bobbin lace – Page 4

Mean Miami

February 17, 2015 | Leave a Comment

What a bizarre experience to arrive in Miami by water! The bright, almost acid green color of the shallow water in Government Cut juxtaposed with all the high rise buildings of Miami. It looks like a computer generated set for a sci-fi movie. I don’t think I could ever get used to it.

We are getting first hand experience of what we’ve been hearing about for several years: that boaters are not always welcome in Florida waters. With year long mild weather, some boaters have become rather like vagabonds, living on derelict boats that can’t actually leave a harbor to go sailing because they have become so run down. These boats sit at anchor in harbors for years unable to leave. Naturally, homeowners in the various coastal towns don’t want to look out at their water views marred with old, rotting boats.

It is a dilemma because no one owns the water. The homeowners don’t want their mega-million dollar views marred by boats that never leave, but we crusising sailors have achorage rights in any place with enough water for anchoring. There have been some contentious moments over this situation, and we witnessed one just the other night. At our particularly beautiful anchorage in Sunset Lake in Miami Beach, a homeowner came outside just before sunset and began yelling obscenities at a boat in the harbor. It was hard to tell which boat he was verbally attacking! No one was visible on the few boats anchored here in Sunset Lake except for Bob and me who were relaxing in Pandora’s cockpit! I was very concerned that he was yelling at us, although he seemed to be looking toward a Canadian boat right next to us. Eventually the folks onboard this Canadian boat came up from down below and it became clear that the homeowner was yelling at them. He threatened to sink their boat numerous times, and all his threats were garnished with profanity. It was quite uncomfortable for all of us.

Bob motored over to the Canadian boat in our dinghy to explain to them that they were not violating any rules, and that this anchorage is written up in all the guidebooks, in case the Canadians might be unclear about anchoring rights in the US. The Canadians decided to move anyway because it had been such a distasteful experience for them. Bob decided to call the police since the number is given in our guidebook with a warning to expect some problems with various homeowners. The police officer who took Bob’s call said this man has caused problems in the past so he is well known to both boaters and the police. The officer said someone would go out shortly to give the homeowner a warning.

We later heard that this same homeowner became enraged at a boat that was anchored here on Christmas Day, and that he began shooting paintballs at the boat. Can you imagine that? And the police were called out then too, but just gave him a warning. I’m wondering how effective these ‘warnings’ are.

So, here in Miami there are almost no places where boaters can go ashore. Yesterday we had to tie our dinghy to a stone wall at an empty lot under construction, and then walk along a path strewn with debris. It made me feel quite unwanted here. Since then we have scoped out various other options for getting ashore, and the best one looks to be a floating dock along the canal that runs next to Dade Ave. The Publix market that is right across the street may have put in this dock, which is quite commodious. However, when you get off the dock you find yourself on a very busy 6-lane road with no cross walk or traffic light. Well, it’s still our best option, so that is how we’ll get ashore today.

Our lovely anchorage on Sunset Lake.

Along North Bay Drive, where we have anchored, the houses are certainly beautiful and have stunning gardens as well. Here is one house and garden wall that we passed after getting ashore.

Just inside this gate is a courtyard where we saw a vintage Bentley parked.

While we were in Ft. Lauderdale, we made a new friend! (Her parents are quite nice too!) Cricket and her family are from north of Montreal and are sailing to the Bahamas on their Nonsuch 36. It took numerous visits for Cricket to warm up to me, but I was smitten with her on our first meeting! Isn’t she adorable?

On her 3rd visit she curled up against me and I was so shocked that I was hesitant to touch her. I figured she didn’t really mean to get this close to me! Her ‘mom’ said she almost never gets that close to a stranger. Eventually I put my hand down on her and began petting her, and she stayed curled up against me! Friends at last!

In the past week I have done quite a bit of lace work, and enjoyed every minute of it. These hearts are from a book of heart ornaments by Lene Bjorn, 24 Hearts in Bobbin Lace. After doing several projects that have taken me years to finish, and being thoroughly lost numerous times along the way, it feels great to just sit down to these hearts all by myself!. I hope to have a small collection of these for next Christmas. They will be wonderful ornaments on the tree.

They are actually little baskets. So the diagrams are for double hearts that are folded in half to create the basket, and they even have lace handles. I’ll be making yards and yards of handles at some point!

Well, I think I’ve beaten this subject to death!….but I couldn’t help it! It’s thrilling to me to be doing lace without a lot of handholding! One more…

And my tapestry will go off on its journey sometime in the next few days. Yesterday Bob and I headed off on a 4-mile walk to the post office in Miami Beach, only to discover when we got there that it was the Presidents’ Day holiday! Duh! That’s the cruising life for you….we’ll try again today, or I might have to wait ’til we get to Marathon later in the week.

I did manage to do the finishing and mounting work, never my favorite chores. But all is well at last. I used the half-Damascus finish from Peter Collingwood’s book, and I’ve mounted the tapestry to a small mat board that had holes punched along the edge every 1/8 inch or so.

Please note that to weigh down my tapestry I am using our heaviest book onboard, Nigel Calder’s Cruising Handbook. On any cruising boat anywhere you are likely to find a number of Nigel’s books, including this one. He is a well known English sailor who has circumnavigated a number of times with his wife and with their children when they were younger. I have a bit more to say about him next time!

Getting Reacquainted with Bobbin Lace

May 19, 2013 | 1 Comment

It’s a drizzly Sunday, perfectly May weather, and I have set up my bobbin lace table in an east-facing window.

In this spot in my living room I have morning sun coming in over my shoulder. I am quite lost at the corner of my most recent handkerchief border, so I decided to revisit a pillow with an older project on it. It is a straight lace that I used on my linen top last summer. It only has 12 bobbins and has a sewing edge, central spider, and scallop edge.

A great way to spend a Sunday morning! I’ve heard from Bob via sideband radio that he has been able to sail at 7 knots for the past 24 hours. He is now off the coast of northern Florida, east of the Gulf Stream, about 150 miles north of the Abacos. If this kind of favorable wind keeps up he’ll be arriving home in one week!

Feeding My Disappointment

August 8, 2012 | 2 Comments

I didn’t expect to be writing a post this week. I expected to be at the IOLI lace convention in St. Paul. But here I am, at home, sulking a bit….

I’ve had some health issues that are too boring to write about, and I ended up in the hospital on the night before my flight. I spent the weekend recuperating, which mostly means sleeping, and I was just barely awake for a moment or so on Saturday afternoon right when my flight took off. Why couldn’t I have slept through that?

I’m missing a class in Chrysanthemum lace which sounds so intriguing! It is lots of little free form pieces, mostly of a tear drop or paisley shape, that are assembled together in a technique called ‘sewing’ that does not involve the kind of sewing one would do to hem a skirt or make a seam, but which I believe involves bringing up loops through the edges of the lace that are then closed to connect the separate pieces of lace together. I know.…that wasn’t a very good description at all. I cannot do better because I haven’t learned it yet.

Here is a little detail of the ‘sewing’ process:

From this book….

This book cover gives a good idea of the little curved paisley pieces of lace that are made and assembled into the Chrysanthemum. I imagined myself making a simpler flower that could be used to embellish a silk blouse. The lace was to be pale pink on my imaginary bone white silk blouse….

My class was to be each morning for the week, and I envisioned myself doing lace through the afternoons, shopping in the vendors’ hall, and seeing the lace poppy exhibit.

Today after class, I was going to rent a car to drive to the Swedish American Institute to see Helena Hernamarck’s exhibition there. Big, big sigh….

I only just tackled unpacking my suitcase today because yesterday the thought of unpacking brought me dangerously close to tears! And for the rest of the day I have fed my disappointment….literally….

I made my second batch of bread based on suggestions I got from a very interesting baker. I bought a loaf of his artisanal bread at a local farmers’ market and learned that in addition to baking he also owns a local Italian restaurant in Old Saybrook. He bakes bread based on ratios of flour/water/yeast/salt instead of any specific recipe, and he always uses a starter. I usually use a starter too, but my bread is not nearly as good as his! He gave me his ratios (which he learned at the San Francisco Baking Insitute), and he gave me a large bag of high gluten flour. He suggested two starter methods: a ‘poolish’ which you make yourself, and a ‘biga’ which is based on using leftover pizza dough. My first batch was based on my homemade ‘poolish,’ and the bread shown here is based on his ‘biga.’ Both techniques are delicious. I won’t bother to describe how my husband lined my large oven with ‘reflective’ tiles, nor how I hurl a big scoop of ice cubes into the oven just after I put the bread in to bake….but these are important factors!

Along with bread, I made my first batch of pesto with basil from the garden, so dinner this evening will be pesto spread on cod filets. Tomorrow I hope to pick the first tomato from the garden! I will make a sandwich with my bread, spread on a little pesto, sliced tomato, and a shaving or two of parmesan…. to assuage my disappointment….

I know this is absurdly off-topic, but really, there is nothing like a day in the kitchen to brighten my spirits….

Bittersweet Season

November 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment

It is the bittersweet change of season and here is the last rose from my garden, a David Austen “Heritage” (I don’t count the ever blooming shrub roses for some reason….).

I love the change of seasons. The days are warm, and the sun on my skin feels almost like summer, ‘though by late afternoon there is a chill in the air that clearly means summer is gone…long gone. Yesterday and today I stood for a while in a blizzard of yellow leaves swirling all around me.

Fall is festival time, and last weekend was “Lace Day” for the Metro Chapter of the Intenational Old Lacers. There were demonstrations, vendors and classes!

This group (of mostly, but not entirely, women) proves that lace making is not a dying art. Their knowledge is legendary: they can tell the difference between Torchon, Milanese, Honiton from 20 yards (not to mention about a dozen other types of laces), and they have strong preferences about bobbins: midlands, bayeaux, honiton…again, more names than I can keep track of… The vendors had some beautifully painted bobbins and other tools that were as pretty as the lace itself.

This is just a small portion of what was on display during the event, all made by members of this group.

Look at that fan.

These lace mavens do demonstrations all year long, at historic sites and local libraries. Somehow they manage to talk to people as they work. Impressive!

Making a lace border for a handkerchief has been my goal since my first lesson. Now I’m there!

Reconnecting….weaving memories

October 11, 2011 | 1 Comment

This was a week when my dance card was over full, but how could I say no to so many wonderful opportunities?

My adult ed bobbin lace class has started again! I am on the last third of the edging for some hand towels, so I guess I’d better get busy weaving the towels! It’s wonderful to be back with these women again, who are very nurturing to me as a slow-learning beginner!

On Wednesday I rode with a friend up the Hudson River to Ghent, where she had arranged for us to have a one night farm stay at Kinderhook Farm, which is owned by old family friends and managed by two other friends. I had no idea what a treat we were in for. There are chickens with a delightful roosting house. (I did not know chickens roosted up in rafters and on high perches). There were lots of cows….I forgot to ask how many. And there were over 200 sheep!

This is the renovated barn you stay in for the ‘farm stay.’ It has two generous bedrooms with sitting areas that look out the large barn doors at the fields of cows and sheep, and a large kitchen in the center that separates the two bedroom/sitting rooms.

When we arrived the wind was howling and we had to close the large folding barn doors and insert beams to hold them closed!

Kinderhook farm 3 — View from the farm stay barn

This is the view of the sheep grazing from the the barn where we planned to stay!

Shortly afterward Lee came to suggest that we stay in the guest room of the main house since the night temperature was expected to be in the low 30s. We were disappointed to miss staying in this bucolic spot with its view of all the sheep grazing in the nearby fields….but in the middle of the night we were both very happy to be warm in the heated guest room!

Before going out to dinner we watched the managers and two helpers bring the sheep into the barn. In fact, we helped herd the sheep toward the barn. They have two guard dogs and a donkey, but no herding dogs.

Lee caught the two new babies for us to hold. He wants them to get used to being handled, but they were definitely not used to it yet! And the mother of the lamb I’m holding was not happy about it either!

The next day was my first Wednesday Group class in the new location right on the river in New Baltimore! Archie and Susan have a beautiful, renovated historic house overlooking the river. The enclosed porch which is now their studio is 40 feet long and has spectacular river views! The Clearwater motored down river, right in front of us, in the afternoon! Susan has filled their new house with many of her antiques, there is a 2nd floor wrap around porch for sitting outside, and the grounds go right down to the river. She will have a garden next year!

We drove home after my class on Thursday evening, and early Friday morning I headed out to Mendham for my 2-day workshop with Daryl Lancaster called “Weaving a Memory.” It’s been a fun two days, using the Theo Moorman technique to inlay silk habotai strips that were first ink jet printed with our personal photos. Daryl covered the Theo Moorman technique as well as photoshop manipulation of our images. You always get more than you can conceive of in a workshop with Daryl! I will write more on that next time! Meanwhile, check out what she has to say…