Crochet Baby Block Scrapghan

I decided that I was going to clean out some of my smaller balls of yarn and ended up working on making a Baby Crocheted Block Scrapghan.
Since I've never written a tutorial of sorts before, please bear with me and if there is something that isn't clear feel free to send me a comment and I'll do my best to help you out.

After sorting through the stash, I decided that I was going to stay pretty much with brights and jewel toned colors for my blocks. And simply because I had lots and lots of it, I am using Red Heart Super Saver Aran for the border color.
You can use any colors that you chose, I just used what I had on hand.

Most of the yarn is Red Heart Super Saver with a few Caron One Pound thrown into the mix. I know these yarns are a little "stiff" and not as soft as many other yarns are. But......one of the ladies in my God's Tiny Angel's group told me that if you put a half cup of vinegar in your rinse water, it will soften this yarn up. It really does work, and doesn't smell like vinegar after you dry it.


I am writing this with the assumption that you already know how to crochet and know the basic crochet stitches.
Stitches used in this pattern are chain, single crochet, double crochet, and whip stitch for sewing the panels together. All stitches are U.S. terminology.
Also, if the pictures look backwards to you, it is because I am left handed, so if you are right handed, just imagine the pictures flipped over, lol.


Ok, now to begin.
Row 1:Chain 25, then double crochet in the fourth chain from the hook. DC across for a total of 22 dc's. Ch2, turn.
Row 2-10: Dc across, ch 2, turn.
Row 11-12: Change to your border color and make 2 rows of dc's with a ch2, turn, at the end of each row.
Row 13-22:Change to your second color and continue in pattern as written above.


Basically, you make 10 rows of each color to make a square, then 2 rows of your border color. Each strip is made of 5 squares with 2 rows of border color after each one EXCEPT at the end of your last square, do NOT make 2 rows of border color. Instead, ch1, turn, sc across, 3 sc in corner, sc down the side, 3 sc in corner, sc across the bottom, 3 sc in corner, sc up the other side, slip stitch last stitch to the corner stitch.
Then, ch 2, dc in first stitch of your single crochets, then double crochet around with 3 dc's in each corner. Slip stitch at the end.
You now have your first "strip" of blocks done!


Using the yarns that I did, my "strip" measured approximately 31 1/2 inches long by 7 inches wide. If you want your strip longer, just do extra squares and border rows before you start to crochet around the strip with your border color. 


Pictures below should help show you what I did at each step.

This is my first color with the 6th row in process.

Here is the first block of 10 rows.

Here is where I am changing to my border color before I chain 2 at the end of my 10th row of block color.

Here is where I am working my first row of border color. As you can see, I crochet over my ends as I go so I won't have any ends that I will have to weave in later.

 
This is the end of the second row of my border color separating each color block.

Adding my second color block.

Working on the first row of my second color block.

Here is what my first strip of 5 blocks of color with border rows in between looks like. I was having trouble getting good color with my camera, but the yarns are actually much bolder than this picture shows.

Here is a closeup of the end of the strip, with the border crocheted around it.

I intend to make 4 rows of strips. Then I will whipstitch the rows together so that should give me an afghan about 31 1/2 inches long by 28 inches wide. 

Again if you want it wider, just make more strips!

Then I intend to do a row of sc around, then a row of dc around. Will see what size I have then. After that I will decide if I want to add more border to it.

I am working on this in between other projects. Will show updates as I go along. I usually having 2 or more projects going any any given time, so it might be a bit before you get to see the finished afghan.