Finished my first-ever round ripple! The looped bprder looks nice, I think, but is very very labour-intensive -- not particularly difficult, just very fiddly, so as DH pointed out perhaps not the mos suitable border to choose for blankets that will be sent to Romania and need to be finished quickly... The round ripple pattern itself, however, unexpectedly turned out to be a doddle, to such an extent that I started another one to do while stocktaking (as that mostly involves me calling out the names of parts and waiting for DH to find them, count them, and call out the number for me to write down), as after the first five rounds you don't really need to look at the pattern!
Agi
"The world, as a colourful knot of threads, has turned into a memory, and now you cannot be sure whether it was real." (Géza Ottlik, Hungarian writer)
The two blankets are beautiful, Mabel, and I love the flowers as well. You're very talented. I've never tried crochet so far (except for making one of those endless chains which is really only like knitting one stitch over and over). I'd like to try and learn to crochet one day, if I ever find enough hours in the day!
CURRENT WIPs
HAEDs - Bubble Telescope, Floatilla, Rainbow Embrace, Ray of Light, Iron Dragon, Newport Lighthouse
Fractal 239 Aero Chocolate
Thanks Rose -- i really liked the bright colours myself
The border is donw in three rounds, first you do loops of chain stitches in the first colour, skipping two stitches every time, then you do the next colour right next to the first, but you take out the crochet hook and stick it through the loop of the first colour and then attach the loop of the second colour; and the third colour goes next to that, with the hook being stuck through both previous cloured loops.
Managed to finish this one before Mum goes back to Holland so she can take it with her for the orphanage (I knew stock-taking was good for something ). The border is looped but I devised an alternative method which is a lot less fiddly and looks rather nice anyway, I think. The wool was double knitting which turns out to be a bit too thick, unless its "baby soft" sort of wool; even so, it'll keep a baby nicely snuggled
Agi
"The world, as a colourful knot of threads, has turned into a memory, and now you cannot be sure whether it was real." (Géza Ottlik, Hungarian writer)
It's lovely Mabel
Can you direct me to a good site for learning crochet, I have made things many years ago, a few cot blankets for my Daughter ,but it was under the direction of my MIL, and I have forgotten how to do everything but the most basic twiddles
I did have a look on line, but many of them assume you already have the knowledge, or work so fast they become a blur
I sort of taught myself based on books from the library and ancient-looking books I bought second-hand, so I don't really know any good websites -- the only ones I look for tend to be the ones with patterns on. But if you go to your local library, if you have such a luxury , and get one of those "basic crochet" or "crochet for beginners" books out, I'm sure it will soon jog your memory and you'll be twiddling away like anything!
I've just ordered 'Stitch 'n Bitch Crochet' by Debbie Stoller from Amazon, Jilly. It's supposed to be very good for beginners - which I most definitely am! £7.69 and Amazon have a special offer of free delivery for orders over £5 at the moment, leading up to Christmas. Let me know how you get on.
There's nothing better than a good friend, except a good friend with CHOCOLATE! 
uhm, as i said it's rather fiddly...
