This afternoon, as the sun began to dip lower in the sky, I put the finishing touches on the pig I have decided to name Olivette.

After I published my last blog post I had thought that the work that was left to be done on the mini-meta crochet pig would be done quickly. I did, after all, have all of the pieces designed–or so I thought.

However, in the light of a new day, as I looked over the pieces and prepared to attach the ears, I thought they didn’t look as pointy as they might, and I decided to crochet one more ear–for the doubts.

In not too many minutes, I had a new–and to my mind, better–crochet pig’s ear. So then I took a few minutes to write some notes to properly document the new design. Next, I took a few more minutes to make a second, pointier ear.

It was pointier, but I hadn’t gotten the gauge right, so I frogged the second pointier ear and made it again. This time, I managed to match the gauge of the first pointier crochet ear, and in just over an hour-and-a-half, I was ready to go.

Except that with the improved ear, I started looking at the entire project for things to be improved, and with the ear addressed, the thing that bothered me most was how I had finished off the bottom of the body of the pig. It wasn’t as elegant as I would have liked, and while it was “good enough,” it also bothered me.

But I had no clear idea how to remedy what looked to me like a defect, so I decided to leave well enough alone and began checking over my notes for the head/body part of the mini-meta crochet pig pattern, and in doing that, I had an inconvenient epiphany. Not only was the first effort “not good enough,” I now had a “solution” to my “problem.”

So it was with a clear mission and a sense of reluctance that I began work on yet another crochet head/body for the mini-meta pig, and by early this afternoon, I had the details on the top half worked out:

Now all that was left to do was to crochet the body, stuff it, close it all up, and attach the arms and legs.

With the days still growing shorter, there wasn’t all that much daylight left in which to do it, so I got to work, reminding myself to keep my eye on the prize: a perfectly rendered mini-meta crochet pig.

TI regularly consulted a list I had at my side and managed to not succumb to any distractions, and with half-an-hour or more to spare, I almost finished the pig:

Now all I had left to do was find a name.

After asking everyone I could find to ask to help me settle my internal debate between the names, Olivette and Olivet, I finally settled on Olivette.

Olive, being a nod to the larger pig I designed, and for whom this is meant to be a tiny crochet pig companion, and the ending “ette” to acknowledge the smallness of this particular pig.

I suppose there are people who will look at Olivette and not appreciate the value of a mini-meta crochet pig, but I will continue moving forward, one stitch at a time, and here is a free pattern so you can make your own mini-meta crochet pig.