Bad Ripple Mistress, no cookies for me.

Excuses, heartfelt excuses to you all. I've been negligent. I've been bad. I promise to do better.

However...I do have a finished ripple to show off, so I guess I'm not all that bad...the round ripple is no longer languishing:
And it's even getting a little pre-gifting love:
If I can tear it away from the old dog, it shall be a Christmas giftie for my littlest. Love how it turned out,and the Fantasy Naturale was a treat to work with...truly light and lofty cotton.

Promise to get to the languishing "please let me join the blog" requests asap. Of course asap is sort of not so asap when there are puking small people in the house, but you know, it's on my radar. Keep gently nudging me and I shall catch you all eventually! Thanks for your patience.

Bacon Ripples?

Must see ripple treasure hunt site of the day:

TWiNKiE CHAN!

Hunt down the bacon and eggs scarf. Yep, I kid you not. So fabulous. The most innovative use of ripples I have seen to date.

I once again have been a lax Ripple Mistress, but there's been chaos on the home front lately that I won't pain you with, you can hunt through my blog if you really want to know why I now jump at slight noises and can't seem to sleep.

Am still working on the site improvements. They should roll in gradually, so keep those peepers peeped!

Happy rippling all!

Dawn

New Pattern News!

Hey all!

Sorry I've been a bit scarce round bouts here, but I've been in a mommy funk. "What have I done with my life? Will I ever again have a life?" Yada. Yada. Mired, that be me recently.

Anyway, just caught up on some invites, and found this new pattern for a granny/ripple combo with a quite ingenious decrease I haven't seen before. Check it out. And drop Krisitn a virtual pat on the back while you're at it...she may be doing more than lurking here soon!

More later my ripplistas...

Dawn aka The HRM

wavin' around

quick, quick, quick before i turn into dinner-making, end of day tantrum diffusing wonder mama!

i made a promise earlier, soooooooooo here's the round ripple i'm fudging along in a wave based on the wavey chevron in Donna Kooler's. again, working with "fantasy naturale" mercerized cotton. it's a bit more than worsted weight, less than bulky. using an "i" hook. the blues are not quite solids. some nice tones and great sheen you can't see here. loverly and light for cotton.

...and just look, it's not rumpled!

Reworking the blog

Hey all!

Now that I have a few projects off my plate, I'm thinking about taking a few minutes to rework the blog a bit. The sidebar is getting a bit unwieldy now that we have almost 175 ripplers. Here's what I'm thinking:

Make the members list it's own seperate page. I'd make a single post that links to everyone's profile and update it as we go. Since many of you don't have your main blog on Blogger, I would be happy to link to them as well if you get me the info. Then there would be one little section in the sidebar labeled "click here for the ripplers" or some such, and it would take you to a list on another page.

We need to clean up the labels. Labels are the things that basically let you sort through all of the blog posts by category. When you write a post, at the bottom right corner of the box, there is a blank for labels...put your tag in here and we can track the progress of your project by clicking on it as all of the posts you have written will come up. You could find all of my posts by clicking on the label that is my name. We're kind of awash, but I'm thinking for the purposes of this blog, limiting it to individuals and type of ripple might help?

I'll be adding a link section to online patterns. There's a label for posts with pattern links, but it seems pretty confusing to most. I'll break it out, perhaps with it's own page like the rippler list.

Old posts will be cached daily. We're a tad too prolific to keep it monthly...

Anything else you think would be helpful? You just let me know.

(pics of my blankets in a bit...have a soft waves round ripple working up quite nicely. takes a bit of fudging on the decreases, but i'm quite happy with it.)

Ripplin' on the Run...

New pics for you all!

Am still using liberal amounts of rippling to quell the mounting stress of planning a silent auction that is looming TOMORROW now. AHHHHHHH! However, the repeatedly ripped ripple is benefitting:


...and it's close-up:

I'm off for now, will check back in on Sunday and will catch up on invites then. For those newbies looking for a good pattern, check out the labels in the side column. There is one for patterns that should take you places. If you're looking for the soft waves though, you're going to have to find a copy of Jan Eaton's 200 ripple stitches or the Harmony Guide for crochet or Donna Cooler's Encyclopedia of Crochet. I know they all have wave patterns, and for that matter I imagine most good crochet stitch guides would too.

Happy Rippling! Dawn

Resurrected!!

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! I'm up and rippling again!

This is go #3 on the original, big ripple. Let's review:

Lattice chevron stitch pattern out of Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Crochet. (the hope is the openwork pattern will accommodate for the differing yarn weights)
Various yarns from my stash, including some heavenly hand-painted cotton, alpaca, some Encore in blue and brown and tweedy red, and cream sugar and cream cotton. Oh yeah, and the other bluish wool.
H or I hook, depending.
In the pattern, it's 60 inches wide. 300 stitches-ish.

And can I just say I am soooooooooooooooo happy now about all of the unfortunate frogging, because I l.o.v.e. how the colors are working out now. I'm actually a bit further than this, done with the tweedy red and almost done with a section of cream. Will try to get newer pics soon.

This is proving the perfect project for this week. I'm in crunch time planning a silent auction and the repetitiveness of this is soooooooooo soothingly wonderful.

Still have to frog back the rumpled round ripple. And I have thoughts of a felted "softwaves" bag that looks much like what many of you are doing. Local LYS with major sale, 20% off everything, so I may just have to go pick up some odd balls and make that happen...

I'm Baaaaaaaaaaaack!

Whoo Hoo!

I just caught up on invites...gulp, I think so, truly I do! We've got 116 active members and another 30ish in the wings. What fun! With so many of us, please remember to put your name or handle in the label field of your posts so we can stalk project progress.

Am bracing myself to frog the round ripple this evening and restart. Need to pick up the big blanket again now that I've come to terms with NOT being random. That will mean buying more yarn of course...shhhhhhhhhhhhhh. No reason the hubby needs to know, right? Also have plans for a felted ripple bag bouncing about my head...lurking Lamb's Pride is begging to join in the fun. Not quite sure why, as I have yet to actually finish anything...but that's what starting a new project is for, right? Let's hear it for procrastination!

As I have no yarny ripple progress to share, thought I'd give you a peek of the "soft waves" I was dealing with last week....

Indian Rocks Beach just outside of Tampa...just loverly, yes? Now there's a thought...mutating those colors and proportions into a beach blanket....oh good yarn gods, somebody stop me!

I'm almost back!!!

Howdy ripplers!

I'm about halfway back from vacation. Currently fresh off the plane and freezing my tuckus off in Wisconsin. This snow thing is quite a shock once one is used to the balmy 80s gulf breezes in Tampa.

I'm taking a mo' on the in-laws' computer to catch up before we drive yet further north tomorrow. You're all looking great. It's so neat to scroll down through it all. Everyone has such a unique project. I want to start over and over and over again...walking in so many footsteps. I will so never have the $$ to make everything I want to!

Willl post more in the next few days...have some "ripples" of a wetter sort to share with you all, and I so want to get back to my blankets...I can totally face starting the round one again and am ready to roll with the serially frogged one too. I think it's just meant to be more patternish than random, and that's okie dokie. No sense in fighting what it wants to be, huh?

Do me a favor ripplers...if you've seen any comments from newbies wanting to join lurking round bout, let me know. I had for some reason thought I'd be having time to check regularly, but now it's quite the task, and I soooooo don't want to miss anyone!!!

Thanks, and will get back to you soonest! Dawn

I'm going away for a bit, but here's a game for you!

Howdy Ripplers!

In the name of the almighty family vacation, I head off to parts warmer than Minnesota today. That means things from my end are going to be a tad slow. I will make note of that in the sidebar, asking anyone that needs something to leave a comment with their email address. I won't be able to get my home email while I'm frolicking in the south, but will be able to hopefully pop into the blog a few times.

So. That's that.

But I have an idea.

I was popping about some blogs like I haven't had the chance to since all this ripplyness started. And guess what? Ripples are EVERYWHERE. Really. There are stories all over of crafters picking up the hooks and kicking back with the ripples. My heart went pitter pat, as it usually does, when I clicked into the Yarn Pirate's blog to oggle me some yarn...and found her rippling!!! **GASP** Turns out she crocheted as a child and all the ripply goodness has brought her back to it now. HOW FUN IS THAT?!?!?!

FUN.

And it got me thinking. And sometimes that's good, and sometimes that's bad, but hey I think this is one of the former. What say you to a RIPPLE TREASURE HUNT? Venture out to find the ripple, wherever it might be living on the web. And bring your treasures back here to share with all. Label your posts with "treasure hunt" pretty please, and most likely toss that into the title somehow too. Don't go stealing pictures now, but give us links to blogs or Flickrs or whatever. THIS IS GOING TO BE SO FUN!!!

And one more request from the ether...when you give updates about your projects, can you include your yarn choices and hook/needle sizes? Inquiring ripplers want to know!

So, I'm off my dears. Will check in when I can. Happy Rippling!

Dawn

oooo, oooo, oooo, check out this blog!

OK, I can't possibly be the only one that thinks the photos posted by "maryse" are just too, too gorgeous.

Can I?

If you doubt, run now to check out her blog, bag 'n' trash--home of monster yarn, and you will most certainly doubt no longer. She is just plain good. Good photographer. Good yarn-aholic. Good overall person. Check it out.

(and WHOO HOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! Somehow we broke the 100 member mark when I wasn't lookin'. We've got near 110 ripplers on board! And about 25 invites hanging open. How cool is that? We're our own ripple phenomenon!)

"the single/double/triple thing"

We interrupt your rippling for a moment of International crochet clarification. (many comments on this lately...)

Crochet is one of those places where "American" and "British" get themselves in a bind.

It goes something like this:

US = UK
single crochet = double crochet

double crochet = treble crochet

treble crochet = double treble

Here's where I get confused. What is a US slip stitch in UK? I have no clue. I imagine it must be the same thing. Or half double crochet, is it called half treble? And what about chaining, is it still chaining? I think it is. And is there a British single crochet? What on earth is it? Ooo, maybe it's hdc! Chime in you over-the-ponders, inquiring minds want to know! (and if you're in New Zealand or Australia, which system is common to you?)

Anyway, that's why it's good to know where your pattern is coming from. It can all get very wonky if you don't.

SIGH!

Oh lovies, I'm one sad, sorry Head Ripple Mistress.

I had FINALLY gotten back to my round ripple. Just cruising along. Loving the yarn. (Fantasy Naturale mercerized cotton.) Loving my hook. (Back to my cool Boye aluminum I after a winter of warm bamboo.) Loving the wavy ripple Michelle made for me. (Go see.)

Came to face the fact that I'll be needing another hank of each of the blues to do what I imagine. Not a big deal. It's like $5 a hank. Will have to wait until after vacation though. Before I zipped it back in to it's bag to wait it out, I spread it out to snap a few pics to share.

Or I tried to.

Can you believe it? My ripple rumpled. I haven't had this happen before, but I must not be increasing fast enough. I've been working increases every-other row because it seemed like it was increasing too fast, but now I seem to have the opposite problemo.

I don't believe I'm going to have to rip another ripple. I think I'm ripple-cursed. Some HRM I turned out to be!

please help the button challenged!

OK, I freely admit I'm not a blogger expert. Far from it in fact.

But we need one.

Can anyone please, please, please explain to us how to not only get the button in the sidebar but have it actually link at the same time? I can do one but not the other. In the text of a post, no troubles, but the sidebar? Can't find a way...most likely involves going into the template code adn that scares me silly.

Help us out will you?

Dawn HRM

More ripples than I can handle...

OK ripplers, this is getting a bit out of hand. At one point I had 3 ripples going at once. My other projects are muttering and I'm afraid a coup is imminent. Must make some time to give them some TLC now that the small one for the baby is done:

I'm quite pleased with it. (except for the bit at the bottom...the join is not as smooth as I would like, but hey, maybe I'm just picky.) It's just a small lovey blanket that he can tote about with him. As of press time, he's made a great game of flinging it about whatever room he happens to be rampaging in, counting on his bigger counterparts to happily retrieve it. It's also worked up in all cottons or cotton blends so I can toss it in the wash.

Here's a close-up (of course with the ungainly join front and center. I need to plan better.):

With that out of the way I had imagined making myself tackle my blanket again. I simply must face down my color choice demons and get on with things. BUT thanks to Michelle, I was granted a reprieve:

She tackled my round wave quandary and I happily spent the day yesterday with a horribly stuffed up head rippling away. I did make one alteration to her pattern to close up a small gap in round 6. See my comments after her last pattern link post. And I'm working blo on increase rounds and flo on even rounds to give that ridge that highlights the wave. This is worked in Plymouth Fantasy Naturale mercerized cotton and it is fabulous, fabulous, fabulous to work with, though one skein so far has been a bit "knotty". The blues are slightly variegated and have a great sheen from the mercerization. It's also a woven type yarn and I don't know how they managed it, but it actually has some loft to it. For cotton it's remarkably light and airy and works like a dream. And NO splitting!

Starting round 14 and I'm quite pleased with it. Thanks Michelle!

I'm still a bit piqued that I can't figure out how to make it work with a closed "core", but if I goof with it long enough perhaps that will come. Next I want to play around with making one irregular...ameoba-like.

...and I need to start something that's not blue.

Yes, it's me, your blushing, invisible hostess

SIGH!

What can I tell you my ripplers, no excuses, sometimes life just gets in the way. This past week a 6th birthday weekend complete with middle child meltdown and school-choice snaffu plopped a blogblock the size of Mt Kilimanjaro in my way. At this point, I believe we've completed our ascent and are well on our way careening down hill. The plains are hopefully on the horizon and I'll have more time to spend bopping around here and your sites.

I have, however, had me some un-rippling time:

Yep, those 20 annoying one stitch off on the last repeat so one edge was listing rows are no longer. So, I only have about a foot of ripple once again, but I've done the second foot twice now. Bummer. I'm ready to move forward again, but honestly, I really, really like this repeat and am thinking of making a yarn purchase to move on randomly with just these colors...or not. Am just not sure. So I guess I'll just mull, mull, mull some more.

That doesn't mean I haven't been rippling though:

I spent a good deal of my spare seconds this weekend releasing my stress by trying to figure out how to transform the soft wave into a round pattern. See those sheets of paper? There are similar ones all over my house. And yes, I do in fact mean ALL OVER. After trying and frogging, trying and frogging I took pity on my yarn (not in the picture, it's some gorgeous, shimmery Plymouth Fantasy Naturale in two shades of subtly variegated blues that I imagine turning into a blanket of a puddle-ish sort) and set about to chart it out before trying again. OUCH. It was like one huge undoable calculus problem. Even my hubby culdn't figure out the math for the increases. If I thought my head was going to explode with tension before, it really was now. SO, I took a deep breath and gave up and googled the heck out of every way I could think of to find a soft wave round crochet pattern or stitch. No go. But I did find Beth's great star pattern that I think just may hold the key to setting up the early rows...now that I've tried it out I think it just may work...and the baby gets a new lovey out of some of my scraps as a bonus. (and OK, thanks to Kim-the-enabler, there are now some granny squares too, but more about that elsewhere...)

Stay tuned, more rippling fun to come! Way to go y'all, your stuff looks great. I now want to buy enormous quantities of yarn and make WAY too many blankets. This could keep me going for a very, very long time...

all about my sad ripple ripping...

OK, despite mounds of fabulous snow, I did find some time to ripple over the weekend. After starting with my to-die-for Pehuen cotton, I was pulling yarn randomly out of the pile of roughly coordinated blues and tans and browns I salvaged from my stash. And I just really wasn't liking it. Actually I was hating how it clashed with the Pehuen. And worst yet, I was hating it more with each color added. And I REALLY want to l.o.v.e. what I make out of that yarn. It deserves it and so do I.

So, I frogged back almost 20 rows (and yes, at 300 stitches it was PAINFUL). And now I'm here:

...and truly in love with it in a weird 70s retro type way. It reminds me of the Caribbean in an way too. Of course we did just have 24 inches of snow dumped on our heads, so that may be a tad bit of wishful thinking. I can even handle the spikiness. Who knew?

And Kim, this is for you, Moxy loves it too:

Button, button, who's got the button?

We do, we do! Not only do we have one button, we have 2!

Thanks to Kim:

...and Kara:


My eternal thanks for accomplishing feats of rippledom beyond my meager,photoshop deprived technical skills. Now go snag 'em baby!

Take a load off...

I have time for a quick post only right now...small people in need of naps. I wanted to get this to you starting to ripple or in the plotting stages, a tip from Alicia, The Musee:

Can't remember if I mentioned it, but the way I started mine was actually with the Random Stripe Generator?

http://rosylittlethings.typepad.com/posie_gets_cozy/2007/01/blizzard_blanke.html

I actually found it kind of a cool way to do random without really having to "think," because unless you have your eyes closed when you're reaching for the next color, you are thinking. I personally didn't want to think about that at all, but that's just me. I don't like thinking if I don't have to.

In that post she links to The Random Stripe Generator at Kiss Your Shadow. Now this my dears is some thing seriously fun to play about with. Serious time black hole, but whee! Have fun!

And so it begins...

WOW, is it good to be back crocheting. Not that it's been that long, but most of the last month and a half has been consumed with learning to knit. My brain goes to a totally different place with this, and double WOW, are my muscles A LOT less tense. Sooooooooooothing.

I'm off to a good start. Decided on the lattice chevron pattern out of Donna Kooler's Encyclopedia of Crochet. As I mentioned, I'm hoping the open work will be accommodating of the differing yarns I have to work with. The edges may be a bit rough,but I'm OK with that. I'm using a K hook, Boye aluminum if you need to know or care. So far I've worked up one ball of the Pehuen cotton, a scrap of Classic Elite Encore and now have some plain ole cream kitchen cotton hooking up. Since I'm a hopelessly lost color combiner, the stuff I pulled out of my stash is all blues, browns, creams to coordinate with the Pehuen. That way it really doesn't matter how it comes together, it should all work.

And oh yeah, if you want to ripple along, drop me your email at :

kyogadawn visi com

and I'll send you info on how to join the blog.