Welcome to the big Ripple Reveal everyone. Feast your eyes on those ripply, ripplesome, rippletastic ripples! Aren't they wonderful? Oh I'm so glad to be showing you this project in it's completed, finished state, after many months (has it been 4? 5?) of showing you bits of it. This blanket has spanned over two seasons, started in March/spring and finished in August/summer. It's been such a joy, a pleasure in every way. Soothing, rhythmic, creative, exciting, fulfilling, fun. Every one of the 85 ripples has a streak of pleasure and happiness running through it. Spring and summer memories. It's that kind of blanket.
It's a bedroom blanket this one. I just love seeing it spread out on my bed, love when I walk past the bedroom door I catch an unexpected glimpse of it laid out there, rippling softly.
Love that I can go to sleep with it and wake up with it. Love that the colours also go beautifully with the jar of flowers currently by my bed :: a gift from Lovley C, a hastily picked bunch of soft, pastely sweet peas, vivid orange calendula, and deep cornflowers and cosmos, presented to me as I was about to leave her wonderful house and garden on Tuesday. They are the happy colours of a summer garden, coffee and flapjack, crochet and natter. And my blanket.
The Little People really, really like this blanket, which makes me so happy. I catch them creeping onto my bed and crawling under it. And in the evenings they politely request permission to bring it downstairs for a spot of cuddling up on the sofa. Which is precisely what handmade blankets are for.
I'm sorry the colour is sometimes slightly "off" in these photos as the light in my bedroom is not great. Really these colours are beautiful in real life. There was a time when I wasn't sure about my colour choices for this blanket. I started out with nine colours of Rowan Cashsoft yarn, which were mainly pastely blues/lilac/pinks, with the lime green and orange thrown in to provide zing. Now you know me by now don't you? Know that my natural tendancy is towards bright, strong, vivid colours. But as I did really want this blanket to be for my bedroom, I thought I would try a soft colour palette for a change. But yes, the inevitable happened :: after about 15 or so stripes, I was getting bored with the softness. I was finding it too dull. And it's very hard to work on a project which is giving off dull vibes.
So that's when I added in the Raspberry stripes. Do you remember I bought a couple balls of this when I visited London in March? Its a Debbie Bliss Cashmerino yarn and the addition of that bright reddy-pink colour made a Big difference. As I only had two balls of it, I had to space these stripes out evenly making only five altogether. But what a huge difference those five stripes have made to the overall tone of the blanket, don't you think? The regular spacing of the raspberry stripes was the only colour choice I made that wasn't random :: all the other stripes were randomly chosen as I went along. And I'm really, really pleased with the way it all panned out.
There's a lot to be said for buying yarn locally, for handling it, for arranging it all over the shop floor, and Rowan is my local yarn suppliers choice. Which is why I decided to use the Rowan yarn in the first place. But I've since found another small independent yarn shop about 8 miles away in another town which sells Rowan and Debbie bliss yarns side by side. Now theres a destination for Retail Therapy if ever there was one. So if I was to embark on a second ripple (which is highly likely), I'll go more with my natural instinct and choose bold, vivid Debbie Bliss colours I think.
The pattern for the ripple came from Jan Eatons book, and to me, it was a dream to work, although I know I've had one or two emails from people asking for help/advice about this pattern. Its the first few rows which are the hardest, when you have this long, dangling chain of loops and you're frantically counting and hooking and hoping it's all going to come right by the end of the row. But once you get going, it's easy to see the stitches, to see the rhythmic counting thats involved ::
one dc, one dc, one dc, 2dctog, 2dctog, one dc, one dc, one dc, 2dc's, 2 dc's, one dc, one dc, one dc
And so on. On and on and on, its the Rhthym of the Ripple. Nothing complicated folks, just simple stitches and simple counting, row after row after row, ripple after ripple after ripple.
So would you like some riveting facts about this here project of mine?
Ok, here you have it ::
Measures :: 110cm x 170cm
Starting chain :: 219 stitches
Stripes :: 85
Rows :: 170
Time :: approx 50mins each stripe = 4,250 minutes = 70.83 hours
Balls :: 29
Weight :: 1450g / 3.19670 lb
Cost :: £4.35 per ball = ermmmmmmm a LOT, but its a family heirloom, don't question.
Mileage :: 29 balls @ 130m each ball = 3770metres = 2.34 miles of yarn (!)
Photo :: me sitting on the stairs in my pyjamas, taken by Little Man one morning
Blanket :: gorgeous
Me :: happy.
Hi there Lucy,
Your blanket is gorgeous!!!
Very inspiring in fact.
As I said once before the colours you choose are so pretty.
You look very comfy in your new blanket...or is it old now...tee hee...with all the mileage it has on it? LOL
Posted by: Robyn | August 07, 2008 at 11:29 PM
Hi there Lucy,
Your blanket is gorgeous!!!
Very inspiring in fact.
As I said once before the colours you choose are so pretty.
You look very comfy in your new blanket...or is it old now...tee hee...with all the mileage it has on it? LOL
Posted by: Robyn | August 07, 2008 at 11:32 PM
Fantastic! What a work of art to snuggle under. And your young man has obviously got an artistic eye because that is a great portrait of his Mum.
Posted by: Alice C | August 07, 2008 at 11:38 PM
its GORGEOUS!!...i LOVE it!
as i told you, the ripple one is my fave and its nice to see it all finished, you should be very proud of yourself!
makes me want one now, but not enough to try and attempt it myself..LOL
well done you!
Jennifer x
Posted by: Jennifer | August 08, 2008 at 12:50 AM
Love the blanket. Beautiful photo of you, just lovely. It is good to see the face that chatters to us in such a friendly relaxed way. I have just finished my ripple. It is a lovely feeling isn't it To walk past a room and see it, go and stare, touch it and that satisfies till next time.
Posted by: Patricia | August 08, 2008 at 01:35 AM
Hello again. Just re the ripple again. What ply is the wool you used and what size crochet hook did you use?
Posted by: Patricia | August 08, 2008 at 04:58 AM
I love your ripple blanket Lucy, just stunning, what a great choice of colours. I've finally come close to finishing my Granny square blanket this week and am tempted to start a ripple blanket next now!BTW I thought the photo was of a daughter you hadn't mentioned yet!! Lovely to see the face behind the blog.
Posted by: Gill | August 08, 2008 at 09:05 AM
The ripple turned out so lovely! And you're right- a family heirloom with all those wonderful memories hooked into it (and those to come) make it priceless!
Posted by: Chris | August 09, 2008 at 10:52 PM
ok, that's it - I'm blogging about you riiight now! gorgeous blanket!!!
Posted by: Alva | August 10, 2008 at 02:07 PM
Sorry this is a bit late but that ripple blanket just looks amazing!! Well done!! And you look fantastic too - I think that length of hair really suits you!
Posted by: Alice | August 10, 2008 at 08:47 PM
What a gorgeous blanket and what a pretty lady!!
Posted by: alchamillamolly | August 10, 2008 at 09:12 PM
Oh Luce, it's gorgeous..to die for..scrumptious..delectable!
As you can tell I love it!
Posted by: Kali | August 11, 2008 at 12:06 AM
Wow, this looks amazing! I really want to make a ripple now but think I'd better finish the crochet projects I already have on the go (3 and counting....) before starting any more! The picture of you is great too - you look very relaxed :)
Posted by: Gem | August 13, 2008 at 10:22 AM
OMG your blanke is beautiful! And you are too! You are darling! I am so jealous of that blanket. I really want to start but no NOTHING about crochet. You are so inspiring. As I've told you before you have one of the BEST blogs. I want to come over for tea!!! Jennifer
Posted by: Jennifer | August 15, 2008 at 01:53 PM
Gosh, you look so young! How can you be married with kiddie winkles and look so fab!?
Posted by: Sian Kneller | August 21, 2008 at 10:52 PM
My gosh, this is just gorgeous, the colours work together beautifully. I am desperately trying to master crochet at the moment and in need of a ripple blanket. I love your version.
Posted by: Rebecca | September 30, 2008 at 06:34 PM
I just found your blog recently through Flickr and I just love your crochet! It's so pretty and the colors you choose are so lovely. This blanket is great inspiration. I'm currently finishing up a granny blanket for my hubby (3 years in the making!) and then I think I'm going to give the ripple a go perhaps. Thanks for your inspiration!
Posted by: Meredith | October 09, 2008 at 08:29 PM
Woow Lucy You look the real young English Rose here ... love your crochet blanket ... OOroo ... Bethel
Posted by: bethel of bethania | April 02, 2009 at 10:01 AM
Stunning blanket and the colours are just amazing - I love to crochet too and there is nothing more satisfying that snuggling up with a colourful blanket when it's dreary outside. Your stuff is the best I have seen x
Posted by: Annabel Burton | June 22, 2009 at 10:22 AM
Hi Lucy...what a beautiful piece of loveliness you have crocheted. Just love it.
Can you tell me what size crochet hook you used for this project? I follow your blog and your talent...keep up the good work...you are an inspiration.
Blessings,
Dee
Posted by: Dee | July 20, 2009 at 04:12 AM
Help! I'm trying to follow your ripple pattern but I'm having trouble with the foundation chain. You say to use multiples of 14 plus 3 for turning. The size I want comes up to 210 (14 x 16) plus 3 for turning = 213 total starting chains...right? But...when I look at the stats for your ripple blanket, you say you started with 219 chains? What am I missing? I greatly appreciate your time and assistance...:) And, although I've never commented before, I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE your blog. I come back multiple times a day because I just can't get enough...:)
Hugs, Sarita in Oregon (a fellow Libra too!)
Posted by: Sarita | October 03, 2009 at 01:08 AM
Hi Lucy,
Your blog is great! Britt and you gave me back the zest of creating with crochet or craft in general. And baking? Oh my God! How very nice!!!!!!!
Thanks a lot for your love and everything else.
xoxoxoxoxo Gema
Posted by: Gema | December 07, 2009 at 03:04 PM
Dear Lucy,
I truly admire your work in general and this ripple afghan in particular ever since I bumped into your blog via flickr some 1.5 years ago. It gives me so much joy and inspiration seeing your beautiful crafts, flowers, pastries etc. I totally fell in love with this blanket, desperately wanting to make one myself and I've been gazing my eyes out for hours and hours trying to figure out what colours exactly you used. I hope I am not too demanding asking you to share this info with me. You said it is mainly Rowan Cashsoft DK and two Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK yarns. I think I have identified most of the colours but I'm not quite sure about some of them. Did you use 3 balls per colour? I would really really appreciate your help here. Since there is not one single shop selling these Rowan and Debbie Bliss yarns where I live, I would be really thankful for your advice before I order them online. If you really don't mind and if you could find the time, please let me know. (I could send you the yarn list I made via email so it would be less work for you, but I couldn’t find an email-address on your blog). You can reach me at flowersandyarns@yahoo.de. Thank you so much in advance and I hope to hear from you!! K xxx
Posted by: k | February 11, 2010 at 11:40 AM
LUCY I AM VERY THANKFUL TO YOU, BECAUSE FOR MANY YEARS I HAVE TRYED TO FIND THE RIPPLE PATTERNS, BUT I NEVER COULD TO FALLOW DE INSTRUCTIONS CORRECTLY. BUT NOW WITH YOUR INSTRUCTIONS I COULD. THANKS A LOT. I HOPE MY RIPPLE BE SO NICE LIKE YOURS. THANKS AGAIN.
Posted by: perla aldape | April 07, 2010 at 09:24 AM
This blanket is so wonderful! <3 I spent the last three hours rummaging through your foto stream at flickr and I'm absolutely delighted by your bright, colourful, gorgeous home. Really great, one can literally see the joy you have in crocheting and baking and making everything so comfortable.
Posted by: Sun_Cloud | September 30, 2010 at 07:24 PM