In an interview published in the 1957 Spring-Summer issue of The Paris Review, Truman Capote was asked the following question by the interviewer, Pati Hill:

Are there devices one can use in improving one’s technique?

To which Capote replied:

Work is the only device I know of.

While they were discussing the craft of writing, Truman Capote’s observation applies to all crafts, including crochet. At some point we have to abandon thinking about doing and get to the doing itself which is, to some degree, where I found myself today.

As of this morning, there were sixty days between me and the deadline for my 2011 State Fair project. To that end, when I left the house to get my youngest son to the first in a series of orthodontic appointments that will span the next 24 months, I packed my newly completed stash bag with the tools and materials I would need for my work:

While the orthodontist examined my son’s mouth and plotted a course of action to straighten my son’s teeth, I sat in the waiting room for parents and began making the rectangles and squares that will be used in the quilt block motifs that will comprise this year’s state fair project.

And I was not the only parent working at her craft. Another mother was huddled over a pair of circular knitting needles, diligently adding stitches to her project.

By the time my son emerged from his first appointment to get me so that we could schedule the second appointment, I had completed 3 rectangles:

and five squares:

I expect that this LifeSavers® inspired project bag will be my constant companion for the next eight-and-a-half weeks, so that I where ever I find myself called to go, I can continue the work necessary to finish my 2011 state fair project: