To celebrate, I have a picture of the completed no-longer-secret ripple project: a baby blanket made in your honor for the afghans for Afghans mother's day campaign!
(This gift in addition to Interweave's Favorite Sock Patterns book from Imagiknits whose last copy I nabbed for you during our shopping excursion there last Friday... I am such a good daughter!)
I made the blanket out of 5 skeins of Cascade 220, with 8 rows total for each of the colors used. I alternated 2 single rows of color with one double row, generally moving up and down the color range from blue to yellow to green to purple to orange and back again, with a few tweaks here and there. The stitch is my version of the crochet ripple stitch, cobbled together from a few on-line patterns and blog postings from those using this pattern from the 200 Ripple Stitch pattern book (which I was sadly too lazy to actually purchase for a single stitch pattern), using half-double crochet throughout. I think it turned out pretty well in the end.
With all the leftover bits of yarn I even managed to eke out a little baby hat to match (and I really mean eked out - at one point I contemplated going back to the wastepaper basket to pick out the pieces cut out as I wove in the ends on the blanket if I didn't have enough left to finish up the top - thank goodness it didn't come to that!) The finished size is 15" around and 6" deep, so it should be good (I hope) for a 6 to 12 month old. The brim pattern was inspired by Ada June, a very cute flower petal hat in this month's issue of magknits, while the overall size and head shaping came from the Dale baby hat pattern that I'm going to make for Sarah. I just think it's too cute, and hopefully will make an Afghan child and it's mother happy.The blanket and hat are now both washed and blocked, waiting to come along with me on Tuesday when I go to help pack this latest shipment to help get it on it's way.
Speaking of afghans for Afghans, we were on TV!!!!!!!! Remember I told you a few weeks ago that we were interviewed by the local ABC7 station? Well it aired on Friday, and now you can watch it too!
I was clearly on a bit of a finishing frenzy here this week with you and Dad back home and Nathan in Chicago, because not only did I get the baby blanket and hat done, but I also completed the final tier on Lady Eleanor while watching Dreamgirls (love the costumes!) with Connie next door:
With 600m of the dark color and 900 of the lighter, I had more than enough yarn to get through 43 tiers so this should be a very snuggly wrap indeed. As you can see the futon is barely long enough to contain it as it blocks! It is definitely taller than me and I have yet to do the fringe (that will be next week's project). I did put the finishing single crochet round along all four sides, not just the short two edges as specified in the pattern, to give it a more overall appearance using the darker colored yarn. The trick for right now is keeping the lady Rushka off of the couch while my Lady Eleanor dries. Let's hope it works.
I have also been making steady progress on my Eveleen - I am really excited to see how she will turn out. I have now completed 5 of the 9 lace repeats on the front and back body panels and it just looks so pretty I had to share:
Finally, here are some of Nathan's shots from our visit to Napa (he did also take pictures of people, but not as many as you did!)
The view from Artesa:
Artesa's courtyard roof:
The grapes and the poppies at Robert Mondavi:
What can I say, it was all too beautiful (and a beautiful day!)
I hope that you are easily getting packed and ready for your trip to Brazil. I can't believe that I am leaving as well for Tokyo & Hong Kong in less than 6 days! I am getting set with gifts to bring, clothes to pack and, most importantly, projects to knit on the plane....
Have a great trip to Brazil - I can't wait to see all your photos and hear about all that you've done.
Megan
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