Sometimes life is straightforward and easy, and sometimes it’s complicated. Today was a little of both. I (and many people I know) are ready for winter to be over, but with two days left until the official start of spring, winter once again asserted itself, and we awoke this morning to icicles everywhere:

As a result of the weather, school was once again cancelled. Fortunately, I had everything we needed to get through a snow (or in this case “ice”) day, and once I had eaten breakfast and walked the dog, I was ready to begin work on the “cookie bag.”

I had intended for this to be simple, straight forward project, but yesterday, after having woven in and trimmed all of the ends of the ends:

(even on the back)

I decided that “just one more thing” was in order, and that one more thing was backs for the cookies to give the motif a bit more structural integrity. I made the circles needed to accomplish this:

and carefully joined them, weaving in all of the ends and trimming them:

What I had were these two delightful motifs that were completely unsuited to my purpose:

In my original vision, this was a one Saturday project.

Clearly it had gotten a bit out of hand. Uncertain of what to do, I grabbed my copy of “The Adventurous Crocheter.” In the chapter on purses (which runs just three pages long, and covers how (and why) to line a purse, as well as information on straps), I came across this observation:

The 2nd school of thought…makes delicate purses that admittedly you can stuff only a wallet and 1 or 2 items, but which are more suited to the graceful style of crochet.

With those words in mind, I set aside my new Cookie Mandalas/Trivets, and began work on another, simpler version of the bag I so desperately want. By the time I had to set my hooks aside for dinner, I had gotten this far:

My hope is that tomorrow, after I have dispensed with the morning’s chores, I will be able to bring my vision closer to reality, and bring the cookie bag of my imagination to life.