Modern Crocheted Blanket - Ripple Pattern

Latest creation!  The modern ripple blanket.

This past fall I learned that one of my coworkers got engaged and she happily started planning her wedding.  I, on the other hand, started planning on what her wedding afghan blanket would look like.  I remembered that for my wedding a dear relative of mine made a beautiful crocheted blanket - I still can't figure out how she did such beautiful stitching on it!  Here's a picture of my grant aunt Vera's crocheted blanket she gave me:

 

I'm still trying to figure out some of those stitches!

Back to my coworker's blanket.  I quizzed her on her wedding colors and got some perspective on her decor style.  I went for modern, although it may be more of a throw-back modern.  If there can be such a thing!

The first blanket I ever made was for my grandmother in-law and it ended up being a lap blanket because time was running out and making a huge blanket is expensive and heavy!  I was also losing stitches ... Truly some rookie mistakes and I wanted to learn from it. Here's what grandmother's ripple blanket looked liked:

The yarn used was the Red Heart Soft which was nice to work with, but it took many balls of yarn because they're smaller. 

Again, back to my coworker's blanket:  So I concluded that a modern look meant the ripples should be in bigger blocks and the colors fewer and simple.  I went with her turquoise color (as close as I could match) and black, but threw in the white because that is THE wedding color, right?  I was determined to make this one bigger and not lose stitches.  I succeeded!  The end result was a 4 foot by 5.5 foot blanket.  Great for a picnic, to snuggle up in or stay warm with the hubby.  Here is a picture of the result:

I have written out the basic pattern below.  Sometimes I forget to write out what I do so I have to remember so it's as close as I can get.

The over all ripple design was something I learned from the informative interwebs.  Here are the two resources I have used that are both video and picture:
Neat Ripple Pattern from Attic 24
I love her colorful designs and picture fantastic tutorials, but FYI her lingo and terms are UK, not US).

Crochet Crowd's How To Crochet Ripple Afghan aka Wave or Ripple
The crochet crowd makes awesome video tutorials.  It is so nice to pause, rewind, and hit play that matches my own speed and understanding.

 Here is my pattern along with amount of materials you will need.

Yarn:
Red Heart Supersaver White (4 skeins)
Red Heart Supersaver Real Teal (2 skeins)
Red Heart with Love Black (2 skeins)

The foundation chain can be tricky when doing the ripple because your length will change slightly so I make it a little longer than I think I might want but about half a foot or so.  It ended up being 4 ft wide.  From there I did 11 rows of the white color, and for the teal and black it ended up being about 11, but the white on either side it makes the color teal and black stripes appear a little smaller. 

The over all ripple pattern is double crochet with two sets of increases (two double crochets in one stitch) for the peak of the ripple, four double crochets for the slope, and two sets of decreases for the valley.  It's a pretty easy pattern and can be done quickly.  Enjoy!