Help, O Humble Ripplers

This is my first crochet project and I learned the stitches from the videos at www.nexstitch.com. I'm practicing swatches using the Soft Waves pattern, but my swatches keep coming out curved. At first I thought it was cause I was using too small of a hook. The top two were done with worsted weight yarn and 4.0mm hook. I then switched to a H8/5.0mm hook for the third swatch, and then to a I9/5.5mm for the bottom swatch. Now, I'm thinking the curve must not just be my gauge, but something else. Is this normal- will it straighten out as I go along? Have any of you had this?

Some Progress

I thought it was about time I gave an update since it's nearly a fortnight since my last (first) post.

Many thanks to those who commented with ripple pattern suggestions, especially jess (who hopefully will read this as I don't know how else to reply to your comments). I read all the comments, followed some of your links, found a few other places to look. Then it was time to leave the house to road trip to chorus concerts and my husband had decided to back up his hard drive which meant I couldn't actually print anything to bring with me and had no time left to copy things down.

Not to be deterred I read through jess's comment again which explained the mechanics of rippling (I knew I should be able to work that out for myself but just hadn't been able to by myself). Then I collected up my yarn and hooks and once the baby was asleep made some swatches.

I didn't like the first attempt so much because of the holes and it didn't ripple in quite the way I was looking for. So I tried again and came up with a ripple I like. I believe it's actually almost the same as jess's improvised pattern except that I'm only doing dcs in 3 stitches between increases and decreases instead of 6.

Then I had to decide what size to make. I've taken the in-for-a-penny in-for-a-pound approach and decided to make a blanket big enough for our queen size bed (we could use more big blankets).

So I've been slowly working on the blanket for just over a week. I've been carrying it around with me and snatching a few moments to crochet where I can. In the car, reading at computer/watching TV, sitting on the floor/ground next to the baby when she's playing happily, sitting outside in the sunshine with baby napping in the stroller (my personal favourite).

I can't move too fast since I need to get more yarn. There are two more colours to introduce that I have on hand (a pale blue and a darker purple) but I also want to get a pale yellow and perhaps another blue too. I think I'm going to get a dark brown to edge the whole thing when it's done but am undecided about whether to get any brown for in amongst the ripples too. Either way I certainly will need to get more yarn soon.

I'm pretty pleased with the way the ripples are looking. I'm thinking that I should start using the random stripe generator others have mentioned since I'm otherwise liable to over think colour placement (which rather takes the joy out of it) or just repeat this first sequence over and over (which I don't want to do, I'd rather have it be a bit random even if I'm not using a big variety of colours).

Another newbie!

Hello! I'm another newbie to the Ripple-Along. I found the project from my SP9's blog, after she sent me a cute set of crochet hooks of my own, and I've been following you all avidly for weeks now -- everyone has such fantastic projects! I really want to crochet a ripple afghan of my own (maybe one like this eventually, though probably a pillow cover or baby blanket to start out with), and there's just one little glitch... I have no idea how to crochet! I'm a knitter but I have never seemed to be able to wrap my head around crocheting. You'd think it'd be in my blood since my mother crochets constantly and my late grandmother -- who is actually the inspiration for me to make a ripple afghan -- was never without her Red Heart Super Saver close to hand. I was wondering if any of you might happen to be in or around Chicago, and interested in helping get someone else off the ground?

I can't wait to have something charming and striped of my own to post! Have yarn, will travel!

Now Look What You've Started...

Is it too much to say that rippling has changed my life?! I used to do things - y'know like sleeping, talking to people, laundry, dishes. Now all I do is crochet. This is me on March 27...

I had problems. I saw all the cool ripples everyone else was making. I can't tell you how badly I wanted to play too. It took three days and a ...um..huge amount of swearing before I got to here...

And you should see me now!!! My hands ache, I have pains in my forearms and my house is a mess but I am in love - look at this...
The only thing I seem to have kept up with is feeding my kids and writing my blog. Who cares? Now I'm planning my next ripple!

New Rippler (and newly addicted to crochet)...

Hi everyone! I'm Meshell, and have just decided to finally join in the rippling blather. I've been lusting over ripple blankets for weeks (Alicia's just about made me faint!) and have been sad that I couldn't make one as I have never crocheted. BUT, then one day it hit me, I could, you know, LEARN to crochet. Dear me...a bit slow on the uptake there =P

So I did, I ordered some yummy yarn as I am a sewer and don't actually have a yarn stash (I can hear the gasps! But I do have much fabric, so I know how it is, ha =P). I also got myself a hook and some beginner crochet and the 200 Ripple Stitch Patterns books out from the library. And a few days worth of fun, frustration and tears neatly averted I can do as much as I need to do to be able to use the Soft Waves pattern that I'm using, yay! I'm so proud and absolutely loving crochet (and it is so easy to rip out when needed! hehe).

The yarns I'm using are Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino, some Jo Sharp Alpaca Silk Georgette and some Rowan Cotton Glace. I used the random stripe generator for my stripey-ness, although I found some ugly bits in my chosen pattern on closer inspection so ended up chopping up lots of generated patterns and sticking them all together to create the one I wanted...so not so random, lol =) Then I did the same with my yarns and fiddled around with them, so I'm pretty happy with it and hope it turns out ok!

So it is now day 2 of rippling and I'm half way into row six. I am in love with these colours so far, I started with the aqua, then some charcoal and now I'm in the middle of some plum. It's so exciting running to see what colour comes next in the chart...although I'm waiting for the time when I don't agree and change it and muddle myself up! =)

Anyway, that's about it for now. Must give a big shout out to the videos over here which helped newbie old me immensely as I'm such a visual learner. I am now thoroughly addicted to crochet and keep having to make myself stop so that I can get some work done! My wrists aren't quite accustomed yet so I've given them a little heat treatment in the form of a rice filled sock out of the microwave, which works a treat, lol.

So glad to have joined the fun, am loving looking through everyone's work and the flickr group, such lovely colours happening! I think I want to try granny squares with my leftovers (if there are any!).

Cheers,
Meshell in Perth, Australia

http://www.littlemissmeshell.typepad.com

ripple hints

Ok, so I am finally on the right track with my ripple blanket. I had to start over twice due to problems at the edges of my blanket. I didn't end my rows at the correct place in the ripple so I was ending up with too many stitches on one side and not enough on the other side. In case anyone else is having the same problems starting out, I wanted to refer you to some great advice I got on the Livejournal CrochetCrochet community. The not-so-mathematical chain stitch start (chain more than you need and then just rip some of the chains out when you get to the point where you want to end your first row) worked so much better for me than trying to count out 200-something chain stitches. Maybe I'm just not good at counting, but I thought the advice might be helpful in case anyone else is experiencing the same thing. Also, drawing a diagram of the last ripple helped me see where I would increase and decrease to keep the number of stitches the same.
http://community.livejournal.com/crochetcrochet/237901.html

~amanda