Ripple Blanket with a Twist

Hello my friends.  I hope you've had a good week?  Everything is going well here at Lilly My Cat.  I can finally sit back and relax my brain a bit.  My problem is that I anticipate my work that is to come.....and it seems to get worse with age :(  and this was one of those weeks.

My husband and I have rental properties.  We've always had rental properties for almost 38 years.  It's just the norm for us over all these years.  My husband taught for years at a university before taking a job managing a large plant but his hobby is real estate.  I worked too but also I took care of the rentals.   It meant painting, cleaning, and the never ending bookkeeping.  When we moved five years ago to California, we hired a manager. The first time ever in all those years.  But, it's hard to let go and I still want to micro manage.  Anyway, one of the rentals that became vacant was here in California and I had the honor to take out my paint clothes and wear them for two days!  Yah...and I still remember how to paint.  I really enjoy painting - it's the cleaning I don't like.

My husband told me I was crazy to do this myself as he said we should have hired to have it done.  Yes, we could of, but would they have done it to suit me?  I don't think so.  But now that it's over, it gives me a feeling of satisfaction.  And, hopefully the new tenant will appreciate our work.

 I wish I could be like Lilly.  Nothing disturbs her!

But on a fun note, I want to share with you a blanket I completed a couple of weeks ago.  It's called Jacob's Ladder and the link to the pattern can be found here.

I purchased the yarn in Istanbul when I was there last year.  I used 13 skeins.  It was a fun blanket to crochet.

I bought 13 skeins; 1 skein for border, four skeins of dark gray, four skeins of light gray and four skeins of blue. (this is what I had leftover at the end)

And, here is the finished blanket.  As I was crocheting along, I "twisted" the ladder as I went and secured the ends with some scrap yarn.

 You can see the "twisted" columns running the length of the blanket.  These are made by the "chain 10" that you do throughout the pattern.

Here's a close up of the "twist".  I twisted one of the chain 10 loops to the left and twisted the next one to the right, etc. It's gives it an interesting pattern.

Here's a close up of the border.  I just designed my own border.  I would have made it a bit more lacy but it's for my son-in-law and I didn't want it to look too frilly.

It's a fun pattern to make and it really goes by quite fast.  I know the colors I used are not bright but they do look nice when it's finished and you can see the whole blanket.

What am I working on now?  I'm knitting with a beautiful pink yarn for my little granddaughter who's expected to arrive this summer.  And, there's a pair of socks in queue, too!

Thank you to everyone who read my crazy post from last week.....I hope you have a fabulous weekend and I will be back soon.  Lilly sends you her best meows!

Enjoy your day,
Pat

Link Parties:
I'm joining Happy Friday at Planet Penny and Handmade Monday at Lucy Blossom Crafts and....Frontier Dreams and Yarn Along