When I posted my blog on Tuesday night, my most recent crochet soccer ball was almost complete. All that was left to do was to stuff it, whipstitch three short seams, weave in one last end, and then trim said end.

However, stuffing is not one of my more impressive crafting skills, so I tend to avoid it, which means I don’t ever get appreciably better at it.

But my youngest son and I were due to leave for home on Wednesday, so before I went to bed, I pulled out a large bag of fiberfil stuffing and got a start.

To get the best results stuffing first thing you need to do is to remove the stuffing from the bag and “fluff” it to get some air into it. Once you have done that, it is ready to be “stuffed” into the object that needs stuffing.

So I fluffed and stuffed and fluffed and stuffed, and then, unable to fluff and stuff one more handful of fiberfil, I went to bed.

When I woke up in the morning, my first thoughts were of the soccer ball. Could I get it done before it was time to leave for our return trip to North Carolina?

I looked over my progress from the previous night:

It was a bit daunting, but I really wanted to leave the soccer ball as hostess gift, so with a cup of coffee and a renewed sense of determination (as well as a good night’s sleep), I got back to my fluffing and stuffing, and soon enough, it was done:

I then took the soccer ball for a look around. First stop, a table where it was possible to survey the entire yard:

Next up was the yard itself:

By now I was running out of time and needed to pack up the car and get on the road, so I left the soccer ball reclining in a comfortable chair:

The drive home was both exhilarating and arduous. After making one last stop in Illinois at Chuck Wagon Charlie’s in Burnt Prairie, Illinois (the cleanest gas station/convenience store I have ever been to in my entire life), we began our trip in earnest.

About fifteen minutes later, we crossed into Indiana, continuing east, we traversed into Kentucky where we began the southward portion of our trek, through West Virginia, Virginia, and somewhere between nine and nine-thirty in the evening, we were back in North Carolina with less than three hours left to drive.

This morning, there was a coffee to be made, a dog to be walked, and a car to be unpacked.

When I finally got a chance to work on my crochet, I decided I would use my newly found stuffing mojo and finish these four jellyfish:

I had left them on the dining table/desk in my crochet office where they had languished in my absence. Working from the same bag of fiberfil, I got to work, trimming ends, embroidering faces, and taking care of the last few details to be attended to, and then, I stuffed them, and I was pretty happy with the result:

So pleased, I took a second photo:

When you are able to do one thing well, it can be difficult to set it aside to do something you aren’t able to do as well, but learning something new can sometimes be well worth the effort.