Stripes are lovely. I have now decided that I prefer to knit horizontal ones rather than vertical since I found them less difficult and was just as pleased with the result.

The vertical stripes were easy to design. You just pick which colors you prefer where and cast on.
The cast on does seem slightly complicated, but I tried several methods and then just decided to cast-on each color at the beginning and weave in the tails upon completion.

In an effort not to get everything too tangled, I did not use entire skeins, but had long strands for each stripe. If you would like to learn from my mistakes, you’ll want to make sure your long strands are actually long enough to complete your square. I had more than a few ends to weave in before the square was finished.

The horizontal stripes are just a color modification of a pattern in 100 more afghan squares to knit by Debbi Abrahams…. square 76 on page 93. The color conversion was so close, that I almost felt like I was cheating, but then I decided, I’m hand knitting a blanket, so I guess there’s really no such thing as cheating. :)

I substituted white for cream, dusty rose for yellow, antique rose for blue, and espresso for brown.