Happy Friday everyone! It has been a very busy week for me, I started a new job and it has brought many challenges and has occupied most of my time so I hadn’t had the chance to share the second version of my last pattern with you.
My Happy Triangles pattern published recently used UK double crochet and a 3mm hook for a DK weight yarn, which gave a very tight and dense result. I wanted to share with you the version of this pattern using UK double crochet in the back loop only (BLO) and a slightly bigger hook.
So the first obvious result with this changes is that you get a bigger purse for the same number of stitches: 22.5cm long instead of 20cm. I made this purse a bit shorter to get a more rectangular shape, so with 6 rows of triangles you get a 22.5cmx14cm purse.
Secondly, the BLO makes the triangles look straight and since the colours are not contrasting they look sharp as well. The seam technique I mentioned in the pattern works great with BLO so you get a very straight seam, in the original pattern it twists up a bit so that it shows on one side of the purse. It doesn’t bother me but if you prefer a straight seam then BLO is the option. Finally, using BLO gives a different texture to the fabric than the one you get doing the stitch normally, you get ribbed rows that I believe look quite nice.
So if you prefer this version of the Happy Triangles pattern, here are the instructions! I made a slight change to the base so that the seam runs along the side and doesn’t show.
Happy Triangles Pattern – BLO version
Size: 22.5cm x 14cm
Materials
Rico Design Essentials Cotton DK: 1x50g ball White, 1x50g ball Blue Green, 1x50g ball Pistachio
3.50mm hook
Fabric for lining ( I bought 20cm of a fabric and it was enough)
Needle
Pins
30cm zip
Abbreviations
dc – UK double crochet
sl st – slip stitch
ch – chain
htr – UK half treble
BLO – back loop only
Instructions
Base: With white yarn Ch 50, 2htr in 3rd ch from hook, htr in each st across until last ch, 6 tr in last ch. Turn to work on other side of ch, htr in next ch and each ch across until last ch, 4htr in last ch, sl st to first htr (104 st). Don’t turn.
*Remember to pull tight on the sl st and the ch 1 when starting a new round to keep the seam straight.
Round 1: Ch 1, dc in BLO in each st across until the end, sl st to first dc (104 st). Don’t turn.
Round 2: Ch 1, dc in BLO in next st and each st across until the end, sl st to first dc. Don’t turn.
Round 3-26: Follow chart below, from bottom-up and from right to left. Each round has 104 st (each square is a st) so you need to repeat the 8 stitches in the chart 13 times for each round (13×8=104). Remember to continue working each dc in the BLO. Repeat the chart until you have 34 rounds in total so that you have 6 rows of triangles, 3 of each colour. You don’t have to cut the colours if you don’t want to, all the ends will be hidden once you do the lining.
Round 27-28: With white yarn, ch 1, dc in BLO in next st and each st across until the end. (104 st)
For the lining I used the same post by Futuregirl, tuck in all the ends between the lining and the purse, no need to weave them in!
As usual, please let me know if you have any questions.
Have a great day!
x
Sol
a crochet journey 