The Ripple, Ta-dah!

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.

Comments

[Lynne Atkinson]

Hi Lucy,
Love your patterns, Hoping to be able to purchase the Woodland pattern
Please.

[Penny]

Hi. I love your blankets. Is there anyway to
Purchase printed patterns ? Thank you. penny

[Cristina PEBAQUE]

Is it possible to buy The Ripple blanket pattern? Where/how can I buy it?
I notice most postings are six or seven years old.

[Yasmin Macan-Markar]

Hello Lucy,
I want to crochet a corner to corner blanket in the rainbow colours, please let me know if you have pattern for it.

I look forward to hearing from you.
thanking you

Yasmin

[Susan Ervine]

Hi Lucy
I'm looking forward and very excited on the arrival of my first grandchild in December.I would love to crochet a baby ripple blanket. Could you please let me know where I can buy your pattern and will from

Many thanks in advance
Susan

[Irma Ortiz]

Beautiful!

Is pattern available?

[Georgie]

Lovely photo of you & the Rippletastic blanket. 💙

[Greetje]

zou ik dit patroon kunnen ontvangen?

[ulrike]

hi there!
just wanted to say thank you for your amazin blanket patterns....i just love them.
in the last months i finished woodland blanket and moorland blanket and now am about to finish my own ripple blanket in debbie bliss baby cashmerino and rowan cashsoft baby.... so beautiful.

just wanted to let you know the debbie bliss has issued a follow-up yarn to baby cashmerino...amazing new colours available and the yarn is just a soft and has a great shine too.

thanks again for your inspiration and lots of love from germany,

ulrike

[Stella]

Hi- just love this pattern but can I make a smaller blanket with 15 balls as in Neat Wave blanket? How many would I cast on.

From a fairly inexperienced crocheter!

Stella

[Bonnie Sheppard]

What size hook, please? Thanks

[Margaret McKnight]

Would it please be possible to have this lovely pattern, I would be using all one colour for a baby blanket. Thank you.

[Melissa]

Is there a place to get the yarn colors?

[Maryke]

Hi Lucy, can't find this colour schedule for this pattern?
Would love to make this blanket.
Maryke

[Shelby McCoy]

I'd really like to get this patternvwhere cab I get it.

[Tina]

How do I get this pattern, would love to try this blanket.

[Gilly]

Its such a gorgeous yummy yarn,yet so difficult to buy these shades now as its a discontinued one. So far I guess some of the shades are as below :
rowan cashsoft DK 501 lilac
rowan cashsoft DK 509 lime
rowan cashsoft DK 807 baby pink
rowan cashsoft DK 510 orange
rowan cashsoft DK 805 baby blue
rowan cashsoft DK 504 baby ice blue
Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK Raspberry 18022
Debbie Bliss Cashmerino DK Seablue 18028
Debbie Blss Cashmerino DK dusky pink 18042 (sub)
, I will have 4 balls of baby blue 805 & 3 balls of lime green 509 left over should anyone need them contact me [email protected] Happy Crocheting everyone:)

[Julie]

Hi There love this pattern and I am just a beginner.
I was given wool and would like to crotchet some knee rugs for the elderly and would like to know how many chain stitches I should start with and how many rows do you suggest for finished product

Regards
Julie

[Ewa]

Hello Lucy,

All your blankets are so beautiful but this one is my absolute favourite. I would love to make this in similar colours but unfortunately do not have your talent for selecting colours. Is there any chance there will be a Stylecraft pack any time soon to match the colours you used for this blanket? Thanks

[Kathleen Cubley]

Hi Lucy,

This is Kathleen, formerly from Knitting Daily, now from AlpacaDirect.com. We would love to feature your patterns in our online store. Can you contact me and let me know if that's of interest to you?

Our owner is crocheting this project, and she LOVES is.

Thanks,

Kathleen Cubley
[email protected]

[Judi Errey]

How do I get this pattern?

[Joann]

How do I get the pattern?

[Susan Clarke]

It's absolutely beautiful, a real credit to you. Can you tell me what the actual stitch is called.
Susan, Derbyshire

[Marilyn Boudreaux]

Need the pattern

[Jen]

Commenter below named "JK," the reason the numbers don't add up for you is that this is a different pattern than her Neat Ripple. If you take the time to read her Neat Ripple instructions, it makes that clear.