Monday 28 January 2013

Rippling...over hill and dale!



I vowed not to start another project until one of my current WIPs was finished - but I cheated! True, the grey waistcoat was off the needles (but not seamed!) so, I couldn't wait any longer and had to start a 'ripple' blanket! (actually I blame all those fellow Twitter-ers who were talking about their progress with rippling ;-p)

Anyway, I started off, armed with a bag of leftovers from my stash pile, following the excellent (idiot-proof!) instructions given by Lucy at 'Attic 24' . I must admit, getting the first row was tricky - it took me three attempts before I was moderately happy with it, and I'm hopping that the remaining slight tightness on that first row will improve with blocking. However, as a 'go-to-as-and-when' project to use up scraps I'm rather pleased with it already. Instead of planning the colours beforehand, I'm letting the blanket surprise me - all my wool is in a black bag, so when I need to start a new colour I just blindly reach in and use whatever I pull out

What do you think so far?'

I love the way the increases and decreases create the ripples, like running over 'hill and dale'!

The grey waiscoat has not been pushed to one side and forgotten, though; I've seamed it, sewn the pockets in place and attached the button band (the worst part - I hate doing that!) - just needs a finally steam and a set of buttons:

The BIG blanket is nearing completion:


Just so you can see what's left to do, here's the 'plan' I drew out; (the tip of the needle shows progress to date):

Of course, there will be loads of ends to sort out, but I've been weaving them in as I go, so they'll just need snipping off. I'm undecided whether to crochet all around the outer edges to finish off....? I can generally knit about 3 blocks an hour (usually when I'm watching TV, so it rather depends on how intricate the plot...!) so I still have a way to go yet - but I'm getting there!

BTW - thank you to all the lovely people who've stopped by on the ''Grow Your Blog' blog-hop and left comments :-) - so many lovely blogs to go and investigate.....I'm getting there!

5 comments:

  1. The waistcoat looks great! I hadn't seen it in all it's (nearly-finished) glory! Looks good. And you will have to teach me the ripple crochet, it looks so pretty!

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  2. All looks wonderfully productive at yours. Love your ripple progress, it will be great to watch how it developes :)
    Caffeechino

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  3. I like the idea of letting the blanket surprise you. I'm planning a scarf along similar lines.

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  4. Oh, I know what you mean! The call of the new project is so hard to resist! I sucombed last night as well:-( But your project is lovely and a great way to use the stash!

    Hugs,
    Terri

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  5. WOW! That "big blanket" is amazing. How big is it? How much yarn is it taking??

    I hope you don't mind, but I've tagged you for the "Liebster Award" which is another way to grow blogs (back links are blogger candy!). Here are the details: http://www.threadedlife.net/2013/01/awwwwww-im-honored.html

    Play along if you wish, but don't feel obligated.

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