Revisiting An Old Make

Today I dug out a tote of yarn from the basement.  It contains an afghan that I started two summers ago and have yet to finish.  I managed to add about 8" to it today, and set the goal of finishing it by Christmas.  I've decided that I like having several projects on the go so that I can break up the monotony of row-on-row-on-row stitches.

I digress.

In the box I found a print-out of the pattern I used to make this sweet baby blanket for my niece back in the Spring of 2011.  

I just love the rainbow of colours!  Red, yellow, blue, green, orange and purple makes a gender-neutral afghan.

Yes...a print-out from my pre-iPad days when I carried around my patterns on on pieces of paper.  This is exciting because the pattern is no longer available online and I have had some fellow crafters ask me for it.  Here's one more close-up of the blanket, and then I'll post the gist of the pattern below.

Brick Crochet Afghan/Blanket Pattern:

Foundation Row: Chain 131 with your main colour.  Make one double crochet in the 4th chain from the hook and in each chain thereafter (128 dcs).  Join colour A and turn.

Row 1: With colour A, chain 1.  Make 1 sc in each of the first 4 dc.  *Ch 1, miss 1 dc, 1 sc in each of the next 9 dc*  Repeat from * until you get to the last 5 dc.  ch 1 and miss 1 dc, then finish the row with 1 sc in each of the last 4 dc. Turn.

Rows 2-4: Ch 1.  1 sc in each st to the end of the row (In row 2, this includes the gap made by your ch 1 from row 1).  At the end of row 4, join your main colour again.

An ingenious stitch into the row of black a few centimetres below creates the funky brick pattern in this blanket.

Row 5: (This is the exciting one!)  With your main colour, ch 1, 1 sc in first 4 stitches, then *1 tc in the skipped sc 4 rows below.  No sc in the stitch behind the tc.  1 sc in each of the next 9 stitches.  Repeat from * to the last 4 stitches.   Then 1 tc in the skipped stitch 4 rows below and 4 sc to finish out the row. Turn.

Row 6: Ch 3 (counts as dc).  1 dc in each stitch across the entire row.

Row 7: This is like Row 1 again, except in order to get the brick look, you're going to make 1 sc in each of the first 9 stitches, then ch 1, skip 1 dc and keep going with the same pattern (1 sc in each of next 9 dc, ch 1, skip 1 dc and repeat, repeat, repeat).

Rows 8-10 are like Rows 2-4, etc., etc., etc.,

Another shot of the brick-like afghan.

For edging, the pattern recommends one round of sc all the way around (with 3 sc in each corner), then two rows of the tweed stitch.  It looks like I was having so much fun with the brick/window pane look that I used that for the border as well. :)

For a brick/window pane blanket border:

Round 1: Using main colour, sc evenly around the entire blanket, with 3 scs in each corner.
Round 2: Using an alternate colour, 2 sc, ch 1, skip one sc all the way around the blanket, working 3 scs into each corner
Round 3: Using main colour, crochet 1 dc into the sc stitch below the skipped stitch and 2 sc into the next 2 scs.  (Repeat, still workng 3 scs into each corner.)
Round 4: Finish with a round of slip stitches in your main colour.