The Ripple Effect...

This pink and white ripple afghan has been on my bed since I was 10.


It was made for me by my grandmother who shared a room with me for about five years when I was growing up. Her favorite color was pink too and she crocheted all the time. She was forever making baby booties and blankets for the white elephant bazaar at church or making granny square afghans. She didn't make as many ripple afghans so mine is extra special...

I tell my son that my blanket has special magical properties like a magic item from Harry Potter. I feel secure, protected and like my grandmother is still with me when I'm under my blanket. It's a real treasure.

It's time for me to start another crocheting/knitting project that I can work on at night while watching TV, when my eyes are too tired to do anything else.

I have a dream of making Jack and each one of my nieces an afghan for when they graduate for high school and go away to college. I missed my first niece already who is going into her third year at the University of Wisconsin. I'm aiming to finish hers before she graduates from college!

OK, so I bought my yarn at Knitpicks because it's CHEAP and I like to use superwash for my afghans so you can toss it in the laundry.

I'm also playing with the Random Stripe Generator. This tool allows you to enter your colors of yarn, your stripe widths and your length. It then randomly generates combinations for you to use as a pattern. It's great fun!

I've decided I like the stripes to be the same width, though I imagine with 10 to make, I will eventually experiment with lots of styles.

I had lots of fun getting ideas from the Ripple-Along group on Flickr.


I like this one from purejuice2 because of the vertical stripes. This one will make the bed look thinner!


And I love the color combination on this one from attic24 but I don't think I have this many colors to choose from...


And I love the random colored stripe of green on this one amidst a monochromatic pink style from twolimeleaves...

Stay tuned for what I choose...my niece loves pink too so that will have to figure prominently...