Off the hook: The Winter Ripple baby blanket

It’s been ages since I’ve written about what I’ve finished crocheting. As you know I have little time at the moment and while I can manage to write a post in my phone and add an Instagram photo to it, crochet post are a little trickier. They need proper photos, in daylight. However, it seems I have some kind of crochet/blog OCD, in that I have to put each project here. It’s as if they’re not complete until they’ve been blogged.

I may not have been blogging them, but I have been crocheting, I feel a little jittery if I don’t have yarn, hook and a pattern or an idea to hand. However, I spend many evening hours with a babe in my arms and I haven’t really been able to master hooking and baby holding and so progress is generally slow. I dream of an hour or two uninterrupted hooking. As a result there will be far less hooked Christmas gifts this year and I’ve decided not to push my Etsy shop this year. I just don’t want the small amount of time I have to crafting to be deadlines and stress of whether I’ll get it all done.

So, back to the showing off part if this post. I was so excited to hook a blanket for my own baby. Making gifts for new arrivals is a totally lovely thing to do, but to be able to go with whatever colour scheme you like best, not restricted by others tastes or gender preferences is a real treat and I knew exactly what I wanted to create for our new arrival.

 

I’d fallen in love with this particular combination of colours years ago on Kat’s fabulous blog and I really have a thing for grey. Whenever I sort my stash I’m always shocked by how many bits of leftover grey I have. I felt these colours really lent themselves to a ripple blanket. I love ripples for baby blankets, they work up into such a snuggly, warm finished item. So, I really knew what I was looking for when I visited my beloved yarn shop. The turquoise blue and line green almost certainly needed something with an element of acrylic in them in order to get that zingy pop of colour and so I opted for the trusted and familiar Jarol Heritage DK yarn. Half wool, half acrylic. For the rest of the colours I was looking for a softer, more snuggly yarn, especially as the grey was going to be the primary colour. A visit to my most favourite yarn shop, who incidentally have recently relocated to within 2 minutes of my favourite coffee place AND my hairdressers, (serendipitous or what?!) was needed. I was drawn to the feel, colours and price of Artensano Superwash DK and I am definitely going to be using this again. The colours are so rich and the grey was the perfect shade that I was looking for.

 

Once the yarn had been selected it was all pretty straight forward. I’ve hooked rippled items before and find it the most soothing pattern to hook. Knowing this blanket was soon to be wrapped around my new baby, who while hooking was still wiggling about inside me, made it all the more enjoyable.

On February the 28th at 9pm I hooked the last stitch on the simple double crochet border. At 4:30am on the 1st March, Lady Mck made her appearance in the world. This has now happened with two of my children. Never mind curry and pineapple. If you want to bring about labour, simply finish your homemade baby blanket.

I know that last photo shows virtually nothing of the blanket, but I couldn’t resist.With thanks to @Kellyfairy for the perfectly colour co-ordinated dress