My First Ever CAL (Crochet along)

I've never joined a CAL before, never thought I would enjoy it actually. I like to make what I like to make, and or am directed by what charity I'm stitching for. But, I received a person invitation to join this one, and thought I'd give it a go. The pattern book we're using is 101 Crochet Squares by Jean Leinhauser. I've used some of her patterns before, but so far I'm not overly impresses with her ability to write patterns in a user friendly way. I have a border book of her's I've been using and it seems much better written then this book. I've only done 2 squares so far, but in both cases I had to add and delete stitches to come up with the number of stitches she indicated should be there. Maybe I'll do better with the third one. No one else has yet mentioned having that trouble.

Then again, not many people have yet started as getting the book presents some problems. This book varies in price from 16.95 (which is what I paid) to around $300.00 on line. None of us can figure out why such a huge price swing on this book. But, it's been priced in about 10 different places and is over priced in the majority of the on line listings we saw. The group is a RAV group and so far there's just a couple dozen of us that have joined. Check it out, if you're interested.

Above is the first week's square. I liked how it turned out, and believe this is a square I would do again, #44. I did alter the order of colors so that I started and ended with the same color which is not how the pattern is written. The pattern indicates it's about a 6 inch square, mine was 7 using knitted worsted weight yarn and size I hook. I had trouble with my stitch count on rounds 4 and 5; but got it worked out and am pleased with the end result.
The Teddy Bear was a real BEAR to do. I really worked on this as the counts would not work as she had written them for me. I did and redid a couple of times until I finally just added stitches where I needed them etc. This is suppose to be a 5 inch square and since I don't like squares that small changed this pattern also. The last row is just beyond the bear where the darker color is and was to be a sc row. I did DC instead, and then added yet another row of sc and if I do this again would probably do 2 rows of dc's instead to make it larger. I also used left over Caron Simply Soft yarn which I hate using and that probably made it smaller also since it never meets gauge properly for a ww yarn. But, I had the yarn at my finger tips and decided to experiment with it. I don't know if I'll do this again, though it turned out ok it was not fun to make and too far too long for one little square.

Will keep you posted how things go with The CAL. Have you ever done one? Did you enjoy it?