Four days

That's how many more work days I have left to get through before I have vacation for two whole glorious weeks.  Considering I haven't had a day off since last November, two weeks of vacation seems incredible and I am very excited.

The Enabler's cousin is getting married next week, and the wedding is in Victoria, so we'll be flying out there for the wedding and to visit family and spend some time exploring Vancouver Island.  I've been there a few times now but the plan is to go to a few places I haven't been to before (and some yarn shops that I HAVE been to before and can attest to their loveliness), so I'm really looking forward to that.

The original plan was that after spending some time on the island we were going to come back home.  I had two weeks booked off (hubby just had one) and the second week I planned to just relax and take care of some things and go for walks and generally enjoy Winnipeg in the summer.  Then a couple of weeks ago, the Enabler found out that he was going on a business trip to Seattle the week after we were going to Victoria.  My initial thought process went like this:  

"Man, that's a lot of back and forth flying for him, that kind of sucks.  Wait, that means that I'm going to have a week off work and also be at home by myself?  That REALLY sucks!  What am I going to do by myself for a whole week with no work to distract me?"

I voiced my concerns, and he just said "Or, we could rebook both our flights home to a week later, and you could come with me to Seattle..."

I swear, he's brilliant.  One of the many reasons why I married him.

So now my vacation is extra exciting, as I've never been to Seattle but have always wanted to go.  Even more so since the Enabler brought me back amazing wool and fibre from a few different stores in and around Seattle from his first business trip there.

It's also a little extra scary (but just a tiny bit), because while he's busy during the days doing business-y things, I'm going to be left to my own devices.  I've never explored a new city by myself before, so I'm not sure what to expect.  I don't think I'll actually get scared, but if I do I'll just have to remind myself that I explored Europe for six weeks when I was 19, with two other 19 year olds, and no cell phones or electronic devices to help navigate.  I should be fine on my own for three measly days.

Before we go, though, I have some things to finish!  I have to want to finish spinning this up:

I have one bobbin done, and I'm halfway through the second.  This is a 150 gram braid of merino that I bought at StevenBe on our trip to Minneapolis last year.  Because it's so huge, I decided to spin it slightly thicker than what I was aiming for when I was doing the Tour de Fleece, for a few reasons.  I didn't want to be spinning forever and ever and ever was one, but also I thought it would look great as a dk-worsted weight yarn.  The other thing is that I've gotten pretty good at spinning evenly when I'm trying to spin as finely as possible, but I want to be able to make evenly spun thicker yarn as well.  It doesn't look that much thicker than what I did during the tour, but a tiny difference in the size of one single makes a bigger difference when it's two singles plied together.  Also it's merino and I think it poofs up a bunch after it's washed.

Unfortunately, I think the fibre got slightly felted during the dyeing process, so it's not as easy to draft as what I've gotten used to.  It still works though, and I'm cheap enough that I'm not willing to let it go to waste, especially when the colours are so delicious!

I didn't try fractal spinning this one at all.  Not after last time.  I'm just spinning it up kind of randomly because I don't want the plies to match up.  I'm hoping that it will end up looking fun and colourful and random, and not like a toucan in a blender.

I have one other thing to finish before leaving.  This is what it looks like now:

Hopefully in less than a week it will look like a finished baby blanket for a co-worker who is due in a month.  I've heard there are cobbler elves who finish all of the shoes in the nighttime, so there must be sewing elves that sew things up for you in your sleep too, right?  I guess I'll just have to wait and see.