Rainbows after the Rain CAL: Part 6

Hello and welcome to part 6 of the Rainbows after the Rain CAL, brought to you by Zooty Owl and Kokopelli Design! What an awesome journey it was so far and I hope you enjoy it as much as we do. For part 6 you will add the first stripe pattern in between the first two strips of squares you joined for part 5. The stripe will be made of a variation of block stitch and I will explain below how to do it.

Previous Posts

Introduction and Layout

Color Inspiration
Color Inspiration 2
Part 1 Traditional Granny Square
Part 2 Dreamcatcher Square and Wheel of Time Square

Part 3 Over the Rainbow Square

Part 4 Bring me Flowers Square/Sunflower Motif Square

Part 5 Some Days are Diamonds Square

Please check thelayout chart for how to placeyour squares and stripes or make up your own layout to get a personalized blanket. For part 6 you will need the joined strips of Dreamcatcher Squares and Traditional Granny Squares. These strips will be joined with a block stitch stripe.

Block Stitch is a very simple, yet effective stitch, which can be used for whole blankets or borders or like in this case for a stripe. So take your strip of Dreamcatcher Squares and crochet a row of sc to one of the long sides (the bottom dark bluerow in the picture below). Then the pattern starts. You don't turn your work, but always work on the right side from right to left.

Row 1: crochet a row of sc all along the long side of your square strip, make one stitch in each corner and one in the join in between your squares.
Row 2 (the turquoise row in the pictures): 3ch (counts as first dc), 1dc in the same stitch, *skip 2 sc, 3dc in the next stitch**, repeat from * to ** until the last stitch, 2dc in last stitch.
Row 3 (the white rows in the pictures): join yarn in the 3rd ch of previous row, 1ch, 1sc in the first dc (3ch), 1ch, *2sc in the space between the 3dc, 2ch**. Repeat to the last space between the 3dc and the 2dc at the end of the row. 1ch, 1sc in the last dc of the row.
Row 4 (the denim row in the photos): join yarn in the 1ch space of the previous row, 3ch (counts as first dc), 1dc in the same stitch, *skip next 2 sc, 3dc in the next 2ch space**, repeat from * to ** until the last space, skip last 2sc, 2dc in the last sc.

Make sure you end the rows in the correct stitches and don't accidentally add stitches to the ends, so your stripe doesn't end up wider in the end than in the beginning. 

Repeat rows 3 and 4 until the block stitch stripe is as wide as you squares. In my original Rainbows over the Namib Desert Blanket the squares were 13cm x 13 cm, so I made my stripe 13 cm wide. It's best to end with a row 4. Then take your Traditional Granny Square strip and join it to the block stitch stripe with the joining method of your choice. In the Rainbows over the Namib Desert Blanket I used a sc join.

If you have any questions concerning the patterns or the CAL, join us in the Zooty Owl Crochet-a-long Facebook Group. We try to help!