I finish one of the items that absolutely had to be done before Christmas

Today found me still exhausted from obligations of the past week, but I also had one project that absolutely, positively needed to be done before Christmas.

I had trouble summoning the energy, but after enough coffee had been drunk and enough time — the morning and half of the afternoon — had passed, I was able to focus some Christmas crafting energy on my crochet projects, and, after more time than I had anticipated, I finished stuffing the crochet soccer ball worked in the colors of a young girl’s favorite college team.

Before the onslaught of errands and lessons and rehearsals and performances that was Friday, I had managed to get this far with stuffing the soccer ball:

Duke Blue crochet soccer ball, crochetbug, crochet hexagons, crochet pentagons, crochet flowers, African Flower hexagons
The crochet soccer ball, partially stuffed and with one pentagon to be joined

All of the hexagons and pentagons were crocheted, most of them were joined; all that remained was the stuffing. But as anyone who had ever tried to stuff a toy knows, it is a skill and it takes time.

Today, I continued to “fluff and stuff” until I thought it would burst.

Then, I attached the last pentagon:

Duke Blue crochet soccer ball, crochetbug, crochet hexagons, crochet pentagons, crochet flowers, African Flower hexagons
The completed Duke Blue crochet soccer ball

At some point, it will sink in that this project is done, but in the meantime, I need to move forward and get to work on the next one:

Detail of the Duke blue crochet soccer ball that I had to get done before Christmas
Detail of the Duke blue crochet soccer ball that I had to get done before Christmas