Today I found myself attending to household chores most of the early morning, while I spent the late morning and early afternoon in waiting rooms.

Usually when I confront the prospect of waiting, I simply throw hooks and yarn into whatever bag I am carrying, and once I am situated in my designated seat, I crochet to my heart’s content.

But having promised myself I would start no new projects, and having spent most of the morning, attending to things that needed attention, I found that I had been caught in a time vortex and had with just four minutes to get out the door if I were to arrive at my destination on time.

As I rifled through the assorted unfinished projects in my crochet empire, my copy of Iris Rathbone’s Crochet: a modern guide to an ancient craft caught my eye:

I bought the book many years ago, when, instead of spending my evenings at Ravelry, Facebook, and Pinterest, I spent more than one evening looking through the used crochet book offerings at Powells online.

Over time, I amassed a library of interesting crochet books, and Iris Rathbone’s seminal work on the subject was one of my particularly precious finds.

So today, while I waited, instead of pulling out my hooks and yarn, I read, and in the reading I was reminded of why this slim volume which lacks the slick production values of today’s books is so dear to me.

Iris’s earnestness and enthusiasm for crochet is infectious and carrying her book with me when I have to be out is a bit like keeping a very like-minded friend within easy reach, and having her nearby made the waiting pleasant rather than onerous.

Once my chores, waiting, appointments, and shopping were done for the day, I still had a small bit of daylight with which I could work while I waited for Iago, the name The Weather Channel has given to the storm that promises to bring snow to Raleigh, and has (as I write this) begun to blanket the area an hour west of me with snow.

With the daylight quickly fading I got out my H hook, and set to work on a fourth square for a long dormant “Sisterhood of Colors” granny square swap I have with a crochet peep in Texas. The rules of the swap are simple: the square should be a twelve-inch granny square that has black in it.

I decided to combine these rules with a slip stitch technique I developed for my “If Frank Stella Crocheted” project:

I began work on my fourth Sisterhood of Colors square, and added a round of black slip stitches to each round of contrasting color. Worked with fewer rounds between the lines of slip stitch contrast added a textural effect that is not present in the larger project where the lines of contrast are more widely spaced.

Here is how far I got before sunset:

I am not at all certain that Iago will make it to my neck of the woods, but if he does, and if there really does end up being snow on the ground, I will definitely make use of the light that will be bouncing off that snow to finish this square, and once I am done with that, I will once again pick up Iris Rathbone’s guide and see what I have left to learn.