#27 – Ripple Blanket

I don’t know about you guys, but I grew up thousands of kilometres away from most of my grandparents. Whenever I heard stories about friends who grew up baking with their grandmothers, or fishing with their grandfathers, I always felt a small tinge of jealousy that I had never experienced these things. However, I count myself extremely lucky that in these last two weeks, I had the chance to spend some time with my grandmother in Hong Kong! I made her this beautiful ripple blanket during my time there as a good-bye gift, and I’m hoping that this way she’ll have a piece of me even though I’m so far away.

  • 2 skeins of Caron Simply Soft – a worsted weight (4) yarn (above colour A: Soft Blue)
  • 2 skeins of Caron Simply Soft – a worsted weight (4) yarn (above colour B: Soft Green)
  • Size K (6.5 mm) hook

Pattern by Alexis at Persia Lou
MODIFICATIONS by tick-tock hobbies

In row 3, this pattern is meant to be worked in the front stitch of the double crochet, which creates a balanced symmetrical look to both sides of the blanket. However, I wanted to have a blanket that looked different on each side, so I decided to treat the double crochet as a half-double crochet, which has THREE loops that can be worked in.

The three loops of a half-double crochet stitch // Photo from All About Ami

I then worked in the “front loop” of this double crochet. This produced a blanket that looked different on each side! One side of the blanket had a ridge consisting of little “V” shapes, while the other side of the blanket did not have a ridge at all.

image
Left: “V” ridge side // Right: No ridge side

Having two slightly different sides helped to add some extra interest to this blanket, at least for me! While I was making it, I couldn’t even decide which side I liked better, as my preference seemed to change with my mood. Hopefully by having this variation, my grandmother can switch it up too depending on how she feels!

This was the first blanket I ever made, and I may have underestimated the amount of time and effort that goes into making a blanket. Thank goodness for fourteen hour long flights though, as it gave me a lot of time to work on this blanket so that I could finish it in time before I left Hong Kong. I ended up crocheting 109 rows rather than 73, as I wanted to use up as much of the yarn as possible. At the end of the blanket, rather than switching colours every eight rows, I switched every two rows, as I knew I didn’t have enough yarn to complete a full eight rows. This two row rotation was done six times.

My grandmother really liked the blanket, and honestly I felt so happy seeing her smile and use it, that it was worth every minute that went into it. I don’t know if she’ll always remember who gave it to her, but just knowing that she has it and is using it is enough for me. I hope that I can visit her again soon, and bring her more handmade creations to brighten her day!

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