Apples

Lively color on a gray rainy day. I admired these wooden (!) apples at a friend's house some time ago and thought they would brighten the day.
Knitting group today, almost everyone showed up though two of our members are still out of town. We miss them and the inspiration they bring with them.
So now my challenge is whether to finish the Monkey socks or to cast on a lace weight mohair cardigan..hmmm..

Live and learn

I have long contended that 'I am not a technical spinner'. I was taught to spin many moons ago in a one day workshop using wool 'in the grease' and a heavy drop spindle. My interest (read: obsession) quickly led to my purchasing my first spinning wheel. The simple Ashford. I remember bringing it home in its box, having to assemble it and finish it, all with the help and support of DH. Then, what do you do? Begin learning by experience how to treadle the thing, oops, how to adjust the tension so that the fiber doesn't get sucked onto the bobbin before it has been spun, how to do the seeming myriad of adjustments all at the same time, oh my, it was fun! I spent an entire day with a friend and expert knitter and spinner learning the long draw, what an advance that was. It was learning through imitation, though, and not thoroughly understanding 'why' what was happening.
From the Ashford I moved to the Louet wheel S-10. Larger bobbin. 3 speeds. Used it for a long time. Then took an even longer hiatus. When I came back to spinning for lack of exposure to anything else at the time I continued with the Louet. Years later I had the wonderful experience of meeting some local spinners who were willing to adjust their meeting night so that I could join them. They taught me a lot. From them I got into a charkha workshop with Eileen Hallman, which essentially taught me how to spin off the point of a spindle. They also demonstrated using combs to prepare fiber. Deadly looking things but oh! How effective! Succumbed only to a purchase of mini-combs due to budget considerations at the time.
After this I was introduced to knitting with energized singles in a Kathryn Alexander workshop and was frustrated as my wheel was a bit slower than I needed it to be, so Kathryn suggested I try the Lendrum wheel and the fast flyer rather than the standard one. I have been happy with this wheel ever since, however, I maintained my status as a not 'technical' spinner. All this wpi and tpi and angle of twist was a bit out of my league, and with relocating I let my spinning go once again. Until.
Well, until once again I met up with some local knitters, one of whom was conversant with spinning and weaving and encouraged me in my efforts to spin skinnier yarns. My goal was to get something more lace weight, and in time I achieved this.
Finally I decided that it was time to become a more technical spinner and amongst other things I downloaded two dvds from Interweave: "How I Spin", Rita Buchanan's workshop, great information! And Judith MacKenzie McCuin's "A Spinner's Toolbox". Simply brilliant! Here at last was a clear explanation with visuals of the 'why' of things. I understand! I can use this and have been using it. The photo above shows recent spinning efforts. The three skinny skeins are results of spinning the sampler pack of fibers. The dark is Alpaca, the middle skein is one ply baby camel and one ply camel and silk, and the very pale skein is merino and cashmere, yum! All spun worsted, forward draw.
The big 'beast' of a skein on the left was from a roving I purchased years ago, and was supposed to be of leftovers from the large carding machines in a yarn manufacturer's factory. They called it the 'beast' Following what I learned from Judith's dvd, I spun it woolen, long draw, and  plyed it, 3 ply. Then I had the fun of finishing it, counter-intuitively, plunging it in hot soapy water with a sink plunger and then placing it in cold water before putting it back in the hot soapy water and rinsing it well in cold water, then after removing excess water, thwacking it on the kitchen counter hard, both ends of the skein. Wow! It works!
So, live and learn!

Projects lined up

Monkey socks (Cookie A.'s) half way down the leg, the Merino/Sea-cell roving for the China Jade yarn before spinning, and Malabrigo yarn in a bolero called 'Gypsy' from Leigh Radford's Cardigans book...and that's just for starters. Do other people suffer so much from 'start-itis'?

Beach Glass...

Another dye job..reminds me of bits of glass you sometimes find on the beach, blues and greens.

I am finding that I have so many skeins of handspun right now that I need to start knitting. However, my fingers still itch to spin and spin and spin. I came across a box of fibers from a sampler pack with many different fibers; this was a gift from a dear friend some years ago. I am glad that I waited til now to spin the fibers, most of them anyway, as I feel that I have more skills to deal with them now than I had at the time. So, perhaps if I budget my time carefully I can spin and knit. We'll see.

In the meantime I've been reminiscing..remembering something my father showed me and my brothers and sister when we were little..You hold your hands in front of your face about 8 to 12 inches away with index fingers pointing towards each other. Then you focus, not on your fingers but slightly above and beyond them. The optical illusion is that you have a little finger in between the two index fingers. If you move your fingers slightly apart it looks as if there is a cocktail weenie floating in mid-air. A great way to entertain youngsters and keep them out of the kitchen where certainly mom was busy preparing a meal. I even remember that we were on the balcony and it was a beautiful sunny day. Memories....

Dyeing to spin

It always surprises me what happens to color in dyeing and then spinning. Here is a four ounce Falkland roving laid out with colors poured ready to be wrapped and steamed. Afterwards I did the same with a four ounce Merino/Seacell roving, trying to keep the color sequence the same. The hardest part of the process is waiting over night for the colors to take on their full intensity. And then to SPIN!

On the left is the Falkland and to the right the Merino/Seacell, with their respective singles on the bobbins. I am fascinated with how the different fibers take the color distinctly and I love the subtle skein they produce together.

I was able to get close to 500 yards for four ounces.

Once again I split the rovings lengthwise and now have the anticipation of spinning the other halves of the roving. Double the fun when done this way!

Walking delights

I see that it has been a month since my last entry! What have I been doing? Early in the month we celebrated our fortieth wedding anniversary. Even now it is hard to believe so much time has passed, and yet the calendar does not lie. What did we do? When you've been married forty years you've done about everything, dinners and champagne and surprise gifts and surprise trips. A notable anniversary a friend helped me plan a surprise trip to Los Angeles to see a play and to eat afterwards at Harry's Bar and Grill, and he was surprised and it was all very wonderful, but the thing I remember most is the stop in San Juan Capistrano for a picnic lunch, the picnic tables were adjacent to the railroad tracks under magnificent trees, and the breeze produced by the passing trains made it lovely, early November in southern California.

This year it was way more simple. A lovely, leisurely drive along the coast to a large Barnes and Noble bookstore where we had time, TIME, to browse and have a nice cup of coffee and browse some more, after which we drove back along the coast to one our new favorite Mexican restaurants and had just as leisurely a meal (and the Margaritas were two for one, yum), then continuing along the coast we stopped at a grocery to shop for the next morning's brunch: french toast with warmed fruit topping, bacon, mimosas. The anticipation was wonderful and the result was even better. We have such a good time together.

About this time I was also considering the need to get active as I am living such a sedentary life. Drive everywhere, sit and spin or sit and knit or sit and watch tv. You know the drill.

So, I found some walking shoes on sale at wally-world, and just started walking.

Now the Bay St. Louis library had been closed for remodeling for some time, you could borrow books from a trailer set up next door, and I had heard that they had re-opened recently, but had not been by, which is a real shame because it takes less than seven minutes to walk there from home. And look at what a nice surprise I had my first morning out in my new walking shoes! This lovely statue is so charming, and yet there is no information nearby about the artist. I will have to go into the library to see what I can find out. They were closed at the moment this was taken.

And here he is in the shade. So, yes, I have taken to walking about town, starting out about half an hour at a time, and have graduated to an hour when I have time. It takes roughly half an hour to get down to the beach from home, and hopefully when I am in a little bit better shape, ( I am relying on muscle memory) it will take less time. But I do feel better already, a bit more energy, and certainly emotionally better when there are such beauties to behold, the morning glories and bird calls and neighbors to greet, certainly much to delight all the senses.

I have also done some painting of rovings and some spinning and hope to have some photos ready soon.

And knitting. Received my copy of Cookie A.'s new sock book: knit. sock. love. And I do love it. So more socks in the future.

Happy trails everyone.

Clandestine Socks

I'm not sure if it is the name that I like so much or the sock itself, both are intriguing. Another Cookie A. design and very enjoyable to knit; I have to say I have grown accustomed to knitting stitches in the back loop. The dark blue of the yarn, which is Stahl Wool's Socka Tweed 4fach, color # 653 or 658, (can't quite make out the last digit) made it a little difficult to make out the pattern, especially since I was working them on my favorite size 2 ebony sock double points. However I persevered and am very happy with the outcome.

The first photo is truer to the actual color than the second which was photographed on a light colored wood sock blocker to try to show off the lacy bits. This pair of socks has a definite right and left sock due to the distribution of the pattern; I hope this won't be problematical for the person I made them for. I suppose it won't make a big difference, but as they were designed this way they should be worn this way, n'est pas?

Et, voilá, the pair. One on sock blocker the other not. I wonder if I would have the patience to make a pair of these for myself? Or have I fallen into the "too many patterns, so little time" trap and only knit something I haven't done before?

Besides which there is more spinning to be done, and then some pattern searching for the new yarns and then....

It is all good.

Bird Bath

Managed to get a few nice pictures at the bird bath, though one is a little fuzzy.
This little cardinal was enjoying sipping some fresh water before taking her bath.
She seems to be part of a large family of cardinals, perhaps several families, all of whom appear to want to feed and bathe at about the same time. The males make such a brilliant flash of color, they are a joy to behold, and yet there is something so sweet about the females. I love to watch them.






This thrasher had been dashing about the yard, hopping and stabbing at the ground, (digging for worms?) and then swooped up to take a few swallows. I really like his coloring, his speckled breast. And watching him moving so quickly about the yard. Fleeting views as then he moves on.






The woodpecker picture is a bit fuzzy due to the fact I took the shot from the screened porch and for some reason my camera wanted to focus on the screen. By the time I got the setting about right I only had time for this shot. Too bad I didn't catch him in the bath!

Pretend its a foggy day!

Process...

I have been wanting to get back to handpainting roving and was shocked when I realized that it has been a year (!) since my last effort. I did do some natural dyeing this spring, but I wanted to get to that serendipitous feeling of painting rovings, playing with color and then seeing what happens when the now colored fibers are spun. Let me tell you it is always one surprise after another, especially when the colors don't turn out the way one thinks. Here, side by side, are the latest. Falkland fiber on the left, Merino Seacell on the right. Same color dyes, applied in different methods. With the Falkland I used longer lengths of color, with the Merino seacell shorter. It continues to delight the way the different fibers take the colors. All along I planned on plying the two together, to get a lace or fingering weight.

So here we see the transformation of the Falkland into a singles on the bobbin. A bit subdued, as color merged into color and yet the longer lengths of color are evident. I started out with approximately 4.5 oz of each fiber, and when I split each roving in half vertically I ended up with a 2 oz piece and a 2.5ish piece. The 2 oz. half of the Falkland got spun up first, then the Merino Seacell; as you see I still have the joy of spinning the other half of the roving, another skein to go.

As I watched colors blending in the plying I let my imagination follow their lead and I kept imaging a carved jade screen on an old chinese garden...I wonder if I can find a pattern that could bring that out, I do remember seeing something on Ravelry recently, oh if I can find it again!
If I counted correctly I was able to 4oo yds out of the 4 oz of fiber. Not quite lace, but it will do.

Pleasant Porch

After a bit of neglect in which we let bird feeders get down to nothing and the bird bath go dry, bird seed supply dwindle, we finally got into the feed store and DH got out in the yard and cleaned and topped up everything. One of the reasons was that we were becoming alarmed at the number of pigeons we were attracting; also alarmed when we noticed some Mississippi Kites hovering nearby watching and sometimes chasing and probably catching some of the smaller birds. Thankfully not within my range of vision!

Our plan worked, but the result was that we missed out seeing our smaller birds feeding too, and that was the whole point of having the feeders. One large hopper with a ring all around it for perching, two thinner tubes with six individual perches each and what we nicknamed the 'Deli', a cedar box with plexiglass sides and narrow perches on two sides, all suspended from a wrought iron pole with four arching hooks. Plenty of room, plenty of food.

It took a couple of days for them to catch on that food was back, but we have been rewarded big time with the return of families of cardinals and black capped chickadees and titmice and finches and sparrows and blackbirds, thrashers have even come into the yard, and, yes, doves and pigeons have returned. We also filled two hummingbird feeders and have enjoyed watching them feed, and enjoy the little noises they make.

Two days ago I was alerted by splishing and splashing sounds that someone was in the bird bath. When I went to my window I was surprised to see two or three little blue feathered birds with rusty bibs and bright white bottoms enjoying their bath. Rushing for Sibley's guide to Birds I discovered that I had finally seen Eastern Bluebirds. They are beautifully colored and fun to watch. I have been waiting for them to come back, but, alas, not yet.

However, when I went out to the porch to get a closer look at them, stupidly sans camera, I got another surprise. A red bellied woodpecker came down to the bath and gently sipped some water while I watched, and then got in to enjoy his own bath! I called out gently for my husband to come enjoy the fruit of his labor but by the time he got to the back porch 'Woody' was gone. He is one that has his home in some one of the big trees around here, so hopefully he will return one of these days. In the meantime we enjoy sitting out on our screened in porch in the shade of the trees whose leaves have yet to totally abandon them, enjoying my mother-in-law's plants and watching out for any other new (perhaps migrating) birdlife that wish to join the year round visitors to our yard.

the Dianna shawl

Dianna shawl is finished and fulfills my expressed desires of over a year ago when I finished spinning this yarn. I had said the colorway reminds me of autumn leaves and that perhaps I could find something with a leaf motif to show it off. Hah!
I was cruising through Ravelry when I came across the Dianna shawl in the favorites photos on the people page. What a great page that is! This is the Dianna shawl by Jane Araúj0 and is a free pattern. Isn't that amazing! Ravelry is one amazing feature after another because when I tried to start the pattern I kept getting stumped by the way it was written. Lo and behold a forum was available that helped clarify the author's point of view and made working the pattern so much easier and understandable. (Jane works her entrelac rectangles without turning the work so everything is done from the right side).




So, out came the yarn, which by the way is from Martie Moreno's Sunflower Too shop on etsy and is part of her Free Fall series of handpainted rovings. This was FF 128, Falkland top and I was able to get 678 yards out of 3.8 ounces, two ply, which I would consider definitely a lace weight.
It took me a while to finish it, having started it the end of July, it came off the needles and was blocked about two weeks ago, end of summer. Perfect timing. Here Marsha models for me at our knitting group at the Mockingbird Café.


And we finally got some cooler evenings and mornings so I got to wear it last night and it felt wonderful. This one is a keeper! All the others have found new homes with caring people leaving me room to make more!

I am ready to order more dyes and do some more spinning. Other than some demonstrations I haven't done any spinning all summer. Now that Fall is here I hope to change that and get back to it. Also looking forward to seeing what Martie will come up with once her etsy shop is back up and running. She continues to amaze and inspire with her wonderful color sense!

In the meantime I am working on Cookie A's Clandestine socks. I really like them, so much so that I have already started the second sock. Yea! These will be for a special loved one and I hope she likes them as much as I do!

So, back to work...

I should be at the Mockingbird Cafe (left) this morning knitting and enjoying the rotating art hangings inspiring color combinations and more...however I am in a self imposed quarantine due to a flu-like cold. I am tempted to go anyway, but better to be safe... So I decided to post some pictures from my phone camera from a couple of months ago. Once more my friend Dilania's garden inspires with glimpses of color hidden in gorgeous leaves of greenery.

I wish I had a tenth of the knowledge she has about plants and their care. Her garden always has a surprise or two. (or three).

And one shot of a beautiful sunset. I missed the main blaze of color but still found these clouds so lovely, so pleasing.

One footnote, unrelated to the rest of this post: A while ago I posted some photos of a handspun yarn dyed with Spanish moss and turmeric. I am happy to report that I was working toward an entry for Spin-Off Magazine's Handspun Gallery of Natural Dyes for the Fall 2010 issue. While I didn't make the cut for the magazine my entry was chosen for the web page, so if you would like to see it you can go to http://www.spinoffmagazine.com/ and click on the Handspun Gallery of Natural Dyes and check out the details. It was fun to do and now I have the gorgeous yarn to play with. Hmmm.. what will it become?

Back at last...

Despite the silence I have been working away on Cookie A.'s Pomatomus socks and am happy to report that they feel as great on as they look. I took me awhile to get into enjoying the process on these as all knit stitches were knit tbl, but it was probably the first time I was really motivated to start the second sock right away.

I was able to finish these by the middle of August, and good thing, too, as I spent two weeks in an intensive Bible training course where I had absolutely no time to knit. But I did have a wonderful time and met people from all over, like Peru and Argentina, as well as the States.

Before heading off to school I found this shawl pattern on Ravelry, called Dianna, and find that it works beautifully with hand painted yarns. I am so looking forward to seeing what it looks like when finished and blocked.

I may have already mentioned the drop spindle class I taught at the Stitch Niche in Diamondhead. I was very pleased that almost every student was spinning quite well at the end of the class. A few of them are fired up to learn to spin on the wheel, so that will be taking place in the next week or so.

So many things to do!

Five o'clock in the morning remnants of Bonnie reached Bay St. Louis with flashes of lightning so bright you could 'see' the light through closed eyes, waiting for the boom of thunder that came much too quickly so you knew it was right on top of you and then listening as it faded away into the distance. The boats are already heading back out to the oil and reports have yet to come in on what further oil damage has been done due to the storm.

Feeling nostalgic. My sister visited us when we were living in Spain many moons ago and we re-visited 'our' castle, the castle at Manzanares el Real outside of Madrid. Beautiful place. Here we are peeking out of the huge main doors. I am missing Spain, California, and most of all family and friends in the San Diego area. Recent news, my sister's son will be heading off to university soon; my twin Peter's surfing dog Nani won first place in the Purina Dog Challenge large dog surfing division which will be aired sometime in August; my niece Alicia's daughter will be heading to kindergarden in September, although I don't know how, as it seems she was just born; my cousin Pam's son was married today in California, I am sure it must have been a lovely wedding.

As for me, I am still working on finishing the second sock of the Pomatomus (Cookie A's design). (previous post) It is coming along well, but I took a break to practice my spinning with a drop spindle for a class at a local yarn store. There were about fourteen students and all were amazingly quick at getting the idea and had yarn! on their spindles when they left after about four hours. One student in particular was spinning what I would consider consistent lace weight yarn. She must have learned before! That was last weekend and it took me a couple of days to recuperate from all the energy expended in practicing and worrying about what to say, which as it turned out was needless, or at least most of it was.

I want to get back to my handspun yarns and knit with them and do some more dyeing and spinning.

Glad that the tropical storm possibility fizzled out and hoping that oil can be controlled!

summer begins

Not being a gardener from lack of practice, I was thrilled to see this hydrangea revive after a freezing winter and blossom back to life. Mind you, it only had two blossoms like this, still, very beautiful and pleasing. I need to make more room for it in its bed. It is wedged between a very active jasmine and a wild hydrangea, that, though much larger, had little to show for itself this year. It reminds me so much of the hydrangeas in front of my mother's last and beloved home in San Diego, overlooking the ocean. So, a touch of nostalgia.
We are having a very hot beginning to summer. Thunderstorms. Heat index up to 105 - 110 degrees. The indoor/outdoor thermometer has had readings consistently over 100 degrees for over a week now. Two weeks? Hard to remember, it just feels like it has always been hot.

So, what do I decide to knit when the temperature goes soaring? Socks! About a month ago Knitting Daily sent out a free Cookie A. pattern called Cubist Socks. Here is my just about completed pair made with a wonderful self patterning sock yarn from Schoeller +Stahl, Fortissima Colori, Socka Color, color #9048. I love how it turned out looking like I did a lot of Fair Isle work. And I have to say 'bravo' to Schoeller and Stahl who arranged to have both skeins of wool start at the same place in the color sequence so that creating a pair of socks that match was pretty effortless on my part.

Having had so much success with the cubist socks I decided to go looking for other Cookie A. patterns. I came across one called Pomatomus from Knitty, the winter 05 issue, and here is my start of that one. This one had a little bit slower start due to all the knit stitches being worked tbl, but now I've got about 4 1/2-5 in. and it is going well, intriguing pattern. This is Lana Grossa's Marmi, color #7002, a 100 g. skein with @ 420 yards, so one skein should easily do the pair.

In the meantime I am working on making some hand spindles and practicing spinning on them for a class later in July. It has been so long since I have spun on a drop spindle! So practice, practice, practice!

Sophia's first hours

Ok, ok, I know I have been missing for awhile, but here is the reason. My new 'nieta' Sophia was born mid morning June 3rd, by caesarian, with me translating for mom in the operating room until I started to pass out due to the heat and not eating and being awakened at 3:00 in the morning and, here is the key piece of information, seeing the size of the needle being used for the spinal injection. So I missed the actual birth, but papa was there and we were all together in the recovery room when Sophie was brought out to mom all bathed and swaddled and ready for hugs and kisses.

She is very sweet, weighed 7 1/2 lbs, was 19 3/4" long and in very good health at birth. So good in fact that they allowed all to go home mid day Saturday, just two days old. So far it is eat and sleep, eat and sleep, but she is starting to look around her a lot more and the challenge is to keep her 2 1/2 year old sister from poking her in inappropriate places. She loves to kiss her though, so that's good! And Jennifer her 8 year old sister is getting a crash course in diapering and taking care of the two year old, Katie.

In all the traveling back and forth around southern Mississippi I am continually surprised by coming across scenes like this camel. In the same location I enjoyed seeing the llama and alpacas in the water, below.

And a family I visit in Bogalusa have had a peacock adopt them, and he is in full dress calling for a mate.

About two weeks ago I was visiting Marina when all of a sudden a truck pulled up at the end of the driveway and asked if we had seen any peacocks. We explained that, yes, there were two that normally stayed around this house, but were nowhere to be seen at the moment. It seems that the peacocks had escaped from the local park not far away, and the park officials had sent off for two pea hens to accompany the two males; in the meantime the males had escaped. Last week at least one of the males had made it back to the park. Here's hoping the other one will make his way back as well, because as the park workers said, there is no way to sneak up and catch a peacock!

A couple of things I've been working on...

Finished this cute little cropped pant for a new baby. The pattern is from Leigh Radford's "One More Skein". She calls them Drawstring Hemp Shorts, I made these from a cotton wool blend, and of course I cannot find the label to tell you which yarn it is, however, I remember it had 'Quattro' on the label. I will go searching for it. I thought it was going to take two skeins, however as I approached the turning row for the facing at the waist I realized that if I used a different yarn for the facing I would have the second skein left to make another pair or??? So I used a little bit of red cotton classic for a contrast and added the pretty ribbon, et, voila. Baby isn't born yet, so, yay!! Something done on time!

Found this cute little felted spinning wheel bag on Ravelry somewhere and thought, that's just what I need to keep my spinning wheel oil and accoutrements in. Here it is pre-felted and here it is after:

After felting in the washing machine I used a sandwhich bag box to block this in a rectangular shape. Very pleased with the way this turned out. And of course this is Noro Kureyon.

Am still working on finishing up other things, including getting back to Madli's shawl, so even if it doesn't look like it, despite spring fever, I have been getting a very little done.
Cheerio!

White and Purple

This wisteria 'tree' was spotted on a recent drive through Bogalusa. Sorry that the image isn't very clear but you get the idea. First of all I had never seen white wisteria before. Second, I certainly had never seen the two growing together, seemingly on one tree. On closer inspection it proves to be two separate trees or vines planted very close together and allowed to grow, or guided to grow together. Simply beautiful!

I am still sorting through projects and trying to overcome spring fever. Hope to have something to show soon. In the meantime I am enjoying this spring!

I love the color in this tulip. It was the only one of the bunch to have this much color, so I had to get a photo of it. I wonder if I could dare to get this colorway on fiber or would it appear too strident? Something to work toward anyway.
I had to laugh when I read a recent forum on ravelry as to how many projects one has on the needles. How awful! Some had as many as 8 (!) projects going at once. It reminded me of an anecdote that Karen, of Black Sheep fame in Encinitas, CA, relates of a customer who decided to label her projects from A to Z, and was able to go through the alphabet 3 (if I remember correctly) times! At the time I was appropriately horrified, however I am beginning to wonder if I would be far off if I started to count. So, I am NOT counting, but I am going to make a real effort to FINISH things as I come across them. Hah!

A recent batch of hand dyed fibers using natural dyes. Top picture, here, Falkland fiber, below on left, merino seacell, right Falkland, and the resulting 2-ply skein, one ply each.

And at last, a skein that Martie dyed, I believe she calls this colorway Autumn. As I spun it I kept thinking of the throne room in the Alcazar de Segovia on a cloudy day. Great grey stones and red velvet everywhere. Hmm. Now what to make with it?

more beauties

A glimpse, a spot of color caught my attention, had to stop, had to try to get this on film. The beauty of spring continues to bloom along the Gulf Coast, and I am wondering if this isn't in part why I'm not knitting so much, I just want to be outside!

How many are thinking 'get that finger out of your mouth!'? Clever little one is learning her colors and numbers. She's going to be a rascal!

On a recent cloudy day the light was so striking I had to stop and admire for a while. The beaches seem to have recuperated four plus years after Katrina and the different municipalities are working to keep them clean. I saw them putting fresh white sand along the beach in Gulfport and they had mowers cutting the grass along the roadside. The drive along Highway 90 which follows the beach pretty much from Pass Christian to Biloxi is spectacular.

As for me, I am trying to do some spinning and planning some knitting projects, have even done a little dyeing. Time to finish up what I have begun, before beginning too much more.