A Rainy Day......another good reason to pick up my crochet hook!

Well its raining and cloudy ....now coming from Yorkshire that would be a regular statement but here in Perth Australia it doesn't happen that often, in fact we usually enjoy a good downpour and celebrate the occurrence. We have been known to dance in the rain after a three month span without a single drop falling! I know we're crazy.......
Rain here tends to be a 20 minute torrential downpour usually preceded by a strong gust of wind and followed by bright blue skies but it's been cloudy and stormy for a good 3 days now and feels like we're back in Yorkshire...so off to the craft room for some crocheting.
I hinted earlier at my current project, I am crocheting the indigo sleeveless jacket from Crochet Magazines Winter 2015 issue.
I subscribed recently and have access to two years back copies filled with lovely patterns.
So after leafing through them all I chose a lovely long sleeveless jacket in a stitch I haven't tried before ......I like to add new stitches to my repertoire.

Of course this also triggered a trip to Spotlight for some wool......well what else would a girl do when faced with so many patterns....hehe

I chose this lovely colour and you've probably noticed it's in the colour scheme of my craft room, what a coincidence! It's Marvel 4 Seasons 8 ply, 100% acrylic and seems to be working up quite well so far.
The piece on the work bench is the back and I am just starting the shaping

 I am using a 4 mm hook and the pattern is very easy to remember as its only 2 rows, the first containing a fan stitch ( 3 double crochet into the same stitch) and the second one made up of Puff Cluster stitch.......a what I hear you cry!
This is the new stitch I learned for this project:-

For a puff stitch you put the yarn over (YO) the hook and go into the stitch indicated in the pattern row below, and pull up a loop, then you YO and pull up a loop again a total of 3 times, which gives you 7 loops on the hook, then you YO once more and pull the loop through all the loops causing a cluster.
A Puff Cluster is a puff stitch as above then a chain of 3 worked and then a 2nd puff stitch into the same indicated stitch on the pattern row below.

So .....(YO, Pull through loop) 3x then YO and pull through all  7 loops to close
           CHAIN 3
          Then (YO, Pull through loop) 3x then YO and pull through all 7 loops to close.

It gives this lovely bobble pattern and texture to the piece,

Below 7 loops on the hook and the yarn over the hook ready to pull through.

                                           Three chain stitches between the two Puff Stitches

                         7 loops on the hook for the second puff stitch into the same space

Close the puff stitch with a slip stitch 

There you have a Puff Cluster Stitch

More updates as the pattern progresses!

Happy Hooking