Overdue Vacation Wrap-Up

It's about bloody time I post, huh? Every time I come back from vacation, I have a nasty attack of depression that sticks around for a few weeks and messes with my motivation. So much stuff has happened since the last entry that the idea of blogging about it has become big and scary-like. Let's see if I can cut it down to size and get back in the swing of things.

The vacation with David was, of course, wonderful. My birthday was the 2nd, the day we drove up to Vermont, and it was one of the best birthdays I've had in a long time. We stopped at Yankee Candle's flagship store (which is HUGE and has way more than just candles) in South Deerfield, MA, Green Mountain Spinnery in Putney, VT, and White River Yarns in White River Junction, VT. Candles and yarn were purchased, food was eaten, and Jedi wookiees were discussed.

The next day I took David to Ben & Jerry's for their factory tour. If you're ever in upstate Vermont, make time for it. You get a free sample at the end of the tour! After that we went down to Montpelier to visit The Knitting Studio, and then swung up to Waterbury to visit The Wool Shed (site archived here) where we met one of the most bubbly people I've ever known. We went back later in the week to interview her.

On Tuesday we checked out the Northeast Fiber Arts Center in Williston (they have a sweet shop dog and great spinning fiber selection) and then went up to Burlington for lunch at the Vermont Pub & Brewery. While we were in Burlington we visited ECHO Lake Aquarium and Science Center, where we learned about lampreys and their evil bloodsucking ways.

Nothing else made it into my notebook, but I know we stopped at Piecasso for lunch one day, did some snowshoeing and sledding, and watched A Year In Provence over the course of the week.

There was knitting, too! My skin is sensitive to mammal fiber, and while I can wear blends, I do start to itch after a while. I'd brought my Teal Diamond hat, which is a wool-acrylic blend, but it was irritating my skin from wearing it so much, so when we were at Northeast Fiber Arts I picked up a skein of Patagonia Nature Cotton. By the next afternoon I'd finished this hat (which really isn't lopsided) with this much yarn to spare.

On Saturday we headed for home, stopping in Northampton, MA, to have lunch with my mother. Since we got to town early, we killed some time at Webs, where, oddly enough, Mom was also killing time. Mom hasn't done any knitting since she taught me how nearly twenty years ago (in fact she just gave me most of her needles earlier this week), but she loves fiber and can't resist stopping at Webs when she's in the area. She liked David and David liked her, so the meeting was a success.

*whew*

Next post: all the stuff I've done and bought since then!