A Dream and an Afghan
So once upon a time, when I was 11 or 12, my aunt died of cancer. Before she died, she made me a beautiful afghan and she began to teach me to crochet. My mom continued to teach me, and I took on the daunting task of doing a 63 square "heirloom afghan."
By age 13 I had 48 or 49 squares done out of 63. Then, the bag of squares and the bag of yarn moved all over the place--sometimes with me, sometimes to storage. Summer 2007 I brought them down from Oregon to my apartment in Utah and thought, "I should finish this sometime."
Fast forward to November 29th, 2008. robinellen posts pictures of three beautiful afghans she has just completed. ( See her post.) That night I woke up in the middle of the night because of a vivid dream about the afghan I have not finished. I went back to bed. In the morning when I woke up my husband was still asleep, so sneakily, trying to be as quiet as possible, I rummaged under our bed until I found the afghan bags. Twenty minutes later I'd also found the instruction booklet.
I did a few squares over the next few weeks. Then when Christmas break arrived, I decided that do or die, I was going to finish the afghan.
5 Harry Potter movies and one New Years Eve party later, I had completed all 63 squares. But who knew that combining the squares together and doing the border would take 9 - 2 ounce balls of yarn--the equivalent of about 16 squares in and of itself.
But today, on Martin Luther King Day, the day before an exciting, monumental event in U.S. history, I finished my afghan. And I'm ready to party.
Lessons learned:
1. Afghans are an excuse to watch movies.
2. Never save tying off threads until the end. I spent at least 3.5 hours tying off threads today, and managed to watch Shrek 2 twice--once normally, once without the directors commentary. And by the end, I was even sick of Donkey.
So, want to see all the other pics, including of the completed afghan? Check under the cut.
The full afghan, laid out on our bed:
Me frolicking on the afghan:
My favorite square, the top right corner with a flower on it. I'm going to make a baby afghan with some of these squares in it, after I take a well-deserved afghan break.
More afghan detail shots:
Another one:
The central squares:
Bottom right corner:
And a view from the bottom left corner:
