Category Archives: sailing

Family Time

Posted on October 8, 2012 | Leave a comment

We have just spent the weekend with our two sons Rob and Chris and Rob’s girlfriend Kandice!  Kandice was a sweetheart to host all of us along with Rob’s dog Bosun at her house in the suburbs of Baltimore!  We all crammed into one car, with our laundry and weekend gear!  We laughed a lot, played with our granddog and Kandice’s three cats, drank margaritas and ate wonderful food!

I don’t know what we were thinking to drive back to Annapolis (in boat show traffic!) on Saturday to walk around the town and have a late lunch aboard Pandora.  Just getting five people in the dinghy at such a crowded floating dock was a bit over the top!  We spent the afternoon walking through the Naval Academy.  There was a wedding in the ‘chapel’ and it was lovely to see all the men in uniform and the bridesmaids in rich fall colors of deep purple dresses (aubergine) carrying bouquets of deep orange and red gerbera daisies.  Those young women had to be freezing in their strapless dresses during the outdoor photo session!

We ate a lot of decadent food together, but Kandice’s Sunday morning ‘Monkey Bread’ took the prize!

 This is our last day in Annapolis….not a bit too soon for me!  That’s an odd thing to say about a place I love….so many beautiful places all within easy walking distance!  But to spend a week in a city while living on a boat is definitely weird.  Living on board is much more suited to being off the beaten path, in some remote location that is utterly unspoiled.  To be right in the middle of a busy harbor, especially during the biggest sailboat show in the US, is really quite jarring!  I’m living off the grid while sitting just off  a bustling city that rarely sleeps!  The Naval Academy run their stadium lights all night long!  (Well, that’s not entirely true…I think they are off from about 2 – 5 am each day.  Still….)

This is the kitchen window in an Arts and Crafts brick house circa early 1900s right near the academy.  I was smitten!  Wish I could have seen the whole kitchen!  I do want that light fixture!

Another view of the chapel at the Naval Academy.

Here is Bob taking a photo of Pandora from the Academy.

Chris took a couple of photos of the family during our weekend together, but I do not have them yet!

We will work our time slot in the SSCA booth this afternoon, after finishing up on our last needed purchases from the show, and tomorrow we will be on our way to more secluded locations.

The weather has changed and it’s now definitely autumn on the Chesapeake!  It was raining and in the mid-50s (F) when we returned to Pandora yesterday afternoon.  It went down into the 40s last night.  We are running our Esbar heater now… it’s definitely time to head for warmer climes if we are going to live this way!  Here is this morning’s sunrise.

Days 25 – 28, October 5 – 8: Annapolis and Baltimore suburbs (by land!)

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Posted in family, sailing

Anticipation…

Posted on October 4, 2012 | 1 comment

We are just hanging out in Annapolis, waiting….and waiting….

…waiting for the boat show to begin.  Bob is always excited to visit the boats on display and to find out what new and improved equipment and technology has entered the sailing universe.  He has a shopping list of things we need before going further south.  We are working in the booth of the SSCA (Seven Seas Cruising Association) on Monday afternoon so we cannot just pull up anchor and leave….we have obligations…

….also waiting for our two sons and one girlfriend to visit on Saturday and Sunday.  This is such a high point for me that I’m practically holding my breath until they arrive.  I’m worried about all the little details that might get in the way of enjoying their visit. At the moment the dingy dock situation is so awful only a handful of dinghies can actually make landfall.  This does not particularly bother Bob since he will scramble up any number of hurdles or obstacles to get ashore, but I really must insist on a more civilized disembarkment.  There is a water taxi, but the wait times can be long and the cost for one round trip is $20.  That will add up quickly….

Also, it’s been so humid, with rain all day on Tuesday and about 100% humidity on the days since then, with temps in the 80s.  It feels a bit too much like July, and that kind of weather does not promote my happiness or energy level for sight seeing.  Sigh… into each life some rain must fall…

Meanwhile, there is no denying that Annapolis is a beautiful city, easily walkable, with so much to see and do. Annapolis is the capitol of Maryland, and at the top of the main shopping district that rises from the edge of the harbor is the heart of the government sitting on a beautiful circle with surrounding government offices that look more colonial than either Philadelphia or Williamsburg.

Later today we plan to walk through the Naval Academy, which is also quite an architectural gem.

Days 22- 24, Oct 2 – 4: Still in Annapolis (yes, that is editorializing)

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Posted in holiday, sailing

Summer Camp for Cruisers

Posted on October 1, 2012 | Leave a comment

About 75 boats and lots of cars (new word, CLODS: “Cruisers Living On Dirt) arrived at Camp Letts on the Rhodes River just south of Annapolis for a long weekend of seminars for long distance cruisers.  Bob was in sailor heaven, getting to share his passion with so many other like minded sailors, and getting to meet some of his cruising gurus:  Nigel Calder, Lynn and Larry Parday, and Hal Roth’s widow Michelle.  It was a quite the gathering of famous cruisers…

Each day from Friday through Sunday we had catered breakfasts, lunches and dinners ashore, with two morning seminars and two afternoon seminars.  It was a very busy weekend, and we fell into bed exhausted each night!  We met lots of people who will be spending the fall heading to various exotic locations, and some of them will be heading to the Bahamas like we are!  This gathering was a way of not only learning some important techniques and ideas from well known sailing authorities, but also a way to meet the folks who’ll be traveling to the same destination we are, or traveling to destinations that we hope to go in the future.  I can see why this yearly gathering of sailors is so important!

Bob and I took seminars on lots of subjects relating to long distance cruising, and I knitted through most of them.  The baby sweater is now finished and I’m nearing the end of the second front of my Vivian Hoxbro “Ann Jacket.”

Now we are in Annapolis, anchored right where all the hoopla is going on to get the Boat Show set up.  Bob is like a little kid at camp, enjoying watching all the pilings get driven in and the temporary docks being assembled.  As the next few days go by lots of show boats will get put on those docks.  We will be in the thick of it….

Today’s chores are laundry, restocking the larder, and mailing the shawl and the baby sweater!  ….mixed in with reconnecting with lots of friends who come to this boat show every year. This is our first year to arrive by boat rather than by car.

Days 17 – 20, Sept. 27 – 30: Camp Letts, Rhodes River

Day 21:  Annapolis  We are going to be here almost a week.  It’s hard to believe that we’ve only been out sailing for 3 weeks today.  In many ways it seems like a lot longer.  By the time we leave Annapolis next week, we will have been gone a month….and only have traveled such a small distance, 477 miles!  We have a lot more ground to cover to get to Vero Beach by early December, another 1200 miles or so.  It will be time to make tracks!

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Posted in knitting, sailing

An Almost Perfect Day!

Posted on September 24, 2012 | Leave a comment

Not many days get better than this! ….
A walk through charming Chestertown….

In the mid 18th century Chestertown was a thriving British Colony and busy port.  Who knew?? (Well, clearly, I didn’t!)  It is so far up the Chester River it is hard to imagine this being such a busy port, but the number of stately brick houses and the depth of the river definitely attest to the town’s history of wealth.  Even the sidewalks are brick!

I know most sailors love a bit of shore leave, but I sometimes wonder if they can possibly love it as much as I do.  When I get ashore I sometimes wonder if it’s the shore leave I love most!  Walking through a beautiful town like Chestertown, seeing all the lovely homes, doing my best to get a glimpse of the interiors in some of these houses and the equally beautiful private gardens seems to be my main goal.  I’m always a little sad to go back on board.  Embarrassingly, I had never even heard of Chestertown before our visit.

We left in the early afternoon to take advantage of an ebbing tide and winds that should have been behind us. Sailing back down the river was somewhat less than perfect, but the sights along the shore were still bucolic, in spite of a flukey north wind that caused me some discomfort when we heeled more than I like!  At one point we heeled rather severely and I heard a crash, which was my computer flying off the nav station and sailing across the cabin.  What a distressing moment that was!  Kudos to Apple for making such a sturdy little machine.  The only damage seems to be a tiny nick in the corner.  I’ve learned my lesson not to leave it out anymore while we are underway.

We ended the day in another perfect spot, which makes me realize there are benefits to sailing that no land trip could ever match.  We are anchored in a quiet cove that is so undeveloped only our boat gives away what century we are in.  Trees and other fauna grow right to the banks of this little estuary off the Chester River called Queen’s Creek, and the banks are teaming with wildlife.  We took the dingy to explore this little round bay and saw a number of blue herons each staking their claim on a bit of shoreline, patiently wading the shallows.  Our dingy was ghosting along on a mirror surface with only the tiniest little rings of disturbance which I took to be insects landing on the water, which I imagined would be attracting the fish that the herons were anticipating.  When I looked a bit closer I saw that each of these little rings was being caused by a small jellyfish, and there were thousands of them!  The little bay was teeming with them. Are these the stinging nettles so famous in the Chesapeake? Further into the bay we saw a few deer drinking at the water’s edge, something we haven’t seen in many years. These days we are so familiar with deer wandering our suburban neighborhoods, eating right out of our manicured gardens.  I’d forgotten just how perfect they look in their natural setting!  Just above we noticed a bald eagle perched at the very top of a dead tree, surveying the bay.  Wouldn’t you know we left the camera on board when we set out on this wonderful exploration??

This photo was actually taken early the next morning when there was a light breeze ruffling the surface and a morning mist.

Perfect day turned into perfect evening as we watched a sunset just like the ones that must have inspired Maxfield Parrish….the sky all ‘parrish’ blue and deep rose.  Stunning.  The bright half moon rose shortly before the sun set, so that as one light faded the other was ready to take its place.  The large cumulus clouds that had filled the sky before evening made a dramatic setting for the moon’s travel across the sky.  As things go on such rare, perfect days, we also managed to put together a marvelous dinner, which included another loaf of bread fresh out of the oven….wish you could have smelled it!

 The absolute highlight of the day was getting in the dinghy to look up at the night sky.  Bob cast off from Pandora and we drifted around this lovely bay, barely moving since there was hardly a breeze and hardly a current. We watched the Big Dipper slide down below the horizon and and then found the easily identifiable Arcturus and Polaris.  And then I realized the autumn equinox was last night!  The moon will be full in another week, and I wonder what that will do to the higher than normal tides we’ve been seeing the past few days….

Day 14, Sept. 24: Queen’s Creek to St. Michaels

 

 

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Posted in sailing

Migration

Posted on September 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

 The lovely sights in Chesapeake City….

Do you think they bought that red car to match their front door?

 We are starting to see lots of migrating birds, and it seems to me that this year we are migrating with them.  Each day that we haul anchor in the morning we are accompanied by the honking song of Canada geese in their V-formations, and as we travel south we find monarch butterflies alighting on Pandora for short breaks before fluttering away.

The bird life here is extensive!  In the Sassafras River we were exploring the coast line, and we startled two blue herons off their nest!  What a beautiful sight to see them take flight right in front of us!  We had not noticed the nest because it was well hidden in a ‘bog’ of lotus!  We have never seen lotus growing in such a temperate climate before.  It looks like it has become rather invasive in the Sassafras River, and we wondered if the lotus will soon take over… I guess only time will tell.

 We have been sailing along with three other boats since Cape May….not on purpose….but each day that we travel we see them sailing too.  For several nights we’ve ended up in the same harbor, so naturally we’ve gotten together to re-hash the day and talk about where we’re heading.  I know this is quite a common occurrence for boats heading south. Perhaps we are becoming a different kind of migrating flock!  We saw Banyan, a 40 ft Juneau, from Halifax, Nova Scotia, in Cape May with David and Alex (short for Alexandra) onboard.  In Chesapeake City we first saw Peregrine, a 42 ft. Catalina, with Dave and Libby on board with their dog Brody.  And also in Chesapeake City we stumbled on Rick and Julie Palm, who live aboard Altair, a larger version of  Pandora, and whom we met briefly a few summer ago in Maine.  We have formed our own very loose flock and have decided to explore the Chester River together over the next few days.  We will see both Banyan and Peregrine at the SSCA seminars that will take place in Camp Letts at the end of next week.

So I am settling into life aboard…. coffee and knitting in the mornings.  I have finished the shawl and should have posted photos days ago.  I have now started a little baby sweater for the brand new granddaughter who arrived last week to join the family of my oldest childhood friend.  And earlier this week I made ‘poolish’ which will become my ongoing sourdough starter for bread while the weather remains cool enough to bake.  I made the first loaf yesterday, and it was a success!  I will make another loaf today since there is more poolish ready to use now.

Swatch for "Shadow Baby" sweater

I am feeling the pangs of homesickness, but it is balanced by the joys of living is this soft southern landscape.  We’ve seen a number of bald eagles since arriving in the Chesapeake, and yesterday we saw one shag a fish right out of the water and rise into the blue sky with  his/her catch!  It was dramatic!

Day 8, September 18: Lay Day in Chesapeake City (#29)

Day 9, Sept. 19:  Chesapeake City to the Sassafras River (#29 – 31)

Day 10, Sept. 20: Sassafras River to Rock Hall (#31 -34)

Day 11, Sept. 21…..we’re not entirely sure yet!  We will walk into Rock Hall today for some provisions, and then we’ll think about sailing up the Chester River to Chestertown….

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Posted in gardening, knitting, Lace, sailing

Destination: Vulcan’s Rest

Posted on September 17, 2012 | Leave a comment

Have I mentioned that the main reason I agreed to doing the New Jersey coast was so that I could stop at the weaving store called Vulcan’s Rest in Chesapeake City? I kid you not that I was willing to endure almost any sailing conditions to get there, and luckily I made it there with almost no trauma!

Day 6, Sept. 16: Atlantic City to Cape May (#25)

Finally, a zephyr!  We motored most of the day down the coast of NJ, and I actually got to knit a fair part of the day!  This is a very good thing because no one, including me, likes to be around me after I’ve been emptied handed for a couple of days.  I have to admit that my knitting was something on the order of knit one row, look at the horizon and breathe deeply for a few minutes…..knit another row.  Still, it was better than not knitting.  I do realize that this paints me as somewhat of a fanatic, or an obsessive person.  Well, I’m officially calling the pot black.

We got into Cape May in the mid afternoon.  I’d been told that the anchorage is no where near the town, and boy was that right!  It was a long dinghy ride to shore, but both Bob and I were bent on having a walk to stretch our legs.  My dear friend June is always visiting her sister in Cape May, so I rather wondered where she lives!  I had also heard she has a boathouse right on the water for a summer cottage.  When we got ashore I found myself looking across at a lovely row of about eight vintage boathouses.  I had a feeling one of them had to be Stina’s.  I did try calling Stina since June had given me her number.  No luck….

Then Bob and I took a walk through a residential area that put us on the road right behind these boathouses.  The one I’d imagined Stina living in had a bright red Volkswagen bug parked behind it, and I imagined Stina driving this very car.  It seemed to fit with my image of her, even though I don’t know her at all.

We stopped and had a drink on a fake schooner-turned-cocktail bar in the harbor and then got back in our dinghy to head out to Pandora.  But as we left we just took one little turn by the boathouses.  There were two couples sitting on the deck of the one I had dubbed as Stina’s, and wouldn’t you know one of the women looked about the right age (80s).  So I decided to give a yell, “Are you Stina?”  And she was!  We were invited into this lovely boathouse that has been beautifully renovated to look very Swedish.  It was really wonderful!  My huge regret is that I never thought to get a photo of all of us together!  Stina is June’s fireball older sister and is almost 89 years old.  She has far more energy than even my 28 year old son, and she makes my energetic husband seem positively unconscious…. yes, I know what that means I look like in comparison to her!

Oh!  Wouldn’t you know that Stina’s boathouse is the very next house to the right that didn’t get included in this shot!  Could I have had worse luck??  And hers is even quainter than these….sigh…

To totally top things off, Stina asked us what we did when we came ashore, and when we mentioned getting a drink at ‘The Schooner’ she asked us if her granddaughter might possibly have been our waitress.  Of course we had no way of knowing, but Bob thought to check the receipt which showed our waitress was the granddaughter.  Pretty serendipitous!  We were meant to meet!

Day 7, Sept 17:  Cape May to Chesapeake City (#26 – 33)

In order to get the tides just right we got up at 4.45 this morning.  Ugh!  We left Cape May and went rather far out due to the shoaling around the tip of New Jersey, and then found our way into the shipping channel for the Delaware River. That was when we got the big payoff of a stunning sunrise which made me thankful for getting up today! It was 50 miles up the river to the C&D Canal (Chesapeake and Delware).  Today was truly zephyr breezes, and I finished the Flower Basket shawl!

I really don’t like how lace looks when it comes off the needles, before being blocked.  It’s so spongey and amorphous.  I will tackle blocking it on 0ur bed tomorrow!

The C&D Canal was a lovely ride, with lush greenery all the way to the water’s edge.  It had the feel of another century, when farms were all along both banks.  Some of the old farmhouses are still sitting along the banks, and some new suburban looking developments have also cropped up.  Everything was very verdant and peaceful.  Beautiful!  Very southern feeling.  I can only imagine how much more ‘southern’ its going to get in a few more weeks!

I got my stop at Vulcan’s Rest!  This was my much anticipated destination on this first part of our journey. I bought yarn….no kidding!

Lovely Chesapeake City….

A ship going down the canal right in the backyard!  Pretty amazing!

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Posted in Lace, sailing

Jewels in the Night Sky

Posted on September 15, 2012 | Leave a comment

Day 4, Sept. 14:  Lay Day in Altantic Highlands

We did not move today since we are waiting for fair winds to travel down the coast of New Jersey with the wind at our back, which should happen tomorrow.

Today we met up with some old friends and some new friends.  We know a couple with a house on the highlands of Atlantic Highlands, and the husband took us out for a little shopping today and then a visit to their house.  What a view of lower Manhattan they have from the back of their house and their luxurious deck!  It was just about the most amazing view one can have!  At the end of the day we visited with some newer friends that we met in Maine two summers ago, who are also anchored in the harbor.  We watched the sunset together, then the lights of lower Manhattan take center stage.

Here are a few shots that our son Christopher took of us as we motored down the East River and Upper New York Harbor on our way to Raritan Bay.  He rides fast and takes great photos!

The night sky is not nearly as spectacular as what we see from our new home near the Connecticut River or on many summer nights in Maine, but the Manhattan skyline totally makes up for it!  From this spot we have a glorious view of lower Manhattan with the new Freedom Tower as the show stopper of the skyline.  There is a waning moon with  a bright Venus right near it…. we’ll have much better star visibility when we get out of the NY area.

Today we got some wonderful treats from the local farmers’ market in Atlantic Highlands, and I indulged in both a pedicure and manicure.  How decadent!  No knitting today!  Perhaps tomorrow during our long sail down the New Jersey coast.  If I can knit during that I will have made some great strides in confidence about being out on the open ocean!

 

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Posted in sailing

One Week to Go…

Posted on September 4, 2012 | Leave a comment

We are sailing away one week from today.  No more procrastinating!  I have to decide what fiber projects will come with me on our boat “Pandora.”  As with most boats, she seens HUGE when we are approaching a dock, but feels more like a thimble when we are out in the ocean!  Nine months is a long time to imagine what projects I might like to do, and space is a premium…

For days now I have been waking up with ‘night terrors,’ imagining the rough waters off the New Jersey coast.  I have never wanted to do that stretch of water, especially at night.  Now it’s time to face my fear.  I am not ready.

Meanwhile, life seems pretty idyllic here, and the temptation to just stay home, on lovely terra firma, is pretty compelling.

So, yeah….those last two photos are on the water, but I don’t count taking a motor boat ride up the river as being ‘out at sea.’   That ensign is flying at the stern of a friend’s elegant Dyer 29, called “Musketeer,”  and this lovely little Herreschoff  ’12 1/2′ makes a great sight from the shore of Hamburg Cove.

 

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Posted in sailing, sheep

Ending the trip with a Bang!

Posted on August 27, 2011 | 1 comment

My last few days in Maine will be spent riding out what remains of hurricane Irene when she hits these shores.  Hopefully she will be spent by the time she arrives, but everyone has to be prepared for the worst!

We are in a small island harbor called Pulpit Rock in Penobscot Bay. There is a big rock formation at the mouth of this natural harbor that does look a bit like a pulpit.  More than looking like a podium this rock is famous for having a 200+ year old osprey nest at the pinnacle of the pulpit.

Our preparations for the storm are almost complete.  We have two anchors out to keep us from swinging when the winds increase, all the sails are furled and lashed down, loose items have all been stored below.  The larder is well stocked so I intend to cook some comfort food today, perhaps an egg/veggie/cheese timbale, onion soup, and warm homemade chocolate pudding!

Chocolate Pudding from Cook's Illustrated

Thank heave there is a good internet signal because I got the chocolate pudding recipe from this month’s Cook’s Illustrated!

 

 

Also on my agenda after we have finished our storm preparations, is watching a couple of good spinning DVDs I have on board while doing some spinning! I have Margaret Stove’s “Spinning for Lace” and Judith McKenzie’s “A Spinner’s Toolbox,” both from Interweave Press!

Handpainted cotton roving "Phoenix Garden"

And in my large bin of toys I have some handpainted cotton roving from Girl Meets Spindle in a colorway called “Phoenix Garden.”  Now doesn’t this sound like a good plan for riding out a tropical storm?

So I’m hoping that wherever you are you are safe and dry, and doing something fibery on this stormy weekend.

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Posted in dyeing, knitting, sailing, spinning, travel, vacation

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Knitting and Fabric Shops in Coastal Maine

Posted on August 10, 2011 | 1 comment

Several of our usual ports have surprised me with wonderful knitting and fabric shops!  Our ‘guest room’ is quickly filling up with my treasures!

Bath: Halcyon (the photo on their homepage is that Ecobaby sailor pattern! Ha!)  I have to admit that I’ve never been to Halcyon by

Halcyon Yarn

boat, but I have been going by car for 15 years.  You could get there by boat if you wanted to go that far up the Kennebec River and brave its challenging currents.  In all the years I’ve driven over that bridge I’ve never actually seen a sailboat moored in the river near Bath.  That’s not to say no sailboats ever go, just that I haven’t seen them on my yearly visit.  And what can I say about Halcyon, other than it is a weaver’s and knitter’s Mecca, not to mention spinners, rug hookers, crocheters, braiders, felters, etc…etc… If you do anything related to fiber, this is a great resource! Halcyon is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year.  I had a wonderful shopping spree there!

Boothbay Harbor:  You need a car to get to Onboard Fabrics, but it is really worth it!  It’s a barn on Rte 127 (and their address is Edgecomb but my point of view is the harbor where a sailing seamstress might disembark), not far off Rte. 1 on the way to

On Board Fabrics, near Boothbay Harbor

Boothbay Harbor.  They have lots of nautical fabrics, inweights from upholstery to cotton lawn.  This year I bought fabrics to make aprons for gifts.  No sewing machine on board Pandora, so these projects will have to wait ’til I get home (meanwhile, my husband does have his sailrite sewing machine on board…but it will only sew heavy canvas and sail materials!).

 

Rockland: Quilt Divas.  They have fabric and yarn!  And the selections for both are great!  It is walking distance from the harbor

Quilt Divas in Rockland also has a large selection of yarn and knitting books

for us sailors!  I bought the Debbie Bliss “Ecobaby” book here as well as the yarn for the sailor sweater that is currently challenging me to re-design the collar!  I also bought more fabric for aprons here.  Now I’m going to make a lot of aprons for gifts!

 

 

 

Camden: The Cashmere Goat is new this year, in a good location right in the center of town (what used to be a shoe store).  The shop

'The Cashmere Goat in Camden

is not yet full, but they do have some wonderful yarns.  I bought Manos del Uruguay’s “Serena” (kettle dyed, 60% baby alpaca, 40% pima cotton) in a handpainted colorway (#9796) of watery blues and greens.  I’m going to knit a lace shawl from one of the free patterns at Interweave Knits

 

Belfast: Sock Heaven.  This yarn store has been in business for about 10 years now, but I haven’t been to Belfast in about 15 years,

Heavenly Socks in Belfast

so it is new to me! There is an entire wall of yarns produced in Maine, including Hope Spinnery and Done Roving. My big score here was Louet “KidLin”(49% linen, 35% kid mohair, 16% nylon) which I’ve been hoping to find during all my yarn store hunting.  It was hard to choose a color for Louet’s “Cia” Pattern, but I finally settled on “Mexican Orange,” a fun blend of gold and warm pink.

There is also a beautiful fabric store on High St. in Belfast.  I did not note the name yesterday, but I hope to go back today to spend more time there.  I will take a photo and get the name!

 

Other places.  I’ve been to the guild shop in the center of Blue Hill, as well as the yarn shop slightly out of town that has since gone out of busines (sigh…), and I’ve been to Shirley’s Yarns in Hancock (where I bought Dale microfiber years ago for a tank top I never finished because it was so unflattering on me!). Now I understand there are two shops in Blue Hill that I may not know: Blue Hill Yarn shop on Ellsworth Rd. and  String Theory on Beach Hill Rd.  I don’t know if we’ll get to Blue Hill this year, but now I hope so! And a google search shows two promising shops on Mt. Desert, one in Southwest Harbor (Lilac Lily Yarn Shop) and one in Bar Harbor (Bee’s, Inc.), so I hope to visit both of these since we are on our way there for the weekend.

I am putting aside the Debbie Bliss sailor sweater for the moment.  This is quite a disappointment to me, but I do want to give some thought to that collar.  The knitters on Ravelry did not have any solutions that appealed to me, so I will take a look in my library of knitting design books when I return home in September.

Here is my next knitting project, Louet’s “Cia.”

Louet's "Cia"

Louet's KidLin Mexican Orange

First I will finish my own design that uses Tess Designer Yarns’ micofiber ribbon.  I’ll be writing up that pattern to share here and on Ravelry.  It’s a very simple pattern, and I’m almost finished!

 

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Posted in books, inspiration, knitting, Lace, patterns, sailing, vacation, yarn

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