It was an idea that got implanted in my head that I could not get rid of...
One of my friends sent me this post last year.
SO CUTE!!!
I saved it to my list of things I wanted to make. Finally, last month, I found the perfect opportunity. I had a couple days off work and my husband and I were going to escape the Midwest Polar Vortex and fly away to Florida. My idea of heaven was sitting in the sun and crocheting. All I needed was an appropriate project and this was it! Since we were only going away for a couple days though, I decided to make a baby blanket.
If you follow the links on the Facebook post it takes you to an Etsy page where you can buy the pattern for $12. However, looking at the photo it looked like a standard ripple crochet afghan with turtles added on so I did not purchase the pattern.
The link to the free pattern I used is HERE. It's a YouTube video of the Crochet Wavy Blanket by The Crochet Crowd. The basic pattern uses a repeat of 14 + 2. I used 10 pattern repeats for my blanket, meaning I made a starting chain of 142 stitches. This made my blanket 36" wide.
I used a 5.0 mm crochet hook and Caron Simply Soft yarn in Bone, Soft Green, and Blue Mint. I also had some left over white "bobbly" looking yarn of similar weight that I thought would look like sea foam. I was thrilled with how it actually turned out as it really did give the effect of waves crashing onto the beach!
As an aside, I just have to say how pleased I was with the Caron Simply Soft yarn. It really is super soft. Plus, it washed really well, meaning it didn't pill at all and the blanket came out even softer and fluffier after I washed and tumble dried it. I will definitely be using more of this yarn!
I ended up getting 13 rows out of each skein of yarn so that means you will need two skeins of each color. This is how I did my rows, starting with the "beach":
15 rows Bone
1 row White
3 rows Soft Green
2 rows Bone
1 row White
7 rows Soft Green
2 rows Blue Mint
1 row Soft Green
23 rows Blue Mint
I then did one more row of single crochet stitches across the top, as well as a row across the original bottom chain to give the blanket a better finish. This made my blanket 42" long.
This is how the finished blanket looks in a crib.
It just so happened that the condo my in-laws were renting in Florida this year had a crib. How handy! In fact, there were LOTS of beautiful places to take crochet photos as the whole condo was decorated in a seaside theme with shells everywhere.
As far as the turtles, I looked at a couple free patterns on Ravelry but in the end ended up designing my own as the ones on Ravelry were too big. I used Caron Simply Soft Sage for the body and Dark Sage for the head, flippers, tail and outlines of the turtles.
Aren't they adorable?
The baby sea turtles also took on a small life of their own after I posted this picture. Seems some people wanted the turtles. Who'd a thunk baby sea turtles were so popular. So these baby sea turtles really were small...
... that could be used as coasters.
Big Turtle, Little Turtle
Admittedly, the unforeseen coaster project solved the problem of what I was going to do with all the extra Sage and Dark Sage colored yarn as, obviously, I didn't need all of it for my little blanket bound turtles.
Baby Sea Turtle coasters, ready to go to their adoptive families
So here's my finished blanket in all it's glory!
Pictured on a twin size day bed
After some debate, I decided to leave off any further embellishments such as seashells or starfish. I love it the way it is... and I hope someone else will love it too!
