A couple of weeks ago I decided I wanted to enter something in the Puyallup Fair, which is held next month. I didn't realise, however, that the competitive entries were due to be submitted this weekend ... leaving myself only about two weeks to decide on a design and complete it. Nothing like setting yourself a challenge...

Found a wonderful yarn shop in Seattle that stocks a wide range of different wools, yarns and ribbons ... the sort of place I could wander around for ages, and spend a lot of money in . I found a nice brand of pure wool that felt wonderful to the touch. So for the last two weeks I've been spending about 15mins a row, 4 1/2 hours a skein to finish this thing in time. Today I finished - and the last day to submit entries is tomorrow!

The last thing we had to do was block the finished piece, to take all the wrinkles and curls out of the design. Andy chopped a large bit of cardboard from our collection in the garage waiting for recycling, and we trawled the craft stores looking for some blocking wires - no luck there, so settle on some florist wire as a substitute. Then came the process of weaving the wires around the edge of the piece, and pinning it into place ...

After pinning it out, Andy made a few passes with a steam cleaner I'd bought several months ago. Not much good as a bathroom cleaner, but it definitely did the trick on the afghan! Apart from the smell of wet wool in the kitchen, I'm very happy with the result - just like a bought one. We'll drive down to Puyallup tomorrow to drop it off, then I'll have to wait until the end of the month before I can pick it up again. Phew!