Texas Christmas ornament C2C graph crochet pattern

Before you start

• Row 1 is the block in the bottom right corner of the graph. Rows run on the diagonal to the top left corner. Odd rows are read from the right edge, later the top edge, down to the bottom edge, later the left edge; even rows are read back up. Each row's label names its two edges.
• The picture reads the right way round on one face of the piece. If yours is mirrored, turn it over.
• Find that face after row 2. Lay the three blocks down with the first block at the bottom right and the other two to its left and above it; turn the piece over and lay it the same way to see the other face. On the face you want, the block you worked first in row 2, the one begun with ch 6, is the one to the left of the first block. That face is your right side for the whole piece.
• Right-handed: expect it to be the face toward you in row 1 and in every odd row, as the row labels say.
• Each square of the graph is one block: ch 3 and 3 double crochet. Rows are counted in blocks. The colors of every row are written in the order you work them: "3 A" is 3 blocks in yarn A.
• Row 1 is one block: dc in the 4th ch from the hook and in each of the next 2 chs. The 3 chains skipped stand at the side of the block and make its ch-3 sp.
• Turn after every row. A row's label says how it is worked: increase, decrease or even.
• An increase row has one block more than the row before. It begins with a new block: ch 6, turn, dc in 4th ch from hook, dc in next 2 chs. It ends with a block in the last ch-3 sp.
• A decrease row has one block fewer than the row before. It begins with no new block: turn, sl st in each of the 3 dc of the last block made. It ends with a sl st in the last ch-3 sp.
• An even row has as many blocks as the row before: one edge of the graph is finished and the other still grows. Its label says how it begins. An even row that begins with a new block begins as an increase row does and ends with a sl st in the last ch-3 sp. An even row that begins with slip stitches begins as a decrease row does and ends with a block in the last ch-3 sp.
• Where a row begins with slip stitches, as every decrease row does, its first block is (sl st, ch 3, 3 dc) in the ch-3 sp of the block just slipped across.
• Every other block of a row is (sl st, ch 3, 3 dc) in the ch-3 sp of the next block of the row before.
• To change color, work the last yarn-over of the last dc of the block before in the new color, and make the next slip stitch with the new color.
• Nothing is carried from row to row. Each stretch of color has a small ball or bobbin of its own: 103 in all. Drop a yarn on the wrong side where its color ends and pick it up again on the next row.
• A star (*) after a run: begin that run with a new ball, leaving a tail of about 6 in (15 cm). A run with no star goes on with the ball of its color left hanging from the row below; where that ball hangs a block or two away, lay the yarn along the row and work over it. If more than one ball of that color hangs within reach, take the nearest.
• A hash (#) after a run: its ball is not used again. When the run is worked, cut the yarn, leaving a tail of about 6 in (15 cm). A run with both marks (*#) is worked from a new ball that is cut when the run is done.
• At most 15 balls hang from the work at one time: the row with the most color changes has 14.
• This picture has 46 lone blocks: a block with no block of its own color to its left, to its right, above it or below it. 31 of them are alone in their diagonal row as well, and each of those is worked from a small ball of its own; the other 15 lie next to a block of their own color in their diagonal row and are worked from the ball of that run.
• Close shades: D and E are both green. Choose yarns you can tell apart in your own light.
• Left-handed. Work the same rows exactly as they are written. Expect your right side to be the face toward you in row 2 and in every even row: read RS as WS and WS as RS throughout, and drop yarns and weave in ends on the face toward you in the odd rows.