My life has changed a lot since I began this stash down challenge.

The first major change, as many readers are aware, is that Clooney, the much anticipated puppy, joined our household. This has curtailed a number of my activities, as he is at an age (11- 12 weeks) that requires a good deal of supervision. He is, as puppies go, exceptionally good, but even exceptionally good puppies must be watched carefully and walked often.

The second major change has been the return to Standard Time from Daylight Savings. While I am happy that my son is walking to the bus stop somewhat after sunrise instead of well before it, I have to be much more vigilant about photographing my projects before dinner.

There is no time to do “just one more thing” unless that one more thing is to take a photo.

With that in mind, I thought I had arranged my day to have plenty of time to get a photo of my work on Alice Merlino’s Starling Handbag with the sides completed, and at 2:30 today, I was ready to do just that; however, as I looked over my work, I discovered a mistake seven rows back from where I was, and it was not a mistake I could overlook.

One of the unique features of the Starling Handbag design is that even though it is worked “in the round,” the last stitch of the row is joined to the first stitch of the same row, then a chain is made and the entire piece is turned to begin work on the next row. The effect of this is that the stitches (overall) are much straighter and do not drift toward the right or the left (the direction of the drift depends on whether you crochet right of left handed).

On the fateful 27th row, I had completed all the steps, save one; I failed to turn my work. Once I discovered the error and the odd little line it left, I pulled out the seven rows worth of stitches and did it all over again.

Fortunately, my second effort went better and an hour later, I was able to take these photos:

With the side of the purse completed and another hour of daylight left, I turned my attention to a pattern that had been sitting in my inbox for ages.

A Ravelry friend, May Cheang, had designed an intriguing scarf, the pattern for which she sells at her Etsy store. I gotten a copy of the directions and had been meaning to try it out for quite awhile. I love May Cheang’s approach to crochet and wanted to learn more about her designs by making one of them.

So today, armed with a 5.0 mm hook and worsted weight yarn rather than the 6.5 mm hook and the chunky weight yarn called for, I raced against the sunset to see what I could get done.

May Cheang’s pattern gives both the number of stitches you need to make it as shown in her example as well as the formula needed to make any number of repetitions you choose. As I was using a lighter weight yarn, I added two more repeats of the motif. After an hour, I had completed the worsted weight Roda scarf (roda means “wheel” in Malaysian) with 17 wheels. I used a vintage Sayelle Orlon from Dupont in a color called morning glory:

My race against sunset left me with no time to do the finishing work, but I expect that at some point this evening, I will be able to sit down for at least a few minutes and attend to those loose ends.