Spice of Life

Late in the summer and into the early fall I enjoyed sitting on on my front porch with my Bible, journal, and crocheting. On the first day of fall I added a basket of fall-scented potpourri, a pumpkin-scented candle, and a few other touches of autumn decor. As the weather turned cooler I started leaving a throw out there as well. However, I didn’t have one in fall colors, so I toyed with the idea of making one.

When my friend, Judy, told me about the Spice of Life afghan she was working on, I knew that would be perfect for what I had in mind. I had been accumulating an assortment of left-over yarn from the thrift store… a partial skein of one color, maybe two skeins of another color, a small rolled-up ball of another… so my yarn stash was getting quite extensive. I sorted through the stash and picked out all the autumn-y colors first… gold, orange, brown, tan… and then I added in some greens, blues, and purples… colors from the forest, mountains, and sky.The original pattern, while very multi-colored, does have a set order for the colors with certain repeats as you go along. I pretty much ignored the color suggestions. As I was working with one color, I would eye my basket of yarn and decide what color would come next. If I happened to run out of that color before I got to the end of the row, no worries. I just tied on another coordinating color and kept going. It was a very frugal project and quite addictive with the constantly changing stitch patterns and colors. I had to keep going just to see what it would look like by adding the next row… and the next…

“Variety’s the very spice of life
That gives it all its flavour.”

It took me about a month of leisure-time crocheting to finish the afghan. I got a good bit done on it during our anniversary trip. I finished it right before Thanksgiving. It turned out large enough to cover the top of my bed, but it’s meant to be a front porch throw for the autumn months. It’s a very generous size for that. I am pleased with how it turned out.

Now that it’s finished I want to make one in Christmas colors. I probably won’t get that done this year, though. I have some Christmas gifts in progress that I need to get done first.

I’m curious. Do you like crocheted afghans? Or do you prefer fleece throws or quilts? Or does it even matter to you?