By Joyce Nordstrom

 Put your stitching skills to work for those in need. Gather a few crochet friends and together you can work up this easy afghan in no time—it makes a great donation to your favorite charity cause. Learn a new  stitch, the Long dc, too!

Step 1 Begin with ch 4 and slip stitch to make a ring, then work 15 dc into the ring and join with a slip stitch.

Step 2 Change color and chain 3 to begin. The corners are worked with 2 dc, ch 2, 2 dc. Note the 7 skipped stitches along each side.

Step 4 Change color and repeat round 3, this time adding 2 dc in the ch-7 spaces along each side.

Step 4 The second round of gold color is attached to the second round with a Long dc--see instructions for this special stitch below. Then the square motif is finished with a round of dc using the first color.

How to work the long dc stitch

1 Yarn over and insert the hook into the center dc of the 7 skipped dc in round 2.

2 Yarn over and draw up a loop to approximately 1/2" (1.3cm) tall.

3 Yarn over and draw through the two loops on your hook, yarnover and draw through two loops to complete the Long dc stitch.

Download the free pattern for the Good Cause Afghan with complete instructions to make a blanket with this motif. As you can see, the original pattern (below) used just one color for each motif.