I would have loved to have spent the entire day crocheting and working out the details of my 2015 North Carolina State Fair project, but today that was just not an option. Sometimes something happens and life requires that you press the pause button, so I did.

By the time I got settled in after a morning and early afternoon of errands, I didn’t have anywhere near the time I needed to begin the work of figuring out what form this puzzle that is my 2015 state fair project will take, let alone determine where the pieces are supposed to go and whether or not they fit.

With the realization that working on the state fair project today would most likely lead to errors and frustration, I set it aside and instead began work on a mandala for the crocheter known as Wink.

Many of my readers probably already know about Wink. She was a gifted crocheter who had a particular talent for designing (among other things) crochet mandalas, and she found crochet to be of great relief and help during some of the darker times she experienced as the result of depression.

Sadly, this past June, Wink was unable to to crochet her way out of an intractable dark period, and she departed this world.

To honor Wink’s memory, Kathryn Vercillo of Crochet Concupiscence fame, has begun a #MandalasforMarinke project, so I took the small block of time and the large pile of yarn that I did have, tracked down Marinke/Wink’s Spoked Mandala pattern, and got to work.

In what seemed almost no time, I had four rounds done:

then two more:

and then still two more:

When the sun rises on tomorrow, I expect it will take me almost no time at all to finish the two remaining rounds.

I know that this mandala will not bring Marinke back the family and friends who no doubt loved her very much and miss her even more, but I hope that it will bring them some measure of comfort to know that she will continue to change the world, one stitch at a time.