The 4 1/2 Year Afghan Story

This blanket has a story...

We bought our current house in July of 2006 right after I graduated nursing school. The master bedroom was already a gorgeous textured color of sage green, so we went with it and bought matching bed linens and such. I got the great idea to crochet a coordinating blanket for the foot of the bed.

So I picked 3 complimentary shades of greens and cream, learned a cute stitch, and got started. I did row after row after row...and quickly got disheartened and burned out. It was so long that I felt like I wasn't making any progress! So after a few months, I put the leftover yarn and unfinished blanket away in the closet.

Fast forward to November 2010--I magically remember that I have an unfinished project rotting in my closet! I dig it out and begin where I left off with renewed fervor. Unfortunately, I quickly remember why I gave it up in the first place! I worked on it for days and only added a few rows! I measured the length of the stupid thing--it was EIGHT feet long! I have a queen bed but they are not that big. I stopped working on it again, and thought long and hard about what I would do with it.

It took a couple weeks to come up with the balls guts to do it, but I decided to UNRAVEL everything I had already done, and restart the blanket. I know, I know...I felt anguish with each stitch I pulled out. Nick, on the other hand, enjoyed it because he sat there and made yarn balls out of the mass of yarn that was used. So that's what I did! I restarted the blanket--same stitch, same colors--but this time I made it shorter. FIVE feet to be exact! That may not seem like much, but it made all the difference in the world!

The first night I worked on it, I got about 5 inches width done in just a couple hours! I proceeded to work on it when I had free time, and I got the blanket FINISHED within a few weeks! I only used the yarn that I already had, and I even had a new unused skein of each color that I was able to take back and exchange for other yarns! Thankfully my crazy idea worked out, and I was very happy to see this poor blanket that had been ignored for so many years come to new light and be appreciated for its beauty!

After I made it as wide as I wanted, I went back and did a pretty picot edging along all of the sides. Then I washed it (to soften it up) and tucked in all of the yarn tails.

It hasn't made it upstairs to our bedroom yet--it is still downstairs on the couch being showed off! I like happy endings!

On another note, let me introduce you to my new favorite friends:

These are two books my dear mother has recently gotten me (with my guidance) and I just LOVE the wealth of information that is in them. The "A to Z" one is full of stitches, techniques, edgings, finishes, and joining that all of color step-by-step instructions! The other one is simply 200 different styles of crocheted squares with color combination suggestions. Some of them are so beautiful and intricate; I can't wait to try them!

The blanket I just started is a baby blanket for my little angel. I don't know why it has taken me this long to make him one, but I am making it special nonetheless! I wanted it to be very colorful b/c his next room theme is going to be robots and bright colors. The pattern I am doing is one from the 200 blocks book, and the stitch I am using is from the A to Z book! I'm about half done now, so I will show you pics soon!