holiday – ArgoKnot

An Abundance of Good

June 3, 2025 | 1 Comment

It’s almost June, and I have been writing blogposts in my head for about two months. None of them has made it to reality here on this site. I am approaching the end of my 3 1/2 months at home before leaving to go back to Pandora in mid-June. It’s almost time to go again. Somehow, when I am living aboard it seems that several months at home will allow me to get a lot of things done. I envision myself weaving, knitting, creating every single day, but life always has other plans. Still, there has been a lot good over the past three months. In 10 days I’ll be on a plane heading to the Azores, where I will wait for Bob to arrive, unless he beats me there. There is a slight chance for that.

In spite of never accomplishing what I hope to do in any given period of time, I have experienced a tremendous amount of productivity and inspiration. I attended all the meetings I normally miss, and what an exceptional treat that was to be with so many other weavers who all have ideas worth noting. I now have a longer list of things I want to weave and knit, spin and sew. But before I can plan new projects I have to finish the ones currently on my looms, currently on my knitting needles.

This is the project I put on my Baby Wolf shortly after I returned home after taking a zoom class on double huck with Cally Booker in January, when I was aboard Pandora with no way to weave. It’s Finnish linen, single ply #8, which I think is about 2400 yards per pound. To start I set my warp at 33 epi, which is only 16 epi for each layer of the double weave. I wove two samples and washed them. I think they are both too loose.

Cally suggested I try 1/2 units of huck alternating with 1/2 units of plain weave before I decided to re-sley. It didn’t help.

I re-sleyed at 40 epi (20 for each layer), and I like what I’m getting now.

So I’m on the real project now, a cowl, with 3-4 colors in both layers of the warp, but only two colors in the weft. I may add more colors in the next cowls after this one. Of course, now I’ve decided that I want to take this with me on my summer travels. So the heat is on! I leave in 10 days.

And of course I wanted a new sweater to take with me for the windy, chilly Outer Hebrides that I’ll visit in July. I have now finished the 2nd sleeve and will sew it in later today. This is a design by Martin Storey called “Skylark,” for Rowan yarns. I bought this yarn years ago for a different sweater which called for two versions of Shibui yarns, “Fern” which is a soft organic cotton yarn, and “Twig” which is a fine linen yarn. That sweater required holding the yarns together, and of course that made it quite expensive. I thought it would look better in this design, even though this sweater “Skylark” calls for a wool yarn from Rowan. So of course this meant I was play a game of ‘yarn chicken’ which I detest doing! And I knew I was going to lose, which is why I decided to do the front bands in three strands of 16/2 linen from my weaving stash. You can see the front bands are a darker color. Then came the mistakes! Although it doesn’t show (to me) there are significant decreases after the cabled ribs at the bottom of the sweater. When I knit the right front (on the left in the photo) I forgot to do that! When I was almost finished with the shoulder shaping I realized that this part of the sweater was WAY bigger than the other front. I had to rip all the way back to the top of ribbing. Not fun, especially since it’s all stockinette stitch. Then came the next big mistake: I did not notice that I accidentally carried the front band yarn all the way across that second front until I was sewing the body pieces together. Can you imagine how frustrated I was when I realized I had another major mistake? I decided I could not face ripping back and knitting again–all that stockinette stitch. This unsightly stripe is on my right, and since I usually wear a cross body bag when I am out and about, the bag will hide most of this problem. If I get really inspired (unlikely) I could duplicate stitch with the darker yarn in various other places to continue the look. I often find that if I wear something before I consider it finished I never go back to do the embellishments I’ve planned. I am going to wear this sweater on Friday, complete with the cross body bag disguise. I’ll probably never do the duplicate stitch. It is what it is. And I won’t even mentioned that in spite of using a different yarn for the front bands, I had to go on long, deep internet search to find one more skein of “Fern” to make the 2nd sleeve. This sweater had its challenges.

A few weeks ago I found some beautiful linen fabric on Etsy. It is printed linen from Finland. I seem to be on a roll with materials from Finland. How could I resist this?

I made a simple top, except that at my level of skill that neckline was not so simple. I didn’t get the two sides of the V-neck the same, even though I re-did it three times. When I tried this on the first time I realized it needed darts, and I did manage to put those in after the fact. One point for me!

I decided to ‘decorate’ the neckline based on sage advice a weaver once gave me: If you can’t hide it, decorate it! I made some crocheted cord that is used in Romanian lace, but that only accentuated the uneven neckline. Then I tried some decorative edge embroidery, but that also drew more attention to the problem. Last ditch effort was to go through my vast scarf stash. Bingo! I found a scarf made of manipulated ribbon that I made in a workshop with Sally Shore, almost 2 decades ago! I have never had just the right top to wear this scarf, so I am thrilled that almost 20 years later it’s just the right accessory.

I no longer have any clue how we made these ribbon scarves. They were entertaining to make, and I don’t think it required as much sewing as it looks like it did.

In 10 days I leave to meet Bob in the Azores. He left home in late April and has been sailing ever since. He started in Trinidad, which is spitting distance from Venezuela, and stopped in St. Maarten and Bermuda. He got a change of crew at each stop. On May 31, he left Bermuda with two new crew members to head non-stop to the Azores. He hopes to get there by mid June, which will mean he’s been sailing for 6 weeks with no rest. He’s had technical problems and health problems along the way. He has mostly taken it all in stride, but I have not. I have to admit that I seriously thought we needed to rethink these plans. But he’s on his way, and the passage is going very well so far. The prep for this passage certainly didn’t.

I will fly to the Azores on June 15th, and just in case Bob hasn’t arrived, I have booked five days in what i hope is very comfortable hotel, right on the harbor, walking distance from a scrimshaw museum, a knitting store, and a fine craft gallery. I hope I find something wonderful to buy for Bob’s 70th birthday which is Sunday. We are missing being together on both our 48th anniversary and his landmark birthday. But he chose to do this trip so I know he’s doing what he loves.

In mid-July I will fly to Scotland to spend 2-3 weeks doing some very exciting things with a good friend whom I have traveled with numerous times. We travel well together and always have a good time. And this is when the abundance of good is going straight into the stratosphere. I have an appointment to see the tapestries that Archie Brennan’s family has given to the National Museum of Scotland. I believe they have in the neighborhood of 100 of Archie’s tapestries. They are in storage now, but I hope there will be an opportunity to display them. We all got cheated for his retrospective exhibition when it took place in July-August of 2021, when it wasn’t yet safe to travel. Maybe there is another chance for a big exhibition of his work.

After that I have an appointment to meet the current director of the Dovecot Studios. The last time I was in Scotland, and so looking forward to visiting the Dovecot, it was closed for renovations. Now is the time. I am so thankful. I’ve been asked to give a talk about Archie, so I am preparing for that, and yes, I am very nervous. The Dovecot is where Archie learned to weave, and where he established his career as a tapestry designer and weaver. He is a legend there. Here he is, age 16, in the center front, with the other weavers from that time. It is 1947 or ’48.

It’s going to be an exciting summer, full of an abundance of amazing opportunities. When I leave Edinburgh, my friend Kari and I will visit Stirling Castle to see the reproduction tapestries of the “Hunt for the Unicorn.” While I was studying with Archie and the Wednesday Group, we met the weavers from the UK, who visited the Met Cloisters in order to study the originals. Now I will get to see their finished pieces. And we’ll visit Galashiels to see the “Great Tapestry of Scotland” which is an embroidery on a vast scale, like the Bayeux Tapestry. As luck would have it, earlier this year I met three women who either worked on this monumental piece or are related to someone who did. What serendipty. Then we’ll head to the West Coast to do a sightseeing excursion through the Outer Hebrides. I’ve got a few mills and other textile places on my ‘must see’ list. I have to wonder if I’ll ever have such a textile rich trip again. It’s an abundance of good.

St Kitts, Thomas Jefferson, Batik

January 11, 2018 | 1 Comment

That’s an odd assortment of names in the title, yet that is the diversity of what we have seen on this island!

The weather has us pinned down off the southeast coast of St. Kitts. There are no harbors here for protection, which is the case for many of the West Indies islands in the Caribbean, and boy do I miss the protected harbors on Antigua. After sailing from Antigua last Saturday, we attempted to anchor off Nevis, but the best anchorage area was too rough! It was only 2pm in the afternoon, so we sailed about seven miles further to White House Bay on St. Kitts, and then had to move again for more protection. We were finally settled, although not comfortably, just before sunset. The winds have been quite strong, which is typical for this time of year. They are called the Christmas winds and usually last until the end of January.

The capital of St. Kitts is Basse Terre, and in the center of the city is a roundabout with a clock in the center called Piccadilly Square.

Cruise ships arrive almost daily in Basse Terre, and we can see them come and go from our anchorage, a few miles to the east. There is a hospital ship in the same area that has to leave every time a new cruise ship arrives. We learned that this ship is a medical school and that since the destruction of the medical school on Dominica this ship has taken on the faculty and students from that university. We watch it come and go every day to make room for the large cruise ships. I wonder what the faculty and students think of that. I’m trying to wrap my head around the students practicing surgical procedures on a vessel that has to be rolling around even slightly, in spite of having stabilizers. I contemplate over each evening as we watch the sunset from Pandora.

Yesterday we hired a tour guide to drive us around the island. Normally Bob and I detest this kind of touring, but this island has many windy roads and switchbacks that lead through the mountainous terrain, and driving is on the left. It was a smart decision not to tackle it ourselves!

Alexander Hamilton was born on nearby Nevis, and Thomas Jefferson’s great-great grandfather had a large plantation here on St. Kitts. The plantation has become a historic site here, no surprise, as well as the site of a botanical gardens and a local business of women who make batik fabrics. I’m quite fascinated to learn—so late in life!—that some of our founding fathers had such exotic origins! Years ago I visited the home of George Washington’s family, Sulgrave Manor, that seemed to be ‘right down the street’ from Princess Diana’s ancestral home Althorp. Both these family manses are in Northamptonshire, in the UK, so not so exotic. Still, I was well into adulthood before I ever gave a thought to exactly where our founding fathers originated. I just vaguely thought of them all as English. History is far more interesting in the details, isn’t it?

Romney Manor was first the site of gardens for a man named Tegereman who was chief of the indigenous tribe of Caribs. By 1625 this site had become a beautiful Euorpean style home for Sam Jefferson, Thomas Jefferson’s forebear.

The gardens are good mix of natural landscape and cultivated gardens.

It would hard to ever leave a spot like this…..more lemonade, please!

Along with the gardens, which are well cultivated and include beautifully landscaped areas of quite a variety of tropical plants, a group of women also run a textile business on the property of the plantation. The women make wonderful batik fabrics and their business, which started in 1976, is called Caribelle Batik. After 40 years, they must be on their 2^nd or even 3^rd generation of women keeping this technique alive and well. I’d say I was watching the 2^nd generation of master batik makers demonstrating for the tourists, since all of them were about my age.

The shop was full of about anything you can dream up to make with batik fabric. There were wall hangings, clothing, all kinds of little containers, pillow covers. I bought a nice selection of things to bring home for friends and family.

The designs are drawn with a stylus filled with melted beeswax.

They do intricate designs, and the best thrill of all was walking through the gardens, surrounded by exotic plants, views of the ocean, and lines and lines of batik fabrics drying in the breeze. I think this will be the highlight of my winter!

In addition to a rainforest full of exotic native and not so native plants that have found there way here, St. Kitts also has a large colony of green monkeys. They are everywhere! Our guide told us that they were brought to the island by the French, who brought them on their ships from Africa, along with their human cargo destined to be slaves. Some islanders have taken young monkeys for pets. I got accosted by a heckler, who came up from behind and just put this monkey into my arms. I didn’t mind, but I would have preferred to be asked. I guess he knows well that if he asks, most people will say no. It’s better to just throw a monkey into your arms and grab your phone before you have a chance to think. It’s the way of life in this part of the world, so it’s best just to go with it. Cute monkey, isn’t it?….wearing a diaper, thank heaven!

We had stopped for this view when the ‘monkey man’ approached me.

How about a monkey in its natural setting. They are pretty shy so we haven’t gotten close to the wild ones.

In the middle of our day our tour guide took us to a local restaurant–just a couple of picnic tables under an awning, with a ‘kitchen’ in an attached shed. No refrigeration. Our guide said all the food was prepared daily so no need to refrigerate anything. Well, hmmm. The choices were pretty varied, so it’s hard for me to imagine that they used everything up everyday.

Yeah, I know! It looks pretty rough, and I’ll admit that I was nervous about the food. It was all delicious–barbecued pork ribs, rice and pigeon peas, green salad, and Caribbean mac n cheese. Others had baked chicken, or baked mackerel with same side dishes. No one got sick.

I am staying onboard today. The wind has abated, although our weather guru says it’s best not to change locations until the weather is more settled at the beginning of next week. Sheesh! It’s only Wednesday! I plan to spend some time working on a small tapestry that is getting embarrassingly old, and then I will spend some time on my little Norwegian woven band. Later we will meet our cruising friends for sundowners at the beach bar, SaltPlage, where the view of the sunset will extraordinary! Well, as you can, we already had our sundowners…I could not get this post online yesterday.

So, that’s my report. St. Kitts is an interesting and unusual mix of history, lush flora and fauna, and beautiful local textile work. All good for me.

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.