Bow Tie Afghan--Complete at last!

Several years ago, I started an afghan....had a brainstorm and worked on it for a few days, then lost interest. It wasn't living up to the vision I had for it and so was stuffed into a shopping bag and forgotten.

Every so often, my stash overflows. Discontinued colors, discontinued yarns, yarns purchased but unused for several years all face "the sorting". I simply don't have the space to keep yarn that cannot be used in designing for publication; and throwing yarn away is right up there with throwing away books--it just isn't done. Luckily, I have an aunt with a full basement and the talent to take my extras, scraps, and half-finished projects and give them new life. Off we go, the car stuffed with yarn and ideas that seemed good at the time--projects that didn't turn out but that I don't have the heart to undo.

I dreamed a wonderful, crazy dream the night before the trip to my Aunt's house. Balls and balls of yarn, stuffed into overflowing garbage bags, filled the bed of a pick-up truck. In my dream, the wind got to whipping, and soon yarn ends were finding their way out of the plastic bags. Like kite strings they flew, up and behind us, while I watched through the rear window. Of course, this being a dream, the wind managed to weave the wayward strands into a thing of beauty unattainable in the waking world.

Re-enter the bow tie afghan. I had a few motifs complete and set together with off-white in a hodge-podge of what I had hoped would be a stunning scrap afghan. For each motif, you do the middle and one side, then fasten off and do the other side. It would have been a mess to try to save the yarn for something else--so the motifs went intact and sewn together to my "Aunt Relly".

She had the patience and the talent to save a good idea gone bad. She took apart the motifs I had sewn together, made lots more, and set them together with a multi-colored yarn. The result is what you see here. A gift for yet another aunt!

Hooray for family "ties"!