This year’s state fair project has been a bit more nerve wracking for me than usual.

I knew that I wanted to make an afghan that celebrated my maternal grandmother’s life, but I had no clear idea what form it would take.

Fortunately all of that changed today.

Tuesday, after I had finished my crochet for the day but before I had written my blog post, I got out a piece of paper and made a detailed list of everything I wanted to get done by tonight’s blog post.

The list was long and included (among other things) the following items:

Crochet one-round granny squares for windows

Finish felting one-round granny squares for windows

Finish crocheting squares for the hedge

Crochet at 13 light green squares

Crochet 6 orange squares

Understood, but not on the list: weave in as many ends as possible.

I lost the list, and while I fell short of accomplishing every item on it, the list did help me stay on track to do what needed to be done: namely, making as many squares as possible.

By sunset, I had finished weaving in most of the ends on most of the squares I had made, and I had finished making squares for the five bottom rows of the 18 rows that will comprise the center panel of this project, and as can be seen from this photo, the elements of the center panel are beginning to reveal themselves:

I still don’t know what exactly I will do once I finish the center panel.

And while I am not entirely comfortable flying by the seat of my pants this way, I guess the first thing on my next list should read: work on the design of the next panel of my 2014 North Carolina State Fair afghan.