When I got up this morning, I had no clear plan for my crochet.

The weather forecast described a clear, autumn day with a touch of lingering warmth of summer: perfect weather for crocheting en plein air while doing whatever laundry needed doing; but what, I fretted, would I crochet?

I have any number of unfinished projects to choose from, and while none of them held any appeal, I was loathe to begin work on anything new.

I wanted something familiar, something appealing, something elegant in its simplicity so that I could crochet on autopilot, leaving my mind free to wander and take in the scenery while I enjoyed the autumn breezes.

After far more thought than I usually give to such things, I settled on adding more Nana Squares to my collection:

The brainchild of Michelle Kludas, these squares had caught my eye late last spring while I was surveying the many projects at Ravelry.

In early July, using this pattern, my trusty 5.0mm hook, and my beloved Red Heart Super Saver yarn, I crocheted my first Nana Squares.

I found the experience to be both satisfying and sublime, so today, while I was trying to figure out what project went well with what could be the last warm day of autumn, I recalled the success of my early summer crochet experience with this design, and decided that I would revisit it with a different set of colors that better coordinated with the autumn landscape.

My afternoon of crochet was punctuated with two loads of laundry, a trumpet lesson, and a brief detour to work on a design of my own that came to me as I worked on one of this afternoon’s Nana Squares, but right before I sat down to eat dinner, I had finished seven new Nana Squares in a more autumnal palette seen here in a grid-like arrangement:

and seen here arranged in an arc:

Today I learned that the Nana Square is not just for summer; it is also the perfect project to while away an autumn afternoon.