A life of crochet isn’t just non-stop glamor.

Occasionally, once a crocheter has taken hook to fiber and created new and interesting projects (or pieces of projects), she must then attend to the details of transforming the elements of a project into a coherent, cohesive, and clean whole.

Case in point: my 2012 North Carolina State Fair project.

Yesterday, I enjoyed both sunshine and crochet and plied my hook to make these three center squares that will be the central part of three as-yet-to-be-completed multi-color motifs:

Today, however, I started my crochet day with a more mundane task.

As my regular readers are aware, I have a cat (Stripes) and a dog (Clooney):

As such, pet hair and dander are a part of almost every project I make.

In an effort to prepare my 2012 North Carolina State Fair project for entry, I have been washing the squares and then securing them in a pet-free room in my home, and today, I washed four more squares using the following procedure:

First, I soak the pieces in warm soapy water:

Next, I rinse the pieces:

Then, using a Spin’n Stor produce spinning bag:

I extract as much water as possible from the squares:

Next, I roll the squares in a dry towel to remove even more moisture.

Then, using this sweater dryer I purchased at a nearby grocery store:

I lay the pieces out to dry. When possible (as it was today) I dry them outside:

When I got to the point that all that was left to do was the drying, I sorted through the work I had done so far and determined that I needed just four more center squares.

To my delight, I finished all four:

I still have plenty of work to do before I can begin the assembly of this project, but my progress continues, one stitch at a time.