Weekend, hooray!

Are you starting to say hmmm? I loved making these and seeing how changing an element or two made a different effect. Once I'd made a few and saw how this would work, my mind was filled with possibilities every time I stitched a block. And it doesn't matter that many of them are very similar. We're learning what happens when you do something like substitute (dc, ch 1, dc, ch 1, dc) for a 5-dc shell in a stitch pattern--and I suspect you'll want to try some of these things in other patterns.
And hooray! It's the weekend. I'm going to give you several square patterns this weekend, more than one per day, and also there are some other elements to this afghan that we'll need a bunch of, so I'll give you the instructions for those. Here's a hint: this is not a straightforward square-after-square afghan, although certainly if you want to just sew your squares together, or edge them with sc then sew them together, you'll have a lovely creation. I know there's been some discussion of "should we edge them, should we not?" and I can just say follow me, do what I give you, and we'll see as the mystery unfolds. I haven't added edging to mine, but since some of you have, I'll make this work so that the edged ones will work.
Be sure to post your photos wherever you like--on the Flickr group. the Gourmet Crochet fan page on Facebook, and Ravelry! I haven't been the best about that myself but today, today. :)