When bad crafts happen to good people, or why I should have spent more than 15 minutes on the tutorials before attempting a pattern

Oh dear. I didn't expect perfection, or anything, but I thought I could attempt a stuffed-animal sized ripple blanket as my "learn to crochet" project and end up with something at least usable. Clearly I am having trouble not only following the pattern properly, but there's definitely something (or several somethings) terribly wrong with my overall technique, since...
...I am getting all these raised ridges as I go and...
...it looks NOTHING like the perfectly flat work in the book. Am I yarning over incorrectly? Anyone know why I have those ridges? Dean, being the most amazing young man one could hope for, said, "oh, just keep going -- it will flatten out when we wash it and I love the colors!" But as much time as it has taken me to go this far, I'm on the fence about either starting over by ripping out, starting over by just tossing this bit, or keeping going with the idea that it will just look pathetic but Dean won't mind and I may "learn" as I go. Suggestions? To be honest, this is kind of why I hate attempting new things; I expect to be able to do things passably well right off the bat (although why I operate under that illusion is beyond me) and I don't like to take the time to work through every tutorial project before doing the thing I really want to do. Finding someone to give me some pointers in person would help, or I may do some searches today for some online tutorials. I do suspect that I'm not yarning over, or picking up the yarn for each new stitch (same thing, right?) correctly. I'm also not as keen to start over because I see after just a day that crocheting is going to really kick up the arthritis in my hands and I wonder how worth it that's going to be. But of course I invested in the 8-hook set at JoAnn's the other day (had a coupon!) and I dream of making crocheted softies....

Meanwhile, Operation Fun Town (while the daddy's away, the mice shall play) continues right on schedule. Chinese take-out last night while we watched Enchanted (VERY funny, although the camp-y-ness was a little lost on Dean), coffee cake and coffee for breakfast (it's all right -- his was really coffee milk more than coffee), extra Wii time (for him) and a friend coming over to play today. We need to remember to leave the basement door unlocked so Ken can get it at some point very late tonight, and I need to catch up a little more on the laundry. And get a little more crafting time in.