First doily help needed

[sparkles]

doing my first thread project - a doily. The further I get the more it ripples as tho it has too many stitches in it. It will never lie flat like this! I do crochet very tightly, and the smaller the hook the tighter I crochet. Would that be part of the problem? I don't know how to do it looser. Or is it something else? 2nd row was ripply, third row smoothed out a bit, and now I'm on the 8th row and its worse than before. HELP!!

[TX CrochetLover]

Hey, don't panic. When you are done and go to block it out, all those ripples will stretch out and become the pattern you see in the picture(if you have one). If you are following the pattern, it should not be a problem at the end. Search on this site for blocking techniques, as there are many to look at and learn as you go. Good luck, and don't be intimidated by how it looks now! Just imagine how it will look when it is finished!!

[Julie]

Rippling seems to come pretty standard when making doilies. The one I'm working on now is rippling for a few rows, flattening out then rippling again. Some patterns even warn you to expect the rippling, and I think, wow, this one is going to be bad! Most of the time those aren't so bad. Blocking helps a lot, don't worry.

[sparkles]

THANKS GUYS!!!! I was starting to panic!

Never thought I'd do a doily, but after seeing all the absolutely BEAUTIFUL:manyheart doilys here I just had to try one. Thread intrigues me...

[Barbara in FL]

Don't worry, like they said, it will work itself out. Since you said you crochet tightly, you may want to use a larger hook and/or also work on loosening up your work a little.