Yesterday

I'd been hearing my mother's voice in my mind's ear. Any time I tried to get a really interesting bad mood going, her response (reproof?) was, "You just better get busy and get happy." Sometimes, if I had been really insufferable, a "young lady" was added at the end.

It doesn't always work. Still, there's a definite feeling of satisfaction when I tackle something. So tackle I did. All of this

was in here with all of this

and I turned it into this.

All my muscles hurt. Even the ones on the sides of my fingers. And while I had hoped to completely clear the aisle, at least now I can get to everything. It's not pretty, but it's workable.

I deserves a reward, wouldn't you say? All those trips to the alley. All that stuff that was too good to throw out but will never be used by us, bagged up for Salvation Army. All those huge boxes (like from the TV, which is at least 10 years old) flattened and ready for John to break down for recycling. I've decided on my single piece of Christmas knitting. And I can write about it, because it's going off to Clare's room-mate's family in Norwich. They don't read The Blog. They don't even know about it.

I ran the idea of an afghan for them past Clare and she was most enthused. I believe the word "fabulous" was used. Since I want this to be something they'll like, I asked about colors (here 's the difficulty). She said they "have lots of fluffy colors" in their house. "Fluffy colors"? What type of color value would you put on "fluffy"? I didn't know either, and she's head down in a paper at the moment and hasn't responded to my plaintive P.S.'s.

I decided I'm on my own. This is what I've come up with, except bigger. A pattern from Weekend Knitting.

Yarn from the stash.

I'm a little short of the main color yarn requirement for the afghan size, but well over the requirement for the lap blanket. I'm thinking I can fudge on the solid color stripes to add length.

My only question is, is it thoughtless to knit a beautiful afghan that someone I've never met will have to dry clean? After conquering the wild and recalcitrant storage space, I'm feeling brave and daring. I'm going to cast on and take my chances.