This coming Friday will mark the winter solstice for 2018. It will be the shortest day of the year, but it will give way to the days getting longer rather than getting shorter, and with the work I have to get done between now and next Tuesday, I could definitely used a longer day as the days I have now are, as Calvin of Calvin and Hobbes so eloquently put it, “just packed.”

In addition to the ordinary activities of daily living, my days have been packed with crocheting the pieces needed to make Twinkie Chan’s Gingerbread House Tissue Box Cozy.

I had made progress yesterday, but when I awoke this morning, I was several peppermint swirls, three Christmas trees, and two wreaths shy of finished:

So as the morning progressed, so did my work on the swirls and trees and wreaths, and while I didn’t take any time to weave in the ends, I did get all of the pieces needed crocheted:

With all of the work that was better done by natural light than artificial light done, I turned my attention to a design that I want to get done by Thursday if possible and by Friday at the latest.

Inspired by Ian Falconer’s famed fictional pig, Olivia, I got to work on making a pig’s ear.

Working from two different crochet renditions of Olivia as well as the many drawings in the Olivia books I had at my side, I tried making one ear (seen on the left) which to my mind ended up looking more like a pink Christmas light than a pig’s ear, and then another (seen on the right) which looked more like a pink Christmas tree:

and while I expect the ideal crochet pig’s ear looks like something one between, I ran out of time to work on the design.

Tomorrow will be a new day which will no doubt be packed as full as today was, and hook in hand, I will move forward one stitch at a time.