Crocheted Ripple Baby Blanket

I love making things for other people, so I'll pretty much jump on any excuse to whip up a gift. A woman my husband works with recently had a baby, and I've been dying to crochet a baby blanket so I decided to make her one.

I spent some time looking at free crocheted baby blanket patterns on Ravelry, and I eventually settled this one, Neat Ripple Pattern. I had always wanted to make a ripple blanket, so it seemed perfect. I tried making one once but I was crocheting so tightly, it didn't have a nice drape, so I frogged it. I decided to try a ripple blanket again with the Neat Ripple pattern and a larger hook to help out with loosing up my stitches.

While looking through the projects shared for the pattern on Ravelry, I was inspired by one that had a neat color change pattern. I had my husband help me choose four yarn colors to use, and I got to work. It took me a lot longer to finish the blanket that I thought it would, about three weeks. To be fair, I didn't work on it many of the days I counted, but it still felt like it took forever. Once you've crocheted up a few rows, you can work without looking back at the pattern easily. Weaving in the ends took forever, but I think I finally did that part right this time!

There are more babies expected in the near future (including one of my own), so I'll probably make a few more of these this year.