When I first learned to crochet in January of 1998, I had no clear sense of where it would take me; I only knew that it was something I felt compelled to learn.

One of the first major projects I attempted was an afghan known as the Better Homes & Garden Granny Square Sampler.

Composed of a variety of granny square designs, the directions in the book were variable. Some were spot on, some were partially correct, and some were completely unrelated to the square depicted.

At the time, I lacked the skill and familiarity needed to decode the photos and create the squares as they appeared, but a dozen years later, I finally had the skill set, the determination, and the time to get it done, the result of which was this afghan:

And I was quite happy with it, but it differed from the one depicted on the cover of the book in that it was joined (as the instructions directed) with hundreds of whip stitches.

Although it had clearly been assembled using a join-as-you-go technique, I was not, at that point, comfortable with the join-as-you-go method, so I opted to follow three directions.

Eventually, however, I wanted to try to make it as shown and capture the movement that the join-as-you-go technique afforded, and after some missteps here and there, I completed my second effort:

Which got “discovered” by a beachwear company and was featured on a surfboard in the summer of 2014:

So when the opportunity to crochet a hat for the granddaughter of a friend from high school presented itself, I jumped at the chance. If I have learned anything from crochet, it is that you don’t always know what the nature of the opportunity you are being presented with ultimately is.

So after scouring baby hay patterns, I decided to go with a cupcake inspired design.

I expect to have it done and in the mail before the sun sets on tomorrow, and I hope the baby girl for whom it is intended will experience at least a fraction of the joy wearing it that I have (and will have) making it.

Sometimes you change your craft; sometimes your craft changes you, and there is really no way to know until you take hook to yarn and move forward one stitch at a tine.