How would I go about expanding this afghan?

[cjk]

I am in love this this pattern: http://www.redheart.com/free-patterns/cool-breeze-baby-ripple except I do not wish to make it for a baby. I would love to have it big enough to cover my bed. I'm wondering if it's as simple as doubling the chain amount (from 105 to 210) or if it's more complicated than that.

 

Thank you all in advance.

[FrLopLady]

You could figure out the pattern repeat...but being a big challenged in that myself... I would chain as wide as you want, but take into consideration the waves of the pattern will shrink the width some too.  Then add a bunch of chains  .  When you do the first row do the pattern according to the instructions.  When you get to the end of your chains, or as wide as you want it, stop where the pattern would say to turn...then pick out the extra chains!

[cjk]

You could figure out the pattern repeat...but being a big challenged in that myself... I would chain as wide as you want, but take into consideration the waves of the pattern will shrink the width some too.  Then add a bunch of chains  .  When you do the first row do the pattern according to the instructions.  When you get to the end of your chains, or as wide as you want it, stop where the pattern would say to turn...then pick out the extra chains!

 

I may just end up doing that. Thank you.

[magiccrochetfan]

welcome to the ville

 

what Mary described is the easiest way.  

 

With a ripple, the hills and valleys will take up a lot of the width, as Mary said.    so one more step would be to make a smaller sample to see just exactly how wide your hill/valley is in your personal gauge with your chosen yarn.    I would probably do about 30 chains, then work the pattern across as many times as you can .  then go ahead and do at least several inches worth of rows so you can really see how wide it is going to be.  you will be able to see how wide a given number of stitches will be.    

 

to find the multiple without actually crocheting, you need to count the stitches used by the pattern.  this part that is repeated *[skip dc, tr in next dc] 5 times, skip dc, 2 tr in each of next 6 dc;  

you need to count how many stitches that part uses, and multiply by the number of times you want to repeat it to make up your width.  then notice you have 3 stitches at the beginning and end that need to be added to the total # of stitches. 

 

[Granny Square]

What they ^ said.

 

This is a very subtle ripple ~~~, but you will still will lose some width, just not a dramatic amount as for ripples that look more like WWWWW

 

Keep in mind, if your gauge exactly matches that of the designer, doubling the original width (not # of chain sts, just the finished width) would give you 6'4", not enough to serve as a blanket unless it's a twin. http://www.beddingstyle.com/content/bedding-size-chart.asp

 

Don't forget to figure the extra yarn needed, a twin blanket will require slightly more than 4x the yarn of the baby pattern (more than twice as wide but also more than twice as long)