I'm so glad I went to Alexandria yesterday!

I managed to find parking about a block and a half away form fibre space, which wasn't so bad except for parking on a semi-busy street in the middle of the block and not being able to get to the sidewalk until I got to the corner. With the snow piled up on the sides of the road, things were more narrow than they normally would have been.

I made it to the store, looked around at all the lovely yarns and things, and then sat on the little sofa next to Wendy to look at her shawl patterns. I read through parts of them and was very intimidated, even though I'm working on a shawl now. I haven't really done anything at all with charts or shawls. The one I'm working around is so simple that I don't think it counts! It's just knit stitches with a yarnover near the end of every row!

I got into conversation a little with Wendy and a woman sitting on the other side of her named Roseann. I noticed Roseann had a peacock blue Namaste Zuma just like the one I had bought a year and a half ago. I asked if I could see it, gave it a hug and was petting it when I meantioned mine had been stolen from my car last year. Roseann was so nice that she gave it to me, even as I refused, saying that she hardly ever used it and had actually seen something larger that she liked better. Knitters can be so nice! And I am SOOOO thrilled to have my favorite bag back! Thank you, Roseann!!

When I left the yarn store, I went by a bead store around the corner on the way back to my car. This place was beautiful! It was like a rock candy version of a yarn store with strings of beads lovely colors hanging from the walls. I'm not much of a beader or jewelry person, but I did take a stab at stitch markers a year or so ago. I had a lot of fun making them and would enjoy doing more, but I'd only ever seen the small bead selections at the craft store. This bead store was just inspiring. I didn't buy much, but I heard one of the employees talking about the wrapped wire rings she was wearing that she had made. That sounded neat, and when I found they had big metal mandrels, I just had to have one! I don't know why, but I've always wanted one. I figured I could use it to make a few rings and see how I like it, and if nothing else, I can just be happy to have something weird that I've always wanted! I actually have a good bit of wire already, so maybe something fun will come of it once I figure out where things are.

In about two hours, Wendy Johnson (of wendyknits.net and several knitting books) is going to be at fibre space in Alexandria, VA. I'm trying to psych myself into going over there as part of my quest to be more involved in yarny things this year.

I'm not really a fan girl or anything. I haven't read any of her books, but I've been following her blog for maybe a month or so, since I found out she's one of the judges for the threadknits.com contest. I'm not even entered in the contest (yet) but a friend of mine has two awesome Super Mario related hats in it.

Part of it is that there's this awe that she's making a living from yarning and selling patterns and books and things, like maybe if I stand close enough, some of that will rub off or something.

I spent the morning yesterday working on my aran afghan square. I didn't get too much done before deciding to finally get everything done with our taxes. Yay $17 refund.

So once taxes and internetting in the afternoon were done, I migrated into the bedroom so the husband could play video games in the living room. I got everything set up to continue working on my square while vaguely watching a DVD of a tv show that I own. We only have real tv in the living room, but I can compromise sometimes. Instead of knitting or watching, I spent an HOUR trying to find my cable needle.

It's missing. Gone. Disappeared. Possibly stolen by the cat. I've looked in every bag I touched, under all the furniture, on the various tables, but it's nowhere to be found. It really can't have gotten up and walked away, but it's just not anywhere near my stuff!!

Fortunately for me, the mystery plow truck showed up again yesterday and plowed the driveway. The only thing the husband had to deal with as he left for work this morning was the blown drifts of snow that had covered the bottom of the driveway. The wind was just awful yesterday, and even after it stopped snowing, you'd see the wind carrying snow across the yard and think the snow had started up again! But thanks to the husand having to go back to work today, I could probably manage to get out of the driveway to search for a cable needle, but do I go to the big box craft store 20 minutes away where I can distract myself for at least an hour looking at other toys or to the LYS down the road?

It's only been 27 hours since I joined the Great American Aran Afghan knitalong at my local yarn store. From what I picked up, the group got started around May of last year, picking and working on one square each month. I have the list of squares they've already worked on, but I decided to just start with the February square. I've been regretting it since!

They picked the Ginger Smith square for February. It looks fine and all, but it's knit in columns. Here's an example, from theraineysisters.com.

There are 5 columns to this design, each cable area and one column and the two cable-free separaters are columns. These are knit down, one column at a time, and then knit together as you go. I had some trouble trying to understand this concept at first, and most of my internet researching came up with nothing. I found people who had made the square, but the only insights I received were people who said it was "fun" or people who said it was supposed to be knit in columns, but they didn't do it that way.

I've completed the first two columns and started on the large middle area. That's really not bad at all for one day, I know, but I keep think each next piece may make me quit! I think I've finished 13 rows on the center column out of 75. There's no pressure to finish it OMGRIGHTNOW, but I know that there are 8 squares that other people have so I want to finish at least 2 or 3 this month if I can. Or maybe I'll just made this one, turn it into a pillow and quit!

The last 4 or 5 months have been pretty rough. Once I moved, I barely had time to sit down before I started working a contract job that involved driving at least an hour and a half to and from work each day. After three months, I knew I couldn't keep it up and quit.

Last week was my first week without having to commute. I spent some time cleaning around the house, but I still haven't done much unpacking or anything else. Now that I've been able to relax and evaluate my free time with working from home, I've decided that it's time to focus on getting more involved in yarn groups and making friends. It was great timing today when I got an email from the LYS that the monthly meeting for an afghan knitalong was today!

I decided to go by the store at 1:30p for the group. I don't know how many people are involved, but a few people working on the afghan showed up in spite of all the snow we've been getting. We had 19 inches this past weekend, and more is coming tonight and tomorrow. And they told me it didn't snow much here.

It's time to turn the blog back on and spend some time talking to the internet about my projects and my struggles.