I learned to crochet when I was very young. I would crochet a lot, then when I got into high school, set my hooks down and let them get dusty. However, I learned that blankets are needed to comfort cancer patients, provide warmth for the homeless, and many other causes. That gave me reason enough to pull out my crochet hooks again. Here are some of the ones I've donated.
Simple granny squares, starting with two rolls of an ombre, then 3 rolls of a solid color. I then lined the squares with a single crochet of the ombre and slip stiched them together.
I really love this blanket. You can find the pattern here for this "4 1/2 hour afgan". Of course, it took me six hours, and I used a different yarn (could that be the trick?), but it came out a lot nicer and warmer than expected. It was a lot of fun too, but once you use that Q hook, working with the smaller ones seems a bit strange at first. :P