The only ripple stitches I ever truly loved fell into the category of round ripple – until I met this book! I have never seen so many cool ripple patterns as author Leonie Morgan has gathered here. The title tells you a lot. Were you even aware that there ARE 100 different ripple stitches or motifs? I wasn’t. And, I was a little unbelieving. But, as soon as I flipped through this book, I was hooked. There’s a lot here and I want to make a bunch of them – like right now!
There are the usual single and double crochet ripples that we see all the time. But then, there’s the ‘Bright Waves’ ripple which I had searched high and low for after having seen it once worked up in a charity afghan. That crocheters use of color married to this particular wave – a sort of regularly irregular wave pattern – created a stunning afghan that I tried hard to wrench from the hands of the woman who had collected it to donate. No amount of dickering or bribing on my part worked to get me that afghan, darnit! I did subsequently find the pattern, but now I also have the color repeats to create a stunner for myself.
Other ripples that are very appealing to me were these:
Hill And Valley which takes advantage of very tall peaks and wider valleys to create a unique look.
Honeydew is a variant whose motifs look a bit like a handle bar mustache and make use of a skip stiched here and there to emphasize the peaks and valleys.
Syrah is a ripple that extends the distance between the valleys and peaks to create a shallow ripple.
Purple Picots looks like a standard ripple with the addition of a trefoil-like picot on some of the peaks.
Confetti is similar to the Purple Picots but is more playful as each bauble looks like three fourths of a flower, a nice dimensional effect.
Sea Foam expands on the dimensional idea of Purple Picots and Confetti by creating an entire row (about every fourth or fifth row) that is dimensional, creating a cuddly look.
Sea Of Heats is the best of the dimensional variations in this book. On a background of a traditional ripple pattern, Morgan has added surface crochet of colorful hearts placed around the afghan. A similar look is created in an entirely different manner to make the dimensional effect appear to be buttons added to the afghan.
In addition to the many afghan patterns, there are some ripple motifs here also. The ones that stand out to me (aside from those round ripples that I so cherish) are the Orion’s Belt which creates a shape somewhat reminiscent of a leaf and Jasmine which is an outstanding five pointed star with a floral appearance.
Attention must be paid to Morgan’s eye for color in this book. Her color choices and pairings are carefully chosen to highlight her stitch patterns. While many ripple patterns are simply traditional and variants of older motifs, a fresh take on color can make us aware of how unique we can make our work. Morgan has certainly used color to its best effect in this book.
Each pattern is accompanied with a clear, colorful picture, a written pattern, and a crisp chart. So whatever method you prefer, you’ll have it handy. Her brief section on gauge is all you need as she has worked up three different samples to show us how the hook size will effect the ripple pattern. Not news to most of us, but good information for a newbie.
There are only a few actual projects in the book. But, with these enticing ripple patterns will have you stash diving for a variety of colors to work up your own special project. There is the obligatory section outlining stitches and pattern reading guide (including symbols). And, although Morgan resides in the UK, she uses US stitches in this book (thank you!!). And, to assure we can all recreate these designs, each one is made using a Cascade 220 yarn, readily available in most local yarn shops or online.
This book has earned its place in my crochet library. I’m sure you’ll agree when you see it yourself!
Book Specs:
100 Colorful Ripple Stitches To Crochet (50 original stitches and 50 fabulous colorways for blankets and throws) by Leonie Morgan.
Published by St Martin’s Griffin, July 15, 2014
128 page soft cover
ISBN: 978125004940
List price $21.99 USD
Sounds interesting…will have to check it out.
looks interesting ,i just learned last week to crochet already made baby blanket and doily :)would love to learn more stitches