The Frosty Green Afghan

Those of you who have been reading me for a while know that yarn is my love language. When someone I care about is hurting, I want to wrap them in yarn. I crochet to manage stress and to stitch together the pieces of my broken heart. Some people volunteer, some people write a check, some people bake cookies; I crochet. 

The Husband, Da Boys, and I have all the yarn crafts we need, but stress and a wounded heart persist so the crocheting continues. Closets, cabinets, and totes are tucked full of items waiting for homes. I have a fantasy of getting a booth at craft shows and donating all the sales to my favorite local charity, but today this remains only a dream. For now I gift and donate almost everything I make. 

One of the items in storage found a home today. Here is its story:

Four years ago I snagged 15 skeins of brand new yarn from a second hand store, enough to make an adult sized afghan and then some. It was a muted color called Frosty Green. I picked an overlapping stitch pattern to make it sturdy so its owner would feel confident using it daily, not worry about ruining it, and not feel the need to save it "for nice".

A lot of work and three years later, it was a thick, warm, luscious masterpiece. I folded it carefully and packed it away to wait for the universe to call it forward.

Well, that's not entirely true. When it was halfway done, the afghan told me where it was going. There's a shelter for homeless teens the next town over; it serves numerous boys and girls every year. Most of the clients are LGBTQ who find themselves homeless after coming out to their families.

The will of this afghan to go to this shelter was strong. I made an effort to finish it before the weather turned cold. And I did it! ...last year.

I had intended to take it to the donation dropoff right away, but I didn't. No real reason, just didn't get around to it. When the temps warmed up, the afghan went into the closet to wait, for what I didn't know.

Today, the "for what" revealed itself.

It was a community craft fair to benefit this homeless teens' shelter.

I convinced The Husband to accompany me to the craft fair, and I told him my main motivation was to finally donate the afghan.

"It's probably too late for them to sell it (at the fair)", he said.

"It's not to sell. It's to give to one of their clients."

"Oh! Nice."

At the fair, we tracked down the shelter's executive director.

"I crocheted an afghan that needs a home," I explained, "and it told me it belongs to one of your clients. It's out in the car."

"Perfect timing!" She told me they were assembling winter gift baskets for their clients. "Is it for a boy or a girl?" she asked.

I told her it was gender neutral, that its color was (air quotes) "Frosty Green".

Her face lit up. "Oo! I think I know just the person who needs a frosty green blanket to cozy up with." A new non-binary client had just moved in.

That's when I realized why I had waited a year to take the afghan to the dropoff site. Its owner hadn't arrived at the shelter yet.

When I later handed the afghan to the director, she admired it at arms length and declared, "Oh yes, this is definitely something that Charlie has to have. I love that it told you where it belonged."

On the way home, The Husband remarked, "Well. That was pretty amazing."

It really was.