Field of sunflowers

[barbm0348]

FieldofSunflowersAfghan.pdfThis is a really stinky pattern. My daughter wants it for Christmas but my second motif looks ruffled. Motif B round 8

[bgs]

Did you check that your gauge matched the pattern's recommendation and adjust your hook size accordingly?

[Granny Square]

Width gauge matters for a lot of things, but height gauge really matters for things in the round (center out).  If your stitches are shorter than the designers', you are more apt to get ruffling.  If your stitches are taller than the designers', you are apt to get cupping.  It's all about obeying the laws of geometry, the ratio of diameter to circumference, and if you disobey the law, you will either get ruffling or cupping.

The thing is, changing hook sizes is not likely to change a person's height gauge ratio to width.  Some people pull the loops up high as they are forming stitches, and some people (like me) yank their loops down sort of tight - I've learned (by a lot a lot of trial and error and ripping) that if I hit the width gauge spot on, but not the height gauge,  and it ruffles, it is also gonna ruffle if I try a bigger hook--I will have just made a bigger thing that still ruffles.  

I also make a lot of center out doilies and have 'laying flat' issues with some of them.  For MOST ruffling, for doilies that get pinned and wet blocked, you can 'yank them flat'.  I'm not sure if that applies to attached motifs, tho (meaning that they'll block themselves flat when attached together).

There are ways to deal with ruffling by making changes, however.  Ruffling 'breaks the law' of circle geometry by having a too-short diameter for it's circumference, so you can 'obey' the law by increasing the diameter by adding a round without increasing; reducing the # of increases; reducing the # of stitches; substituting taller stitches.  So, slightly re-designing the motif. 

The above is easy to do in a 1 piece doily, but for a pieced motif, it might get messy if you tried to alter stitch counts, you'll have to keep track of your 'new pattern' and keep your changes consistent with each motif.  And if there are different motifs that have to fit together, I imagine there would magnify the potential issues.  

. . . .

Meanwhile, 2 things.  One, you made another thread on this pattern question , to which I replied with links to older threads here about 'issues' with this same pattern, in case one of the conversations helped you - not sure if you have seen that yet.  Two...if this were me, I'd tell my daughter that 'this is a stinky pattern, and after researching I've found others have had problems with it as well; but I'd be glad to make you a similar one'.  There are a lot of pieced afghan patterns with (mostly smaller) flower squares that are undoubtedly a whole lot easier.

This one is pretty, big sunflowers https://www.craftykittycrochet.com/2019/03/17/sunflower-square-blanket-crochet-pattern/

Traditional granny square, round center https://www.yarnspirations.com/red-heart-crochet-sunflower-throw/RHC0502-021271M.html

Similar to the above http://debscrafts55.blogspot.com/2008/03/sunflower-lap-ghan.html

Similar granny again https://www.garnstudio.com/pattern.php?id=9698&cid=19

A corner-to-corner version https://nanascraftyhome.com/sunflower-crochet-blanket-free-c2c-crochet-pattern/