When I finished work on the Sunshine and Shadow baby blanket, I had every intention of getting back to the cookie bag and finishing it, but then I began to have doubts about it and thought that maybe (just maybe), I needed to take it apart and put it together in a different way.

But I wasn’t sure, so using some of the aptly named “carrot” Bernat Super Value yarn that was left over from the project I had just finished, and the pattern in Twinkie Chan’s book “Crochet Goodies for Fashion Foodies,” I decided to try my hand at making the carrot scarf.

Using the suggested 5.5 mm hook, I got started, only to notice that there were a lot of gaps between the stitches.

I stopped, crocheted a test swatch, compared it to the recommended gauge, found that it was a full inch wider than recommended, and then frogged both swatch and nascent scarf.

Next I got out my 5.0 mm hook, but this time, instead of starting with the scarf, I started with the swatch. I measured it and while it was 1/2 inch smaller than my 5.5 mm effort it was still 1/2 inch too large.

With that I frogged the swatch, got out my 4.5 mm hook, and set out, fairly confident that I would hit the gauge, or at least be close enough, and it turns out, I was.

Here is how it looked when I had finished with the orange yarn:

Next, I got out some of the green yarn that was left over from the same project and crocheted the leaves using a 4.0 mm hook instead of the recommended 5.0.

Here is how the greenery looked before the ends were woven in and the pieces joined:

here is how it looked with everything tidied up:

and here is the completed carrot scarf in all it’s glory, folded a bit here and there to get a picture that accurately conveys the overall effect:

With the carrot scarf done, I returned to the cookie bag and decided that I mostly liked it the way it was, and I did not want to change it after all.

So I finished crocheting the strap, sewed the one loose end of the strap to the corresponding gusset, and now all that is left is to line it.

Here is one side:

and here is the other:

While it is often useful to just plow ahead when working on a project, sometimes it is just as necessary to step back and give yourself time to get perspective, and now, I not only have perspective, I have a carrot scarf and am just a lining away from having an amazingly fun cookie bag.