Yesterday I got as caught up in the eclipse as anyone.

While I don’t live in what was the path of totality, I live in the path of 93% or so totality, and so I was out on my back deck yesterday, colander in one hand, cellphone in the other, ready to document the event.

It turned out I didn’t even need the colander. The bits of light breaking through the shade on my back deck were an accurate reflection of the state of the eclipse:

In just a couple of minutes later the crescents had become clearer and the shadows had deepened:

And then, after 99 years of waiting since the last transcontinental eclipse, it was over, and I resumed work on my now 2017 North Carolina State.

I have a lot of the pieces crocheted, but until I put them together, I don’t know exactly how they will fit or where there will be gaps that need to be filled in with more bits and pieces; so yesterday and today, I ignored any doubts and concerns I might have, and I began to seam the pieces together.

The seaming is not always a quick process. Sometimes I get it right the first time, but more often I don’t, so I started with a simply, short, straight line, and I took these two pieces that serve to outline a large piece I crocheted:

and using one of the long ends I had left, in relatively short order, I had them joined:

Feeling inspired, I tried my hand at seaming this corner:

and after one snafu that required I pull out the stitches, it was done:

By now I was a little tired of seaming, and decided to switch gears and do some embroidery which, while more fraught with errors, is also, in some ways, more gratifying, and I got this far with one of the crochet fans:

There is still a lot of work to be done, but I am beginning to feel that I am on the cusp of being able to make larger strides with this work, and I will continue moving forward, one stitch at a time.