Christmas Afghan After Nearly Seven Years

All 63 afghan squares for the Barbara Walker Learn To Knit Afghan Book afghan were completed by October of this year.  Several weeks ago I started sewing them together.  For the first row (nine squares) I used the Mattress Stitch.  It looked really good.  It took a LONG time to complete one strip.  Shortly after starting the second strip (of seven) I realized I was unlikely to get the afghan put together before Christmas, which was my plan.  In fact, this has been going to be a Christmas present for Dear One every year since I started it when we began work on the addition to the log cabin.  The addition actually became the addition to the house when we tore down the log cabin and put a new house on the foundation to match the addition.

So -  I started doing a whip stitch to connect the squares of the blanket.  As of yesterday I still had two tall piles of squares ready to stitch.  When I went to bed last night it looked like I was not going to complete the afghan again this year for Christmas as only two strips had been sewn together.  Before falling off to sleep I mentioned to Heavenly Father that if I woke up in the night I would get up and work on the sewing project.  At 1:37 AM I awoke.  I got up for relief then went back to bed.  Having been in bed fifteen minutes (and not falling instantly back to sleep) I looked at the clock: 2:00 AM.  OK.  When Heavenly Father answers a prayer it seemed like I ought to accept His goodness and comply so out I crawled, put on a shirt, and went upstairs.

At 6:30 AM I came downstairs after having completed listening to one of  Janet Evanovich novels (The Heist), AND after completely sewing together the squares. ONE SMALL PROBLEM!!!!  Four squares are missing.  I KNOW I finished knitting them in October.  Where are they?

Once again I went into search mode.  I have emptied and reorganized five bags and two boxes of knitting projects and yarn.  I have looked behind the couch upstairs.  I have looked in the workroom where they were stored for quite a while.  As I was writing, it crossed my mind that they may have fallen behind the tall bookcase that Betty and Peter gave me to help me with my organization plan last summer.  I had made a lovely stack of squares and placed them out of the way on the stop shelf but then moved them to show them off to someone a few months ago.  Just goes to show that bragging is a very bad idea.

Now I will go look behind the bookcase.  Which will be a rather large problem but I really want to finish the afghan for THIS Christmas. I have so many other projects that are started that need to go into finish mode in the new year, and maybe even the end of this year....One project I just discovered again while in hunt mode this morning was the Plus-Sign Quilt I started when the Relief Society began working on it, probably five years ago.  There is some possibility that I can whip that into shape within a week or two.

After checking behind the bookcase in the workroom I have to dash out to pick up the remaining ingredients I need for Christmas dinner; to return a Redbox movie(Mission Impossible version whatever...); and to visit our friends in the nursing home with some cute little stockings full of Hugs and Kisses.

No four squares.  Well, some time they will turn up.