Nanny's Cat Lapghan (Lap Afghan)

So I noticed my last couple posts hadn't been much crocheting, so I decided to share the pretty big project I am currently working on. My nanny (father's mother) is a huge fan of cats, so while I was at school and thinking about her and also not having a lot of time to crochet I designed this lap afghan. The letters above the cats denote the color of each cat (Orange, Green, Red, Blue). Once you get the hang of changing colors it is basically just counting. 

 Also as I go along the pattern I cross out what I have done with highlighter. I use a highlighter so I can see where I am as well as what I have done, but also to help me if I get lost. I love doing picture patterns and designing picture patterns. The graph paper is something I made myself in Microsoft Excel, the blocks are slightly taller than they are wide.  

This is a picture of after I finished the cats and a little bit of the middle of the "lapghan". I included the car keys to give a sense of the size. The stitch used in the middle is something I came up with myself, though it's pretty basic so I'm sure it has been done before. You can see the sketch of it at the top of the first picture. I wanted it to look something like bricks. I may change to the cream color, the same color from behind the cats, for some of the middle. I'm not sure yet. When I think it is big enough there will be another set of the cats, but flipped upside down. I lost the pattern of the cats, which adds a level of difficulty, luckily I took a picture first. It'll work out some how =) See ya