Restful Ripple

My daughter has hinted that she would like a crochet throw, so I am making her this one as a gift. I was planning on making a ripple blanket for myself and I decided to do this one for her first. Hope she doesn’t read this blog!

I used this wonderful random stripes generator at Biscuits and Jam to plan the stripes.

Mostly Loops and Threads Impeccable yarn, except for the medium purple which is yarn that I have had stashed for a very long time (so long I didn’t know I had it until I organized my stash!) waiting to be made into something.

Loops and Threads Colors:
I will update this as I progress and use them

2 skeins Lavender (277 yards each)
4 skeins Fresh Lilac (the ombre, 192 yards each)
5 skeins Amethyst (277 yards each)
3 skeins True Grey (277 yards each)
2 skeins Black (277 yards each)
3 skeins Purple – old Wintuk yarn, that I don’t know how (or when) I got, but goes with the other colors perfectly!

Using an H hook

The pattern:

When I was determining how large to make this I just went ahead and crocheted a long chain and then checked to see how long it was against my bed.  I made the chain about 12″ longer than I wanted the blanket to be.  Then I made the first row of dc in the ripple pattern (as in Row 1 directions below) and checked that on the bed for size.  When the first dc row was about the length I wanted, I finished the row (as in the directions below) leaving the extra chains there for the moment.  I made sure to double check that I hadn’t made any mistakes in my crochet, no missed or extra stitches anywhere, as this is the foundation I will be building on and it needs it to be right!  Once sure all was well, I undid all the extra chains that were left from the beginning and voila, perfect length with no counting and calculating!

Row 1

2dc in 5th ch from hook.
dc in next 2 ch’s.
[dc2tog – (this goes across 3 chs) in next ch, yo, pull up a loop, yo & pull through 2 loops, skip a ch, in next ch yo, pull up a loop, yo and pull through 2 loops (3 loops on hook), yo and pull through all 3. One dc2tog “valley” made.
dc in next 5 chs
3dc in next ch. 3dc “peak” made
dc in next 5 chs]

Repeat [ ] across.

When you are near the end and have done the last valley, you should have 4 ch’s remaining. Dc in the next 2, 2dc in the 2nd to last, dc in the last.

Row 2

Ch3, turn
Dc, in the back loop only (here and throughout), in the 1st stitch. (to increase 1 st at beginning of each row, unlike what is normally done with dc rows)
Dc in the next 3 sts.(you now have 4dc and the ch3 turning ch which counts as the first st)
[Dc2tog – (this is over 3 sts, and should be one leg of the st on either side of the dc2tog of the previous row, with the dc2tog of the previous row being the st that you skip in the middle)
Dc in next 5 sts
3dc in the next st (this should be in the center dc of the 3dc in the same ch of the previous row)]
Go along like that across until you reach the last 2 sts (the turning ch3 of the previous rows counts as the last stitch).
2dc in the 2nd to last st (to increase 1 st at end of row), dc in the top ch of the turning ch3.

Repeat Row 2 on and on, changing colors as you choose…

To Change Colors

5 stitches before the end of the row, hold the new color along the top of the previous row (leaving a generous tail for weaving in), and crochet over it as you do the last 4 stitches. In the last stitch, make your dc up to the last yo, pick up the new color to do the last yo, and pull through the last 2 loops on your hook. . Ch3 and continue on with the new color, leaving a long tail of the old color to weave in.

The Color Pattern

Here is how many rows of each color I used, exactly as I did them if you want to reproduce this exactly…

That is 118 rows all together! And here is a diagram to help out: