80 Blankets: Sparkling Waves

What a luscious combination! If you love sparkles and a little bit of velvet than you’ll love this pairing of Lion Brand Vel-Luxe and Winter Nights. Both yarns are worsted weight (CYC4), but held together they become a nice super bulky. I used a size 11.5mm crochet hook and finished this 45″ x 45″ blanket in two days! Granted, since it’s quarantine living at the moment that was a lot of hours in those two days, but still, it went fast.

Unfortunately this blanket doesn’t photograph well even though it’s so nice in person! The combination of yarns kind of blurs the stitch definition. (Helpful for hiding mistakes.) One thing though, the Vel-Luxe doesn’t always crochet evenly, so there’s little nubs and slubs and some extra loops. This is totally fine with me, actually it adds to the appeal in my eyes in this instance. The fact it didn’t crochet consistently for me stayed consistent throughout, so it works!

I worked a wave chevron stitch. It’s a gentler version of the classic ripple afghan. The main stitch you use is a double crochet including double crochet increases (two stitches worked into the same stitch) and decreases (dc2tog – two sts turned into one stitch).

A Personal Interlude

There are much bigger more important things happening in this world than my one little wedding. Some of those other things have touched my life while others haven’t. But for the sake of staying on topic we’ll just focus on the wedding thing here…

I refuse to give up making my 80 wedding blankets. As time passes and quarantining at home remains a thing in NY I can’t help but wonder if our December 2020 wedding will even be happening as planned. Will it be safe enough that gatherings are allowed? Will they be limited to 100 people? 50 people? There’s so much information out there that is ever changing with different ideas and scenarios. It’s a waiting game.

We got engaged Thanksgiving Eve 2019 and by the beginning of December had our wedding date set for early September 2020. We went into the new year enthusiastically, but it soon became apparent that we were going to have to postpone our wedding due to health issues and my fiance undergoing a major surgery scheduled for early Summer 2020. (We just got word yesterday it will be happening on schedule! This is a HUGE relief.) So after making a pros and cons list we moved our wedding date back to December 11, 2020. That was maybe 2 weeks before COVID-19 in the US became headline news. Now what?

Now I’ll continue making #80Blankets to give myself something to pour my energy into. In this time for me, like so many others here, being a crafter is saving my sanity and helping me maintain some sense of normalcy amid the chaos.

Pattern Info

• Yarn: 3 balls Lion Brand Vel-Luxe; 4 balls Lion Brand Winter Nights
• Hook: 11.5mm 
• Gauge: 8 sts = 5″

Pattern is multiples of 8 + 3

Chain (ch) 67

Foundation Row: double crochet (dc) in the 4th ch from hook, 1 dc in the next ch, [dc2tog over the next 2 ch] twice, 1 dc in the next ch, 2 dc in the next ch, *2 dc in the next ch, 1 dc in the next ch, [dc2tog over the next 2 ch] twice, 1 dc in the next ch, 2 dc in the next ch; rep from * to end of row, turn

Pattern Row: ch 3 (counts as first dc), 1 dc in the first st, [dc2tog over the next 2 sts] twice, 1 dc in the next st, 2 dc in the next st, *2 dc in the next st, 1 dc in the next st, [dc2tog over the next 2 sts] twice, 1 dc in the next st, 2 dc in the next st; rep from * to end of row, turn

Continue working pattern row until piece measures 45″ or desired length

Abbreviations

• ch = chain
• dc = double crochet
• dc2tog = double crochet 2 stitches together
• rep = repeat
• st(s) = stitch(es)

Stitch Guide

Double Crochet 2 Together (dc2tog)

• Step 1: yarn over and insert hook through stitch
• Step 2: yarn over and pull a loop through
• Step 3: yarn over and pull through 2 loops on hook
• Step 4: yarn over and insert hook through the next stitch
• Step 5: yarn over and pull a loop through
• Step 6: yarn over and pull through all loops on hook
• 1 stitch has been decreased