The first day of school is one of those events that is outside my comfort zone. However, all of yesterday’s planning and preparation paid off (for the most part) as I did manage to get my son breakfast, he did manage to make his bus in time, and once he was on the bus, he also managed to send me a text asking me to bring his trumpet for his first period class. Square 58 would have to wait.

By the time I got the text about his trumpet, I had already walked the dog, so all I had to do was grab my purse along with his trumpet, and head out door.

I even hit almost all green lights on the way and things were going swimmingly until I reached the first-day-of-school traffic.

As I waited my turn to make the first of two seemingly impossible to make left turns, I had time to reflect on how wonderful traffic circles are, and wished desperately that the powers that be would retrofit the entrances around the high school with them as has been done for the entrances around North Carolina State University, making the traffic around the college formidable, but not as impossible as it once was.

But no retrofitting was done while I waited this morning, and even though there were moments it looked unlikely that I would make it in a timely manner to the parking lot where we had agreed to meet, I did make it — with three minutes to spare.

Once home, I refueled with some coffee and decided that I had already spent enough time outside my comfort zone, I needed to work with some brighter colors, if not for the entire day, at least for one motif.

So I checked the Jean Leinhauser 101 Crochet Squares crochet-along board at Ravelry and found that I had missed four weeks, so I had several new squares to choose from.

I settled on Square 58.

The example is worked in one color, but I used three as I thought the color changes better highlighted the floral design of the motif. Using my 5.5 mm hook and Red Heart Super Saver bright yellow, shocking pink, and paddy green, I made my first ever square 58:

My thirst for color somewhat quenched, I used the same hook and made two more of the larger, textured triangles:

Although the amethyst triangle (which appears quite blue in the above photo) almost slaked my desire for color, it didn’t quite do the trick, and as one of my other goals this state fair season is to bring greater order to my crochet empire, I decided that today was as good as any to wind into balls the skeins of sari ribbon I bought from Gail MacLean Johnston last June:

I then consolidated my sari-ribbon holdings and placed them in a stash bag that had no stash:

It isn’t always possible to stay within one’s comfort zone, so these forays into the nether world of neutral colors is probably good for me as I no doubt learn some coping skills I can apply elsewhere, but it does feel good to continue to touch base with those colors I call home.