Change It Up

Greetings, lovely people!

     So I'm in the planning stages of crocheting a ripple-pattern blanket for my room here at school. I found a lovely pattern in the wonderful Crochet Today! magazine (yes, the exclamation point is part of the title). The July/August 2011 issue features a beach blanket that seems thick and cozy enough to keep you toasty in cold weather, as well. The pictures show a carefree woman walking barefoot on the beach on a breezy, overcast day, wrapped in a colorful ripple blanket.

     I am very excited to start this project, though I may not be able to do so for a while. The colors recommended in the pattern are a bit too summery to use at this time of year, so I plan to experiment with color combinations through the making of the ever-useful gauge swatch.

     For those of you who may be new to the art of crochet, a gauge swatch is like a sample pattern of the project you are making. It has you utilize the recommended yarn and hook size to make a certain number of rows and number of stitches per row, usually measuring four-by-four inches (unless it's a complicated pattern stitch, ripple, or worked in the round). If the swatch is too small, use a larger hook. Making gauge swatches is very important when you are planning projects that need to be precisely sized, like clothes. If you start a garment without making a swatch, the measurements may be wrong and pieces may not match up right, and by then it will be too late to start over.

     Gauge swatches are also a great way to experiment with color. If you like, try a variegated (multicolored) yarn, or create a stripe pattern. For this blanket, I am working with both solid and variegated colors to see how they look together. I'm working on using yarn I already own for now, using up my super-duper stash to see if I'd like to buy more of certain colors if they look good. Here are some of the gauge/color swatches I've made so far.

     Do you have a favorite? So far, mine is the yellow/burgundy one. I have a few more combos to try out, though. Maybe one of them will tickle my fancy more than these! The stripes will of course be thicker on the real blanket, but I only did two rows of each color in order to see the repeat pattern work out.

     I sure hope you found this to be a rather informative post. I'm glad I could share this useful information with you. Happy hooking!

Live long and prosper,
Kayla