If you're reading my main blog feed, this post may take you by surprise - however at one time I enjoyed crafting and blogged about it often. Recently I've been finding more time for this, helped by the inspiring news of pregnant friends, so hopefully this is the first in a resurgence of craft-related articles. There are category-specific feeds if you'd rather only read the tech and/or php content.

So, I crocheted a blanket for my friend's baby (welcome, Benjamin!)

This is an adaptation of a ripple pattern from the 7-Day Afghans book (I forget the name of it but it's the one with pointy ripples shown in pink on the cover). I used double strands of sirdar snuggly, with white plus either white or colour on every row, and the stripes are kind of random, mostly depending on which colour I packed on which trip. It is an easy pattern, and with a 6mm hook and double strands, it came up quite quick ... it was much narrower than the number of stitches, so if you are adapting this pattern, cast it on quite wide (this is as much a reminder to myself as to you!)