Dear Nola,

I hate to take this measure and write to you, but you have left me no choice. It was one year ago that you went to Colorado and discovered and fell in love with my yarns–that you decided to knit your most ambitious project to date. And yet here I sit, still unfinished. Oh, the humiliation. The left-over sock yarn teases mercilessly. Didn’t you finish those socks (two!) in under a month?

And I have seen the new books — the designs for baby items. Please don’t make a liar out of me too. I swore to the sock yarn that you’d NEVER start a new project before completing me.

Was it my fault that you forgot the pattern and over-knitted causing you to do “catch up” decreases on the following row for over a foot of me? Is it me that asked you to rip that mistake out and re-knit me? No; I would have accepted such mistake just to be complete. Oh, to be whole!

I know it bothers you that you decided you needed more yarn and now I have two different dye lots in me. I am no longer pure. I weep over my imperfection. I see it in your eyes — the resentment. But it wasn’t my fault! You decided I needed to be longer and wider than the standard afghan — I would have been happy to be normal. But I know you are now ashamed of me. I remember the days you’d take me out and work on me in public. How long has it been since you’ve done that? Oh, too long! You say it is because I am too large now to fit easily in a bag. But I fear it is your shame. You wanted me as an heirloom. But who will want me now?

Dear Nola, please don’t let me lag and become your “never to be completed” project. How would I ever get over it? I see you watching TV, doing nothing more. I know you are tired from Sun. (Did I mention how much I love her, too?) But I miss our time in front of the TV together — that was our time!

Aren’t I more than half-way finished? Don’t you want to finish in under a year? Before winter kicks in? And start on a sweater for Sun? And booties? Don’t we both deserve for you to finish me?

longingly and lovingly,

Your Afghan