Today was one of those days where everything went right.

Last week, I came across this photo of a granny circle pillow cover at Ravelry:

By clicking on various links and buttons, I found that the creator of this wonderful granny circles was Andie Handley, and I learned that she would be reposting the directions for this crocheted wonder at her blog sometime in the next two weeks.

Lucky me, the forecast wait of two weeks shrank to two days, and after looking over the directions, I was ready to get started except for one small matter: where to get a round pillow form?

Having other errands to attend to, I was not able to put forth my best effort tracking down the needed pillow form until today, but with just one phone call to the JoAnn Fabric and Craft Store nearest my home, I was able to find what I needed, and when I got to the store, not only did I find the pillow forms in a variety of sizes, they were on sale for half price.

After careful deliberation, I got three 14″ pillow forms to decorate the guest bed in my crochet empire/guestroom, and one 16″ pillow form to put on a wicker rocking chair in my living room. Here is a photo of one of the 14″ forms:

In addition to the pillow forms, I also bought this book:

Suzann Thompson’s book, Crochet Bouquet, is one that has tempted me on more than one occasion, but as I have a collection of several crochet flower books, I had trouble persuading myself I needed one more. Today, however, with a 30% off sale, I lost all resistance.

Once at home with my crafting purchases, I decided that I would give Andie Handley’s Granny Cushion Cover a try, and I would use colors outside my comfort zone:

I selected Red Heart Super Saver French Country variegated yarn as the base color. I then consulted the Coats and Clark Multicolor Coordinate List and added Red Heart Super Saver soft white, lemon, light blue, and delft to the palette I would be using:

Ms. Handley’s pattern suggests a 4.00 mm hook to be used with a DK weight yarn; however, I am using a 4.00 mm hook with a worsted weight yarn. I expect I will end up with a somewhat firmer cushion cover as a result.

Yarn selected and hook in hand, I got busy, and while this first effort is not my quickest work (I only got six rounds of the granny cushion cover done today), I am delighted with the roundness of the pattern so far:

So far, this is an extremely satisfying project, and I think it will provide me much needed respite and perspective on the road to making the 1352 pieces I will need for my 2011 state fair project.