Baby surprise jacket, cap, and simple blankie

My mum is here, visiting for a couple of months. And when mum or mum-in-law are visiting, somehow, my knitting and crocheting activity peaks up. Has to be one of the best friendly things in the world, just sitting in the sun with a hot cup of tea and coffee and making new things. 

So a good friend's baby shower brought out this joint effort. It is the very first time I have made the EZ's Baby Surprise Jacket. Actually, I did not make it, I "instructed" my mum, reading out the EZ instructions, and mum made it. And she did the cap. 

Like so many of her generation, my mum does not knit from written instructions - and while I marvel at the amount of knitting knowledge my mum, grandma, and mum-in-law simply carry in their heads and execute it at the right time, they instead marvel at all those wonders that exist in the knitting world, that they never knew about because they never "read" knitting. Like this Baby Surprise Jacket for instance - my mum was just completely bowled over by the construction of it, and she was anticipating the outcome like a little child while she was making it, and chuckling like a little child by the end of it! 

The blanket - well that's another story. Sometime last year, I had these two balls of Paton's Baby yarn, a very baby yellow, with no complete project coming out of it. So, mum-in-law (who was visiting then), sat and did these yellow squares, and we hoped that someday it would turn into something. And so, last week, I got some white, and turned it into a baby blanket, all ready for the new baby to arrive. Work is super busy right now, so this has to be the quickest bit of crochet I have ever done, trying to find odd bits of time to joining a square here and a square there (there was a time deadline, the baby shower invite). And yes, I did follow EZ's instructions and had it hanging around the kitchen, and even with my Mac on the train! (I can sometimes produce code and woolly things together, funny the two processes actually help each other). 

So, this gift had the fortune of having three knitters on it, me, my mum, and my mum-in-law, a true family project, a super welcome for a super new baby. 

Textured Ripples Blanket

Its been an amazingly long time away from writing - and a lot has happened. Work and life have taken over. But, here I am, very early morning, everyone else sleeping, with a warm cup of tea, and I remembered my blog again. 

I want to share a pattern today. Once I took my 6 year old little man to the wonderful Attic24 blog, and showed him photos of the wonderful work there. That blog, for me, as well as for countless others, is a constant source of inspiration (what an understatement, but I have to say it!). 

As little designers will always have the strong reactions of utmost clarity, so did he. He pronounced his decision: "I want a blankie with these many colours, however, I do not want the soft ripples. I want a blankie with many many colours, and I want the waves to be BIG and POINTY and VERY WAVY". 

I set to work. Here is what came out. And my little man has been warm and happy and snuggly and overjoyed with it, which made me very happy. 

I wanted to add some texture to the two sides, so that the edges of the blanket are even more big and pointy and wavy than the middle, to give it a nice definition. So, the edges look like this.

From one side: 

And from the other side: 

And the middle looks like this. 

So here is the pattern for BIG, POINTY, WAVY blankets. 

Pattern: Done over a multiple of 17 stitches. 

You can cast on any multiple of 17, as long as you cover a desired length of the blanket. Note that this blanket is made length-wise, not width-wise, but of course, this was a personal choice. I thought the ripples looked fantastic running along lengthwise. I cast on about 15 repeats, on a 6 mm crochet hook, so (15 X 7 = 105) chains. 

US terms

ch: chain

sc: single crochet

hdc: half double crochet

dc: double crochet 

Ch 105, or any multiple of 17 (with a larger hook). 

Textured edge pattern:

Use a hook 1 mm thicker than the main project. That is, if you are using a hook size of 5 mm for the main body of the project, use 7 mm for the edge. The reason is that we will be using single and half double crochet for the edge, so the same hook size may give a smaller, more "compressed" edge, and the blanket won't turn out a perfect "rectangle" but a sort of rectangle distorted inwards at the edges. 

Set up row: 

Chain 3 (at the end of the 105 chains), hdc into 4th chain from hook, 6 hdc into the next 6 ch (climb up the wave), 3 hdc all into the next ch, 7 hdc into the next 7 ch (climb down the wave), skip 2 ch, *(7 hdc into the next 7 ch, 3 hdc all into the next ch, 7 hdc into the next 7 ch, skip 2 ch)*, repeat from * to *, end with 7 hdc into the next 7 ch (climb down the wave).

First row:

Change color and turn work. We will now be working out of the back loops of every hdc of previous row. This is what will give the textured pattern. 

Ch1, working into the back loops of the hdcs of the previous rows only, sc into 2nd ch from hook, 6 sc into the next 6 hdc (climb up the wave), 3 sc all into the next hdc, 7 sc into the next 7 hdc (climb down the wave), skip 2 hdc, *(7 sc into the next 7 hdc, 3 sc all into the next hdc, 7 sc into the next 7 hdc, skip 2 hdc)*, repeat from * to *, end with 7 sc into the next 7 hdc (climb down the wave).

Second row: 

Change color and turn work. We will now be working out of the back loops of every sc of previous row. This is what will give the texture (also). 

Ch2, working into the back loops of the scs of the previous rows only, hdc into 2nd ch from hook, 6 hdc into the next 6 sc (climb up the wave), 3 hdc all into the next sc, 7 hdc into the next 7 sc (climb down the wave), skip 2 sc, *(7 hdc into the next 7 sc, 3 hdc all into the next sc, 7 hdc into the next 7 sc, skip 2 sc)*, repeat from * to *, end with 7 hdc into the next 7 sc (climb down the wave).

Repeat this two rows for a very thick nice textured edge. I made about 22 of these rows (set up row, about 10 first rows and 10 second rows, one more repeat of the first row). The ripples will be very pointy. You can also try smaller or larger number as the base number, that is a number other than 17, keeping in mind the ripple design basic: equal number of stitches for climbing up and down the wave, and 3 on the top of the wave, and missing two at the bottom of the wave. What a marvellous symmetry!

Main body

Change hook to 6 mm (or 1 mm lower than hook used for edge). From now on, we will be working with dcs, and not into the back loops, but normally. 

First row: 

Change color and turn work. 

Ch3, dc into 2nd ch from hook, 6 dc into the next 6 sc (climb up the wave), 3 dc all into the next sc, 7 dc into the next 7 sc (climb down the wave), skip 2 sc, *(7 dc into the next 7 sc, 3 dc all into the next sc, 7 dc into the next 7 sc, skip 2 sc)*, repeat from * to *, end with 7 dc into the next 7 sc (climb down the wave).

Repeat this row as many times as needed to give you the width of the blanket. 

Textured edge again

When the main body is up to the desired width, change hook size to 7 mm (or 1 mm larger than the one used for the main body) repeat the textured edge pattern again, for the same number of repeats as the beginning. 

That's it! Enjoy and hope you have a lovely pointy ripply time!