family – ArgoKnot

Rearview

February 10, 2026 | 2 Comments

The year 2025 has been twirling around in my head for a couple of months now. I don’t think of myself as goal oriented (although my husband declares I am), but I do feel it helps me if I take inventory of what I made in the past year. It’s taken a me a few weeks to get around to this, and I found that I needed to document some things with photos.

The main thrill of the past year for me was travel! I have never managed to go so many places in one year as I did in 2025. Bob will take all the credit for that since he sailed our boat Pandora to the Açores and then on to the Mediterranean, enduring an attack by orca whales to get to his destination, knowing that his trip made it possible for me to see a bit of Europe. Being in the Açores for a month, Scotland and the Outer Hebrides for two weeks, and finally southern Spain and Madrid for another two weeks was such an eye opener for me, being immersed in the many kinds of handwork done in these richely cultural places. I’ve written about the Açores and Scotland in previous posts. I’d like to write about Spain, but not today. I have developed a new tapestry talk about the many tapestries I saw at Galeria de las Colectiones in Madrid, and I will try to cover that here sometime soon.

From September until just before Thanksgiving in November, I took the Maiwa Natural Dye Worshsop, led by Charlotte Kwon and her daughter Sophena. Every week of the 10 weeks I spent 5 days dyeing, usually about 4-5 hours a day. The workshop came with new videos each week as well as PDFs to print and put in a notebook. The instructions were thorough. I got fabulous colors that led to dreaming about future projects. I gained so much knowledge after decades of fumbling around with dyes and taking short classes at various conferences. This workshop is incredibly in-depth, and I now feel I have a reasonable amount of knowledge, and even better, confidence!

Yum, right? I thought all these samples would go in a notebook, but it turns out we only had to cut a small bit off each skein of yarn or length of fabric, so I have plenty to plan to use in some small projects. Whatever I end up making will be such treasures from this workshop. I have spent about 10 hours cataloguing everything in the journal that came with the class. That’s on the upper right below. The lower left shows all the original dyes done on white and grey yarn, white wool fabric, white silk fabric, natural and white linen fabric, and cotton and cotton/hemp fabrics. Above it on the left are all the original yarns and fabrics dipped in indigo to change the colors. The lower right shows all the original shades dipped in a 2% iron solution to darken the colors. This is a tremendous cache of color on beautiful fabrics. Now that it’s all safely documented in the journal I want to start making things with these bits of fabric.

The notebook was rather a lot of work–far more tedious than dyeing! So I thought I should make a short video describing it.

I’ve been feeling rather UNsuccessful in my weaving projects this year. I am making almost no progress on the ruana fabric made with single-spun Hebridean wool from the Isle of Uist. All the yarns are the natural colors of the sheep, and I arranged them in a gradation on the warp. The one color that I had the most of is the weft. I wish it were off the loom already so I could put the ruana together. Oh well. I feel a bit better about my lack of progress when I realized how much time I devoted to dyeing right up to the holidays.

Aren’t these buttons sweet? I also bought them in the Outer Hebrides, at a shop called the Weaving Shed on the Isle of Lewis.

I grow older in the first month each year, and this year I have entered the next decade…70. Whoa. That’s a hurdle for me emotionally. A number of my friends (and Bob too!) are ahead of me, looking great and still in full control of their faculties, mentally and physically, so I am trying to believe I can do that too!

My children and grandchildren, and one significant other spent a long weekend with me to celebrate this landmark birthday. Tori, our oldest granddaughter (of three) made pasta and then turned it into ravioli….and she did it in front of an audience. She’s a natural!

And we had some great relaxation time in between cooking and being outside in our biggest snowstorm, walking in the woods and building two snowmen.

t was a year ago that I finished this tapestry. Hard to believe. It seems like more than that. Again, this is a realization that helps me make peace with the fact that my current tapestry has barely 1″ woven. Where does the time go?

This afternoon I took stock of the knitting I did last year. I had such a great time buying yarn in the Açores, in Scotland, and in Spain. I actually did something with a fair amount of it. Go me! The grey cotton yarn is from Horta, on Faial, in the Açores. The cowl on the left is a free pattern on Ravelry, and the cowl on the right is “Inspira,” also on Ravelry.

The pattern yarn in the stranded knit sweater is from the Weaving Shed, mentioned above. It’s a blend of merino and silk that is probably not from the Hebirdes, but it was dyed by one of the sisters at this company. The other sweater is 100% cashmere yarn that my son Rob gave me for Christmas in 2024. I wasn’t sure how to best use it, so I just made a simple top/down, raglan sleeve striped sweater in the round. I don’t think it weighs more than an ounce, yet it is SO warm.

My friend Jody took a photo of me wearing my new Scottish sweater, which is entirely Scottish yarn but a design by German designer Elenor Mortensen on Ravelry. I am standing outside the iconic Griswold Inn in Essex, CT.

Not too bad a rearview assessment of making things last year. I feel better now. Bob has been busy as well during our months at home. He made a couple of cutting boards, done with end grain, a rather complicated desk for our son Chris who wanted a pull out tray underneath for his keyboard. Now he is making good progress on an “L” shaped desk for his office.

Finally, i want to mention a book I’ve just finished reading: With Her Own Hands by Nicole Nehrig. It has given me some clarity in looking back at my last year of working in textiles, as well as my long history of doing so. I have been knitting for over 60 years now, and weaving for 50. Weaving tapestry for just over 25. Spinning and kumiho are also reaching the 30 year point. The author describes things in life that are beyone words, that some people can only respond to life visutally, not with words. I have always turned to words, but this book made me see that there are times when events and life experiences cannot be contained or described by words. Sometimes those of us who work with our hands can only respond in the ways we are comfortable expressing ourselves visually. This has been a year like that.

“Counting stitches or holding a complex pattern in mind may distract a knitter, crocheter, or weaver from worries. We lose self-consciousness through absorption in the activity. The repetition involved can lead to a hypnotic, calm state, a kind of meditation through motion. Textile work confers a sense of control and mastery that can counter balance the lack of control we may experience over what is happening in our larger world.” –Nicole Nehrig

Whatever you are currently working on, I hope it gives you this sense of calm, of meditation, and a strong sense of balance. Onward we go.

Nostalgic Holiday

December 16, 2017 | 1 Comment

By the end of this brief month we’ve been home we will have visited our older son and his family, which includes our delightful granddaughter Tori, three times. That is a LOT of driving, and it always includes a trek through New York City… and that brings back memories from the decades we lived in New Jersey.

On our last trip home, after Tori’s 1st birthday party, we drove into the city for an appointment that should have taken place over the summer. It was a sparkling mid-December day, where the snow that had blanketed most of the northeast had already melted on the city streets. It was the morning the suicide bomber had set off his pipe bomb in the subway near Times Square. Hearing this news, we decided to avoid the West Side, so we took the Holland Tunnel. What a view with the sun directly behind Freedom Tower!

We drove down to Battery Park to get on the East Side FDR.

What memories! Foremost in my mind was a very different day–a late summer day in September, five years ago, when our son Christopher met us at Battery Park. We were onboard our last Pandora, and Chris was on his bike! We said our goodbyes across the water, and I was crying. It was our farewell moment at the beginning of a 9-month trip down the east coast of the US and across to the Bahamas, where we spent 4 months sailing about 1,000 miles among the islands from the Abacos, the Berries and the Exumas, before retracing our tracks back up the eastern seaboard. I’d never been away from home that long before–actually haven’t been away that long since either.

Chris first met us near Gracie Mansion, where Hells Gate flows into the East River. He took this wonderful panorama of us. We were alone on the river that morning.

Then we raced him down to Battery Park, Pandora against Chris on a bicycle. We won, by only 10 minutes, and he had to navigate far more traffic than we did that morning!

While we lived in New Jersey, I almost never had an occasion to drive on the East Side, so driving up the FDR brought this single memory back in full force. I can still feel the breeze and smell the river and the city from that September day. What a difference a few years make. Chris was at the beginning of his doctoral studies; Bob and I were neophytes at long distance sailing. Now Chris has been working in quantum physics for a couple years, and Bob has put 10,000 miles under the keels of two Pandoras since then.

This December day, we parked our car near the East River and walked west into the throngs of midtown… past Lex and Park and Madison, and on to 5th Ave. It was fitting to me that Saks has chosen Snow White as the theme for this year’s windows. Our little Tori seems like Snow White to us with her ivory skin and dark hair. I wish she could have been with us to see this!

As it happens, Tori’s Mom loves Mini Mouse, and now so does Tori. I made Tori a Mini Mouse dress to wear for her birthday, and her parents decided to have photos taken to commemorate this milestone. We don’t have any of the final photos yet, but here are a couple of proofs. I love the middle one (kind of wish I’d made her a Snow White dress, though!).

During our visit for Tori’s 1st birthday party, the first snow of the season fell on the day of her party! Grampy gave her the first taste of snow.

The rest of us made party preparations. Kandice had seen this Mini Mouse fruit bowl on Pinterest, and Rob and I enjoyed creating it!

Rob and Bob finished decorating the huge tree. We always say that Rob likes to “Clark Griswold the heck out of Christmas”–and he does.

But….back to our drive through New York….our appointment was only half a block from THE TREE so we had to take a moment for that. Due to the earlier incident with the bomber, the streets were heavily patrolled by policemen in groups, all carrying automatic weapons. I haven’t seen that kind of police presence since the 70s in Rome, but I will refrain from saying more.

The promenade and the shops along it were still as festive as ever. My favorite shop is Penahaligons!

Earlier this week Bob gave a slide presentation locally about our travels through the Windward Islands during the past winter season. As usual, he was entertaining and humorous and his slides were stunning.

One of the highlights of the evening for me was that a woman approached me to tell me that she’d missed hearing me add to the presentation with whatever handwork I’d discovered on our travels. I had no idea that any of the sailors in the audience would want to hear about textiles and handwork!

And on that note, it seems I’ve gotten quite far off track on writing about textiles lately. Perhaps my final thoughts will center on that. A couple of my gifts this year focused on Idrija lace from Slovenia, which I quite love. I ordered these little lace hearts from Slovenia. I should have ordered many more!

My favorite purchase this year came from the Hartford Artisans’ holiday sale back in late November. It is a short piece of Deflected Double Weave sewn into a cowl. What a terrific idea to weave cowls in this structure! For one thing, when sewn together with a flat fell seam they are reversible! Another bonus is that from a warp that would normally be used to make only two scarves, I can probably get six cowls! Oh! And a 3rd bonus–no fringes to twist. I’ve already made my warp, in a much different colorway than this cowl which I bought at the sale. I’ll be ready to dress my small Baby Wolf to weave some gifts when I return next spring.

Today marks the halfway point of Hanukah, and it is only 10 days until Christmas. We’ve had three snowfalls already and some record breaking cold temperatures. As I write this today I am steeping a large quantity of gin in a mixture of dried hisbiscus flowers, cardamon and peppercorns. It is my ‘plan B’ from years of searching for damson plums with no luck. I hope hibiscus gin will make a delicious gin and tonic this evening to warm me as I make a batch of cookie and get started on tomorrow’s beef wellington. I hope you are doing similar things to make your holiday festive and to keep warm. Best wishes….

The Royal Visit

December 3, 2017 | Leave a Comment

Right up front I’ll tell you we missed seeing Prince Charles. Right now it feels like old news, but believe me I still smart a little from this! The Prince arrived hours earlier than predicted, and I was still onboard Pandora, carefully choosing what to wear for a royal visit. He was gone by the time we got ashore (although we did not know that until hours later!–until others told us all about it). Some of our friends only saw the royal motorcade while they were out on their morning walk. Our friends on Exodus were on the dock in English Harbour, due to the many gear failures that occurred during their passage that needed professional attention. They were having their morning coffee in the cockpit when Prince Charles strolled up to have a chat! It was then that they all wished they’d taken more care with their morning attire!

One of our Salty Dawgs, Ardys Richards, took this fabulous photo!

As you can see, not many were on hand when the Prince arrived.

It has taken me awhile to catch up on the all the happenings since we left Antigua. Thanksgiving seemed to come right after Prince Charles left, and I cannot account for the three days in the middle. I think we were having more of Bob’s planned events–it was a whirlwind! What an experience to have a traditional Thanksgiving dinner in such a tropical setting, with a significant number of non-Americans sharing the experience with us. Dinner was served just after sunset, on the deck above the Antigua Yacht Club, where we enjoyed a balmy breeze and beautiful views of the harbor. The cooks made 10 turkeys for the 100+ diners, and we all tucked into plates full of turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, and various roasted veggies….not island fare at all! (photo also by Ardys, I think!)

We left on Friday to head back to the States, in particular to our older son’s house to participate in our granddaughter’s christening. That was quite an adventure–although too boring to write. We didn’t arrive until just before dawn on Saturday morning. Our younger son arrived on Friday from San Francisco, and we all enjoyed a belated non-traditional Thanksgiving dinner together on Saturday night. Rob and I have always wanted to make a Beef Wellington together, and at last we did! It was a special evening to have our whole Osborn family together, that now includes a daughter in law and a granddaughter, along with one of Rob’s oldest friends and his new wife. I was overflowing with thankfulness!

And then Sunday brought the christening! Of course I think Little Tori would be beautiful in a burlap sack, but I was thrilled to see her wearing the dress I’d spent most of the summer and fall making for her.

Tori’s mom chose the fabric–silk shantung, and it had that mesmerizing rustle of silk as Tori walked around in it. The sleeves are silk organdy (mostly because they were a bit complicated for me and I could not face the idea of trying to make them in the shantung when it came to inserting them into the tiny armhole!). As it worked out, I love the sheerness of the organdy that shows off Tori’s tiny, delicate shoulders! I barely know what I’m doing to make a dress like this–French seams, a lining, petal sleeves, bound seams on the armholes, buttonholes. The credit for this dress really goes to my sewing teacher Marie, who directed every move I made in the construction, and then sewed a few things herself when I could not, such as inserting the 4-piece petal sleeves into the dress and making those buttonholes!

Tori is looking a little shop worn after the long ride to the church and back along with the christening ceremony! She was happy to get back to bare feet!

I had to make the dress in spite of my sewing INexpertise because I wanted to use the lace I’d been making for the 5 month months leading up to the big day. I spent somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 hours making the two yards of lace border for the bodice and hem of the dress. There is a smaller lace at the neckline that I had saved from an earlier project (members of Metro IOLI will recognize it as Gunvor Jorgenson’s workbook, lace #3). Making this dress meant the world to me! I was thrilled to see my little princess in it and I was glad that she wore it all day!

Christopher documented the whole day in photos for us….just about the best gift we could imagine! He took 600 photos! I’ll just share a few….though it will be more than I usually post…. what can I say? I am smitten with Tori and with Chris’ photos of her!

Here she is with her dad, walking along the altar at the church.

Meeting the priest.

Getting baptised.

Aftereward, posing with Mom and Dad in front of the Christmas tree on the altar.

The party at home afterward included good friends and both families for a late lunch and play time with Tori. I don’t think she took a nap that day…. she held up well, like a royal would do!

Our little Tori is as royal to us as Prince Charles. She is certainly the little sovereign in our family, and we all do our best to serve her needs! She our tiny super moon (still), and we are all caught up in her orbit. In fact, December’s full moon is occurring now, the same full moon (actually a ‘super moon’ like the one that occurred last year when she was born!) In lunar cycles, she has turned one on this full moon! Her calendar birthday will be in 10 days, after this moon cycle has finished. It’s a wonderful place to be–in her orbit….I’m enjoying every moment of it!

A Day at the Cricket Match

March 6, 2017 | 2 Comments

Well, who knew I’d ever be talking about cricket–me, the obsessive weaver/knitter and somewhat reluctant sailor will now spend a few words on cricket. We were given tickets to the West Indian/English cricket match here on Antigua. Antigua has spent a fortune on a modern stadium for this sport so the locals must love this game. They have chosen having a stadium over having better water or sewage systems on the island, and certain over having good roads. Who am I to say what’s more important?

Lucky for us that two very nice Englishmen were seated in front of us, who were willing to explain the game and give us some background on cricket. It’s a long game. We arrived over an hour after the start and still saw most of the first half, in which the West Indian team was batting. By the end of that half they had scored 258 points.

I know these photos don’t do justice to the action. All I can say is that I’ve never seen anyone run as fast all these men do! It was more exciting than watching the Olympics just to see them run and catch balls. They can catch anything!

I wish I had a photo of our English cricket tutors. They were both dressed so perfectly shabby/chic in their rumpled linen shirts and khaki shorts, finished off with panama hats and shabby boat shoes. Their diction was also perfectly Queen’s English. I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised to learn they are both barristers, or maybe even earls. Enchanting gentlemen…

The spectators were very well dressed. This has to be quite a big social event for the locals. And during the breaks you could buy all kinds of food–or get your face painted!

We left about 4 pm, even though there was more than an hour left in the game. Because the game is played in two halves, with only one team able to score during its own half, we have no way to know who won. Maybe we can find out from a local when we get ashore later. You do really do have to stay for the whole 8 hours!

Life aboard continues as ever. More of our acquaintances have arrived in the harbor so we’ve had several nice get togethers. As you can see our numbers are growing. It’s hard to all congregate on one boat so we’ve moved on to larger venues on shore.

Each day brings it own chores, just like home anywhere. The last week was focused on fixing broken things aboard Pandora, and Bob has made some great headway on those things. We are still waiting for some kind of power supply for the SSB, and then that repair will be finished. Our friends on Kalunamoo came into Falmouth yesterday with a broken windlass. You may remember what that is from a couple weeks back when ours died as well. It’s the thing that pulls up the anchor since a hundred or more feet of chain is way too much for a mere human to handle. It’s important. When it breaks it’s time to get on that project right away.

This morning we have been busy making water and doing two loads of laundry. I hope to get out my small tapestry by noon. Tori’s little sailor sweater is finished and almost ready for giving when I see her at Easter. I hope her parents will like it enough to have her wear it through the spring and on cool summer nights.

I almost took a photograph of all our laundry hanging out to dry, but then thought better of it! Here’s a photo of what Bob has to do to get anything out of our freezer for dinner. “You want the WHAT??? Honey, that’s at the very bottom!”

Our younger son Chris arrives next Wednesday to spend almost a week with us in English Harbor on Antigua. March and April are big months in the Osborn family. Both Rob and Kandice have birthdays in March–Rob’s is this Wednesday! Where does the time go?? In between Rob’s and Kandice’s birthdays, little Tori will turn three months old! I haven’t seen her in a month now and she is changing rapidly, as babies do. Luckily Rob and Kandice send us new photos of her almost every day.

Here she is looking very glam in her shades!

And this was taken yesterday. For almost a month now she has been standing up while holding on to Mom or Dad. It appears she may be as precocious as her daddy was at that age. I’m enjoying remembering Rob’s babyhood through Tori, but I know that Tori’s mom and dad are in for wild ride ahead! She started doing this just after turning 2 months old.

Chris’s birthday with be next month, just before Easter. So much to celebrate, and we are too far away to do it properly!

Time to finish sewing that last seam in Tori’s sailor sweater and then get out my loom…. maybe Bob will find out who won the cricket match while he is ashore using the internet to order some more things for Pandora.

Celebrations

January 19, 2016 | Leave a Comment

It’s Tuesday afternoon. Bob and I are sitting in a Starbucks in Ft. Lauderdale while he downloads new charts for Cuba and updates his ‘Active Captain’ app. I am looking through photos from 2015 and realizing how much we celebrated over the past 6 months. It was a very celebratory year, and my 60th birthday (just a few days ago) finished up the family milestones as the new year begins.

After Bob turned 60 in June (I was busy cooking and did not get any photos), I had some wonderful old friends visit in July. We’ve known each other for about 25 years, and we made plans to spend part of our weekend going to the NEWS (New England Weavers Seminar) conference in Northampton….. 4 women of a certain age going to a weaving conference! It was awesome! Here we are at dinner in Middletown on our way back to my house.

Then came our older son’s wedding in August. We almost never get photos of our two sons together. It was a rare and wonderful moment.

Right before Thanksgiving, Bob threw me an early birthday party since it was going to be one of those once a decade birthdays, and I would not be able to see my friends and family when the actual birthday happened. Here is chef Michael, just starting the hot hors doeuvres before dinner. What a night!

A photo with one of my old friends and three of my new friends–all weavers!

Michael is about to cut the cake…

And my favorite pairing: white wine and chocolate cake!

A few days before my real birthday last week, Bob and I had a marvelous dinner at Pistache in West Palm Beach. This photo is all about the dinner: duck breast in cherry sauce with truffle polenta…and the harbor park in the background.

While we are waiting for the weather window to sail to the Bahamas, I’ve been slowly honing my tatting skills. I’m definitely improving…and now I’ve got enough tatting to go across the back of my green T-shirt and start going down one side of the front V-neck! Only about a million more little rings and chains to go!

I worked on it a bit this morning before we came ashore.