This weekend I put all of my crochet energy into the flamingo-inspired practically perfect bag, and yesterday, just before sunset, I finished all of the squares I would need for the body of the bag.

Sort of.

When I took those same squares in the light of a new day, I noticed a few things I could not abide.

One problem was that two of the squares looked a bit too large.

I got out my tape measure and measured the offending squares multiple times in an effort to make them the right size.

When that failed, I decided I would frog them as much as was needed and rework them until the size was right, which I did.

Eventually.

But what had caught my eye and bothered me even more than two slightly too large squares was the fifth-round of a single square, the colors of which looked fine when the square was all on its own, but which did not play nicely with the other squares when photographed as a group.

So I frogged squares as needed, reworking where necessary, and then when I was done, I took all of the squares back outside and laid them out again.

This time, after moving them her and moving them there, I finally had an arrangement that worked for me:

With the placement of the squares decided, I got out my stash and began the task of joining the squares, and then, shortly before sunset, I had it almost all done:

and I even took a moment to see how the bag looked with the fabric that had inspired it:

When I start a project, I often have an general idea how the project will look when finished, but I find that it is necessary to keep an open mind and a ready hook because while I have an overall sense of where I want to go, I never know the specific details of how I will get there.