Tuesday, January 23, 2007

Catching Up

I'm back from Nantucket. The extensive renovation of our cottage is about 1-2 months from completion. The cottage is located in the Town of Nantucket in the Old Historic District on a little quiet one-way street. At one time this street was just a foot path.

I stayed with my good friend Nancy Chase who is an island treasure and renowned ivory carver and scrimshander. Here Nancy is working on a very large wooden whale she started carving many years ago but never finished. On the right side of the picture you can see the whale's mouth. The timber is several centuries old and came from the First Congregational Church of Nantucket c. 1834 when it was renovated in 1980 to rebuild Bennett Hall into a real theater for the Theater Workshop.Nancy and I will be working on the whale together and she is giving it to me as a gift for our cottage. I can't express what this means to me or how excited I am. In this picture I'm using a grinder to shape the whale's tail.
Nancy taught me how to play Cribbage. We had great fun playing. I plan to make my own Cribbage board.
While away I cast on Sirdal for Dale's of Nor(th America) KAL . Sirdal has a hemmed ribbing and I decided on the spur of the moment to create a picot edge. I really like it.

7 comments:

vanessa said...

what a fantastic gift!
i love the new trim on linger longer :-)

Sandra D. said...

The cottage is beautiful. I know you'll be glad to have all the work completed!

You are a woman of many talents. Cribbage is the only card game I ever liked, and it's been years and years since I played. A specially made board will be real treat.

And I think you made an excellent decision with that picot edge - it's lovely.

Anonymous said...

Jealous - Gorgeous - I wanna be there! Cottage, friends, sea air. Oh how that calls. Anyway, Sirdal and your variation is great. The picot edge really makes it unique. Beautiful!

Rebecca said...

You never cease to amaze me with all the things you can do! I really would love to learn how to do some woodworking at some point. Your cottage looks adorable. I saw a special once on Nantucket cottages and remember being shocked at how much the real estate cost was! Can't wait to see progress shots. Do you drive or fly when you go?

Lorraine said...

Terri- Your whale is lovely. I hope you have a special place for it.

And I like your picot edge, why didm't I think of that?

Anonymous said...

OH my goodness I'm so jealous, first of the very old historic cottage, 2nd of the whale. How cool is that.

My Dale has a picot edge as well and I love it. I think it adds such a nice touch to the design.

girls just want to have spun! said...

i'm jelous, i want to make a whale with nancy chase. you're a lucky duck.