A few months ago I found out that Tamara Kelly on the Moogly blog is doing a crochet-along (CAL) afghan. She’s posting a new square every two weeks that’s designed by a different designer each time. The plan is to make each square, then join them together into an afghan at the end of the year. I wanted to follow along because I wanted to be exposed to new stitches.
I’ll be trading off talking about this CAL and my temperature projects on the first Sunday of each month.
You can find Moogly’s 2016 introductory post here and the page with all the squares from the year (and other years) here.
My Colors
I decided to use Caron Simply Soft for my CAL yarn because I wanted to keep my costs down. The colors I picked are fuschia, cool green, iris, mango, lemonade, and white for a possible border.
I’ve already had my crochet skills tested when it comes to picking colors. I’ve had to pick which colors I wanted to use and where for the first couple squares because the designer often didn’t use the same number of colors that I had. It’s been hard trying to pick something that would come out looking okay.
Square 1: The Flame Square
This square was designed by Jessie at Home.
I had to add a few rows to get the square to 12″ square (the standard size for the afghan squares). I simply added rows two at a time in the ribbed style until I reached 12″.
I really liked the final texture of this square. The ribbing provided lots of interest. The look is achieved using a back post stitch, so I’m pretty good at this stitch now.
The middle was challenging but it was worth it.
Square 2: 3D Flower Square
This square was designed by Repeat Crafter Me.
I had a really hard time with the leaves of the flower in the center. I still didn’t get them to look like the original. Problem leaves aside, I really liked the flower. I’m glad I picked yellow and purple to use.
I’m also not happy with the bit of seam running up one part of the square, but we’re our own worst critic.
I was, however, happy with myself that I wove in ends as I want along. I’ve not been very disciplined about that in the past.
Square 3: Winter Bloom
This square was designed by Danyel Pink Designs.
I liked this square. I also had to add rows to this one, which was a little more difficult this time. I would’ve liked to have left the square the way it originally was without the add-ons, but since I’ve done the others to 12″ I needed to do this one that way, too.
I’m looking forward to getting more squares done. It’s been fun thus far.
Edit: I got so far behind on this project I decided to lump it in with my Project Clean Queue projects. I’ll add a link here when I work on a CAL square for that.
Are crochet-alongs irresistible to you, too?
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