neverending roving

i swear to god, this stuff is multiplying when i sleep ;-) but it is loverly, soft with a beautiful teal color, very difficult to photo. the color is inbetween these 2 photos.


have 4 large skeins plied, and 3 bobbins full of singles, working on the 4th.

since the spinning is taking so long (i am afraid if i stop i'll never finish spinning it), thought i'd post some other photos.




my son and ddil came to visit for the weekend of the 20th, we don't get to see them enough. i love them both, and couldn't be more proud of them :-) son is a navy pilot, and ddil is working for wachovia securities. they bought a house in jacksonville last year. not bad for a 26&24 year old, eh?




this is a basket i made in 2002 (or 3 i can't remember). it has been waiting for the ivory carving on the top. definitely worth the wait! the carving was done by nancy chase, nantucket's most famous carver. and the inside plate was scrimmed by lee ann papale, wonderful scrimshaw artist, and a really cool lady. lee ann is nancy's niece. we were invited to a party at lee ann's this june, her gardens are spectacular!





i had lee ann place my name offset, so that eventually we can add my daughter's name, and maybe her daughter's name. our ranch (farm) is called oak grove, so the oak tree and acorn have a special meaning for me. can you see the tiny squirrel in the tree?

am really pleased with this basket, it was my idea to add the 4 oak staves (uprights) in the basket, and the handles are placed to be extensions of those 4 staves.

back to the spinning.........
vanessa

and now for something completely different

with only the sewing up of the sleeves and side stitching, fern has become boring ;-)


here she is, stuffed in a tote, out of sight, out of mind...




monday morning started spinning up 2 pounds of luscious lisa souza teal merino roving.



have got 4 bobbins full, so today will start to ply. trying to not spin as thin as my fingers want to, and was also trying not to be too perfect (ha ha ha).



how i love my little tina, she spins like a dream, and is as quiet as a mouse. i do believe she is my favorite wheel.

baby bird billy has flown the coop, bon chance billy!
vanessa

back at the ranch ;-)

finally back at home in lake placid (florida, not new york), in time for my daughter to start school. how anyone is expected to learn when it's 80 million degrees outside is beyond me.



there are a mama and a baby dove right outside our dining room window, my dd watched the nest, then the nest and eggs, and now a big fat baby!

on the knitting front, have finished all the pieces for fern. decided to knit the sweater as a cardigan, not a pullover. after bringing inishmore to nantucket, even when it was cold out, inishmore was a liiitle too toasty ;-) so i thought i'd get more use from a cardi. did an 8 stitch facing on the fronts, ala junieann, so we'll see how it looks when they are stitched in place.



was very pleased with myself last night while working on the collar. since it will be a cardi, i didn't want the pattern stitch not to look symmetrical, so i started it with a crochet provisional cast on, worked half the length, bound off the stitches with a 3 needle bind off inside out. took out the prov. cast on, then worked the pattern stitch from the bottom down, doing the 3 needle bind off at the other end also, then turned the collar inside out.



have sewn the sleeve seams, god how i hate finishing! but at least i'm better at it than i used to be ;-) now to decide whether or not to add pockets?
vanessa