Many, many years ago when our kids were little (actually before our youngest was even born) I attended a knitting group with my mom. The local hospital hosted the group, titling the class “Knitting for Stress Therapy.” I’m not sure how many people actually attended for stress relief or whether most just saw it as an opportunity to hang out with people who enjoyed doing the same things and as a chance to maybe gossip just a bit. I was, at the young, young age of 23, the youngest person in the group. The oldest attendee, I believe, was a nun who was probably in her 80s or 90s.
The class was hosted by a woman I always refer to as the Knitting Lady as she was probably responsible for teaching at least half the knitters in our town how to knit. She had a shop outside of town where she hosted additional classes on occasion and sold all sorts of supplies, patterns, and gorgeous yarn. She was our go-to person for knitting advice and was always more than willing to rip, rip, rip out entire sections of mistakes. She was also my go-to person whenever I needed a dropped stitch fixed. Sadly, she passed away several years ago. I’ve since had to learn how to do all that ripping and dropped stitch fixing on my own.
As a fun idea for a class one year, the Knitting Lady decided to do a Block of the Month project which would yield an afghan by the end of the year. Each month we would purchase a new pattern and yarn. I think the entire afghan ended up costing well over $100. (Probably $150, which makes me shudder!) Crazy, I know. (Now I buy a couple skeins of that One Pound yarn…whatever brand that is… when it’s on sale and can have an afghan for about 1/4 the price or less.) What was even worse than the $100+ price tag was that the yarn used by the class for the project was gorgeous, hand-dyed 100% WOOL!
Now, do you know what happens to 100% wool if you toss it in a washing machine?
It felts.
Which is probably not a good thing. Because afghans that are actually used for…I don’t know, say, snuggling under to stay warm…rather than just as a chair decoration might actually need to be washed once in a while.
Other than the initial very delicate hand washing (which I did prior to blocking each block), this afghan has never been washed. It has never been used. It hangs out on the back of a rocking chair in our bedroom just looking cute.
I have to say that I love the colors I picked. The Knitting Lady seemed very skeptical when I chose the orange yarn, but as there was some orange in the variegated yarn, I knew the variegated would tie all the solid colors together.
Lazy Saturday Quilts 