I had trouble getting to sleep last night.

The weight of not knowing what I would do for my annual state fair project weighed heavily on my mind.

I grabbed a stack of crochet books and began to leaf through them. Either everything looked good, or nothing did.

I was too tired to reliably follow directions for a new or unfamiliar pattern, so I abandoned the search altogether and turned to my ever favorite stash bag pattern.

J-hook in hand, I selected the colors of medium thyme and camouflage from my Red Heart Super Saver stash to make what I term, a stealth stash bag. Here is a view from the top:

one from the side:

and a photo of the stealth stash bag hidden among the leaves:

Working on the stash bag seemed to do the trick. I awoke this morning with a sense of renewed purpose and went directly to the bookcase in my crochet empire and pulled Melody Griffith’s Crocheted Afghans: 25 Throws, Wraps, and Blankets to Crochet from the shelf.

I purchased this book in the spring of 2010, when my youngest son and I traveled to California so he could visit with his two older brothers.

As it happened, Apple had recently released the iPad, and I was able to negotiate time in the craft section of a nearby Barnes & Noble for time in the Apple store investigating the iPad.

While we did not get an iPad that day, I did get this book:

While there were at least half-a-dozen patterns I was interested in making, but the project that tipped me over the edge was the pattern for crocheted yo-yos.

While the original pattern called for a DK weight yarn and a 4.5 mm hook, I used my beloved Red Heart Super Saver (a worsted weight yarn) and a 5.5 mm hook. Here is one yo-yo I made:

and here is another:

If I decide that this is the motif I am going to go with for my 2011 North Carolina State Fair project, I will, most likely, not used the variegated yarn. While it has a very interesting effect, I am not altogether certain how I would make that work for the overall project.

Whatever I end up doing for this project, I will get to a point where I simply have to ignore my doubts and continue to move forward, no matter what.