This year, I haven’t been as excited about the holidays as I have in the past – I’m usually the one making all the cookies and sending all the cards but I haven’t been as motivated this time around.  Part of it has been the fact I seem to be busier with other projects than I have been in previous years and part of it has been the sad stories on the news recently (I don’t think I need to remind you of those). But mainly I think it’s because this will be the first Christmas without my grandmother, who passed away last summer.  I was very close to my grandma and she was the first person who tried to teach me knitting and crochet when I was very young (even if it didn’t catch on until much later) and over the last few years, it was wonderful to have this connection with her. We would tell each other all about the projects we were working on when I came to visit and I would always try to bring her some yarn from my stash for her to try out, since most of her yarn came from big craft shops. 

Every year, she would crochet a new afghan for her children and grandchildren and they are dear treasures to all of us. This year, as my way of keeping the tradition going, I decided to crochet an afghan for my mom.