Ocean Ripple Afghan (pattern by Bernat)

After much work, I present to you my Ocean Ripple Afghan. 

This afghan was quite the undertaking. I started working on it in the summer after the family camping trip and successfully finding colours that I thought would work well together (and also match my boyfriend's taste). 

I loved the pattern by Bernat (which was one of those freebies you rip off of the stash at craft stores) and I wanted to create the blanket. I just wasn't too fond of the colours in the picture. It was too much blue (though, I suppose for an Ocean Ripple, the blues make sense...)

So I decided, instead, to go with the beige, cream white, and navy that I purchased at a tent sale at a country market in SouthHampton, Ontario in mid-July of this year. The wool was wonderfully soft, and the navy matched the colour on my boyfriend's bedroom walls. 

The blanket's construction began in during my final weeks in Kitchener-Waterloo. I got quite far on it over the course of a month. Many episodes of Star Trek, Stargate, and Doctor Who went into this - which, I figured, my man would love since he's a bit of a science-fiction nerd (all the best ones have their nerd streaks, no?).

There may even have been a few episodes of Dawson's Creek too...

When I got to BC (and yes, I took it with me because I had to finish it) the blanket was just a few rows away from being finished. So I buckled down one (rainy) Saturday afternoon and completed it. 

I also embroidered a wash tag for it, just in case.

I apologize for the terrible quality photo, but this was the finished tag, which I sewed to the bottom
of the afghan.

I brought the afghan home with me and gave it to my boyfriend this Thanksgiving weekend.

He loved it, which was wonderful. I couldn't help but take a picture of it against the backdrop of my parents' old park bench and the wonderful falling leaves. I do miss Ontario in autumn.


Blanket Materials:
- 5mm hook
- seven 100 gram balls of beige/brown (one more ball than the pattern called for)
- five 100 gram balls of navy
- five 100 gram balls of cream white
(all wool used was acrylic. use the softest wool you can find, this is a heavy blanket once finished.)