Afghans
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Faith's
Experience and History with Crocheting Afghans I doubt I will ever forget the first afghan I
ever made. It was the year 1970, boy does that ever date
me. It was my sophomore year of high school and my Mom
had seen an afghan someplace and commented on how much
she would like something like that. Now, you need to
understand Mom is not as she puts it "artsy
crafty" but says I am. It was a few months before
Christmas and just happened that a friend of mine was
working on a baby afghan for her brother's baby. She
worked on the afghan on the bus riding to school in the
mornings and I spent a couple of those mornings watching
her.  That next Saturday I went to town
with Mom who was going to do her weekly grocery shopping.
It just happened there was a Ben Franklin store in the
same shopping mall so I asked permission to go over there
and look around. I was in luck, they had yarn in the
colors of our family room (oranges, browns, and yellows -
the old harvest colors). I took a guess at how much yarn
I would need and that night closed up in my bedroom after
everyone else went to bed I started experimenting. It was
very slow going but over the next week I managed to get
about six inches done on the afghan. Then horror struck.
When I held up my cherished work I realized that one side
was going straight as it should but the other side for
some reason was getting bigger and bigger - it was headed
off to never - never land.  After several hours of doing and redoing,
taking apart and adding to I figured out I was
unknowingly adding an extra stitch to each row on that
one side…. I had put so much work into the afghan
already and had limited time to get it finished if I was
going to present it to Mom for Christmas so opted to cut
the yarn where I was and start from there doing it the
right way. This left that first six inches or so making a
"flag" on that one corner. Oh well, Mom got her
afghan, was thrilled to death and to this day has that
afghan which doesn't match her décor now but it does get
used occasionally - six inch flag and all! I am happy to say the second afghan went much
better. Light pink, dark pink, and white - this one was
for myself and I also still have that blanket which has
come to be referred to as my "sick blanket".
Whenever I'm feeling under the weather I pull that out of
the closet. My kids even call it that, if they find out I
don't feel good they'll ask if I want them to get my
"sick blanket" for me. That was 36 years ago. I honestly
can not tell you how many afghans I have created since
then. Friends, family (kids, grandkids, parents, sisters,
and more), and others have gotten them for gifts of all
occasions - Christmas, birthdays, weddings, thank you,
and just because. When it was first suggested I make them
to sell I wasn't too sure about the idea. But God must
have had His hand on the situation because one night at
work a couple co-workers were trying to talk me into
selling them and I made my first sale that night. One of
the ladies bought a baby blanket I had just finished.
I've been selling baby afghans as well as full-sized and
junior sized ever since.I love crocheting, I know how to knit but
it's much more difficult and it's annoying to me. I did a
speech for college one time on "crocheting" I
got an "A" for the speech. Crocheting is
relaxing for me - I do it while visiting with the kids,
watching TV, listening to the radio, and even while on
the computer sometimes (great use of time if it's taking
too long for web pages to load). I don't see myself
getting rich by selling my handmade items but the extra
income does help and at the same time I get the pleasure
of knowing others are enjoying something I've put love
and effort into creating. |