Crochet Fun - Yarn Pooling

One of the 'new' trends is yarn pooling...which I guess isn't technically new, but everyone seems to have discovered it again recently and now it's taking off!

Do you see the pattern??  I did mess up at the top, again...

In case you are clueless, yarn pooling is taking variegated yarn and finding the 'magic number' so that when you do a certain stitch, it forms specific patterns.  I have a sneaking suspicion the manufacturers meant to do it, but none of us realized it for the longest time...

You need to do several rows before the pattern can show up...I got lucky and hit it right away!

For mine, I acquired (Thanks Mel!) some Red Heart Super Saver in the Icelandic colors (so soothing and pretty!).  My magic number was to Ch 32 with an I Hook.

(Beware - Crochet jargon!) I started at the beginning of a color change, chained 32, then in the 4th chain from the hook started my pattern of single crochet, chain 1, skip a chain, single crochet, chain 1 until the end of the beginning chain so that I ended with a single crochet (I think I cheated a little and did it in the same space as the beginning because my count ended up off).  Then I chained 2, turned my work and went into the first ch1 space to make a sc.  The pattern is sc, ch1 and you do the sc in the ch1 space of the previous row.  I believe this is called a 'moss stitch' so you can youtube how to do it and see someone explain it MUCH better than I do!
The hardest part of color pooling, once you find your magic number, is keeping your tension the same.  If you don't, the pattern changes...

Lost it! @#@#%!

So then you frog back to where it was still good and try again...picture below is the exact same amount of yarn, so you can see how the pattern moved up and stretched out

Frogged back and found it aagain, yay!!

And you frog again... and again.... I've frogged it 3 times so far, and I think I need to do it again because I'm not quite keeping the same pattern.  (Top of the first picture...my grey isn't going all the way out) Hmm.  And my beginning could have been a little better, but for my first try, not bad!

It is very fun when it works, but you have to be patient!  If you get it to work, I'd love to see your pictures and magic numbers! 

Adding in a link to the Glamour 4 you blog showing the 'math' behind the pooling, I need to try this!