How It Should Look

These are close-ups of an afghan my grandmother made circa 1976. We can date it because it was made to match a gold velvet sofa my mother bought during her bicentennial redecorating mania. Everything in our family room then had eagles on it. The adjoining bathroom was papered in stars and stripes -- even the ceiling. Ah, the 70s. The entire decade suffered from an excess of bad taste.

So the afghan was made in two shades of gold, a yellowish gold and a burnished orangey gold. It's big enough to lay flat on top of a double bed without any overhang, so we have periodically used it as a bed blanket.

Some of you have asked for an explanation of how to make this pattern. (For the rest of you, feel free to stop reading here. This is about to get really confusing and crochet-y.) It's basically just interlocking shells with these wormy things holding the two sides together. Each shell is made from five double crochets into the center stitch of the 5-dc shell below it. But you don't just crochet into that center stitch -- you have to catch the wormy thing over your hook and bind the old shell and the wormy thing together while making the new shell. I don't know if I'm explaining it in a way that makes sense. It's one of those "you get it when you see it" things. Also, chain one between each of the shells--that chain one will be the place where you anchor the worms with single crochet stitches.

The worms are made by chaining 6 and then single crocheting into the chain one between the shells in the row below. So the pattern goes something like this:

Cast on 4 stitches per shell, plus one at the end. Make this chain as long as you want the blanket to be wide. We'll call this Color A.

With Color A, make a 5-dc shell into every third stitch, then chain one. So it's like this: *skip two, 5-dc shell into third stitch, chain one*, repeat between *. You'll have one stitch left on the cast on chain at the end of the row. (Except somehow, I always have two leftover. That's the magic of me and crochet.) Do not turn the work.

Then you drop that yarn and switch colors. Attach Color B into the leftover stitch on the Color A base chain with a single crochet. Chain 6, single crochet into the chain stitch at the end of the Color A shell below. And so on, all the way across to the end. At the very end, chain two or three -- I'm totally not sure which, so end up changing my number from row to row. Then turn the work.

Still using Color B, make a 5-dc shell into the center dc of each shell below. This is where you have to lay the wormy thing on top of your hook to bind the two colors together. Don't forget the chain one between the shells. (That reminder is mostly for my own benefit. I tend to forget that part.)

Go all the way across and drop Color B. Pick up color A and repeat until you have a blanket.

Or something like that. God help any of you who try to follow my instructions. I'm sure it would make more sense if I could show you. Or maybe not, all things considered.