I desperately want to transform my dining room into the crochet empire headquarters of my dreams, but it took me a long time to reach the level of entropy where I find myself, and at times, it seems that it will take me an equally long time to untangle (both metaphorically and literally) the many strands of yarn that comprise my current crochet universe.

There are any number of tasks I need to complete in order to make this transformation occur, but my two front burner tasks toward the goal of a more ordered crafting universe are to make potholders for my cousin Lois and finish enough crochet baskets to fill the eight cubbies of an Ikea storage unit.

Yesterday, having refined the potholder design over the weekend, I concentrated my efforts crocheting the potholders, and I not only finished crocheting all four of the future potholders, I also wrote the directions needed to write a coherent pattern.

Here is how the as-yet-to-be-felted potholders appeared in the light of a late afternoon:

Today, after tracking down the two additional skeins of yarn (one royal and one dark orchid) I would need to finish the baskets, I got to work and finished the dark orchid basket and made substantial progress on the royal basket:

By the time my son leaves for school tomorrow, it will probably be raining, and I will most likely spend the morning attempting to untangle the various yarns and projects to which I would like to bring order.

But in the early afternoon, when the expected rain has cleared, I will take advantage of the spring-like temperatures and tentative sunshine to work in my outdoor office, using my Wonder Washer to felt the potholders, and in finishing that one project, I hope to create a gentle, but persistent cascade of order that spreads throughout my entire crochet empire.