The Blanket

I finished making a baby blanket for my agent’s newborn son. I was so inspired by completing something, I began to look around at my many abandoned UFOs (unfinished objects) stuffed into drawers and bags.

I came across an afghan I’d started when I first took up crochet around six years ago. I’d already finished about two thirds of it. It was simple enough - just single crochet on size q hook. I wondered why I had stopped working on it when I was pretty close to finishing. Then it came back to me there was some issue with lost stitches. When I counted, I saw that I had started with 63 stitches and somewhere along the way had lost a bunch of stitches so I was down to 55 stitches.

I debated about what to do. It seemed I’d only kept the 63 stitches going for a short time, so if I was going to unravel, it would be almost the whole thing. The sides were a little wobbly and my stitches weren’t the best, but it seemed a shame to throw away all that work.

So, I decided to just keep going. By now, I have figured out how not to lose stitches. I just mark the first and last stitch in each row with a little plastic stitch marker. And my stitches are more confident than when I started the small blanket. So the part of it I’m doing now won’t quite match the earlier section. Whatever pattern I was using has long vanished, but it doesn’t matter, I will use up the yarn and finish with a nice edging.

As I began to work on it and saw how differently I crocheted now, I had a thought that turned everything around. Instead of being upset by the slightly misshapenness of the blanket, I saw it as a measure of my progress. Once finished, I would always be reminded that by sticking with something and working at it, I’d gotten better. So, instead of being bothered by it’s imperfection, I would be inspired by it. I know I’m going to love that afghan for always.

Do you have something that reminds you of how much you’ve improved at doing it? I hope that sentence makes sense. It’s been a long day and my pillow is calling.