Yes, I continue to crochet afghans and throws and laprobes and lapghans — whatever you want to call them.

A Slightly Altered Version of the Vanna’s Choice Squared Afghan

The newest one was for my daughter’s birthday.  I wanted to redesign the Lion Brand pattern I used to crochet the lapghan for her friend, Nate.  I also wanted to use colors she suggested.  Of course, black had to be in the afghan.  My child went through a serious “black” phase in her teens and early 20s when she wore black almost exclusively.  She’s out of that phase (thank goodness), but black remains a favorite color.

This time around, I:

• Added 3 squares so that it would be a little longer, 3 x 4 instead of 3 x 3.
• Left out the unusual corner (hdc, dc, hdc) and simple crocheted three half doubles into the corners of the square as well as in the border.
• Reverse single crocheted the final row of the border, my favorite afghan edging.

The squares still don’t lie flat.  I think that’s because they are made in the round, that is, without turning at the end of the round, chaining 2, and crocheting  back over the previous round in the opposite direction.  Instead, you work the square like a spiral with a definite end to each round before starting a new one (hope that made sense).

I Seem to Always Be Making Yarn Substitutions

As for yarn, I used mostly Red Heart Classic because I think it’s softer than the Super Saver yarn.  But I noticed that the Classic yarn doesn’t turn out as soft as Super Saver when you wash it (go figure!).

I’m still not satisfied with this lapghan, so I will probably do a third one and make another adjustment, which I’ll talk about when the next one is done.  I also need to make sure that I have 12 unique color combinations using four colors.  Two squares in this version are the same, and I didn’t realize it until I was crocheting the last square.  Oh well … I’m not even sure if I can get 12 different color combinations, but I’ll definitely determine if I can.

Nope, I haven’t gotten afghans and throws out of my system yet, so expect more to come.