I am fairly new to crocheting. I can make granny squares and I can double crochet the crap out of anything. I just learned to keep edges straight. Thank goodness. But the wish of my crocheting heart at this time is to learn how to do a ripple afghan.
I have looked all over the web and have found plenty of patterns but none that don’t have all those darn abbreviations (they hurt my head ). Does anyone here know of a resource that has patterns in longhand?
Thanks.
Ripple afghans are really, really easy. They’re so easy that you could write out your own longhand pattern, translated from an abbreviated one, in just a couple of minutes. It’s just the same row, over and over.
is just two rows, and row one is just the foundation–the rest of the afghan is row 2 over and over.
I’d say, pick one you like and translate the abbreviations to a separate sheet of paper (or text document, or whatever). Or (and I know you don’t like them, but…) try to get used to the abbreviations. As you get more ambitious, you’ll find the ability to read them extremely useful.
Ripple, is very simple. I’ll describe it here conceptually because I’m not very fond of traditional notation myself. Once you understand the principle, you can modify the ripple to different heights and widths. Basically, each ripple has an “uphill” a “crest” a “downhill,” and a “trough.” You may already know that by crocheting multiple stitches in one stitch, the work “turns a corner.” That corner is the basis for the ripple at the crest, then by skipping a couple stitches after the “downhill” you draw the work upward at the “trough.”
To begin you chain on normally.
We are going to do 3x3 ripple, because it is very very simple. It works well with chunky yarns like Lion brand Chenille on a N hook. But the “uphill” and “downhill” can acutally be any number of stiches you like.
Chain on 16 (will make a scarf when chunky yarn is used. With smooth yarn, just a practice thingy)
Upside: Skip the first stich and crochet (single or double, doesn’t matter) into the 2nd. crochet 2 more stiches onto the next two base chains, making 3 total.
Crest: Crochet 3 stitches (loosely) in the 4th chain.
Downside: Crochet 3 more stitches – one each into the next three chains.
Trough: Skip 2 chains
Upside: crochet 3 stitches – one each into the next 3 chains
Crest: Crochet 3 stitches into the 4th chain
Downside: crochet 2 stitches – one each into the the next 2 chains, skip 1 and put your last stitch into your first chain. Chain up (1 for single, 3 for double) and turn your work.
Because you will always have 1 more “crest” than “trough” you always need to skip 2 stitches lest your work keep growing wider. I always skip the first (after the chain) and the second-to-last (before the last stitch) because it is the least noticable place to put a wee gap.
Thank you so much both of you. I keep trying to read the patterns and I can make it a couple of lines in and then my head explodes and it is hard to wash brains out of yarn. I shall try my luck as soon as I go get more yarn and maybe in a couple weeks post a picture of whatever happens.
). Does anyone here know of a resource that has patterns in longhand?
Once you understand the principle, you can modify the ripple to different heights and widths. Basically, each ripple has an “uphill” a “crest” a “downhill,” and a “trough.” You may already know that by crocheting multiple stitches in one stitch, the work “turns a corner.” That corner is the basis for the ripple at the crest, then by skipping a couple stitches after the “downhill” you draw the work upward at the “trough.”