I was good all morning.

I dogsat my mother’s dog, Toby, and while I was in his charge, my crochet activity was confined to making pieces that would be used in my 2011 North Carolina State Fair project. Square after square, rectangle after rectangle, single crochet stitch after single crochet stitch.

After dog sitting, I went home.

I washed a few dishes, folded a few clothes, and made a few more pieces for my state fair project.

More squares, more rectangles, more single crochet stitches.

I even wove in ends.

Then it was time to take my son to his trumpet lesson, and I was bad.

Very bad.

Instead of packing up my worsted weight yarn and steeling myself to make more of the pieces needed for the state fair project, I grabbed my Twinkie Chan book:

and all of the “ingredients” necessary to make a red velvet cupcake scarf. I started with a skein of Lion Brand Yarn Homespun in the “deco” colorway for the frosting:

Red Heart Super Saver burgundy for the cupcake proper, and Red Heart Super Saver cherry red for the cherry on top.

While my son’s trumpet teacher took him through exercises designed to help my son adjust to playing the trumpet while wearing braces, I pulled out the center of the Homespun and, using an 5.5mm hook, followed Ms. Chan’s directions for the frosting.

While the directions were somewhat unorthodox when compared to the typical nomenclature of crochet, they were flawless, and before my son’s lesson ended, I had made this cupcake (seen with ends not yet woven in):

as well as this cupcake complete with a cherry to be attached after all of the cupcakes are made and assembled:

One strategy I found enormously helpful when using the Lion Brand Yarn Homespun was to make liberal use of stitch makers. It was particularly helpful to mark the third chain of a series of three chains that are used as the first double crochet in a row, and it was also helpful in marking where I would work the double crochet shells that formed the scallops of the frosting.

The use of the stitch markers greatly reduced my frustration in working with this boucle yarn which in turn greatly added to my enjoyment.

This scarf promises to be a lot of fun, and in the next few weeks as I focus on my state fair project, it will be nice to take a cupcake break every now and again.