26th July, 2012… I started a new project. A ripple blanket following the pattern so kindly shared by Attic24 - if you do follow her pattern; be sure to follow it line for line and the practice piece is an awesome suggestion - I highly recommend you do one first just to get the flow of the ripples.
I used cheap Big W Carnival Acrylic yarn for this project - partly because my craft budget wasn't exactly flush at the time and buying lots of wool in $20 increments was far easier to squeeze into my self imposed craft budget. Even though I opted for the cheap wool - I will definitely use it again for other projects. Especially for bigger projects. It isn't super soft like some Acrylics, but that just makes those ridges and valleys stand out more.
Each row has 308 stitches (Plus 3) which has given me a measurement of 70" in width (I had originally betted on it being 72" - but obviously my crochet was a little tighter than my practice piece) I used 2 rows per colour for the full blanket and each band of colour took me over an hour to complete (usually 1.5 episodes of Dawson's Creek or Buffy - no ads to give you a correct indication of time… its no wonder I managed to finish all 6 seasons!)
My colours are worked up in bands of 6 colour then 1 white band to break it up. I did try to make sure it was a fairly even spread of colours without doubling up. As I initially only purchased 1 ball of each colour; I had to work up 3 sets of colour before working out that each ball of wool yielded just over 8 rows (4 bands) of colour. I decided to buy a 2nd ball of each colour and crochet 8 bands of colour in total - which gave me a final length of 84" - just perfect to cover my whole body when I'm lazing on the couch at night!
This blanket is already well travelled. In its infancy it travelled into Brisbane several times and even had the awesome Mrs B work a few trebles. It flew to Sydney & back for Camp K - for that trip it was just big enough to barely cover my body - it still took up half a suitcase!
It travelled to my folks house on one or two occasions where my mum told me she would start one soon. I'm still waiting to see that eventuate mum ;) maybe you need me to buy you the wool :P
It came up into the mountains to Quilt Camp of Awesome where I barely managed a row and a half.
And it visited friends houses on many occasion - but mostly it stayed in a pink basket beside the lounge; where I worked on it most nights. Except during summer. It stayed in the basket mostly untouched for about 3 months ;)
This blanket was truly a labour of love. A whopping 97 bands of colour (remember I said each band of colour was just over an hour… that is a huge 97 hours of work. Completed in approximately 42 weeks)
194 rows of trebles - 308 trebles per row. That is 59,752 trebles completed.
After all those hours, all those stitches - do I still love it? I do. I do. It is truly one of the best projects I've ever made! Though I do think a certain little person might be fighting me for the blanket if these cold nights keep up (yes Miss Dove - less than 10 is COLD!)
And the best thing about this pattern - there aren't that many ends to tie in. I weaved mine in as I stitched then went back every 20 or so and tied them off. So by the time I got to the finish - it was FINISHED. No loose ends (which I am prone to do at times ;)
The big question now is what to start next. Already Miss K has asked for one of her own. I have the go ahead from DH to buy a Lucy Pack if I so wish, but for some reason - I am hanging back - I want the next blanket to be as AWESOME as this one is. I want to feel the same amount of love for the next one that I feel for this one - because that passion makes it worth EVERY SINGLE HOUR spent rippling along.
A total of 11 colours + White have been used.
2 balls of Lime / Jade / Mint / Yellow / Candy / Pale Pink / Denim / Lt Blue / Turquoise / Purple
1 ball Dark Purple (this must have been a last stock colour and I couldn't find anymore so had to settle for a different purple)
3.5 balls of White
24.5 balls of colour @ $3 each (approx) total cost $73.50