An Afghan's Story...

Yesterday, I shared with you the felted bird pillow that I created and promised to share the story of this afghan today...

They look really beautiful together, do they not?  There is a reason for that.  Towards the end of blanket stitching the edging of the pillow together I ran out of the variagated brown yarn that I was using...and had to go on a hunt through my stash to find something that would work.  I did not locate anything in my stash...but did find a project bag with a yarn that would work.

That project was this afghan...which I started probably 14 years ago (cringe).  At the time, I typically would finish an afghan like this in 2 weeks to 1 month.  I always had 2 or 3 of them going. 

But, suddenly, life was busy.  I was newly married, a number of cousins were having babies and I was making smaller afghans for them, then I was pregnant,  and then had a new born, etc.  It got set aside...and I pulled it out occasionally to try to finish it, but it was too daunting and I was too busy.  It gets harder the farther you go with this giant granny square pattern...it's a long long way around those outer rows.  It never feels like you are making progress at all!

Somehow, using a bit of the yarn intended for this afghan for another project was the impetus needed to finally stitch those last 6 rows and the edging (yes, truely, that was all that remained)...

The edging alone took close to 6 hours...it's a long way around that last row!  But I finally finished this up this past Friday evening...and I am so very pleased with it...it is simply gorgeous, everything that I had hoped it would be when I started it.  These were the colors I wanted to use in my new home.  While my color pallet has changed and expanded a bit over the years, these colors still fit in quite well.  The yarn is a lambs wool, synthetic blend.  It is so warm and feels rich to the touch, but is washable...washable is good!

So...after all that time, here it is, complete!  The two now rest on my favorite chair...something warm to cover my legs as I stitch and a pillow to rest my back or arm as needed. 

I thought I would tell this story so you all would know that there is hope for those long term WIPs after all.  A project is always a WIP (Work in Progress) until you make a concious decision that it is a UFO (unfinished object) and will remain so. 

I recently read a comment on another's blog from someone who follows mine and who's blog I follow, who had an afghan they had started for a grand daughter a year ago...to you, Diane, I say that there is hope and it is not hopeless...you will pick that hook back up to finish someday soon and that star afghan will be beautiful and loved by it's recipient.