After a day filled with making rectangles and squares, for my state fair project, I wanted to end my crochet day with something I could finish.

Additionally, I wanted to work on an existing project so that I was “not starting something new.” After surveying the available UFO’s, it was clear that any one of the many squares I have yet to complete for the 101 Crochet Squares, crochet-along I am involved in would meet those requirements, so I picked one.

While I had a large number of options, I settled on Square 78, which shares an element with Michelle Kludas’s Nana Square (which I think of as the “sublime square) that is no doubt part of what attracted me to this motif.

I love the “fullness” of this design and made my first “sublime squares” in early July, working them in what I think of as the colors of summer:

One feature of the Nana Square that distinguishes it from a standard granny formula is the groupings of four sets of four double crochet stitches at the center of the square (or treble stitches as they are known in the UK and other countries that use UK crochet nomenclature), and it is this grouping of four double crochet at the beginning of a square worked in the round that seems to pull me in every time.

Square 78 had the same double crochet cluster grouping at the center, so with my 4.5mm hook in hand, and an unused skein of Red Heart Super Saver pink begging to be crocheted with, I set to work.

In the hour after dinner and before sunset, I was expecting to crochet mindfully, keeping focused on the business at hand, which I managed to do until I neared the end of the third round.

At that point, I made an error. Unaware that there was anything wrong in my crochet universe, I continued to the next round.

Then, as I neared the final corner of round 4, I saw the error I had made at the end of round three. The nature of the design and the nature of the mistake were such that there was only one option: unravel it to the point of the error.

When I finally finished round 4, I felt a sense of victory (at least for the moment) over my wandering mind:

And from that point I was able to continue my work on Square 78 without error:

There are a lot of things I like about this square. Working most of the stitches through the back loop only gives it a drape that would be very nice in a shawl or even a sweater. But what I liked best about working on it this evening was the opportunity it gave me to practice, at least for a moment, a more mindful crochet.