My efforts to finish the crochet strap for the sangria granny square bag were not in vain, but they were also not quick.

After frogging my most recent attempt, I found myself with a messy clump of yarn looking for an opportunity to tangle.

Not wanting to spend time untangling the yarn I had frogged, I got out my blue M & M nostepinne and set to work. In what seemed like no time at all, I had wrangled the renegade yarn into a reasonably orderly center pull ball of yarn.

Here it can be seen with the nostepinne still in place:

and here is a look through the center:

With the tangle in waiting dealt with, I was able to get out a crochet hook and move forward.

Using a length of contrasting yarn which I caed through every other stitch along the edge of the strap, I was finally able to get all of the stitches where I intended them, and with that, I finished crocheting the flower festooned strap for the sangria granny square bag.

What I had not anticipated was just how much the finished strap would twist:

Between the twist and the pet dander, I decided that at the very least, the strap needed a good long soak in warm soapy water so I could determine if the twist were a feature or a bug.

So I found a container the perfect size for soaking a crochet purse strap, and then set it aside where it could dry.

With the strap soaking wet, my afternoon was freed up to work on another project, so I got out a bag of yarns that I think of as my flamingo palette and got to work on a granny square blanket for the daughter of one of my mother’s neighbors.

I started with a rather predictable first two rounds: Red Heart Super Saver tea leaf followed by Red Heart Super Saver light raspberry, but then, by what daylight was left, I decided to go with what I considered a bolder choice (Red Heart Super Saver flamingo) over the more predictable (and to my mind safer) choice of Red Heart Super Saver cornmeal.

Figuring that I could frog it if it really didn’t work, I plowed ahead and to my delight I had a color progression that was subtle, but very compelling:

When the sun rises on tomorrow, the crochet strap should be dry enough for me to determine if the twist is a feature that stays (in which case I will crochet more flowers to decorate the “other side” of the strap) or if it was simply the yarn behaving in a wild fashion before blocking, and when I can call that done, I will move forward with the flamingo granny square blanket — one stitch at a time.