Sophie's Universe

 

It's done! I can hardly believe that I have finally finished Sophie's Universe, but I have. And the feeling is less jubilant and more relief. It's been a long haul and I'm good and tired of this afghan. I believe I started it in 2015 and it stalled several times since then, but it's no longer on my UFO list. It's been frustrating at times because I don't believe that I should have to change hook sizes or block my afghan to make it lie flat, as the instructions say. I think I did change from a 5.0 to a 5.5 sometime during the process and might have blocked it once or twice. But around round 87, I'd had enough and started adding stitches to keep it lying flat without blocking. And it worked. I added the final round of Betty's Beautiful Border (modified treble bobble, which I think should be called bent treble cluster) as my edging round, as I didn't like it with just the back post double crochet as the final round. Back post double crochet doesn't really lie flat on its own.

The afghan finished at approximately 76" square and weighs 5 lb. 9.1 oz. Yes, it's heavy! And I used a total of 14 different yarns in it. So it's the biggest, heaviest and most yarns used of any afghan I made to date. I think I'll put it on my queen-sized bed, so it can be viewed in all its glory. Especially since I don't currently have a quilt finished for that bed. 

And yes, you can see my tallest step ladder in the top picture. Grass may not make the smoothest surface on which to take a picture of an afghan, but I don't think I really have the floor space to spread it out inside, nor the ceiling height to get high enough to fit the whole afghan in the picture. 

I was planning on doing the Warm Up America Knit and Crochet Afghan next. It's going to be a gift for my daughter and I was hoping to finish it for her birthday next month. However, after ripping out the same block about 3 times, I decided to do something that my mental health can manage. Did you know that your mental health can affect your cognition (your thinking ability)? Well, it can. I'm still struggling with depression and anxiety and I know that my cognition is not as sharp as it should be. So, I've moved all of the yarn (13 different yarns) for the Variegated Moss Stitch afghan into my Rubbermaid yarn organizer and that will be my next project. 

Haven't seen my Rubbermaid yarn organizer yet? Well, here it is: 

It's just a Rubbermaid container that I've drilled holes into the lid. It's fantastic for projects that use multiple different yarns. Here's a picture of the label so you know which container I used. 

Really simple and really efficient!