While I spent all of Saturday evening glued to the television watching the two basketball games that comprise the Final Four, I had spent most of Saturday itself waiting for the squares of my bag-to-be to dry.
The previous day I had woven in the many ends of the granny squares that comprise the bag, and as I worked in one end and then another, I could not help but notice the large number of cat hairs that had attached themselves to the pieces of what would be my new bag.
After lifting off as much cat hair as I could with my lint roller, there was still a lot of cat hair left, so I soaked the squares in a mild soap, rinsed them well, used towels to roll the excess moisture out, and then set them out to dry where the cat could not get cozy with them.
Today, with the squares as free of cat hair as I could reasonably expect to get them, I laid them out, deciding on this arrangement:

Then using my 4.0 mm hook and a single crochet stitch through both loops, I joined the squares. Here is how it looked with all but two seams completed:

To get a better sense of how the bag would look when completed, I secured the areas yet to be seamed with removable stitch markers. Here is one side of the bag-to-be:

and here is the other:

I still have to line the bag and figure out how exactly I want to finish it, but there is light at the end of this particular crochet tunnel, and I will continue to move toward that light, one stitch at a time.
So beautiful!
This has come together in an exquisite design and an explosion of beautiful color.
Love it! This makes me want to try one for myself!