When you're retired, I should send you the pattern and let you figure it out for me, and tell me what I'm doing wrong! :wink:
It involves a super-long chain, then begins with a cluster, goes into a tight ripple pattern, then in the center of the chain is a cluster, then more tight ripples. Then you "weave" the ripples around each other with the center cluster at the top (you need a photo to really "get" this), then pick up the yarn again and join to the beginning cluster. It makes a kind of flat helix shape with a cluster at either end that you then crochet around to form a panel. Then three of these panels are sewn together and edged with a border. The devil of it is that when I work it, the ripple pattern doesn't hit the center of the chain and the end of the chain where it should. I must be making some really dumb dope-slap wrong-assumption mistake, because mathematically it should work. Another frustration is that it takes hours to crochet all those chains and ripples to find out that it isn't working! I may try figuring out the chain for a shorter "helix" mathematically and work that to see if I can spot where I go wrong. Or just give up for another year or two ...