Yes, it is done. The special project I have been working on is a Spideyghan and it is complete. I did it exactly as the pattern except I used an I hook, not an H.
The picture on the left is the front of the ghan. On the right is the back.
Note that this ghan is in no way associated with the Spiderman franchise, nor to my knowledge, is the pattern I referenced. It is just reminiscent of the colors used in Spidey's original costume.
The finished size is 60" point to point and 30" center to point. I finished it at just the right time. I think if there were any more rounds, I would have started getting antsy to finish. You crocheters know what I mean. But it was just right.
If you have no interest in making a round ripple, you might want to skip to the end of the post because I'm going to talk about making this ghan.
First off, Gail's pattern is online at
http://www.angelfire.com/tx5/angelcrafts/patterns/spidermanroundrippleafghan.html
She says it is based on Lyn's pattern and there is a link, but when you click on the link it says members only so I couldn't see that one. However, I did find a round ripple online and it says Lyn's pattern, so if this is the same Lyn, you can find that pattern at
http://project-angel-kisses.150m.com/roundripple.html. It appears to be the same, just different color scheme.
I found the pattern fairly easy to follow. That said I would put ( ) to set off the shells and make it clear that those are to be worked into one stitch, but it's pretty easy to figure out if you're familiar with the concept of shells and ripples. What I mean is that where she has 1 dc, ch 2, 1 dc in next st it would be perhaps easier to understand if written (1 dc, ch 2, 1 dc) in next st. But, as I say, not a big deal there.
I made myself a list to specify the pattern of shells which make up the increases so the ghan lies flat - small, large, large.
A few tips about the webbing. As noted in the pattern, you attach yarn at the outer edge of the afghan and work inward. You will work the webbing along each point, so you will have 12 black stripes going from the ch-2 point to the beginning round of 12 dc. Everything is worked on the front side - in crochet terms this is called the right side. IOW, to rewrite the instructions, I would say "on right side, attach black yarn with a slip stitch in the ch-2 space of any hill (point)".
Then follow her instructions to work towards the center, noting that when you get to a black round, those are single crochets, so you make 2 chains instead of 3 across those - she does specify this.
As I worked the webbing, I made sure to keep my yarn coming from the skein to the left of my hook. Through trial and error, I found this gave me the easiest time working my slip stitch and giving a nice look.
For the final edging, the pattern calls for reverse single crochet, which is what I used. However, I have seen other round ripples using picot and I think this would have been a nice look as well. Had I thought about it, I might have done that for this ghan since it is for a girl.
When you work your reverse single crochets, you will go into every stitch, including your valleys. When you get to the ch-2 spaces, the pattern says to work 2 rsc. At this point, however, you have your black join and ch-3 there, so I worked one rsc to the left of the black and one to the right of it. However, I will note that there is a slight curling at my points. One might consider putting a third stitch there in the slip stitch. I don't know if that will help, but I'll let you know if I do another one. :-)
When you get to the center, you will have two rounds with no ch-2 space. The first is the 24 dc round. You will work a line of webbing to the left of each 2nd dc. In other words, you will have 2 dc between each strand of webbing.
On Round 1, you have 12 dc. You will be working twelve lines of webbing, so you should put one to the left of each beginning dc. You could go to the right if you prefer, just do it the same all around so you don't have two in one spot.
This should occur naturally if you work straight.
A note about tails/ends. I was working with Red Heart yarn because that is what I could get locally and you know RH always has thick spots or knots that have to be cut out. That meant more ends for me to sew in. Except for that, I thought there was a reasonable number of ends to take care of except for the 12 in the center, which presented an interesting weaving problem.
I suggest leaving a very long tail when you cut the end of your webbing strand. I always leave a long strand personally so it was not a big deal for me, but if you're used to leaving only 3-4" then you might want to consider leaving 10 or 12 instead.
Here is how I did my weaving. I wove my tail up through the webbing strand until I got to the first black round. Then I went into that round to keep it anchored.
When I took the ghan out of the dryer I checked it for pokey outies as I always do and did not find a single one. Of course, I have a hard time seeing black so I could have missed one, but suffice to say they were not coming out all over the place so this method seems to have worked well.
If you choose to, you could work a black round after the first 5 rounds of red which would give you a closer round of black to work into. There are two color changes that don't have a black round between them - the red-to-blue rounds. I don't know why that is, or if it would make much of a difference in the look but I thought hers looked just fine so I did mine that way too. It is easy to change the color scheme if you want to though. Just remember to keep the small, large, large pattern in the shells.
That said, I saw another round ripple somewhere that used small, small, large, large as the pattern. I guess whatever works to keep your ripple flat.
Note that in this pattern, although the pattern throughout is small, large, large, this begins really at round 7. Round 1 and 2 have no shells. Round 3 is small shell but then she has rounds 4, 5, and 6 all with large shell. Thereafter the pattern is set to s, l, l.
Another thing to note is how many double crochets on either side of your "hill".
The pattern here is A, A+1, A +1. For example it might be 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 8, 9, 9 etc. I have mine done now so next time I do this, I can double check at any point to see if I have the right number of dcs for that round as well as whether I am supposed to be doing a small or large shell. Should be helpful in future now that it's done.
There is a lady at
Crochetville forum that has worked this round ripple and she gives a number count. Her numbers are not the same as mine because she starts right off with the small, large, large rather than at round 7, but if you want to do it that way, the work is done for you. Her ghan is not the Spideyghan and she uses more rounds than Gail's original pattern.
I think that is all I have to say about this afghan except that I love it and it really does work up fast. I am not certain the exact day I began it but I am thinking maybe a week or so as it was after I finished the Janieghan.
Speaking of the Janieghan, I received a beautiful thank you note from her. I am so pleased she liked the ghan and recognized her designs.
Also, I wanted to say that I brought those wool hats last week to Donna which were to be included in the care packages for the local troop overseas. I myself made 17 hats and received another 23 from other crocheters so we supplied 40 of the 50 requested. I know Donna also received some from others so they will have extra to share with another unit if they so desire.
Next up are some butterflies for a hospice worker, a friend of my hubby's. She is going to distribute them to the patients. The butterfly has a special meaning for her group and I have a great pattern for them.
I guess that's it for me. If you stayed with me this long, you're a brave soul. LOL Thanks!
Blessings,
Sandie
All done. 50 butterflies will be winging their way to Tennessee tomorrow. Aren't they colorful? The last row on the right are the glow in the dark ones. It was fun to figure out which pipe cleaner to use with which color. I had to use what I had on hand so it was a bit challenging with some of them, but I think I did okay. :-)
