2016 Crochet-A-Long Sampler Afghan Introduction

January brings birthdays for us - one is my sweet baby girl (I know she's 9, but she will always be my baby girl), and the other is my 11 yr old (soon to be 12).  My girlie's b-day was on Saturday.  It's a fine line to walk with a child with autism on their birthday.  How to celebrate in a way that is going to work for them is the dilemma.  Making peer friends is challenging for her - plus all of the hullaballoo of a big party would be a bit much for her.  This year she asked to go to the local trampoline park, and was happy with a cake (which she asks for but never touches), some organic gfcf homemade rice crispy treats (that she happily ate) and opening presents.  One January birthday down and one to go.  My 11 yr old really does enjoy a party, lots of friends, a true birthday cake and ice cream.  So that's in store next week.

Well friends, are you ready to see our crochet-a-long project for 2016?  I'm keeping with the theme of 10 inch squares, so these will be totally interchangeable with the squares from our 2015 project.  

Some folks like sampler afghans, some don't.  I happen to fall into the 'love' sampler afghans category.  I have a pretty large stash of yarn - and love putting it to use.  My parents were the type to pick up yarn whenever they would find it at a yard sale and bring it to me.  So - when they brought me yarn, it was typically by the box, and often pretty random colors and types.  So, instead of purchasing yarn to make sure this project was all matchy matchy, I just pulled various yarns from my stash to use.  One thing I have found, is that as a general rule, a border will go a long way in tying randomness together.  So, while I really did use just whatever I had around for the blocks, I picked one yarn to border all of the blocks with, join them together, and put a final border around the entire thing.  In our 2015 project, the blocks were all whipstitched together at the end.  This one is a join-as-you-go (jaygo) project.  This means that as you add the finishing border to the blocks, you'll actually be joining the blocks in the final round.  If you've never done a jaygo project, it's a great technique to learn!

Here is a photo of my finished afghan, but remember yours will look different depending on the yarn you use!

taraduff 2016 CAL

This afghan is essentially made of only 12 different squares - however, each square has a variation so all 24 squares are different.  Some of the variations are simple color changes and others are a little more complex.  For example, the granny square block on the 4th row down, 3rd block from the left and the granny square block on the bottom right hand corner are the same pattern.  One has color changes in rounds, and the other features the color change on the diagonal.  The exact same stitches produce a very different look with a simple change.  So - we'll be doing one block each month and one variation to that block.

Things you will need:

Yarn:  #4 yarns (worsted) from your stash (some yarns featured in mine are caron simply soft, red heart soft and Deborah Norville Everyday Worsted) For the border, I used 3-4 skeins Caron Simply Soft in Dark Grey Heather

Hook size: US H8/5.00mm (or size needed to obtain gauge)
Gauge:  In double crochet 13 stitches x 10 rows = 4 inches square

This is the only gauge I will give for this project.  Each square is a different stitch pattern, so watch your blocks that they all turn out approximately the same size (10 inches square)

And here's one more pic of the afghan. 

Anywho - the first two blocks are coming soon.  I promise I'll have them posted early next week.