The Ugliest Blanket

How does one crochet? Most people could teach themselves if they had the patience for it. I started to crochet very young. At age seven, I watched the other moms sit around in a corner with their crochet hooks making hot pad holders. My mom thought I was too young, but some of the other ladies thought I would pick it up if someone taught me. My mom taught me. I learned to make a chain. I learned how to make simple bookmarks. By age eight and nine, I was crocheting head bands and hot pad holders. By age ten, I could make doll and Barbie dresses. I quit crocheting for awhile. When I was a teenager, I didn't crochet at all. It wasn't the "cool" thing to do. I was too busy hanging out with friends, doing sports, school, and work. I had no time to fiddle around with yarn. Now that I'm older, I find myself comforted in front of the television with a late night movie, a crochet hook and a ball of yarn.

I'm not sure what attracted me to these swimming pool blue types of colors. I saw these vibrant teal colors in the store one day. I was taken back at how beautiful the colors would be if they were incorporated together. I thought it would be a great summer time blanket and such an accomplishment if I ever completed it. I was so bored in the evenings that I felt it wouldn't hurt to have a new project. It was a better plan than wasting my day sitting around doing nothing.

At first Nicole didn't like the colors. Nicole typically likes blue colors, but instead of liking them, she told me the colors were ugly, and that this was an "ugly blanket."

The Ugly Blanket

I thought of giving this blanket to a dear friend, when Nicole stared me down. "What? What is it? I know, this blanket is ugly. How many times do you have to tell me how gross and terrible the colors are? It's the ugliest blanket in the whole wide world, and I crocheted it."

It's like the ugly duckling that discovers it's a swan, the colors have a way of growing pretty. The warmth that comes from having a handmade afghan, there is much detail and trouble in pulling the threads of yarn, and looping each row together. When I finally started to finish the picot around the edge, Nicole confessed to me that she didn't want me to give the blanket away, that she wanted to keep it. All this time I thought she didn't like the afghan, but in reality she loved it.

I told Nicole that if she really wants the blanket, it's hers. She wrapped the blanket around herself and sleeps with the ugly blanket every night. Lesson of the day, I'm not sure how to put this... How could an afghan so ragged become so lovely? Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, and sometimes that beholder changes his or her mind. Nicole loves her new ugly blanket. It's probably one of the best gifts a mother could give a daughter.

Sometimes there are things in life that you love to hate, and hate to love. There's always something mysteriously unusual that keeps drawing us back. Usually those things in life become our favorites. Until next post...

Love, 

Lissa