/\/\/\ Ripple Ta-Dah /\/\/\

Woohoo, I'm back in less than a week. Whoopie! Well lets get to it, the point of this post is to show you my, I mean, Baby R's ripple blanket. I finished it a while ago and it has been in a lot of use since. I was thinking/worried that it might be too warm by the time I got it finished to actually get any use out of it, but hey it's May and it's baltic so the blanket is getting plenty of action... see there's always a silver lining haha*

So the yarn was bought at Christmas with vouchers for the local craft shop from my very thoughtful secret santa. I picked up some Rico Baby Classic DK and I fell in love with it straight away. It's 100% acrylic and it's super soft, I have never felt such a soft and luscious acrylic yarn, it's really lovely stuff. And after thinking I wasn't going to go down the stereotypical boy route I ended up picking very boy colours, I just couldn't help it.

I used a ripple pattern from the lovely and extremely generous Lucy at Attic24. I started with a chain of 168 which was very generous and I'm glad I did because I think/hope it will last little R as he grows into a little boy which he is rapidly doing! I did double rows of each colour and a total of 55 double rows. I wanted to keep going because it was lovely to work on but somehow I ran out of one colour and had ample left of the others (mystifying!) and I took this as a sign to stop. So would you like to see? As if you have a choice teehee!

Here goes...

The full blanket is actually fairly big

Soft and snuggly...

 Mmmm ripples...

♥♥ mummy blanket & baby blanket ♥♥

I like how the ripple ties in with my own granny blanket. I have to confess I really am not in love with the colours of my granny blanket but I do like how to two blankets compliment each other. 

I took a few snaps of Baby R with the blanket, we mostly use it when he is out in the pram cos the weather is rubbish (rubbish I tells ya)

Cosy and warm

He looks like a little egyptian mummy 

The seal of approval xox

♥♥ I'm thrilled to have finished it and I am thrilled to have made Baby R his first crocheted blanket. I hope it gets loved and used a lot over the years ♥♥ 

Thanks for all your lovely comments on my last post. Thankfully Baby R is doing much better and we are all enjoying the weekend together.  Now it just needs to stop raining so we can go outside!

*Note to the weather:Please sort yourself out and stop being so beeping cold, it's May you know!!

And now for some Crochet

Well I thought I would share some crochet WIPs that I have on the go. I guess crochet is the reason that I started this blog but so far I haven't had anything significant to show and therefore post about. I've been working on a granny square blanket as my first ever crochet blanket and it is slow going. I started it at the very end of August while on holiday with my husband, baby R, doggies and friends (and friend's babies and doggies!), but it's still a WIP. I guess I did have a little break to work on baby R's quilt and I also made some bunting for his nursery (I should really share a pic of that with you). Maybe I should have started with something a little smaller and more manageable because, although I am absolutely loving crochet, I'm afraid I have fallen out of love with my blanket. Maybe if I share a wee photo that will reinvigorate me and I'll get it finished. 

A sneak preview: 5 round granny squares, 14 squares/row, 10 rows, joining as I go 

I had always set myself the target of finishing it for Christmas and that is still on the cards. I think it will be a nice Christmas present to myself (I'm imaging snuggling under it on Christmas Eve and then snuggling under it on Christmas morning with Baby R and his Dada, oh and maybe Luca & Monty too!). I think another reason for my stalling with this project is that I'm not entirely convinced of my colour choices. I love the dark pink and the dark blue (the photo doesn't do them justice - difficult light conditions on these autumnal days) but I'm really not convinced about the bottle green colour, I only chose it because the other green the shop had (which I really liked) was discontinued. Also the yarn is Sirdar Snuggly Baby Bamboo (80% bamboo and 20% wool) which, while it does feel nice, is expensive and therefore I wish I had gone the whole hog and used Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino as so many lovely bloggers seem to use. The fact that the blanket is also costing me a fortune is putting me off it as well, the purse strings while on maternity leave are being pulled a bit tighter and there I go spending a fortune on yarn! Oh well... now that I have blogged about it I'll have to finish it. I'm on the 8th row out of 10, just need to keep 'er lit and not get distracted by other projects. Speaking of which...

/\/\/\/\ ripple-ripple-ripple /\/\/\/\

Well after reading so much about Lucy and her lovely ripple blankets, I decided I just had to have a go. I sought yarn advice from the lovely Lucy (as much as I'd love to use Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino as mentioned above I think I better save up or maybe wait for Father Christmas for this!) and decided to use Stylecraft Special DK. As I intended to order the yarn from the internet I thought it might be wise to order a yarn shade card to see what the colours were actually like as opposed to on a laptop screen (purchasing from the internet is sooo handy but difficult where colours are concerned). I decided to make a baby size blanket as I thought I would get this finished in a reasonable amount of time, so baby R gets another blanket (this was another reason for going for Stylecraft, being acrylic it will withstand lots of washing and wear&tear from baby R). Although I'm making a blanket for a boy I didn't really want to fall into the gender stereotype trap (blue only y'know) and I wanted to make something bright and fun, so in the end I went for (clockwise from left): Sunshine, Plum, Meadow, Aster, Cloud Blue, Lipstick and Turquoise.

Stylecraft Special DK

However once I started the blanket I sort of felt it was going in the territory of 70s rainbow hippie-ness, not that I have a problem with this as such it's just not the look I was going for, for a baby blanket! I guess I was a bit worried about the yellow and it being too ultra bright. Anyway this is how it looks so far...

From bottom: Cloud Blue, Aster, Plum, Lipstick, Turquoise & Meadow... 

143 chains and 12 ripply rows so far....

I guess I'm a little afraid of the yellow yarn and not too sure where to bring it in but I am happy with how it looks so far. Overall the colours kind of go against the grain for me as I prefer much more muted tones however I have to remember that this is for baby R and it really needs to be happy and sunshiny. I really wanted something that felt like Attic24 as this was the inspiration for the ripples in the first place so I just need to be brave and go for it. I must admit the ripple pattern is quite therapeutic and addictive so I just hope it doesn't distract me from the granny square blanket for too long!!