Afghan squares in a checkerboard pattern that give the illusion of bulging out towards the observer. Squares are worked separately, then sewn together.

Five colours are used: one darkest colour, and a gradient of four lighter colours. To accommodate tapestry crochet, at most three colours appear on any given round. Gauge is not important. To plan your dimensions, each square is 53 stitches on a side.

Charts are provided, so the pattern can be adapted to your method of choice. The pattern includes written instructions and a phototutorial for working in rounds with tapestry or fair isle.

The hardest part of this pattern is probably managing three colours at once. Keeping the skeins from tangling is a mild nuisance. Otherwise, techniques used are standard. For that reason, I would classify this pattern as accessible to a beginner.

I wrote this as a more general version of Small Checkers. Small Checkers has cleaner lines, because it uses Tunisian intarsia. This pattern is more adaptable to other stitching methods, but of course it could still be used with intarsia.

There is now a low-vision version also available for download, following these accessibility guidelines:

The text in the low-vision version is black, 22 pt, san serif, with no italics. All charts have written-out directions.