Swatches

I've been looking up patterns for ripple afghans and making swatches!  There is enough yarn to make a decent sized afghan and I'd really like for this to be a project that gets finished this autumn/winter season.


The first ripple swatch I tried is from Crochet Cabana.  It crocheted up quickly, and was quite easy, but I don't like the holes occurring in the valleys.  If they also occurred at the peaks, I'd probably be happier with it.  As it is, I thought it comes out looking a bit messy.


The second swatch was made by following instructions from Attic 24.  It crochets up very quickly and has a nice soft feel to it.  It makes efficient use of the yarn as well.


The third swatch is a pretty traditional ripple afghan stitch from Caron.  It is my favorite as far as looks go. And I love the texture of the ribs.  But the swatch feels awfully stiff, and it takes much more time to crochet all those rows and it uses more yarn.  If I did choose this one, I'd use a larger needle size, just to soften the feel of it and use 6 stitches on the slopes rather than 4.  Using half double crochet stitches instead of a single crochet might also help it go faster.  Guess I need to make another swatch!

Which would you choose?

I'm really leaning towards the Attic 24 ripple as I think it would make the most use of the yarn I have and the overall feel of it would be cozier.  

p.s. I'm still working on finishing the Cream/White Crazy Quilt.  There was a lot of hand stitching to sew the lace down and to tack the flannel batting to the front.  It's taking me much longer than I thought it would!