Baby Afghan and the starting square

When I first started going to our little church, I was a young woman, not quite 29 years old. A few years later I volunteered with the children's ministry, which met on Wednesday. As it would happen, I was the leader of a group of 4th grade girls. Three of the girls went to our church with their parents and a couple of other ones went to school with them.

These girls grew up as I was having babies. There were two ladies at church who did all the afghans for the new babies. I always loved them and admired their work. They seemed too beautiful to use other than special occasions.

Those ladies are gone now. One of them is in her 90s and goes to another church. The other is in heaven. No one crochets anymore. Not really true anymore. I decided that I wanted to be that church lady who crochets blankets. I could have done this a long time ago, I guess, but I was not confident enough until now.

One of those little fourth grade girls grew up, got married and had a little baby. I've had three. Baby blankets that are used all the time need to be tough and able to hide the stains. Baby stains and baby food and juice stains.

I asked mom what color she would like and she requested a pink color. The color has pink in it but is more of a camoflage. I was worried about how it would turn out but now that it's done I love it.

The blanket is substantial. Good thing because it gets really chilly here in the Chicagoland area. The stitch was easy to learn and it went quickly--when I worked on it, at least. It was finished right after she was born. In July. That's ok, though. It will be used soon enough.

I used:

2 large skeins of Bernat Blanket yarn in Plum Chutney. 

• Economical big ball size

• Content: 100% polyester

• Ball Size: 300g / 10.5 oz, 201 meters / 220 yards

• Care: Machine wash and dry

• Gauge: 6 - Super Bulky

I bought it at Michaels with a coupon.

I used an "N" - 15 Metric 10 size 9mm UK/ Canadian Size 0

and a little yarn needle to weave in the ends. Please check the hook size in your area as the sizing gets a little fuzzy.

 

Here is the link to the video and pattern: http://thecrochetcrowd.com/crochet-puffy-baby-blanket/

If you would like a copy of the original, free pattern, you can find that here.

Now then, here is the start of my first ever afghan. I chose to do Crochet Crowd's 2014 Stitch-cation because I knew that I could complete it. Eventually. I started at the beginning of the year. Lost interest. Worked on the baby blanket above. Frogged the whole thing. Started again and ripped it after 4 rows. And gave in.

I watched the video. 

Good thing too. I was doing it wrong or at least not as instructed. Initially I was making Forever 21 crochet pattern. That was incorrect. 

The correct pattern for this project is found here at Red Heart.com. The video tutorial, which helped me once again, can be found here. It is called a Cross Stitched square and it turned out just beautifully. 

For this project I am using Caron Simply Soft Yarn in Sunshine. I will make another contrasting square in Purple. I am also using a size H/8 5.00mm UK size 6 hook.