I’ve been gathering my things from where they are all over the house in a slow-motion preparation for decamping tomorrow morning. Tonight Dad and I will kitbash a box for the loom out of wine boxes and pack it up so I can check it on the train home.

I finished the sample weave yesterday around lunch and cut it off. It’s exactly what I expected from the yarn, soft and drapey and gorgeous colours. Except I don’t think it will work for the project I had in mind, so I shall file it away for when I want to weave a soft, fluffy throw for myself or my mother instead. The only problem is the reed is too small, so I’ll order one with larger dents and it will be lovely. And so of course I bought a completely different yarn for another project, sweetly-coloured yarn of a weight that will slip easily through the reed I’ve got while I wait for the new reed to arrive. (Of course, neither of the craft stores I went to had either of the yarns I was actually looking for in the colourways I had chosen from online colour cards. Which is how I ended up with the soft, fluffy yarn that didn’t fit my reed in the first place. And the new yarn, too.) I also whipped up a carry case for the loom, but it’s a bit floppy because the folded loom is narrower at the top than it is at the bottom; it will need stabilising. For now it will be good padding inside the shipping box.

I picked up a couple of books for the boy today, and treated myself to Connie Willis’ Blackout for the trip home. I bought Elizabeth Bear’s Chill and Sarah Monette’s Corambis earlier this week, but I finished Chill this morning (yes, another riveting read; I love how Bear uses language) and I don’t seem to be in the right headspace for Corambis yet.

And I just had lunch out with Cats and Jenn, whom I met via LJ, and they are thoroughly delightful people with the right kind of sense-of-humour, and we have already planned to meet up again next time I’m down. It occurs to me that we should have gotten photographic proof of so much awesome in one place for Bodhifox. I had the most wonderful jasmine-lemongrass tea, served in a little silver teapot and a tiny yellow tea glass.

One more sleep till I’m back with my boys. It has been a lovely trip.

ETA: We have just kitbashed the shipping box. It looks godawful, but damn, it’s strong. And Dad did a final wrap with light spinnaker cord for a handle. It’s extremely solid, and very impressive. If the train people reject it on looks alone, I shall take off a shoe and beat them.