Today is the first day of 2017, and on the first day of the year I often set a list of intentions which in short order morphs from a general guide into an impossibly long list. And impossibly long lists are, as the phrase suggests, impossible, and this time around I am looking to do what is possible.

So this year, instead of trying to cram as many crochet items onto my daily agenda as I think will fit, I will instead, choose one item for each day, the idea being that if I have one thing that I am supposed to do, I am more likely to actually get it done.

So what was today’s crochet action item?

Upload photos of current projects to Flickr, and as is often true I am currently juggling more than one project. In fact, I have two:

• A sangria granny square flat bag
• A to-be felted fat bag

Yesterday, after much angst about when to sew in the lining of a crochet granny square purse and how to attach the as-yet-to-be-determined straps for said project and which thing should be done first, I decided to stop being angst ridden and just sew the lining in.

If it didn’t work out, I reasoned, I could take it out, attach the handles, and then sew the lining in. If it worked or it didn’t was irrelevant. Until I took the step of sewing the lining in, I wouldn’t know.

Here is how the bag looked with the lining sewn in:

and here is a detail of a length of my stitches:

It isn’t readily apparent in the photo, but the lining did give the bag more structure, and once it was sewn in, I realized that while my chosen order of operations might not be ideal, it will work.

Next, I decided to move forward with the felted bag to-be by felting a 24-inch length of chain stitches I had made in order to determine how long a chain I would need to crochet in order to have a tie closure that would not be too long or too short, but rather just right.

After one wash cycle, the chain had shrunk from 24 to 20 inches and was just 83% of it’s original length:

The chain was also still fairly open and bumpy which suggested that there was more felting to be done, so gathered a second load of laundry and three the partially felted chain in for another go round of water and agitation.

After the second wash cycle the chain had shrunk and additional 4 inches and measured 16 inches:

and while it is now just 67% of it’s original length, it’s current texture suggests to me the there is still more felting to be done.

I haven’t yet selected tomorrow’s crochet action item, but I will, and when I do, I will move forward the only way I can: one stitch at a time.