I might be in a hurry, but this project definitely is not.

Despite the looming deadline of a wedding date, this project does not care that the invitations have been sent, reservations have been made, and travel arrangements have been set; this beach-blanket-to-be just doesn’t care, which, I suppose, is the ethos for which is is being made.

In a way, the beach is where I go when I want time to standstill, and it seems that despite my sometimes frantic efforts to finish this project, the project will have none of it. It will be done in due time (and, I hope, on time), but it will not be rushed, because that is not what the beach is about.

While the aesthetic of the project is part of what is taking me so long, another part of it has to do with me. Today, I was home long enough to notice the accumulation of dog and cat hair and to feel a need to do something about it, so before turning myself over the pursuit of crochet, I vacuumed up the animal hair and then mopped the floor that had been hidden underneath it. With the floor looking so much better, I was at last able to concentrate on the square at hand, Square D-4.

The first time I made this project, I followed the directions somewhat and my Square D-4 looked nothing like the square in the photo.

This time, I was determined to get at least a bit closer. My effort can be seen here:

and while this effort did come closer to capturing the aesthetic of the original, it was not an exact replica as it is only 28 stitches across (as opposed to the 38-40 stitches across of the original), and it has 14 rather than 18 rows. My best guess is that the square in the original piece was made with a DK or sportweight yarn and a hook smaller than what was used for most of the granny square sampler.

With those changes, I was able to make a square that fit the space reasonably well. Here is the square before joining:

and here it is after:

Once joined, I crocheted a small strip of treble crochet stitches to fill a gap. Here is the detail of that work:

and here is an overview of the project so far:

Sometimes we feel more powerful than we are, imagining that we can force a project forward to meet our very real, and at the same time, very artificial time tables. Other times, we are blithely unaware of the power we do have and squander it.

As for this project, with a lot of perseverance and a bit of luck, I just might able to get it done in time.