I am SO excited!  Today is THE DAY!  The day I share my biggest blogging project yet!  Meet the Happily Ever Afghan Block!  I designed this amazing afghan as a wedding gift for my son and daughter in law.  I’m sharing everything here on the blog in a 4 part series.  In Part 1, I talked about planning an afghan from an inspiration piece and how to calculate how much yarn you need.  Here in Part 2, I will give you the pattern for the block.  Part 3 is all about the beautiful braided join technique and Part 4 wraps it all up with a beautiful border.  All free to you!

But first… a little background on what inspired the name of the afghan.  My husband and I have this little thing we do.  We have this cute, small block style wall hanging.  It is probably about the size of the palm of your hand.  We got it sometime before we were married and I can’t quite remember if it was a gift or one of those spontaneous purchases I tend to make when visiting Hobby Lobby.  It doesn’t have a permanent spot in our house because we constantly hide it.  I will hide it for him to find and then when he finds it, he doesn’t say a word, but hides it for me to find later.  We don’t verbally acknowledge finding it; just hide it again for the other to find.  So sometimes this moves quite actively around the house and then other times it is MIA for months at a time if one of us hid it in a really great spot.  Sometimes I tease him that he hides it to see if I’m dusting–because that’s when I tend to find it..hiding behind a clock or knick knack.  It’s just a little way to say ‘I love you’.  What little thing do you and your spouse do something fun to say ‘I love you’? Tell me about it in the comments!  I’d love to hear!

So when this afghan was done, calling it the ‘Happily Ever Afghan’ just seemed to fit.  So let’s get to the Happily Ever Afghan block!

Happily Ever Afghan Block

Here is what you will need:

• worsted weight yarn
• US H/5.00 mm crochet hook
• tapestry needle, scissors.

Resources and tutorials you may find helpful in following this pattern: Crochet Abbreviations, US to UK Crochet Conversion Chart.  Find links to stitches on the “Tutorial” menu: Getting Started will show basic stitches used in many patterns and Crochet Stitch Dictionary shows our growing collection of crochet stitch tutorials.

Make 42 blocks (7 each of 6 color ways):

With Color 1, ch 5 and join to form a ring.

R1: Ch 3 (counts as 1^st dc), 15 dc in ring (16 st), join with sl st to 1^st st.

R2: Ch 4 (counts as 1 dc, ch 1), *dc in next dc, ch 1*, repeat * to * around, joining with a slip stitch into 3^rd ch of original ch 4. Fasten off yarn.

R3: Join color 2 in any ch-1 space in previous round. Ch 3 (counts as 1 dc), 2 dc in same space, *3 dc in next ch-1 sp*, repeat from * around. Join with sl st to 1^st st. (16 groups of 3-dc clusters). Fasten off yarn.

R4: In this row, you will be working in the spaces between the 3dc clusters from the previous row. Join color 3 in the space after any cluster. Work sc, ch 5, sc in same space as joining (1^st corner made), *ch 3, sc in next space*, repeat * to * 2 more times, ch 3, **work (sc, ch 5, sc) in next space (corner made), *ch 3, sc in next space*, repeat * to * 2 more times, ch 3**, work ** to ** 2 more times, sl st to starting sc.

R5: Slip stitch in next ch-5 sp, ch 3 (counts as 1 dc), in same space work (4 dc, ch 3, 5 dc), *sc in next ch-3 sp, 3dc in next sp, dc in next sc, 3dc in next sp, sc in next sp (5 dc, ch 3, 5 dc) into next ch-5 sp.* Repeat * to * around, ending before last corner and joining with a sl st to top of 1^st st. Fasten off color 3.

R6: Join main color to any corner space and work ch 1 (1sc, ch 3, 1 sc) in corner. *ch 5, skip 5 dc, 1 dc into next sc, ch 3, skip next 3 dc, 1 sc in next dc, ch 3, skip next 3 dc, 1 dc in next sc, ch 5, skip 5 dc, (1 sc, ch 3, 1 sc) into next corner ch-3 sp*, repeat * to * around, ending before last corner and joining with a sl st to the 1^st st.

R7: sl st into next ch 3 sp, ch 3 (counts as 1 dc), [2 dc, ch 2, 3 dc] into same space (1^st corner made), *5 dc into next ch 5 sp, 3 dc into next ch-3 sp, dc in next sc, 3 dc in next ch 3 sp, 5 dc into next ch-5 sp, [3 dc, ch 2, 3 dc] into next ch 3 sp (corner made)*. Repeat * to * around, ending before last corner and joining with a sl stitch to the top of 1^st st.

R8: In this round, sc in each st around, working 3 sc in each corner. Fasten off yarn.

Here are the 6 color combinations of the Happily Ever Afghan Block.  Remember to make 7 of each color way.

And here’s a sneak peak at the completed afghan!

Next up, I will show you the very pretty braided join!

Let me know if you are trying this pattern and how you like the Happily Ever Afghan Block.  Leave me a message in the comments or post a picture on Instagram and tag me!  I’d love to see your progress!

 

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