I finished/photographed the February afghan squares for the block-a-month crochet-a-long (CAL) I’m participating in! The CAL is through a Ravelry group – it’s not too late to join! There are only 3 squares a month, and they don’t take that much time. If you’re interested, you can read more about the CAL and my squares from last month in my January Afghan Squares blog post.

So without further ado… my first block is a 12” square called Marigold Mandala – the pattern is free by Dorianna Rivelli at The Lavender Chair. My afghan is going to be made in Malabrigo Rios, and I got a beautiful golden color called Sunset at the beginning of the month that I thought was perfect for the marigold theme. I also used the colorways Whales Road and Purple Mystery. (You’ll see later on in the post that I must have really been feeling blues, yellows, and oranges this month…). I added an extra half double crochet round because mine was a little less than the 12”.

The next 12” square is called Kaleidoscope Blossom. It’s by Chris Simon and available as a free pattern on Ravelry. It has a flower with raised petals that makes for a very cool textured effect. This one is in colors Sunset, Glazed Carrot, and Teal Feather. I added an extra double crochet round to get to the 12” size.

Finally, my 6” square is Window Box Granny by Lisa Mauser. It’s also available as a free pattern on Ravelry. I really love how this square turned out, but the pattern was very complicated and took a bit to work out. It’s in colorways Sunset, Glazed Carrot, and Purple Mystery.

I thought I’d comment a bit on how I’m choosing colors for this afghan. I wanted it to be a little loud and crazy and colorful. I selected 6 colors of Malabrigos Rios that I thought went well together, and I’ve added 2 more colors. I’ve kind of just been choosing randomly colors that I like together for each square while trying to balance how much I use each color. So far I’m really happy with how it’s turning out! I will probably add a few more colors over the year.

Are you participating in any cool crochet/knit-a-longs this year?