Go East Young Man

Here in our strange little corner of the world, summer is already beginning to slip into fall.  I know this because the hipsters riding their fixed gear bicycles along first avenue are starting to sport the occasional jaunty scarf.

And like most mammals I am not immune to these cycles of nature.  Just this afternoon, while enjoying my ridiculously overpriced cup of french press coffee and pondering the existential predicament that is the life of a man who is a corporate finance lawyer and yet has several albums by Rage Against the Machine on his iPod, I found my thoughts drifting toward wool.  Specifically, I found myself wishing I had more time to spin it into yarn, and more time to make things from it.



Clearly, a vacation was in order.  Luckily, the entire TSMK family has had one planned for some time. 

And so, after putting the children to bed this evening, Mrs. TSMK and I set about packing for an excursion.  Well, actually we set about trying to decipher a passage of the owner's manual of Mrs. TSMK's car as it described the "simple" method of removing a middle-row seat.  But, once feeling quite accomplished at the fact that two people with 6 years of post-graduate education between them were able to remove a single seat in a half-hour, we set about packing.

We're heading out tomorrow for a week in the mountains in Idaho, and I couldn't be more excited.  In addition to visiting family, I'm bringing along an entire bag of fleece, along with my hand carders and a drop spindle.  And of course quite a bit of knitting.

But my attention will not be solely focused on fiber, however.  Mrs. TSMK has kindly allowed me permission to bring along my girlfriend on this excursion.  Yes.  You heard me right.  I'm going on vacation with Mrs. TSMK and my girlfriend, Molly. 

[Note: Molly is pictured at right - a Gold Tone White Ladye banjo.  I highly recommend that you avoid suggesting a vacation with your spouse and your significant other unless your significant other is similarly described.]

What's more, we're bringing all of our children.  Even the furry ones.

And so, I say farewell for a week.

But before I go, let me offer a few gratuitous pictures of yarn.  Specifically, this is yarn that found its way to the post office today - being shipped off to my Red-headed Minion.  She indicated she'd like some handspun.  So I'm sending her a skein of my most recently spun stuff.  But just in case she also wants to receive some decent stuff, I'm sending her a skein of handspun 50/50 cashmere and silk that I found at a local guild sale last year, along with two skeins of one of my favorite commercial yarns - GGH Kid Melange.    Hopefully, she'll make something awesome with one or more of these, and then share the photos so that we can all appreciate her work.

~TSMK