It is hard to believe that New Year’s Eve 2017 is upon us and that 2018 is nearing it’s arrival. As I write this, the new year has already begun in some places, but myself, I have a little time left to reflect on where I have been, and where I am going.

For the third year running, I failed to complete what began life as my 2015 North Carolina State Fair project. It was due in part to the fact that the level of detail is very detailed, but also due to the fact that the crocheter known as Olek was in town and doing a big installation at the Raleigh Convention Center.

It was an opportunity to learn how do to a large scale installation, and when push came to shove, that was a tool I wanted in my crochet tool kit, so instead of focusing solely on my state fair piece, my time and my attention were divided, and while I have no regrets, it reaffirmed for me that a divided focus makes it hard to get things done.

But at the moment, I am focused like a laser on reworking (as needed) a number of squares that were strewn about my crochet empire. My goal is to take the squares that are not quite, five-inches and six-inches, and to rework them into squares that will fit into one pile or the other.

The past couple of days, all of my attention was on the six-inch square pile.

This one, which began it’s life as crochet square 33 from Jean Leinhauser’s 101 Crochet Squares went quickly and easily. There was no extensive frogging or recrocheting, I just grabbed some red yarn, a 5.0 mm hook, and got to work. In no time at all, it was done:

The next square I worked on had begun its life as crochet square 79 from the same collection. The changes required were very subtle, but it ended up taking me several tries before I got it as square as I felt it should be:

With that done, I moved on to crochet square 7. This one was a challenge as the center is so very round, and while I wanted the square to be squarer, I did not want that to be at the expense of the very round wreath. It took a lot of frogging and recrocheting to get this one to work, but eventually, I did, and I was happy that I did not give up in frustration or “make do” with something that was somehow lesser:

The last square I had time to get done was crochet square 49. It was a fairly straightforward increase with which I had no trouble, but afterwards, I realized it was a slightly different shade of green, but rather than frog it and redo it, I decided that the slightly more muted shade of bright green did a better job framing it, so I let it be:

Then, just so I could see how (or if) these squares would work together, I got this group photo:

I don’t really know what 2018 will bring, but I do know that in 2017, I learned a lot, and am looking forward to putting my crochet skills to good use in 2018 as I work to change the world one stitch at a time.