We’ve all heard that every journey begins with a single step. It’s true, sometimes actually, but often metaphorically, because many journeys do not involve moving from one place to another.
It would be more accurate to say, “Every journey begins with a single step, and the traveler must continue making single steps until the journey is done.” But that doesn’t sound as good, and it takes much longer to embroider.
My Roses Cape journey began with a single stitch back in summer 2006. I knew it would take a long time to make. Some things distracted me from working on it steadily. I’ve been back at it for about six weeks now, with a checklist in hand.
I broke the tasks into manageable chunks, so I could keep up with my daily crochet tasks and still be able to have a life.
On May 22, I still needed to make 46 roses (2 per day would take 23 days), 80 leaves (4 per day), and 140 blue flowers (10 per day). I figured I could reasonably darn in ends of 20 flowers per day (25 more days). It would take about 4 days to pin out all the flowers on the cape pattern, and 49 days to sew them all together.
I made a list of days with checkboxes by them. The check marks are piling up, and so are the flowers! I can almost see light at the end of the tunnel! At the planned rate, the cape will be done on October 14, in plenty of time for me to wear it to Stitches East.
This post was brought to you by Crochet Bouquet, the book that has patterns in it for the flowers in the Roses Cape: “Oval Center Rose,” “Simple Five,” and “Rose Leaves.”