Babette Blanket: Techniques to Make Your Squares More Uniform

Beginning with scraps from the Garter Stitch Blanket I'm starting the Babette Blanket from the Interweave Crochet Spring 2006 issue. I'm using Plymouth Encore DK and an E crochet hook.

The first few squares caused me to figure out a few tweaks to the pattern that seemed to work better for me. On the color changes I tied on the new color before doing the final slip stitch to join the round. The blue & yellow square on the right shows how it looks - no weird jog. The square on the far left shows what I mean where the purple meets the blue on the top in the middle.

I also think it looks cleaner on the corners to do 2dc, ch2, 3dc in the ch2 space - then dc in each of the dc to the next 2ch space. Again - just looks a bit cleaner (blue & yellow) than the way the pattern is written. Or at least the way I interpret the way the pattern is written. I'm a completely self-taught crocheter & I'm not sure I really understand how to read a pattern. I'm much better at looking at the finished piece & then figuring out how to make my piece look like I want it to.

Here's what the original pattern looks like. Click on the image below to order the pattern online.