100 rows

I’ve just finished the 100th row on the stash buster blanket. Last time I had a bit more of the purple to do around the pink bobbles and then I started on the yellow ripples.

I’d never done this stitch before and while I was doing it I felt an appreciation for the people who discovered or made up different stitches and stitch patterns in the first place. I can’t imagine how anyone would fiddle with a hook and some yarn to come up with something new. I also have an appreciation for eleonora putting together all these patterns into such a gorgeous blanket. She chose these stitches to represent the ripples on a beach, and I liked that idea so I went for yellow as well.

In adding the lilac rows of ripple stitch I had to enlist the help of Derwen, my trusty nostepinne! I had to use my feet to hold the skein straight so it didn’t twist and tangle as I wound this gorgeous silky yarn into a ball.

I felt quite proud of myself doing the ripple stitches confidently and was surprised that I wasn’t having to think too hard about where to put the stitches. But then I counted how many stitches I had and realised I was 2 short! I added a couple of extra in the next row of double crochets but then realised that made no difference to the next row of ripples as they are dependent on hooking round the back of the treble crochets from the previous row. I couldn’t face all that frogging so I kept going to the last row of ripples and then added the extra 2 stitches in the final row of double crochet before the waves started.

I thought I’d got the hang of the waves by now but as I approached the end of that row I discovered I’d gone wrong somewhere. That’s not a pattern that can be fudged so I had to find the mistake and frog back half a row. In doing so I discovered that I could actually see the difference between the double crochets and half trebles, which I wasn’t able to do before. So I’m learning new things as I go along.

Finding time to crochet is a bit hit and miss but I’m glad I’ve picked this project up again and that it’s growing in a satisfying way.