damn you, kim!

hello everyone... here is my first post, brought to you by KIM from crochetme. i saw that beautiful ripple and had to test out my skills. sure i live in hawaii and we almost never need blankets, but loooooooooooooook at that ripple! too too tempting. so after one week and scrounging through my stash, i found the perfect color scheme for my apt.



halfway through my firsst week crocheting, my fingers grew tired and prompted me to venture my way to a LYS and splurged for a clover needle.



ahhhhhhhhhhh... how i went for so long using that plain aluminum needle for so long without completely crippling myself, i have no idea. ^_^ i'm so excited! this seriously is the biggest project i've ever made. i can't wait until i have a complete blanket. thank you for inspiring me, kimmy!

...and our random blog highlight o' the day

My stuffed up head is already making me dizzy, so no bottle spinning was necessary to randomly pick a site today.

Take a second to check out Queens Knitting Mama on her blog, Knit Something Mommy!

The gal's got skills with the crochet...check out the rogue pirate rabbit, he's my favorite. And then there's the sketching. Clean and slightly retro. Reminds me slightly of the artwork in my old children's picture books. Fabulous. And the other artsy bits. Love them. And her Etsy store, fingerknits!

Off to steam my sinuses. Will catch up more tomorrow...if you're waiting for an invite, please be patient with my poor allergy prone stuffed-up self! (btw, we're closing on 70 members! amazing the ripples we're causing!)

Dawn, HRM

More ripples than I can handle...

OK ripplers, this is getting a bit out of hand. At one point I had 3 ripples going at once. My other projects are muttering and I'm afraid a coup is imminent. Must make some time to give them some TLC now that the small one for the baby is done:

I'm quite pleased with it. (except for the bit at the bottom...the join is not as smooth as I would like, but hey, maybe I'm just picky.) It's just a small lovey blanket that he can tote about with him. As of press time, he's made a great game of flinging it about whatever room he happens to be rampaging in, counting on his bigger counterparts to happily retrieve it. It's also worked up in all cottons or cotton blends so I can toss it in the wash.

Here's a close-up (of course with the ungainly join front and center. I need to plan better.):

With that out of the way I had imagined making myself tackle my blanket again. I simply must face down my color choice demons and get on with things. BUT thanks to Michelle, I was granted a reprieve:

She tackled my round wave quandary and I happily spent the day yesterday with a horribly stuffed up head rippling away. I did make one alteration to her pattern to close up a small gap in round 6. See my comments after her last pattern link post. And I'm working blo on increase rounds and flo on even rounds to give that ridge that highlights the wave. This is worked in Plymouth Fantasy Naturale mercerized cotton and it is fabulous, fabulous, fabulous to work with, though one skein so far has been a bit "knotty". The blues are slightly variegated and have a great sheen from the mercerization. It's also a woven type yarn and I don't know how they managed it, but it actually has some loft to it. For cotton it's remarkably light and airy and works like a dream. And NO splitting!

Starting round 14 and I'm quite pleased with it. Thanks Michelle!

I'm still a bit piqued that I can't figure out how to make it work with a closed "core", but if I goof with it long enough perhaps that will come. Next I want to play around with making one irregular...ameoba-like.

...and I need to start something that's not blue.

Ripples arn't just for afghans

This is a small commission project that I am making for a friends daughter. It's made in a soft wave pattern. I made it using Lion Brand Jiffy yarn in deep purple and baby blue. And I used an "I" hook... not sure of the mm because it's my afghan hook and it doesn't say the mm. It's not quite done of course.. it still needs straps and a drawstring. The top of the bag is actually on the left side. I took it kinda quick and didn't realize which way I had it. Right now, I think the straps will be purple in a ripple pattern. Probably just 2 rows of dc ripples should do fine for straps. Then the drawstring will be a sc, sl st chain of both colors. The bag is supposed to resemble those gym bags that alot of teens use for school.

Oops! Pattern update

Please accept my apologies to those of you who downloaded my round ripple pattern. I had to add a note regarding the increases. It was such a DUH! moment. When working on a round afghan, if you were to increase steadily at the rate I originally had you increasing, your afghan would not lie flat. Since I'm currently working on another round ripple, I should have remembered that. I have the updated/corrected version now available on my blog.

Michelle

Weekend progress

I spent the weekend basically reading and crocheting. Not a bad way to spend a snowy weekend! I forgot to tell you all the particulars of my project. The blanket will be about 56 " wide so that it fits over my son's twin bed. He wanted a bed blanket and not a throw. He had a heart to heart with me over my insistence that I make his blanket with wool or cotton (because I prefer those) and he was adamant that those fibers are not soft enough so Caron Simply Soft and Red Heart Soft are his choices here. I am basically following the pattern as stated in Jan Eaton's book (200 Ripple Stitch Patterns, Pattern:Ribby #106) and randomly using the colors my son chose. I randomly picked skeins out of a bag and then wrote down what I picked out for each repeat. I am really enjoying making this blanket. It is just like the ones my paternal grandma used to make, with the really deep ripples. My next ripple will be the softer waves like so many of you are making.

crocheting like crazy

Hi, everyone!

My name is Ann, and I am so excited to be joining this group. Up until now, I've focused on weaving, spinning, knitting, felting -- almost everything except crochet. But then I happened upon this ripple-along, bought a how-to-crochet book, and after a few frustrating starts, I was on my way.

I'm using a mix of Rowan Pure Wool DK and Filatura di Crosa 501, augmented with stripes of various novelty yarns that have found their way into my stash. Some of these, like the orange fuzzy stripe, have waited literally years to find a home in a project.

As others have said, or at least I think someone said this, it is amazing how each new color changes the look of the entire piece. I'm trying to be spontaneous with my color choices and resist the temptation to rip out stripes (like the pink at the top!) that don't initially seem to fit in. Seeing everybody else's afghans, so different and all so beautiful, is a real inspiration.

So now my loom sits idle, the laundry is piling up, and my kids are going through our other stash (of microwave pizzas) as I singlemindedly ripple along.

Almost Halfway

A few strips shy of being half done on my funky granny knock your eyes out what was she thinking afghan/bed thing.

Here she is in all her nouveau vintage splendor:





Just after I took the photos I added a few more stripes. Then I started to get claw hand, so I decided to start weaving in the ends. I have all the ends (sans the beginning and the last stripe) woven in. The edge looks good on that side. Humble opinion and all that.

I know that some of the colors are in the "only a mother could love them" color way, but I am the momma on this one, and I love my freakishly weird blanket child.

Peace,

Almost halfway done, I think

My ripple now extends just about halfway up my queen-size bed. And when I put it over me to crochet a new row it reaches just about to my ankles. I'll get full coverage about the time it becomes unbearably hot here in DC. What great timing! I'm starting to get a little concerned about color variety, but I'll burn that bridge when I get to it.

not much

to show you, since i've been sick this last week, which cut on my craft time. and, i've been pretty obsessed with my granny bag, so the ripples were left aside for a while. I did get back to it, since our rift is now past us, and here are some photos to show you:






This last one was at the moment of our rift. Now, I've added two rows of brown and two of green.



Two more of caramel to come. That's it folks. It's a big blanket, since hubby is both over 6' tall and a cover hogger! It takes me about an hour for each row, so it's slow going. Bye now

PS: This is a response to the comments, and seen as how it really fits as a post, I thought i'd put it here.

i had to do the border to cover all the mistakes from doing a few rounds of sl st without counting stitches... i cannot follow recipes, so i don't even bother anymore, but sometimes i get in these scrapes. fortunately, i'm creative enough to get out of them most of the times. and when i'm not, hubby comes to the rescue... which is why he deserves a blanket that actually covers all of him... poor thing, always has his feet bare in the middle of the night, in cold weather.
I don't know about the yarn though. it's two-toned, with some you could call lint all over it... i'll try to get a picture of the next skein to show you... as i'm basing the colour scheme from a portrait by van gogh (more info on my blog) and the blue is the main colour in the portrait, it should play a big role in the blanket. but there are at least three tones of blue in there, and i couldn't find anything that really worked with the portrait and with the other yarn, until the shop girl showed me that one. it was a perfect fit.
as for the granny blanket, i have it on hold, seen as how yarn is rather expensive in great amounts, and money is a bit tight around here, after my splurge on yarn this month... but i'm almost done with my granny bag!

Pattern available

Okay everyone, I wrote out the pattern for what I am calling Gentle Waves Round Ripple Afghan. It is available free on my blog in a PDF file. I just hope that there are no problems understanding my instructions.

Michelle
www.mikknits.blogspot.com