While I spent much of my crochet day wrestling with the Mamy bag that has thus far, successfully resisted my efforts to finish it, by the time mid-afternoon arrived, I was ready to set the renegade bag aside and gather together more finishing mojo for the last push to finish the project that refuses to be finished.

To that end, I checked in at the 101 Crochet Squares crochet-a-long group at Ravelry, of which I am a member. As it happened, I had several squares to choose from, and after looking through my copy of of Jean Leinhauser’s book and giving it some thought, I settled on Square 96.

My main reason for choosing this particular square over all of the others I had yet to finish was that after an arduous morning where I attempted to bring order to my Mamy-bag-to be, the idea of working on a project that would result in only four ends to weave in was very appealing, and it also lent itself to exploring one of my favorite design tools at the Red Hear yarn website, the Multi-color Coordinate list, which I use as a guide to combining solid colors with the variegated yarns.

After settling on the ombre of Plum Pudding for the center:

I carefully looked over the coordinates (which included the following: Medium Purple, Orchid, Dark. Orchid, and Light Fuchsia) and trimmed the square with Dark Orchid:

I am pleased with the way the square came out. Although the nature of the variegated yarn makes some of the design elements of the central motif more difficult to see, the variegation does give the motif a movement and interest that does not happen with the solid colors.

I am hoping that the finishing energy generated from Square 96 (and a good night’s sleep) will catapult me to a finish with the Mamy bag.