Mystery Afghan - Solved!

I finished the Bernat Mystery Afghan I began in September in time to send it to Father-in-Law for Christmas. The beginning of my project doesn't give any clues as to the finished afghan AT ALL! And, like all the other crocheters, I had a problem with the corner squares - because they didn't work up square. Bernat invited us to submit photos of our completed projects, and you can see mine here and the other participants' afghans in Bernat's crochet-along Flickr set.

What I learned:

• When divided into weekly tasks, the finished project was easily achievable; having a goal of completion before Christmas helped, too.
• Even do-it-yourself afghans are not cheap.
• I really enjoyed working on this, and re-discovered my love of crochet after several years of knitting smaller projects.
• I now know how to work at the required gauge in order to make the squares the same size.
• One of the colors in my project yarns was much skinnier than the others, even though they were all Bernat's "Softee Chunky" - something to be aware of, if I use several colors of yarn in a future project.
• The other participants' comments were helpful in answering some of my questions. Their friendly and encouraging responses each week helped keep me on track. This is a great way to keep the momentum going when working on a big project.

Department Store Windows

When I was about 3 or 4 years old, my Gramma would take me "Downtown Honolulu" on the bus, and we would walk up and down the sidewalk looking at the animated Christmas displays in the store windows. It was so amazing to me to see Santa waving, elves ice-skating, reindeer noses blinking, Mrs. Santa baking cookies and Christmas tree lights twinkling.

This year, in Sacramento, some antique animated figures were reconditioned and are on display at 10th and K. They don't look much like the ones I remember, but the magic is still moving!