Ravelry CAL Afghan 4

I began this CAL (Crochet-A-Long) with the vague intention of someday ending up with one afghan by making the designated 12-inch square each month. I went out and bought a really pretty multicolored yarn called 'Monet' (Red Heart Super Saver yarn), and then I proceeded to crochet January's block, called Dream Catcher (upper left in the above photo).

When the February block came along, it was called 'Cross My Heart' (see bottom two squares in top photo), and the example shown with the pattern was made with four colors. I thought that looked really interesting, so I bought some more yarn in solid colors that matched the 'Monet' multicolored yarn (Pale Green, Orchid and Lavender) and made a 'Cross My Heart' block with all four yarns.

I thought that maybe future blocks would utilize more than one color of yarn as the 'Cross My Heart' block did, so I figured I was all set and ready to make the subsequent monthly blocks.

As I looked at these pretty colors I loved so much together, it occurred to me that these were colors that one of my daughters also loved, and I started to think about how it would be nice to give her this afghan if it turned out as nicely as I hoped it would.

This started me to thinking about how nice it would be to make an afghan for each of my children. At about this same time I had purchased patterns for three knitted afghans for my youngest still-living-at-home children, and I thought these monthly CAL blocks would be great for making afghans for my adult children.

I started asking each of them their color preferences and started getting yarn in the various color combinations I thought each of them would like. My two youngest daughters helped me figure out the different color combinations. I also decided it would be a good idea to make one of these for my husband since I can't stand the ratty old blanket he currently uses when he watches TV.

So, by the end of February I had finished a 'Dream Catcher' square and a 'Cross My Heart' square for each of these seven afghans in seven different color combinations. I put the pictures of the squares for each afghan here on my blog on the main page and told my kids they could check the pictures on my blog to watch the progress of their afghan.

When I explained that each afghan needed at least 24 blocks, and therefore it would take a couple years for their afghans to be completed, there were enough expressions of dismay about the 2-year wait that by the time the March block, Cygnus (see top 2 squares in second photo from top), came along I had decided to double up on the blocks, intending to crochet two of each monthly block for each afghan so that hopefully all seven afghans would be completed within one year instead of two years.

In March, I only managed to get three out of seven afghans caught up with six squares completed, two of each month's square. Another change came about when I found the 'Aspen Print' yarn that I thought would be perfect for my oldest son's afghan (Afghan 3) since his youngest daughter's name is Aspen. At that point, the former Afghan 3 got renamed Afghan 8 and reassigned to one of my brothers, who I thought would like that color combo, and I got a whole new color combination to start making these blocks for an afghan for my other brother.

So, now I have nine of these CAL block-a-month afghans in nine different color combinations planned, which means I need to make 18 of each month's block just to stay caught up, but since I was already behind, it looks like I'll probably be playing catch-up for a while yet.

Even though I got all eight of the monthly blocks crocheted for Afghan 3, I didn't like the way the sides on the April block, 'Chocolate Delight', turned out, so I'm having to frog back a few rounds to re-do them. I modified the pattern when I crocheted the 'Chocolate Delight' blocks for this Afghan 4 (see bottom 2 squares in the photo second from the top), and the sides are much straighter. Compare the photos of how the sides turned out between the unmodified pattern on the left and the modified pattern on the right.

Once I re-do Afghan 3's two 'Chocolate Delight' blocks with the same modification (the center six stitches on each side in round 8 were changed from double crochets to treble crochets), I will have a total of two of these afghans caught up so far this month, and then it will be on to Afghan 5 to see if I can get it caught up before the end of the month.