Rosie's Rainbow Ripple

No, this isn't mine (I wish!). This is Lucy's wonderful ripple blanket that she made a while back over at Attic24. You can read the post about it here.

Isn't it beautiful? As I Never Knew there was crochet beyond doillies and granny squares, I was quite taken aback when I saw it. So colourful! So pretty! And to think that could be done with simple crochet stitches... and could, maybe, even, be done by... me?

I have since found out that ripples and chevrons and zig-zags are actually old hat in the crochet world, everyone's been there, done that, it seems, but I Never Knew about them, so they don't seem old-style, un-cool, or daggy, to me. Especially not with beautiful colours like that!

And, thankfully, Lucy provided yet another free, step-by-step, photo-by-photo pattern that I could follow. Not for the exact pattern above (that one she found in a book), but for a similar one that she devised herself (how clever). Here are some pics of Lucy's work following her own Neat Ripple pattern:

Nice, hey? Gosh, she gets some lovely yarns and in lovely bright colours.

I knew right away that I wanted to make one. I thought a rainbow-coloured ripple would look so, so lovely on my daughter's bed. Rosie's favourite colour, when asked, is not actually a colour; instead she simply replies: "rainbow". :-) It would be called "Rosie's Rainbow Ripple".

So, sitting at the computer, hook-and-yarn in hand, I decided to give it a go.

And what a great pattern! Lucy made it so EASY. She explains things so well and her photos are amazing. The starting chain was so hard for me - but Lucy warned me that this was probably going to happen, so I persevered. :-) And then it all started to come together.

Here's how it looked after a couple of rows:

I was sooooo worried about it being too narrow for her bed, so I made sure my starting chain was nice and LONG.

Very, very, long.

In fact, far too long:


It's wide enough to cover a double bed, in fact:

Oh dear, oh dear. Oh well, I thought, too late to go back now. It will just be extra wonderful when it's finished.

One day.

Hmmmmm. Yes. One day.

I have put this one aside from time to time.

Each row really is so, so, very long. But slowly, slowly, it's getting there.

Here's how it's looking these days:


It is actually long enough to cover Rosie's bed the other way. So hopefully by this winter (June/July) it might be wide enough to be a vertical ripple, if you get what I mean.

I love that at the end of each stripe you can tie off the ends. At that point I throw it over to Rosie and she happily plays with it for a while, wrapping it around herself, making it into a shawl and wearing it about the house, etc. It's nice to see her enjoying it. Another thing I Never Knew would happen: my kids actually like that I crochet; they think it's kinda cool. :-)

Here is Rosie's Rainbow Ripple with my Lucy Bag.


So a few details of this WIP:

Name: Rosie's Rainbow Ripple
Pattern: Neat Ripple from Attic24
Yarn: Cheap stuff - I didn't dare risk spending big bucks on my first ever blanket. It's called Carnival 8ply; it's acrylic and it's thin and ... well... it's okay. Not wonderful, but not completely awful, either. Carnival is made by Panda, and Panda also makes something called Magnum 8ply which is very similar but a bit nicer. So I have ended up with some Magnum shades as well. FYI Aussie readers: Carnival is available at Big W stores; Magnum is available at Spotlight and other craft stores.
Hook size: 4mm
Size: starting row was something like 240 stitches! (Crazy, I know!) It's about 165 cm wide. At the moment only about 40 cm long - 18 stripes (2 rows per stripe, so 36 rows).
Date commenced: October 2009

If you've never tried a ripple, this is a great, easy-to-follow pattern - give it a go. :-) If you have any questions about it, please leave a comment or send me an email. I'm only too happy to help.

And now that I've told you about it, it'll be quick 'n' easy for me to update you on its progress from time to time.

Thanks for looking. I hope your day "ripples" along nicely. :-)
Caz :)