanted something simple today and, to be honest, nothing could be simpler than Lemon Peel Stitch. It’s really just alternating double and treble crochets (UK) aka single and double crochets (US). Easy to do, easy to remember, and a moderately attractive result. Easy peasy lemon squeezy!

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C17: Day 34 – Zig-zag puff

February 3, 2017

Continuing the puff theme, today’s stitch is a zig-zag variation. It’s easier than boxed puff and it looks nicer too. This one I’ll keep in my arsenal of stitches. A quick word about the yarn I’m using: I don’t think I’m making my life easier by using DMC Natura cotton. In fact, it’s awful yarn. […]

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C17: Day 33 – Boxed puff stitch

February 2, 2017

Today’s stitch was the boxed puff stitch, a slightly more complicated variant of yesterday’s puff stitch. If you’re going to do do a single crochet foundation row, which I like to do, you’ll need to do it in multiples of three, then do the five stitch chain to get started. As I say, this stitch […]

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C17: Day 32 – Crochet month begins

February 1, 2017

Today is the first day of Crochet Month, aka February, during which I’ll e attempting to learn new crochet stitches and trying not to get confused between UK and US terminology. This latter point is non-trivial, because the same terms mean different stitches depending on whether you’re talking in American or British English. Often, it doesn’t […]

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