It's good to be home?

As much as I missed Seli, I could have happily stayed another month on beautiful Sanibel Island.  It was warm and sunny all week.  Every morning, my sister and I were on the beach shelling.  Sanibel Island has the second best shelling in the world (the Great Barrier Reef is #1 and the Phillipines is #3).  I always have a project I work on when I'm on Sanibel.  Besides my knitting and spinning, this time I put together a few specimen boxes of Coquina shells:  one for home, a small one to take to work, and one as a thank you for my Seli Sitter.  The trick is to find them still paired:

I wasn't sure if I was going to take my drop spindle with me.  I haven't used it much since I learned to use my wheel.  Friday night before I left, I decided to practice a bit  with it to see it how it felt.  When I couldn't put it down even though I still wasn't packed, I knew it would be coming with me.  I even dug through my stash for another length of roving in another colorway.  Between the shelling, knitting and spinning the first 4 oz. of roving, I never got to the second but it was so much fun, I'll be taking my spindle with me whenever I travel. 

The roving split fairly evenly into three sections (BFL I dyed in the crockpot).  With each successive third, my spinning got finer and more even.  The first skein is on the left and the last on the right:

The best part of my trip was meeting my second and third cousins.  They live in Texas and while I'd met Lynne (who's around my age) once about 20 years ago, I don't remember it.  Her three girls, my 3rd cousins, I'd never met before.  The oldest, Lucy (Hi, Lucy!) has been knitting since she was six and she's 14 now.  She can knit circles around me!  Blindfolded!  Lucy also spins and the two of us, and sometimes Lynne, would get to talking about knitting and spinning and fiber, etc. and my mom would have to give me the cut-it-short-it's-time-to-eat-dinner sign.  It was so much fun to talk to people who understood what I was talking about and even more fun when it was my family.  I'm going to have to plan a trip to Houston to see them.  (Fall, winter or spring guys.  I don't think I could handle summer in Houston.  :-)  When is the big quilt show?  I might be able to get Marianna to come, too.)  Lucy knit this adorable kitten for me.  I think he's all kinds of cute:

   

Before I left for Florida, it felt like I'd been cold for weeks.  I was cold when I went to bed and cold when I woke up.  Cold!  I was warm for a whole week.  It was glorious!  Now I'm back, cold again, and I cast on for a wool wrap.  I don't have a pattern.  I cast on two stitches and I've been increasing one stitch at the end of each row.  I'm using 3 skeins of my handspun and knitting it in garter stitch.  I have no idea if I have enough to knit the wrap.  I'm switching randomly between the three different colorways and if it looks like I'm not going to have enough, I'll dye something that hopefully will match.  I don't have a picture tonight but I'll post tomorrow on what I have done on the wrap, the fingerless mitt I worked on last week and the Embers sock I've finally finished.  Right now, I'm going to go put a down comforter on my bed.

Comments

[val]

glad you had a great trip - the shells are beautiful - and the kitty is too. wont be long now and youll have spring - will it be warmer then?

[Maggie]

Those shells are beautiful! I love finding those "baby clams" still paired, but they're much rarer out here in San Diego. Glad you had a lovely vacation :)

[keri]

Sounds like you had a lovely trip, welcome back! =)

[Lori]

Sounds like a nice vacation! I'm glad you have a relative with similar tastes. It's great to click with a family member.

[elizabeth]

I love those shells! So much better than dead butterflies!