Heads or tails? No need for a coin. You have the Buffalo Nickel square. When I was growing up you sometimes found one of these in circulation, if you were lucky. This coin honored the first Americans, the natives and the buffalo that were so important to them here in the west.

The model for the “buffalo” is really an American bison named Black Diamond, who lived in the Central Park zoo. I’m not sure why we call these animals buffalo. The Native American is a composite of three men: Chief Iron Tail (Oglala Lakota), Big Tree (Kiowa) and Two Moons (Cheyenne).

This is a double-knit square, approximately 12” x 12”. It makes a nice large potholder or a good-sized afghan square. It is part of the Epic Lap Blanket Series.

Warning: This pattern is more difficult than most of the other patterns in the series: the front and back have different designs. This takes a lot more attention and care than regular double knitting, but it is very rewarding.

If you don’t want to take the challenge, I’ve included a simple one-sided charted version of each design so you can do this as one or two regular double-knitted blocks (where the back is a reverse of the front) or as stranded blocks.

The pattern is charted, and requires the ability to double-knit back and forth rows, do a closed selvedge, read a chart, cast on and bind off. No increasing or decreasing is required.

You will need two contrasting-color fingering weight yarns, approximately 220 yards of each. This pattern can be made in any weight yarn or any needle size, but the gauge will change, as will the fabric size.