I don’t recall the sequence of events that led me to Manic Yarn’s Mr. Yarn Bones crochet pattern, but that hardly matters now. I am, as they say, hooked.

I have grand plans for this pattern, but before I can bring those grand plans to fruition, I have to make my first Mr. Yarn Bones. But before I even took hook to yarn to crochet on stitch, I decided to go with a Ms. Yarn Bones—or if not an entire Ms. Yarn Bones, at least the skull of Yoricka—named in honor of the jester in Hamlet who left behind only a skull.

For my first effort with the pattern I had my eye on some reclaimed Red Heart Super Saver baby pink that I had nearby. I wasn’t quite sure where to start, but I thought that under the circumstances, I would try with the beginning.

With the pattern downloaded and the materials I would need for the skull assembled, I sat down to get started, but was first confronted with this:

Read through BEFORE starting? It was a big ask, but since I only had to read through one section before beginning, it was doable.

But honestly, by the time I had gotten to the end of the directions for the skull, my fingers were itching to get started.

This is not a pattern you can work while talking or watching a television show. This is a pattern meant for contemplation and exact counting, but the payoff, so far, has been good.

Before the sun set completely last night I had gotten this far:

Not a whole lot to look at, but after I had completed some errands today, I was to continue my work, and with careful counting, I made more progress:

And because this is my first crochet skull, as I worked the pattern, I was trying to understand where the eyes and nose cutouts would go and how all of the pieces would fit together:

Obviously, finishing this one pink skull for an imaginary Shakespearean jester named Yoricka is not an entire skeleton, it is just one part, but I am curious to see just where she leads me.