I had a small bag of little skeins of cotton in a variety of colors. The bright hues and soft cotton seemed a good match for a baby blanket. I found an intriguing pattern for a waffle stitch blanket that starts in the middle, which is ideal for an item made of odds and ends, as when the yarn is done, so is the project. I also wanted stripes (which frankly made my project more complicated for yardage calculations, but the color interaction in this stitch was worth it). The reason the stripes increased the difficulty is that I needed enough yarn of one color to make it all the way around. Not a problem at the beginning, but quite the conundrum nearing the edge. I ended up weighing the last few skeins and putting them in order from lightest to heaviest to make it more likely to have enough.

The instructions had me turn the work at the end, which to me seems to defeat the purpose of crocheting in the round. I do really like the two-row repeat, which makes it a very easy pattern to memorize, and the simple row pattern makes it easier to recognize where the stitches need to go. This idea works fine working only from the front, with no turns. To illustrate, I put together a chart (I like charts better anyway). I made this one in Adobe Fresco, but I think if I needed to make one with any more rows, I would work on a desktop in Illustrator so I could align the rows more precisely.

I’m still a student of colors and how they interact (and probably always will be), and the fascinating thing about the build of this blanket was the way the the colors looked pastel crammed together in the bag, but became quite bright the way I ordered them in the blanket. I made a hat in double crochet stitch (American notation) from the bits and bobs left over from the odds and ends of the blanket and the overall color feel is quite different.