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crochetime

~ So many patterns, so much yarn, so little time: story of my hooky life.

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Tag Archives: crochet chart

Atlantic Waves ripple blanket Ta-daaaah!

08 Wednesday May 2013

Posted by Natasja in My crochet, Ta-daah!

≈ 22 Comments

Tags

Around the corner crochet, blanket, crochet, crochet blanket, crochet border, crochet chart, crochet pattern, ripple

Ooo, wee this ta-daaah post has been a very long time coming. It’s been a draft post since February 2013! Shock horror. Hopefully you will understand why I have been hanging on to this one for so long, when you hear my excuse reasoning.

You see, the Atlantic Waves ripple blanket is inspired by the sea and made for someone who loves the sea. Hence, it is only fitting that I should photograph it on a beach of some sort. Seeing as the English weather have been grey and cold for, what feels like, a million years, I couldn’t go to the beach to photograph the blanket.

Luckily I have been on a South African holiday for a week…. my family is from Cape Town which means we are surrounded by water and encased in blue skies and sunshine…. and the recipient of the blanket is my Dad…. so I managed to finally take the photos just a few days ago!

There’s just a slight problem. My Dad and I went on a roadtrip to Cape Agulhas (where the Indian and Atlantic oceans meet) on Wednesday morning. We drove the whole day and was only just able to catch the last rays of sun at the southern most point of Africa.

That meant that the next day had to be the day of The Seaside Photoshoot. That was also the one day out of my 10-day holiday that it rained. It basically looked like Britain. Gggggrrrrr. Hey-ho, my Dad and I now have a good story to tell about The Wet And Windy Photoshoot. Here you can see me, wind-swept and wet taking photos of his blanket. Oh the things you do in the name of crochet!

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More about the blanket.

Almost everyone that crochets knows Lucy of Attic 24’s easy ripple blanket. Lovely at it is, I didn’t want to make a Lucy ripple, but I did want to make a ripple. The term “ripple” or “wave pattern” always evoke images of water, the sea, waves breaking and water receding against a shoreline to me. It just felt right that I should use this pattern for my Dad’s blanket seeing as he loves the ocean and he loves blue. 

I wanted my ripple / wave pattern to be a little different and special, with texture and lots of interest. I paged through the Crochet Visual Encyclopedia and immediately fell in love with this pattern.

Atlantic wave crochet pattern

Guess what this ripple pattern is called. Atlantic Wave! The perfect pattern for my sea theme ripple blanket! The raised Fpdc adds the texture I was looking for and enhances the 3D effect of my dark to light to dark colour sequence. (It amazes me that they used a green yarn to demonstrate a sea themed pattern… strange don’t you think?)

To strengthen the sea inspiration, I used shades of blue ranging from navy to powder blue, and cream. I didn’t want the cream and navy to be next to each other as the colour contrast would draw too much attention, so I decided to go from dark to light and back to dark etc. That way I get a beautiful colour rhythm, gradual colour changes and a 3D optical illusion.

In my mind the cream is the sea foam and the blues represent the ocean as it changes from light blue just behind the sea foam, to navy at the horizon.

So here are the photos of my Atlantica Waves ripple blanket, taken with the Atlantic Ocean in the background!

Atlantic waves ripple crochet blanket

crochet ripple blanket

ripple crochet blanket

I think this ta-daaah post was worth the wait. Nevermind the wet, stringy hair and cold feet.

The nitty gritty of the Atlantic Waves ripple blanket:

  • Pattern: Atlantic Waves by Robyn Chacula
  • Yarn: Stylecraft Special DK in Midnight, Royal, Aster, Cloud Blue, Cream
  • Crochet hook: 5 mm
  • Border: No. 39 from Around The Corner Crochet Borders by Edie Eckman. It was the perfect border for this blanket – it even has a Treble, just like the ripple pattern!

Atlantic waves ripple crochet blanket

The blanket is now safe and sound (and out of the rain) on my Dad’s bed. Just in time for the South African Winter.

Dear Husband and my Dad really like the blanket. John like it so much that he actually tried to get me to not give it to my Dad: “He doesn’t know he’s getting the blanket. It could just stay here with me.” He really enjoyed “test driving” the blanket again and again and again 😉 It’s obvious that John would like his own blanket….. bring on Autumn 2013 – I’ll be hooking my husband a blanket. I already have a pattern in mind. As you do.

Decoding crochet with the help of Eric. Giveaway included.

16 Wednesday Jan 2013

Posted by Natasja in My ramblings

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

crochet, crochet chart, crochet symbols, giveaway, iPhone

In August 2012 I told you about a great App for crocheters, called Crochet Decoder. Since then, sugar coded apps have released an update, which now includes easy to follow instructions for making the most commonly used crochet stitches.

It’s very easy to use. You just choose the stitch and drag your finger down over the step 1 image to see two more steps. The drawings are clear and easy to follow. In my example I chose to see how to crochet a Half Double crochet stitch:

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As before, you can still look up a crochet chart symbols; find the recommended hook size for six types of yarn and description of the yarn weight; scroll through a dictionary of crochet pattern abbreviations; and find the metric size of crochet hook sizes. Screenshots for these functions can be seen in my 5 August 2012 post here.

The app now really has everything you need to read any crochet pattern – especially those intimidating Japanese charted patterns where all you have to go by are crochet symbols – and a handy reference tool to consult when buying hooks and yarn.

It’s a great App isn’t it? And you know what, this app is written by a man who hasn’t even crocheted anything (yet)! When Eric, of sugar coded apps, contacted me to tell me about the upgrade, I took the opportunity to ask him for the back-story of the app. I’m so glad I asked! Here it is:

I basically have many friends who are crafty… some of which learned crochet, but found the process of following patterns daunting because of the lingo, symbols, abbreviations, etc. It seemed like a good fit to help them out by using my skill of app-making to help them pursue their craft.

I did some research and saw there wasn’t really a quick reference app to decoding crochet patterns. Everything was more like a tutorial on ‘how to crochet’. This app is designed to be more of a ‘cheat sheet’ to the basics once you start reading patterns, writing you own patterns, etc. It’s not designed to ‘teach you how to crochet’ per se’. I did add ‘Basic Stitch Diagrams’ in the new update, because it was so requested. It should help those new to crochet who haven’t memorized how to do all the basic stitches yet.

I’ve actually done a little crochet in the past & find the craft fascinating. Making the app, researching it, & finding places to spread the word has me even more interested in the craft than ever & makes we want to learn how to make an actual project!

Well done Eric! Thanks for coming to the rescue to us technophobes-with-hooks.

Now for the best bit. Eric has give me ten codes that I can give away to ten lucky readers to download the app for free! All you have to do is leave a comment on this blog post. The first ten people to leave a comment will receive a code to download the Crochet Decoder app for free!

To redeem, go to App Store on your iDevice or in iTunes on you computer. Then simply type the code into the REDEEM option in the App Store (like you would when redeeming a gift card.)

I’m so grateful to developers and app writers like Eric who can give crafting, and sharing of that craft, a techy twist. The makers of Ravelry, WordPress, Blogger, Pinterest, Instagram, PicMonkey, Gathered magazine, sugar coded apps – you guys are the best!

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