Ripple stripes?

[CrochetKitty]

 

I was trying to make a ripple-stripe afghan. The pattern said to work 10 stitches and increase, then work 10 more stitches and skip two. In the next row, the "skips" lined up, but when I got to the next 10th stitch, the "peak" was about 5 stitches away. When I tried just making my next increase in the peaks of the last row, they started leaning to the right, like ocean waves.

 

How can I correct this? I ended up making my afghan with regular stripes, but I do want to do ripples eventually.

[Earth Angel]

I wish I could help - ripples *should* be so easy to do but I still have not figured them out! About 5 years ago, just before my niece was born, I wanted to make a cute rippled baby blanket for her. I tried and tried and just kept messing it up. I gave up after several rows, and decided it was a runner for the coffee table instead.

 

So I am looking forward to tips/advice the experts here will have to offer on this subject!

[Aggie May]

:think Can you write out the instructions or at least let me know where to find the pattern. That will make it easier to work out what you may be going wrong.

There are several reasons why this stitch goes lop-sided.

I have completed a couple which were very simple so I may be able to give you that pattern, whenI find it.

Ripples are tricky because it is getting the increases and decreases inthe right place that cause the ripple effect.

I will be in touch later. :hug

Colleen.

[CrochetKitty]

It's the Crayon Ripple throw from Lion Brand. Here's a link:http://www.lionbrand.com/patterns/cja-cray.html

[mudpie]

I believe there may be a typo in that pattern. In order to keep the chevron correctly you must stop one stitch short of the end of the row. Otherwise, your piece will "grow" in width. An alternative is to skip one stitch before the last stitch of each row. At least, that is my experience with chevron. Here is a link to another similar pattern to show you what I mean: http://www.angelfire.com/folk/celtwich/Chevron.html

[CrochetKitty]

Ah, I knew there had to be some sort of trick. Yes, I've seen that Chevron pattern. I'll try again sometime using those instructions. Purrs!

[Aggie May]

There is not a mistake in the pattern. You do SK 2 SC in row 2, they are just not written side by side.

If you read the bits between the **there is a SK at the beginning and a SK at the end of this instruction.

You always need to increase and decrease the same amount on each row to keep the same number of stitches.

Just be aware of always skipping one off each side of the gap in the crochet and doing the 3 stitches together into the middle of the previous increase.

On row 3, I would start with CH1, work 1SC into same place , then SK1 DC, etc.

This gives you a much easier stitch to work into at the end of the next row.

On the DC row, you need the CH3 to stand as the first DC as per the pattern.

Hope this helps.

Colleen.

PS you could do the whole lot in DCs if you want to, just start with a couple more CH and work into the 4th CH from the hook, work in DC instead of SC, as per the pattern then repeat row 2 for the whole thing. Gets you done much quicker.

Col.

[mudpie]

You're right, Aggie May, there is no typo. I missed that. But I think CrochetKitty must have been missing this, too, and that's why hers was "off".

[firemanshunny]

Instead of the row reading like this

Row 2: Ch 3 (counts as 1 dc), *skip 1 sc, 1 dc in each of next 10 sc, 3 dc in next sc, 1 dc in each of next 10 sc, skip 1 sc; rep from * across, end 1 dc in last sc, turn.

 

It would be easier if it was like this.

Row2: Ch 3 (counts as 1 dc) skip 1 sc, 1 dc in each of the next 10 sc, *3 dc in the next sc, 1 dc in each of the next 10 sc, skip 2 sc, 1 dc in next 10 sc; rep from * across, end with 1 dc in the last sc, turn.

 

but if you want to do any easier ripple pattern try this one.

http://home.att.net/~susanBinKC/patterns/ripple.html

 

Its really easy and works up fast.

[CrochetKitty]

You're right, Aggie May, there is no typo. I missed that. But I think CrochetKitty must have been missing this, too, and that's why hers was "off".

 

That's entirely possible. I do have my "blond moments."

 

Like I said, I'll try some of these suggestions once I've finished all my Christmas gifts, i.e., when I don't have a deadline for finishing.