Tag Archives: The Blackberry Ripple

I really need to crochet a hexagon!

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I woke up really early yesterday morning, read a bit more of Hidden Depths, the third book in the Vera series by Anne Cleeves and then fell back asleep for a few hours. When I woke I scrolled a bit on Insta and found I had a burning need to crochet a hexagon!

Do you ever feel like that? You just have to grab some scraps of yarn and a hook and go for it?

I’d seen Anita’s Vintage Hexagons a while back and that was the pattern I settled on. It’s free and here on her brand new website. She’s so clever with colour and original blanket designs. We’ve followed each other for years on Insta, but now she’s really taking designing up a notch. Check out her accounts.

I’ve been on a mission for a long time to finish all the things already started, or to unravel them, but I made an allowance yesterday. A few hexies, using oddments from blanket making, wouldn’t exactly be breaking the plan. I fancied something colourful. I really like the variegated Hayfield Spirit wool acrylic mix I’m using for my Coast blanket, but it’s quite muted.

Crocheting motifs bit by bit would be an ideal project for short bursts of crochet. I’d get that feeling of completing something, without crippling pain at the end of a mammoth row of a blanket. Anyway, I’m always drawn to hexagons, they’re probably my most favourite shapes.

Larger balls and little lengths wound up and in a little zippy bag I sewed a few years ago

Do you recognise my colour combo? I’ve used it a little more more than I realised. Thank goodness for my account on Pinterest. I had a quick look through my pins to spot everything made with this colour combo. My Pinterest doesn’t feature everything, but it’s a good selection. It’s amazing how many people end up here clicking through from Pinterest.

Baby Theo’s Patchwork blanket
Winnie’s Wave blanket (and Winnie’s baby brother who inherited it last year)
Blackberry Ripple blanket
Baby Hexagons blanket

Anyway, back to yesterday…

I think I might stop here and change yarns. I’ve become used to more of a wool content, even 20%, and the plasticy look of this acrylic is not doing it for me. Or maybe I should try a different brand?

This week I may donate what I’ve made so far, and the little middles I also made, with the rest of the oddments. I could pop in a note telling the buyer where to find the free pattern online too.

What’s your go-to yarn for blanket making? I’m not about to buy a vast quantity of pure wool. I crochet and knit with wool or blends for smaller makes, as I prefer to wear it rather than 100% acrylic. It would be way too expensive and too valuable for throwing about as an everyday blanket. Another brand of acrylic, or a wool blend would be good to try. Any recommendations would be welcome. Then I can go to wool shop to have a squish…

…when I’ve completed my ‘Finish everything and do not buy any more yarn’ mission, of course!

The Blackberry Ripple Blanket – Finished

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I started this blanket last March, but as you can see from my update at the beginning of November it was still scarf sized! (You can follow its progress by clicking on the tag ‘The Blackberry Ripple’ at the bottom of this post and any updates I wrote will be shown.) It was a project I very rarely picked up as I was distracted by making other things, then we had a warm summer and autumn so sitting with a woolly blanket was the last thing on my mind. I read like a bookworm instead. All in all this ripple didn’t take very long to crochet at all; as when I focused I usually completed two or three rows at a sitting. I should tot up the hours if I make another, it would be interesting in a nerdy way!


On Saturday I gave it to my friend, who put it straight onto her bed (purple duvet!) She said the colours were absolutely perfect for her. It’s a good feeling finishing a blanket, but even greater when you hand it over knowing it will be used right away.

The Blackberry Ripple Details:  

4 mm hook (I use Clover Amour hooks)

Stylecraft Special DK – 8 shades:

Emperor
Silver
Grey
Grape
Sage
Plum
Lavender
Parma Violet

Weight: 1,120kg
Width: 116cm, 46.5″
Length: 156cm, 61.5″

Starting chain: 213 I used the Attic 24 Neat Ripple pattern

See my Zesty Raspberry Ripple blanket post for info about the double crochet spike stitch edging.
And the next day I started something new with the leftover yarn…

The final round 

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If you’re reading this then you already know how we woolly types like to live life in the fast lane; regularly playing yarn chicken, Googling wool shops whenever we visit somewhere new and fearlessly knitting and crocheting in pubs. So what you see now won’t surprise you…I’m doing the two colour edging rows in one go, the yarns chasing each other around the edge! I know – yikes! 

 I’m listening to The Trouble with Goats and Sheep by Joanna Cannon and loving it. Actress Paula Wilcox is a great narrator and so far I’ve laughed out loud lots of times. Do you remember the long hot summer of ’76? (My wax crayons melted.)

I’m joining in with Ginny’s Yarn Along. 

Yarn Along

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I’ve got 2 hours left of my audio book now and so I’m going to see which ends first; this blanket or the book. The blanket might win simply because I’m running out of yarn. I’ll certainly need to buy a few balls more for the border.

At the weekend I snuggled under my first Spice of Life blanket and realised this ripple is now the same size, bar an inch or two which the border would sort. After jumping for joy, a little I later realised that my friend is not 5′ 4″ and so what is a perfect snuggly size for me, might well leave her with cold feet!

The week before the Christmas weekend Mum and I set off on a shopping expedition, with lots of shops to visit and all sorts of lists in hand and mind. We popped into the library first and as we were on Operation Christmas, I just grabbed several random books and left. I chose well as it’s turning out! I really liked The Missing Marriage by Sarah May. (The blurb on the book’s back cover gives nowhere near the detail on Amazon (linked above) or GoodReads, so if you think you’d like to try it, then don’t read them. I’m really glad I hadn’t seen either before I read it.) After hearing Dicken’s A Christmas Carol and reading some more ghost stories by MR James, it seemed a ‘fresh’ story and setting for the New Year.

This is the second of my grab it and run library books. It’s great! I’m so enjoying this book. The humour in When God was a Rabbit is right up my street. The dinner lady with the spoonful of peas made me chuckle this morning. It might make me rethink using that particular word too. There’s a good sprinkling of pathos also, and it’s partially set in Cornwall; which is one of my favourite areas of the country.

I’m joining in with Ginny’s Yarn Along once again.

2016

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Here are my makes of last year, well most of them. There are quite a few other things that were started and unravelled, for various reasons. None of which I regret! Despite my intention to knit or crochet smaller makes (including socks) I seem to have hooked quite a few blankets again. Why does that keep happening?!

I’m not really sure what I want to concentrate on this year. I’m working on the Blackberry ripple and that’s not far off from being a good snuggly size. Then I’ve just got to do the darning and crochet a border.

Next I think (and don’t hold me to it) I might use a posh skein or two of wool and knit another sort of cowl. I think I’ve come round to them after wearing the Mira cowl a lot this year. I’ve always preferred wrapping scarves as tightly or as loosely as preferred, but this has been very cosy and you don’t have so much of it stuffed down the front of your coat! Hey-ho, hey-ho it’s off to Ravelry I go.

My friend has sort of lost her slouchy bobble hat (there’s obviously a story there) so I might be hooking one of those again, for her birthday in April. If only she knew someone with a fishing rod, who’s a dab hand at casting, I’m positive she could retrieve hers…

It’s Day 1 of the New Year, where normal non-festive life has resumed and no alcohol, mince pies, chocolate or twiglets have been consumed. I do fancy a hot chocolate though, that’s surely alright? It’s COLD out there.

So far…

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 Having begun to have a proper catch up of my favourite blogs again I thought to throw The Blackberry Ripple (at last it’s no longer the ‘Unnnamed Ripple’) down to take a quick snap to show you what I’ve been up to. I finished the Squares and Stripes blanket last week and didn’t play Yarn Chicken at all. Hurrah! The bottom is actually the top, as I crochet it, and I see I didn’t lie it down really flat, but I think that’s ok. It’s been a long while since I regularly read any blogs on a weekly or even monthly basis. Now I’ve cut down on other social media I’ve found myself coming back to the blogs I’ve followed for years. I appreciate the story telling, like the sense of recognition when I see people and places I’ve seen many times before. The familiar scratched table or comfy sofa with piles of yarn and mug of tea is somehow comforting. Also I’m interested in what the Americans are writing post-election. I’ve been thinking I should maybe start to blog more again. It’s still enjoyable. It feels like a good community to belong to as we share snapshots of our lives. 

Here are some of the blog posts I read this morning over my bran flakes: Cozy Made Things, Teresa Kasner, Made by Patch, Not your Average Crochet, Small Things, Yarn Harlot, Little Tin Bird (note the way Heather keeps calm and carries on, despite little feet appearing in the middle of her video!) Do you want to share crafty, fun, interesting or thought provoking blog posts that you’ve recently read?

Grey days 

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After this morning’s election result from America the thought of crochet, an audio book and lots of cups of tea is rather comforting. What disquieting news…

I took my Unnamed Ripple to the pub on Monday night but had to undo a row after the 4-4-2-2 stitch count was off on the previous row. You’d think trebles in a simple combination would be fine, wouldn’t you? Apparently not when there’s chatting, listening to another’s stories, plus cider involved! I might need to start knitting a garter stitch thingy on a Knit and Natter night. Any suggestions? 

My current audio book is The Unknown Bridesmaid by Margaret Forster. It’s the story of Julia, a child psychologist who treats young girls said to be behaving badly. One day her own troubled past creeps into her present life and she must try to understand her childhood self. I had a phase of reading books by this author, some ten or fifteen years ago. I’m glad to come back to her writing. I remember it as perceptive, intelligent and with interesting themes.

If you’re a new follower I’d like to say a warm and smiley “Hellooo”to you. I’ve had a flurry of notifications here and from BlogLovin’ since the Summer. This is lovely and a bit surprising since it’s felt like my blog has just been slowly ticking along.

I’m joining in with Ginny’s Yarn Along again.  

Badges, heather, gorse and blankets  

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Yesterday I went to the fabulous V&A in London, officially: The Victoria and Albert Museum. The museum’s focus is upon decorative arts and design. The beautiful rooms are crammed full of amazing objects which you can see anytime for free, they also put on staggering good ticketed temporary exhibitions. I’m lucky enough to be a member and so can go into these anytime without booking and for free. Yesterday’s was the best I’ve been to: You Say You Want a Revolution? Records and Rebels 1966-1970.  There are many album covers from the period on display (I’d like a full list of these, must check the website) and many badges for sale in the shop at the end. You are forbidden from taking photographs in this exhibition, which turns out to be a good thing because you’re not distracted.

I went in at around 3:30pm, totally immersed from the start in the music and clips which automatically play on your headset as you move around the rooms, reading, looking, thinking. Near the end I led on a giant beanbag watching three walls of projected footage from the Woodstock festival, held in 1969 on a farm in Upstate New York, trying not to sing too loudly! It was a mesmerising exhibition. Noticeably no one had mobile phones out (this is rare anywhere, you’ll agree) and by the end I nearly fell on the floor with surprise when I looked at my watch and it was 6pm!

This is from West Cornwall last week. The colours of the sky, rocks, heather and gorse are stunning aren’t they? Quite a few times we saw cars left in gateways, off the tiny winding Cornish lanes, as people hopped out to take a photo of the same.
This my Yorkshire blanket, the first crochet I’d ever done, when I picked up a hook and tried making trebles. It’s pretty funny that the first crochet I ever did resulted in a full blanket! Mum made the starting ring and I carried on, with her help. It’s The Yorkshire Blanket because we’d hired a cottage there over Christmas 2008 and this is what I worked on, before going down with influenza (not “flu” which is typically a heavy cold.) I remember feeling like death warmed up for most of the time! No Christmas dinner for me, I was too unwell. That’s proper ill that is!

Anyway I’m really not sure what to do with this blanket, because we started off with the claret coloured DK single stranded. I carried on using a mixture of yarn that Mum and my Mother in Law passed on to me. Others I picked up from charity shops. It’s all acrylic and the tweedy appearance is because some yarn was thinner than others, so I ended up holding it double two strands at one time. Of all the blankets I’ve subsequently made this is still my favourite in terms of colours; it’s more ‘me’ I suppose. Of course there is a real discrepancy in weight between the centre of the blanket and the rest. It was initially a ‘can I learn to crochet?’ practice piece, but turned into a full square blanket because of course I could, and I couldn’t stop. It really doesn’t work with the weight of the outside rounds pulling at the lighter weight centre. There’s been no unraveling however. My darning must have been sterling!

So, I’m wondering whether to undo it and donate the yarn back to charity shops, crochet it all back up but with a two stranded DK centre, find out some way of undoing just the red centre and redoing it or……

And my current blanket, The Unnamed Ripple, as I sat in the shade a few days ago catching up with a few rows. This one’s going to a friend who lives on a canal boat, I ought to get cracking with it so she can use it this winter.

Don’t forget that if you’re in UK you can enter my giveaway to win a copy of Edward’s Imaginarium before noon on Sunday 25th. Leave a comment on the post linked here.

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Record temps for September!

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It’s 27 degrees and beautiful outside today. This week we’ve had high temperatures which haven’t been reached in September since 1911. 1911! Before going to Cornwall last week I had begun to anticipate making Autumn food soon: soups, casseroles, fruit crumbles and such; but the fridge freezer is still fully stocked with salad veg and plenty of ice cubes! 

This lunchtime I’ve been trying to work on my ripple but it’s really too warm to have on my lap. I’m listening to a new audio book Moving by Jenny Eclair now. I don’t think you can see the book’s cover on my iPhone, the sun’s too bright. 

I’ve really got the holiday blues today; the first thing I said on waking was “Where’s the green hills and the sea all around?” It was so quiet there too. The tiny lane running past the cottage was silent most of the time, the nights were as black as pitch and the only sound you heard in the morning were noises from the field of bullocks nearby, warning each other off. Still, I’ve bought my lottery tickets and you know to find me in deepest darkest rural West Cornwall if I suddenly disappear…

I’m joining in with Ginny’s Yarn Along again. 

Yarn Along 

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I’ve been enjoying picking up my ripple again, it’s been a while since it had any attention. I’ve got 3 new crochet mags (see here)  and I think they might have kick started my crojo, as I hoped.  I’ve got one of those really annoying Summer viruses where it completely knocks the stuffing out of you. You expect them in the Winter and embrace soup, duvet days and crappy tv, but not when the sun shines. But an upside is wanting to do nothing more demanding than crochet a few rows of ripple. 

One more moan then I’ll hush: I really didn’t know what I fancied for dinner last night, the only thing I could think of was soup. So I took a lot of care to make a nice spicy lentil, tomato and bacon one. I used onion, celery, carrot and courgette as I figured lots of healthy veggies might help. Should I have bothered? Could I taste it? Nope. Not one bit. No whiff of taste or smell. I really could have just eaten oats and hot water.  (Horrid porridge!) 

Crochet and Glastonbury highlights are helping. I’m listening and sort of watching  Adele as I type this, she’s good – of course she’s good, it’s Adele – but Coldplay were amazing. 

Bookwise this week my custard brain just needs something easy and soothing; so I’ve been listening to A Breath of French Air, the second of the Pop Larkin series by H.E Bates. I really enjoyed listening to The Darling Buds of May recently, it has been years since I first read it. Philip Franks played Charlie in the tv series and he does a surprisingly good job of narrating, even the female characters. It’s one of several books I’ve got on the go, along with short stories and a couple of non-fiction books. 

I’m joining in with Ginny’s Yarn Along once again. I really enjoy seeing what else others are reading, as much as what they’re making. Maybe even more. I can’t remember a time when I haven’t read. 

The Unnamed Ripple

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 I’m picking this up every now and then, to add a row or so. It’s undemanding and relaxing crochet. I think this is why I like ripple blankets so much; they’re easy and there aren’t a crazy number of ends, like you get with multi-coloured motifs.  

To choose the colours I laid out a selection of swatches I’ve made up. I chose mainly greys, purples, blues, pinks and a couple of greens. I don’t follow rules or use a colour wheel; I just instinctively choose what I like and discard what doesn’t work. Sometimes advice about selecting colours can make it sound like a dry and humourless business, though I appreciate everyone’s approach will be different. 

The process took me about 3 minutes. I wondered about adding 2 other colours over the weekend, but have decided against them.  

Stylecraft Special DK:

1.plum

2.parma violet

3.emperor

4.grey

5.silver

6.sage

7.lavender

8.grape 

I still can’t think of the right name for this blanket. I’ve just asked for suggestions here and had “Benjamin”. Brian the V Stitch scarf was one thing, but this is not going to be called Benjamin! 

Yarn Along

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At the moment I’m on the last leg of my knitting as the Mira Cowl is almost finished. That’s really code for I’ve nearly run of yarn. But it’s good when the yarn makes the decision for you! At other times I’m enjoying picking up my new ripple to work on a row or three, though when my fingers become crampy I throw it back in the Seasalt bag, where it’s stored. I hadn’t realised until yesterday that I’d picked one which coordinates beautifully with this blanket. I’ll take a pic of it sometime. I’m still trying to think of a name for this ripple. Any suggestions?

It’s for a friend who likes purple and green. I felt a bit like a crochet desperado when I asked if she wanted one, but although I’d vowed this wasn’t going to turn into another year of blanket making, like the last, I was really missing having something easy I can do while I sort of watch TV. That reminds me: have you seen The Dressmaker? I had to put the ripple down on Sunday after I realised I was missing lots of detail, particularly the superb costumes. It’s a great film. You think it’s simply eccentric which has become rather conventional, then it turns to be quite darkly funny and goes off in an unexpected direction.

I’ve just started reading The Woman in White which I’d added on my Kindle, along with other free classics last year. Written in 1859 it’s a surprisingly good read. I’ve got to the second narrator’s account and am curious as to what will happen. I think we all trust the dog’s reaction to X though, don’t we?

I’m joining in with Ginny again.

Yarn Along

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 The beginnings of a ripple are always good, at least once you’ve done the first fiddly row into the foundation chain. I like choosing the colours and enjoy the softness of the yarn when it’s used for ripples.  I did find I was a chain short at the end, so conjured one into thin air and will have to make sure the tail is darned and double darned. 

The book is one I picked up at the weekend. Very much of its time, it was published in the eighties, the stories are the perfect length for reading one every night. Last night’s featured a mirror and an antiques seller who is a Cockney and therefore must be able to easily dispose of a body…! The second story about the bus is interesting; but not at all PC.  

I’ve been trying to find a craft vlog I can regularly watch, but just can’t find one that suits. They’re simply far too long, filled with umms and ahhs and repetition. That’s not to say I could do any better, which is partly why I’m not going to try. But if there was a one like Caitlin Moran’s (two episodes so far) I’d be addicted. She was on the radio as I drove on Friday. She’s so funny and makes a lot of sense. (Water fountains! Hipsters! Trolling on social media.) I’ll be getting the book soon. Maybe even after I press ‘post’. 

I’m joining in with Ginny’s Yarn Along again.