Americana Afghan

This is Lion Brand's Americana Afghan. If you're sensing a pattern here (no pun intended) of Lion Brand, that's because they're free, and free means more yarn-buying. There was a scarf and hat to go with the afghan, but those were sold (for forty bucks!) at an auction benefiting Air Force families. The afghan would have been auctioned with its brother and sister, the scarf and hat, except that I ran into issues.

Forty-six five-pointed little issues.

Now, the stars weren't hard to do, and were actually kind of fun once I got going. I was able to crank out a star every fifteen minutes by the end. No, the problem was attaching them. You see, I can't sew. I don't mean I don't know how, or that I don't like to. It's just that Gramma's quilting gene skipped me. (It skipped Dad, too, but that's ok; he can use a hammer.) It took me over an hour to tack down the points of each star, which I thought would be easier than sewing around the whole entire thing. After eleven stars, I gave up. (The first eight went to the scarf.) I moved on to another project I was anxious to try.

Sometime after Christmas, I realized I had one almost-completed blanket, and a complex Aran that was suffering from mid-blanket-itis. There was only one thing to do. I needed a new project. However, I couldn't stand the thought of the Americana being ALMOST done. I thought about leaving the field blue, but discarded the idea as cheating. Then I sternly told myself I could not, under any circumstances, buy any more yarn or start a new project until I finished the flag. The tiny, evil little crochet demon that lives within me giggled and agreed. We went to the store, bought new yarn and a bottle of fabric glue.

Yes, folks, I glued those puppies down in 75 minutes. I thought I should feel ashamed of myself, because the recipient of this blanket, whomever he or she may be, will have stiff little glued-down stars instead of soft, durable sewn stars. But then, if I didn't glue the stars on, the blanket would never have been completed in the first place. Really, they should be grateful.

I sure hope that sounded convincing.