Every year since we moved to Vancouver, I’ve managed to leave town in the height of spring transition. Just as the cherry and crab-apple blossoms come into full bloom, I hitch a plane out of town. This year is no different, and today is my day to dive into the mad frenzy of preparing to leave town for a week of all sorts of new adventures.

Yesterday I had my final manicure, bought a new top-coat (thanks for the tip, Carol!) and pale polish, picked up some super-duper face-cleansing cloths, and did several loads of laundry. Today I’m spending the morning setting up email autoresponders, replying to as many emails as I can (and I started off behind), crossing things off my huge to-do list, printing out flight itineraries, hotel information and taping schedules, and all with an undertone of mild freak-out. I’m taking the afternoon off, both because I need the time to prepare and pack, and also because I’m getting my hair cut and dyed. Since I don’t have much hair anymore, this shouldn’t be as big a deal as it’s been in the past. But still, you know, it’s my hair.

I washed my Icelandic Turtleneck, which had been sitting in a bag since my trip to Minnesota for the Knit Out six weeks ago. It’s, unfortunately, what I was wearing during the great food-poisoning fiasco. I tried to forget it even exists, but my desire to bring it with me to Ohio won out. Now it’s clean and dry, but I think it’s too radioactive in colour to look good on camera. We’ll see.

I’m excited and nervous about the taping, but I have a feeling the nerves will go away once I get there and see the set and do a couple of segments. I mean, I have to get over it. The nerves were fine when I was a guest on a segment or two in the past, but this time around I’m doing a lot of segments, and as a host. It’ll be my job to keep the guest at ease. I’m looking forward to the challenge, and I hope I do right by them all.

In addition to the crazy amount of clothes I need to bring, plus the super-duper make-up removal cloths and hand lotion and cuticle oil and nail polish, I’m packing for myself as I would if I were to be travelling with a ten-year-old me. Lots of activities! They’ll keep me sane. Ipod, novel, a couple of magazines, perhaps a second novel, my still in-progress Model Citizen Scarf, possibly my Gathered Pullover sleeve (any tips on traveling with a project on three dpns that don’t lay flat?), and some random yarn for a one-skein project or two.

Speaking of novels. I’m reading some sci-fi now, but I just finished a book you must read. This book should be required reading for every human being on this planet, for no book has made me feel more human or inspired in me more of a need to be a better human, and as I read it as part of my book club I can say that that experience of the book was not unique to me. Drop whatever you’re reading now and pick up What is the What, by Dave Eggers (the outstanding telling of the autobiography of Sudanese “Lost Boy” Valentino Achak Deng).

Enough procrastinating. I must get back to my frenzy. I’ll leave you with a pic of my first full-colour handspun. It’s about 34 yards, which I know because I now have a wee niddy-noddy. I will certainly be spinning more in the weeks to come.

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First Bobbin, originally uploaded by kpwerker.

I don’t fear committment. I do, however, often loathe the thought of it. That’s all I’ll say since to really write about that will take a lot more thought and concentration than I can give right now. But the context I’ve been thinking about it in has been spinning.

I committed to spinning by spending a whack of cash on my wheel. I did feel a twinge of fear about that, since I’d only spun on a wheel for a total of about twenty minutes when I decided to part with that cash. I had high hopes. I wanted a new fiber hobby that’s separate enough from work that I could really relax with it at the end of the day. Wheels are quiet. Yarn is good.

I picked up my Joy last Tuesday and spent that evening assembling the few parts that needed attention. It’s a thing of beauty. Then I tied on my first leader – the first step I’d never done myself before. What ensued were several consecutive evenings of confusion but, thankfully, little frustration. It took me a couple of nights to narrow down one problem to the bobbin tension not being tight enough. After that I was finally able to actually spin a poor excuse for yarn onto the bobbin. The next night I fiddled with wheel tension until I found a match for the amount of fiber I was drafting and the speed I was comfortable treadling at. The night after that I started drafting more evenly.

It’s only been a week, and I’m happy with my progress. Almost more than that, I’m pleased with myself for taking half an hour each night to spin, especially on that second night after the first was pretty much a disaster. Now that I’m doing everything slightly more effortlessly, I’m discovering my hopes for spinning were not unfounded. I enjoy the quiet and the smooth motion. I stand up decompressed after a day of work, ready to chill out for the rest of the evening.

I still have a bit more to do before this bobbin is finished, and I’m both excited by the milestone and itchy to start another so I can go that next step into making yarn worth using. And plying. I can’t wait to ply.

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Um. I was really tired., originally uploaded by kpwerker.

I should not have tried. I was wiped. It was late.

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Eeeeee!, originally uploaded by kpwerker.

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