Afghans!

I love crocheting afghans!  Above is the blanket I just finished making as a gift for Ginelle and Ashley, celebrating their wedding.  I’ve been making them for many years, as is evidenced by the very old photo of Ashleigh I have below.

I’ve been crocheting since I was a small child.  It’s incredibly soothing, having a blanket come to life underneath my fingers twirling away. My favorite stitch is double crochet.  I’m very fast at simple patterns that include lots of double crochets.

The above blanket comes with a funny story:  I made it in high school for myself.  My mom’s first reaction was “Ooo, I’d love to have one of those!”  So I made her one, right in front of her, without her knowing.  When she opened it many months later for Christmas, she was shocked, exclaiming “When did you make this?”  I simply hid the yarn and everything underneath the one I had already made, so it blended in.  When she would wander into the room I was in, I would simply stop crocheting for a few minutes until she left again.  I still can’t believe that worked so well!

This is another one of my favorite patterns.  I made at least two others of these before making this one for myself.  One went to Madison, though I don’t remember who got the other one.

When I visited my friend Ted a couple years ago, he proudly showed me an afghan that was on his bed.  When I didn’t recognize it, he laughed, because I had made it for him about a decade ago.  I’ve made so many afghans that I have forgotten about them!

Every year or two I get the itch to crochet something.  If any close friends want an afghan, feel free to give me a nudge.  It may or may not happen – I like to make gifts when I feel like making them – but when I get the urge to crochet again, I’ll think of you and you might get a blanket!  (By the way, I generally only use acrylic yarn: it is both machine washable and affordable.  The yarn for an afghan costs about $40, in my experience.)

Anybody else have a favorite crocheting stitch? ~Kell