Crocheting alfresco

As my husband had to go to Llandudno on college business yesterday, I volunteered to drive him there and while he attended the students' graduation ceremony, I took the opportunity to sit on the sea front in glorious sunshine and did quite a bit of crocheting.

I've never crocheted in public before, but most people took no notice. One woman passerby did comment. She admired the blanket I was making and said that she used to crochet when she was young, but had tried again recently and found she'd forgotten how. We chatted for a minute or two and then she went on her way. I was left pondering what she had said. For me that kind of skill doesn't disappear, at least not totally. It might get rusty and I might find that it takes a while me to get the fluency and ease back, but the basics never go. Perhaps it depends on how much you did when you first learned?

Anyway, I made good progress on the rainbow ripple blanket, which now looks like this...

Rainbow ripple blanket

I was supposed to be starting the baby blanket with the Cotton On yarn I bought recently, but I was looking at people's projects on the Creative Crochet Facebook group and my eye fell on the lovely pointy rainbow ripple blankets. I investigated my stash of yarn and realised that I had some suitable double knitting that had been bought to make... well, I must have bought it with something in mind, but I haven't a clue as to what it was. Anyway, I think there will be enough to make a couple of these ripple blankets and they will do nicely as part of the Christmas presents I plan to give to the offspring.

The original pattern says they're baby blankets, but the beauty of them is that you can just keep on crocheting until it's the size you want, so I'll do them a bit larger so they can be used as picnic blankets.

Here is the start of the first one. It goes so quickly that I'm already well past this stage now and onto the second colour, but I'll post further progress next week.

My current WIP

Well, it's one of my current WIPs. :) I do have several things on the go, but this is the one that currently has top priority. As you can see, the striped ripple lap blanket for my Dad is coming along nicely. It grows quickly, which is very satisfying and it's tempting to do "just one more stripe", even when I really ought to be doing something else.

Yarn for my next crochet project

I've just finished crocheting another skull scarf (in green this time) which should shortly be going off to the person who asked me to make it. I'm now moving on to my next project, which is a ripple-striped lap blanket for my Dad. (I'm using the Attic24 smooth ripple pattern and I'm loving it!) It will be a combined birthday and father's day present. I'm using these colours. I'd prefer something brighter, but I think these will suit an elderly man better. He is 92 after all!