March 13, 2013

Project: Ripple Pattern Blanket

verabear Crochet 32 Comments

This is what’s keeping me busy outside of work:

 

 

Well, okay. It’s not exactly that, but that photo links to the pattern I am following for a blanket I’m working on. My colors are not nearly as bright as what the original pattern maker used.

I fell in love with the ripple pattern when I first saw this image on Pinterest (follow my boards @verabear!), so much that I completely forgot about the original pattern I intended to work on.

This is the first time I’m attempting a blanket. Or maybe I should call it a throw or afghan or something? It’s just going to be big enough to throw over the love seat, our living room couch that has been doubling as my bed too. Hehe. My previous crochet projects (from years and years ago) were nowhere near this big. I’m excited!

I got my set of crochet hooks about two weeks ago and I knew I really wanted to work on something. In time, I found the perfect ripple pattern. And then last week, we went yarn shopping!

Alfred helped me pick out the colors. Initially I wanted a summer theme – so I had in mind a very light and sunny palette. But the colors available weren’t so bright and sunny. Also, the boyfriend gravitated towards the colors he knew I loved – purples and pinks.

I would love to someday use cotton yarns and specialty yarns, but for now, I settled with the readily available Cannon mercerized cotton brand.

Before I actually started on the blanky, I stitched a sample patch so I can get used to the pattern. It was fairly easy to get used to. After the second row I already stopped reading the pattern. The patch allowed me to also visualize what the final product will look like, and also to measure how many chains I will need.

I used a 3.0 mm hook for the trial patch, but decided to use the smaller hook for the actual project. The main project will be 10 times the width of this one, still don’t know much taller or how many rows it’ll take. So far I’ve done 6.5 rows on my blanky and I’ve had to unravel my stitches twice. First one was on the first row (I had excess chains!) and the last one was for the 7th row – I missed two stitches early in the row and I was at the end of that row before I realized it. Confusing? Never mind, it’s not important.

While I was going through fabulous crochet works on Pinterest, I couldn’t help but think about my grandmother who taught me this craft. I miss her. I bet she could show me how to work any complicated pattern out there.

Anything I crochet, will always be done in her memory.

Hay. Moving on…

Apart from crocheting, I also sneak in some reading. I am currently going through book 2 of the Millenium Trilogy, The Girl Who Played with Fire.

So the short story is that, this is why I haven’t written a review of Oz, The Great and Powerful. Also the reason why I haven’t mentioned anything about meeting up with friends for dinner on Sunday night. That same dinner where my friend commented about the streets being relatively safer thanks to BPOs working round the clock giving commuters in general a lesser need to log on to safetygirl.com for pepper spray or mace purchases.