When I got up this morning, I awoke to a message on Facebook from a high school friend who lives five times zones ahead of me. Little did I know what adventures and misadventures awaited.

She ended the message with these words:

Hope you have a wonderfully productive day! XX

I decided to do what I could to make this hope a reality, and I started by getting myself to the post office with a few items I had ready and needed to send.

With the boxes and envelopes that had been accumulating on a counter in my kitchen dispatched, I decided to tackle finding a scarf for the chemo cap I had made using Barbara in Florida’s Head Hugger Crochet Pattern 18.

I had been trying to find a suitable scarf for several days, stopping at various stores as I drove by them on the way to somewhere else, but today, I went out for the express purpose of finding a scarf that would work and determined that I would not come home until I did.

Happily, I found something that would work at my first stop, and I threaded it through the row of double treble stitches:

four over, and four under, as can been seen in greater detail here:

I made a decision to wash the hat before sending it, and while I was not entirely happy with the results, I am glad I did.

First, some dye did bleed out, so I used vinegar as a mordant to “fix” the dye.

Second, the fiber relaxed — a lot. So much so, that the hat went from large to ginormous.

While I was (in one respect) disappointed, I was also relieved that I had not sent it out without a thorough washing. I will be frogging and recrocheting the project so that even after washing, it will continue to fit the intended recipient.

After the hat debacle/revelation, I moved onto the second panel of the Tetrisghan.

Having already determined the layout of the pieces, the only thing that was left was to start joining them, which I did.

Here is how far I got before it was time to go to my son’s spring concert:

and here are the ends that will (no doubt) keep me busy over the weekend:

My friend wishing me a productive day was an amazingly effective tool in helping me to keep on track and achieve my goals, and I will definitely be thinking of her good wishes as I work to finish both the hat and the Tetrisghan, one stitch at a time.