Sometimes it's the project that finds you. I wasn't looking for another afghan project. Lord knows I have too many unfinished projects already. But this one spoke to me...
We spent Memorial Day at my sister-in-law's house. It was a relaxing day spent mainly eating and talking while watching my nieces, my husband, and my father-in-law build a pen for my sister-in-law's peacocks... which is another whole story... and we played with her dogs.
This is in memory of Oscar.
Oscar was a scruffy little dog that my sister-in-law's wife found walking in the middle of Highway 50. They adopted him and he was a lovable little dog that liked to cuddle and be scratched. G spent quite a bit of time with him that day and joked about taking him home with us.
Oscar and G, Memorial Day 2018
Four days later, Oscar and another one of my sister-in-law's dogs Thor, tragically and unexpectedly passed away. Then, that weekend, this pattern showed up on my Pinterest feed...
"Meandering Pawprints Over the Rainbow Bridge"
a pattern by Amy Brewer and Doug Speeckaert
Perhaps it was the rainbow of colors of the hammock in my photos that matched so well with the colors of the afghan that grabbed my attention. Perhaps it was the "Rainbow Bridge" poem that had played in my mind since the dogs' passing. In any case I had to make this afghan!
The original pattern can be found HERE.
I wanted my afghan to have a muted rainbow of colors that gradually changed from one to the other. I really could not find that gradual change I was looking for, but settled on the Lionbrand Cupcake yarn in the "Jellybean" color as it had the muted rainbow colors I wanted.
I then played around with the number of pattern repeats to get the blanket panel I wanted. After three tries, I settled on crocheting four pattern repeats, making my panel 80 stitches wide.
If I had made the blanket as one solid piece it would have been so wide that the color strips would be very narrow. I wanted the color strips to be wide enough so I could crochet a cake of yarn, first from the outside in, starting with brown to represent the earth then ending in blue to represent the sky, and then be able to join the next cake of yarn from the inner blue to the outer brown, thus going back down from the sky to the earth like the arc of a rainbow, and have it long enough for an adult sized blanket.
I crocheted three panels to get the width I wanted. I used a 4.25 mm crochet hook to get the stitch definition and drape I wanted. I used a skein of Caron Simply Soft "Chocolate" yarn to edge and join the panels.
Blanket is 62" wide and 58" long
The colors didn't change as gradually as I wanted but it was the color scheme I wanted
Due to the nature of the cake yarn, each cake of yarn had slightly different hues of color and the length of each color strip was slightly different too. I could have cut the yarn at the end of every couple rows so the colors matched up on each panel but I decided to make each panel unique as I felt each panel represented a unique path across the rainbow bridge.
I finished the afghan today, Labor Day. I'll remember this afghan as my 2018 summer project that jumped into my lap.
The Rainbow Bridge
Just this side of heaven is a place called Rainbow Bridge.
When an animal dies that has been especially close to someone here,
that pet goes to Rainbow Bridge.
There are meadows and hills for all of our special friends
so they can run and play together.
There is plenty of food, water and sunshine, and our friends
are warm and comfortable.
All the animals who had been ill and old
are restored to health and vigor.
Those who were hurt or maimed
are made whole and strong again,
just as we remember them in our dreams
of days and times gone by.
The animals are happy and content,
except for one small thing;
they each miss someone very special to them,
who had to be left behind.
They all run and play together, but the day comes when
one suddenly stops and looks into the distance.
His bright eyes are intent. His eager body quivers.
Suddenly he begins to run from the group,
flying over the green grass, his legs carrying him faster and faster.
You have been spotted, and when you and your special friend
finally meet, you cling together in joyous reunion,
never to be parted again.
The happy kisses rain upon your face;
your hands again caress the beloved head,
and you look once more into the trusting eyes of your pet,
so long gone from your life but never absent from your heart.
Then you cross Rainbow Bridge together.
Author unknown
