Vacation Recap, Episode 1: A Bit of Anne Accident

I am returned home! Whew. This last week was vacation turned on its head: the relaxing part was at the beginning, and the running-around-all-crazy part ended about 22 hours ago. I'll begin at the beginning; I hear it's a very good place to start.

Last Saturday, loaded down with clothes, laptop, and Jasmin's Louet Victoria, I hopped a train to THB's house near Sacramento. We hung out at his place for a bit, then went to the home of some old family friends, where we played poker into the wee sma's. They tried to convince us to just stay the night - THB's fully sanctioned relationship with Chickadee, their eldest daughter, may have had something to do with it - but a call to our Mother Ship ended that idea. She (Mom) bartered with Pauline with me as an intermediary, and because she's our mommy, she won. Her victory was sealed unwittingly by Chickadee, who announced quite indignantly that, should THB and I go home instead of staying over until the next day (not actually a bad idea, as we were all going to have Easter dinner together), we wouldn't even eat breakfast until around nine in the morning. The shock! The shame! We might starve by then! THB promptly pointed out that in order to have breakfast at nine, we'd have to be up by about 8:30, and that a 10 or even 11 o'clock start time would probably be more likely. So we went home to the Mother Ship, where we and our sleeping patterns are understood.

Our breakfast was at 11. They ate at 7:30.

We trekked back to their house for ham, more poker,

and an old-fashioned Easter Egg Hunt the next day, then Mom and I settled in for a few days of nothing but hanging out. It didn't go exactly as planned, but it was close enough! I finished my Mysterious Mirror Socks with only about 500 mistakes in the leg of the second sock, which I'm calling a win because they fit anyway:

Pigeonroof Studios OOAK Sock yarn, 336 yds.

I also managed to spin, ply and set some of my mountain of Crown Mountain BFL:

"Ivory Coast" CMF BFL, 296 yds.

It's not as thin as I had hoped, but it pretty much spun itself so I have no complaints. Plus I have approximately my own weight in unspun CMF. More on that later. This is 1/2 of the 8 oz. bump; the rest is already divided in 2 and waiting its turn on the wheel.

In addition, I started some socks for my dad out of some ancient Lorna's Laces from my stash - I think it's "Pioneer," but I'm not certain. Any road, it's a color that doesn't photograph well, so no pictures until I can get some awesome light. They're my plain vanilla sock pattern with a k3p1 rib on the instep and up the leg; I turned the second heel at work today and should be done with the pair by tomorrow.

I'm quite proud of my packing prowess this trip. I only packed one set of sock needles and just brought yarn that would work. I also only over-estimated how much spinning I would accomplish by about 12 ounces, which is a step up from my precedent. I planned to spin more, but I got interrupted by a Super Secret (Unfinished) Project that will have to wait for my next trip to the Mother Ship before I reveal it.

But, as usual, my acquisitions out-weighed my completions by oh, a bunch. Maybe a lot. Perhaps even a ginormous amount. I may have had a Schaefer Accident. It started innocently enough; Mom's old boss now runs a yarn store, and we stopped in to see her. I didn't notice the Schaefer at first, but I knew she carried it because that store is where my addiction began with a skein of Lola. So I asked, and received.

And received again:

I may have clutched them to my bosom and announced to Mom that one does not leave one's children to the mercy of strangers, no matter how nice they may appear to be. I have never been accused of being undramatic.

Mom dropped me off with THB on Thursday night, but we got to his freeway exit really early and it just so happens that he lives around the corner from a big yarn store. So of course, that's where we whiled away the time it took THB to get home from work. They were having a sale, and Mom picked up some Tofutsies and some Elsebeth Lavold Silky Tweed for half off, while I stuck to the full-priced yarn because that's how I roll. And because it's what I couldn't live without, really.

The best find was 2 skeins of the same colorway of my very first skein of Anne. That one's been sitting quietly on the shelf in pride of place, refusing to tell me what it wanted to be. Now it's been rejoined to its sister skeins, and perhaps it will start talking.


On Friday morning, THB, Chickadee and I all hopped a plane for Ontario, CA, where we were met by my dad, youngest brother, and ManCandy for 3 days at Disney. Then I came home to a plethora of boxes, including a really big one that I can't unwrap until this weekend. More to come!

Also - I'm podcasting tomorrow. For real.