THE "GLACIER NATIONAL PARK" AFGHAN -- FINISHED!

I don’t like to start things that I don’t finish, but it happens. When I found myself losing interest in the afghan that I started last spring, I tucked it into my place on the loveseat where it was impossible to ignore and somewhat uncomfortable for me. There it was – taking up my place on the loveseat and making me feel guilty. Even so, weeks went by when I didn’t work on it, but as the desire to crochet other things grew, I made myself finish it.

Generally speaking, I’m a lover of lace and femininity, but I also love Pendleton’s “Glacier National Park” design – black, yellow, red, and green stripes that pop against off-white. I have a few towels in that pattern which seem really out of place in my house, but I love them anyway. I hatched the idea for this afghan when I saw similar ones online, but instead of single or double crochet, I decided to use the star (or daisy) stitch. Crochet stitches abound, but so often we just use the simple beginner stitches, and I wanted something different. I had learned the star stitch years ago and thought it would add an element of interest to this rather plain design.

Another incentive was leftover yarn. I had the colors and some off-white, so it was an opportunity to use up some yarn from my stash. But of course, that never works out – not really. I did use up some of the colors, but I had to buy more of the off-white and green. That’s the way with a scrap afghan. There’s really no such thing.

I was just feeling my way along, doing my own thing with this pattern, and I didn’t know how big to make it. As it turns out, it fits over the top of our queen bed so would be adequate on a double bed. Since it’s rather large and the star stitch is dense, I worried that it would overload my washing machine. However, it came out just fine.

I’m always unhappy with the finished product for a day or two, and this was no exception. I spread the afghan over our bed with some trepidation, but Mike said it was worthy of being entered into a fair. “I won’t do that again,” I said. The last time I competed, the winners were baby afghans made tightly in single crochet with fine yarn in lackluster colors. I received honorable mention for “good use of color.” Maybe the judge thought that my gauge could be tighter. Or maybe that's just the way it goes. KW