Because I have such a fervid and active imagination, I thought I was going to have a four-panel yarn bomb ready to go on Saturday morning. The installation of the hot air balloon yarn bomb would coincide with the first day of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

But it didn’t work out that way. Instead I finished one panel, made substantive progress on a second.

Lucky for me, the balloon fiesta runs though next Sunday, and with what I learned from making the first hot air balloon panel and the progress I made on the second panel, It’s not unreasonable to think that I could have it done by Tuesday.

I knew exactly what colors I was going to use and where, so there were no color decisions to be made, but increasing balloon colors had gone so well, I did not anticipate that the decreasing balloon colors would look so awkward.

It required a solution, but it took me several attempts to find something that would work, and while the finished panel isn’t (to my mind) as perfect as it could be, it is perfect enough:

All of which brings me to the second panel.

A more reasonable person would have gone with a solid color (where I think now I should have started), but when it comes to crochet, I am not always reasonable, so I got to work on a design that required a bit more of me than the first design had, and so far, it’s coming out pretty well:

I am still not convinced of the utility of a yarn bomb, but with each stitch, I care a little bit less. Picasso was not concerned with the utility of his paintings, Banksy does not seem to lose any sleep over whether or not his work has utility, so I will move forward as so many before me have: one stitch at a time.