More projects from the couch

I get bitten by the same crochet bug every fall.  Once the weather starts getting cooler, I find myself venturing into yarn shops and scouring my studio for misplaced crochet hooks that haven't seen the light of day since last winter.  You can definitely call me a seasonal crocheter. 

This year I'm more in love with it than ever since 1) Just about all of my projects are for the new baby, and each stitch gets me more and more excited for her arrival  2) I've pretty much surpassed beached whale status and it's incredibly uncomfortable and exhausting to do most any activity that doesn't allow me to lie on the couch with a carefully calculated placement of at least 20 pillows.

My main project that I'm working on at the moment is an afghan for the new baby.  I guess I've set the trend that each new baby gets his or her own quilt, cross-stitch, embroidery, and crocheted afghan.  This is what Phoebe's looks like.

I picked out the yarn before I even started looking at patterns (because I like to live dangerously :), and finally settled on 7 shades of Berroco Comfort yarn in a worsted weight (white was on back-order at the time so it's not pictured). 

Patchwork diagrams - I ended up going with the top right sketch

After falling in love with this blanket (the whole room really) on Pinterest, I followed Dottie Angel's basic how-to for joining the squares as you go.  But basically, each square is made up of 15 rows of 25 double crochets.  It's incredibly relaxing since it's a simple stitch with basically no counting, and you can actually carry on a conversation while you're working without losing your place.

This was all the progress that I had made back in October since my white yarn was on backorder for FOREVER, but since it finally arrived last week the blanket is now just about halfway completed.

But in the meantime, I had found the last two skeins of Berroco Plush for half price in the discontinued bin, and they were so soft and frothy that I just had to make something for my winter baby.  This is an incredibly basic baby hat pattern that I have made a million times, but it took me forever because the yarn is so fluffy and fuzzy that it was near to impossible to see or count my completed stitches.  After ripping it out more times than I'd like to remember, I finally just winged it and guesstimated the entire thing, adding and subtracting stitches when I thought the hat started to look lopsided.

Does anyone else have any great baby crochet patterns to share?  I'm looking for my next project!