At some point in our lives someone somewhere will advise us to “choose your battles wisely,” but sometimes our battles pick us, and we don’t always have the choices we would like: wise or otherwise.

One such instance is Donn, the husband of a friend from high school. He has been undergoing treatments for sarcoma for nearly two years now, and as time passes, the treatment options grow fewer and more invasive.

Some of my long-time and regular readers might remember that last August I was in a hurry to make two matching spiky beanies — one for Donn and one for this grandson, Zachary.

I had offered to make the hats with the idea that Donn and Zachary could have a grandfather/grandson adventure while wearing the hats, and that Zachary would forever be able to look at his hat and remember happy times he had spent with his grandfather which is what they did, and, as of today, are still doing:

Recently, I woke up to a message at Facebook from Donn’s wife, Becky (who is, among other things, a compulsive planner); she asked if I would be willing to help with a spaghetti dinner that is schedule for April 12 — could I, she wanted to know, crochet some yellow ribbons to be used as favors for the guests?

She had sent me a link to a photo of what she had in mind. After a somewhat involved chat that included multiple links sent back and forth from Pinterest, Ravelry, and other internet crafting destinations, Becky and I settled on a pattern that I would try later that morning.

At the first opportunity I sat down with some yellow yarn and this free video tutorial from Donna Wolfe (aja Naztazia®) and made this ribbon:

While I loved the design, it was more than a little bit larger than what my friend was looking for. Building on what I learned from making Naztazia’s pattern, I came up with this idea:

Then, later that same day, when I was at a crochet meet-up at my LYS, Yarn Tree Studio, I made one more revision:

I have since stopped revising the pattern and am now working toward completing enough of the crochet ribbons that everyone who attends the dinner will be able to take one home, which means that between now and April 12, I have a lot of ends to weave in.

And should you want to make ribbons for someone important in your life, here is a complete photo tutorial to help you along.

We don’t always get to choose the battles we have to fight; sometimes we can only choose how we fight them.