While most of my day was devoted to work not connected to my 2013 intention to finish the many unfinished crochet projects that abound in my home, I did get to spend a couple of hours toward that goal.

The first thing I worked on was the Seafarer’s Cap designed by Beth Hall as part of her work with the Seamen’s Church Institute which is described on its website as “North America’s largest mariners’ service agency” whose mission since its founding in 1834 is to promote “the safety, dignity and improved working environment for the men and women serving in North American and international maritime workplaces.”

Until I stumbled on this website in the course of looking for an appropriate and attractive scarf to crochet for a man, I had not given any thought to the people who work on the ships that transport goods and keep the global economy functioning. No doubt I have purchased yarn that has been transported across the sea as part of its journey to my local yarn shop — including the yarn I used for the scarf and am using for the hat.

Thankfully, for the past 179 years, there were citizens more aware than I who have made it their mission to assist those working on the open seas, and as part of that mission they work to provide handmade hats and scarves that have a dual purpose: to day thank you and keep the recipient warm.

I started on the Seafarer’s cap because I very much liked the ribbed pattern. Initially, my work was very slow going and prone to error, but today, I seemed to have hit my stride with the stitch pattern and made good progress:

Once I had finished with the skeins of the two strands I was working with and the hat was safely out of the tangle zone, I set it aside and spent a few minutes adding three hexagons that had been sitting atop the piano in my living room waiting to be joined to the other hexagons that form my African flower hexagon meditation:

I am looking forward to tomorrow when I expect that I will have the project with a deadline completed and out of my hands, and I can turn my attention fully to the business of finishing the unfinished.