Found a WIP but yarn no longer available!

[alwaysinmyroom]

My dear mother started a ripple afghan over 30 years ago using a variegated worsted weight yarn that is no longer available.

It is about 24 inches wide.

I know I can continue it on one side using perhaps a solid color picked out of the variegated, but I was wondering if it is possible to add to the other/starting row side?

I would like her work to be in the middle...I do not want to undo her work because she is 81 and no longer able to crochet so I want to keep it for me or one of the grandkids.

Is it possible to crochet "backwards" on a ripple--you can tell I am a newbie, but I do know how to do basic crochet...

Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated...

A friend suggested that I get two or three more skeins of similar variegated yarn that would coordinate and then make it look like a striped ripple...but I have no idea if that would just be ugly or look like a plan gone bad...

[fantasticmio]

I don't see why you couldn't work into the other side... Decreases in the valleys, increases on the peaks... is it a plain ripple?

[alwaysinmyroom]

It is a ribbed ripple? Single crochet in the back loops...if i do what you say, will the holes at the peaks be different? Go the opposite way?  I guess I can just try it and see what it looks like...

[fantasticmio]

It might look different, but if it's a big enough section, then it'll look done on purpose... which it is!

Got a pic?

[sunspotted]

Shouldn't be a problem to crochet into the remaining loop of the first row of the afghan and just reverse the pattern.  Personally, I would probably work that side first and see how it looks.  Depending on how tight or loose your mother crocheted her starting chain you might end up with a bit of a gap.  Then you could duplicate that when continuing on the pattern by crocheting the first row of you new contrasting yarn into the BLO.  That way you'd end up with a  three panel afghan on purpose.   

Good luck.  I "inherited" some partially finished afghans myself from my craft-crazy mother.  I've finished a few, faked a few and frogged a few.   

[alwaysinmyroom]

I just could not seem to get a close up of it but will try again when it is light outside tomorrow.

I wonder what she was thinking!  It is approximately 7 feet long and about 24 inches wide so far...I am guessing she might have been going for some sort of bed cover!  I thought it might work to be a shawl but it is way too long to wrap around...

I thought the pic was due to glitter on my camera, but the yarn actually has glitter...I am about to just pitch it without telling her...I know she has more FINISHED items in her china closet to hand out to all the kids...

[fantasticmio]

Warning: I'm crazy.

You know what I'd be tempted to do?  Make squares and sew them in the valleys.  And then do some more ripple rows.  Then maybe some more squares.  It'd be especially cool if you could find solids that kind of match the colours in the variegated.

[alwaysinmyroom]

like a patchworky afghan!!!  Make it look like it was done on purpose!  Let me see what I have in my stash...I think maybe if I mixed it up a bit it would look alright...I will see what the stores have in the way of variegated!

Thanks everyone for your help!