Good Morning! It’s a
bright, chilly autumn morning here and its beautiful. How is yours? Last time I
was here I shared my slow progress on my ripple blankets, and I’m so excited to
now share with you a finished article….wow, I know, I finished something!
(Actually I have recently finished two things so I’m feeling rather smug, but
more about that another time.)
So…Ocean Ripple
started life in May. It was actually an odd ball of acrylic bought at a charity
shop for 50p that started this entire blanket! It’s the peg that has no name
(oh how sad) in the picture above. Its not the kind of colour that I am naturally
drawn to but somehow my mind got working and kept nagging away at me until I
pulled out a few other blues from the stash to sit along side it on the dresser.
Yes, yes, it all looked quite nice. Without too much thought I just began
rippling; it was an easy small project that I could take away with me and it
was due to its convenience that it grew so easily.
However, a few ripples in and
it became apparent that I just didn’t have enough colours (this was
mid-holiday), so I packed it all up and as soon as I got home went to my local
yarn shop. The great thing about working with this yarn it that there are just
SO many colours to choose from and I happily pulled this and that off the shelf
and very quickly found a more balanced set of colours, with brighter shades to
cheer the dark ones.
The yarn, apart from the nameless one, is Stylecraft
Special Acrylic DC and it’s the best acrylic I have come across; its soft,
washable, colourful and CHEEEEEEP at just £1.80 per 100g ball or thereabouts.
I have loved the
steady, comforting rhythm of working on this ripple. As I was making it for me
there was no pressure on time which was so much nicer than the last one! (see
HERE for the Raspberry Ripple). It’s an interlocking ripple, which means that
there were quite a few yarn changes, but that just kept it interesting. The
interlocking thing was inspired by Lucy’s interlocking ripple, she also wrote
the pattern, you can find them here and here.
I really regret not
weaving in the ends as I went; I thought I had a cunning plan to deal with them
after by making an encasing border but I was worried that this would look funny
on the ripple so I chickened out right at the end! Oops.
The result though is
great! I love this ripple more than I thought I would; it’s totally different
to what I imagined at the beginning or even expected at half way through. It
has truly surprised me; its so bright!
It is comfortably at
home on the sofa and has really helped to make our lounge more homely. It
happens to have kept some optimism in the air about the weather too as it feels
like a sunny blanket, not a wintery one, but we’ll see how long that lasts as
we need it more and more in the evenings!
I got snap happy, so
there’s a few pictures :)
I also wanted to show
you this mug that Little H painted for my birthday at our local Pots2Paint
studio (In Viables Craft centre, Basingstoke); I am so in love with it and so
impressed at how good it looks considering it was painted by a 4 year old! Part
of the studio fee is getting to use all of the tools, stencils, sponges and
stuff in the studio and these little stickers were stuck all over by little H
before going to town with the brush, and then peeled off afterwards- what a
great idea!! Christmas presents spring to mind!
Thanks for stopping
by, have you finished anything recently? It’s a good feeling isn’t it? Maybe
I’ll get the bug and be back more often to share Ta Dah moments!
See you soon,
Hayley
xx
