My First Baby Afghan...Over 5 Months in The Making

After crocheting hats and headbands for three months, I decided it was time to try something new.  I was ready for an afghan...or so I thought.  I decided to start with a baby afghan, hoping it would be a little less overwhelming.  Here I am 5 months later, and it's still not done - but it's getting closer!

Better view of the loops that will be braided together later.

I chose the Precious Treasure pattern out of Touchably Textured Baby Afghans.  (It's the one on the bottom left.)  It's a fairly simple, but beautiful design.  The pattern is made up of loop rows that will be braided together later, followed by single crochet rows.

At first I meticulously counted each single crochet row to make sure that there were 140 stitches across.  None added, none dropped.  What can I saw, I'm a rule follower.  But counting 140 stitches over and over soon became tedious.  So I learned to to add or drop a stitch when things weren't lining up.  The pattern is forgiving that way.

I think I only had to restart this project once.  After I got about five rows into it on my first try I could see the diamonds were NOT lining up.  So I pulled out every stitch and started over.  Thank goodness things worked out the second time.  I wasn't sure that I had a third time in me with this one.

**Update**  It's finally done!  Check it out here.  :)