knitting – Page 3

The Toroise and the Hare

October 16, 2017 | 1 Comment

Sometimes it’s bit off-putting when my husband Bob recites his long list of accomplishments at the end of a day and then asks me what I did. Most of the time I can only reply that I wove a couple square inches of a tapestry, or made one inch of lace. Sometimes I feel more like a slug than even a tortoise!

If I had this conversation with other weavers and lace makers we’d all be high-fiving each other for getting such a LOT of good work done in a day! Wouldn’t we?

The slow march to having enough lace for Tori’s christening gown is enjoyable time for me, except when someone else tells me the 10 things, or 100 things they’ve done in the same amount of time.

–Which brings me to the list I made ages ago on the relative amount of time it takes to do various handwork. Here it is, in my order of fastest to slowest.

Machine sewing! It’s down right warp speed compared to all the others!
Loom controlled weaving.
Kumihimo/Knitting….zoom, zoom–I think it’s a tie.
Embroidery
Tapestry weaving
Bobbin Lace

Sometimes I get a little down that I am attracted to doing things that move so slowly. Sometimes I don’t care at all.

During September and October we spent almost two weeks with Tori. She is a bundle of giggles and smiles interspersed with an occasional stunning tantrum. I love every minute of being with her! Here she is wearing the Debbie Bliss sweater that I knitted last spring. She has almost outgrown it, so it’s time to think of her next sweater!

I often see a lot of Tori’s mother in Tori, but this photo seems all ‘Butler’ to me. I see my father, my sister, and even me!–so, of course that means I see her father too.

It’s time to find the next knitted garment to make for her. Years ago I bought the pattern and yarn for this Dale baby sweater.

I have had this pattern for years and have hesitated to make it, wondering if it’s a bit too busy for such a small person. I think it might be cuter as a dress, knitted from the top down, with raglan shaping so the shoulders fit better. The ladybug pattern would have one repeat around the torso and upper arms and another near the hem of the dress. I am leaning toward the bright green for the background color, with perhaps the little Fair Isle pixie stripes here and there with yellow background. One ladybug pattern on the purple background, and the other on the bright aqua. I have to take a look at the yarn I purchased for this sweater and adjust the amounts since I would be changing so much of the design. Luckily Dale baby yarn is super wash so Tori’s mom won’t have to be too careful with caring for this. I’m getting a bit enthusiastic, so I’d better make the plan and get the yarn onboard before we leave!

Meanwhile, I have started the actual christening gown now. I have 49″ of the larger lace and am trying to make an inch or two each day now. By the end of next week I should have all the lace finished! The fabric that Kandice chose for the dress is stunning! I originally bought white linen at Britex, but Kandice sent me a photo from Pinterest of a dress made of silk shantung that she loved.

It is beautiful fabric! On our way down to visit them last week, I made a quick stop at Banksville Fabric in Norwalk and was thrilled to find they had it! The dress in this photo is basically the same as the pattern I’m making, with a slightly fitted bodice and an attached gathered skirt. Now can you picture this with my lace? I might put the larger lace along the hem as well as at the lower edge of the bodice.

Well, talk is cheap….I’d better get to work on making the last few inches of lace. The tortoise only succeeds by keeping at it!

Antigua to Guadeloupe, from English Charm to French Shabby Chic

March 26, 2017 | Leave a Comment

We left Antigua more than a week ago, and I have not had internet until now. Bob has had better luck than with that than I have. Isn’t that weird?? He’ll be sitting next to me able to get email and write a blog post while my computer will not connect. The mysteries of cyberspace…. especially the mystery that his ancient clunker of a PC works so much better than my moderately middle ages Macbook. Hmmm…

Guadeloupe is the most beautiful island I have ever seen! Some of our cruising friends have told me that Antigua is the beginning of the ‘real’ Caribbean, and that every island gets more and more beautiful as you head south. I really cannot imagine that. We spent almost a week in the small harbor of Deshaies (pronounced DAY ‘Eh–reminds me of a certain Caribbean song made famous by Harry Belafonte…how about you?) on the northwestern coast of Guadeloupe, and I was thoroughly enamored of the charming seaside village. As we sailed in the mountains rose up all around us and a tiny bit of shoreline was dotted with colorful buildings, all with red roofs. The scene was dominated by a white tower with a red roof that rose above all the other buildings. No surprise that it is the Catholic church for the village. We had arrived back in the land of baguettes and wonderful vegetables!

But before I talk about Guadeloupe, I should finish up with our last days in Antigua. We rented a car to take Chris to the airport, so after we said our tearful goodbyes (for my part certainly), we took the rest of the day to explore parts of the island we could not get to on foot.

Betty’s Hope is a well known tourist attraction. At some point in Antigua’s past there were about 600 stone windmills on the island, used to power the processing of sugar cane into sugar. All these windmills were built by the hard labor of slaves and oxen. There are still about a hundred windmills in various stages of decay on the island, but two at Betty’s Hope are beautiful examples. One has been restored to working order and is used to demonstrate grinding the cane on certain occasions. While we were not there on one of those occasions, it was still very impressive to see the windmills. Just to move the arms to face into the wind requires a lot of manpower and oxen power.

Betty’s Hope was named for the daughter of the landowner. I was disappointed to learn this. I had hoped that the name was in honor of a slave woman, possibly the wife, mother, aunt, grandmother of several of the men who had built these windmills. Well, so much for my romantic notions about the history of this place. What on earth was this Betty hoping for? A big sugar yield to make her family wealthier than they already were? I can imagine so many more interesting hopes for a Betty who lived and worked the land with her family than for the real Betty. Still, I bet there is some pretty interesting history here. I would know more if we had internet!

Betty’s hope is now home to a large herd of goats, which Bob and I enjoyed most of all! There were lots of kids frolicking, even some newborns. Baby goats are about as cute as babies get! Our new baby granddaughter, Tori, would have enjoyed them too!

We have been so entertained by all the goats on Antigua. There is large solar farm in the middle of the island where we saw goats eating the weeds around the panels. This is their day job. Late in the afternoon the goats somehow know it’s time to go home. They head out with no shepherd to guide them. They know the way.

Bob and Chris encountered this mother and kid heading home after a day out. Bob said the kid whined the whole time he and Chris were behind them. Makes you wonder if kids complain about the long trip home, or the heat of the day, or even the two creepy humans following them, just like our kids might. The goat mother bore it without comment.

And speaking of kids, here is a scene from our last full day with Christopher before he headed back to his new home in San Francisco. We took a cab up to Shirley Heights, right outside of English Harbour. It’s a great place to watch the sunset, and every Sunday hundreds of people show up to do just that.

With a view like this, you can see how popular it would be–

–especially at sunset.

Back to the day that Chris left– at the end of the day we drove out to the northeastern corner of the island to see something called “Devil’s Bridge.” I had no idea what this might be, and so I was pretty awestruck to see this natural wonder. It doesn’t look like it will last much longer, but that’s just conjecture on my part. Maybe it’s been in this almost crumbled state for a century already. I know that people walk across this bridge, but I certainly wasn’t going to try it. Bob didn’t either!

When we returned our rental car to a parking lot in Falmouth just around sunset, and I was feeling a bit sorry for myself to return to Pandora sans Christopher, we found that the local liquor store was having a tasting of French wines hosted by a French importer who lives on St. Martin. It was a very nice distraction to an evening I was dreading! All in all a wonderful last day on Antigua.

The next day we sailed about 50 miles to the pretty harbor of Deshaies on Guadeloupe. Here is a bit of what we do when we have a long day at sea. Bob fishes! This time I was quite lucky that he caught a small tuna! It’s no fun at all when he catches a king mackerel, and hardly fun when he catches a giant mahi mahi because we have to deal with a very large fish on a rather small boat! This tuna was perfect for our appetites and our size boat!

I worked on my orange linen sweater while we were underway, which sometimes includes winding a ball of yarn (Shibui linen) on the steering wheel.

At mid-afternoon we arrived in Deshaies. It was wonderful to be back in the land of French food. There are plenty of tourists here, but also a big fleet of local fisherman. The next morning we were given a first hand view of fishing with a purse seine right behind Pandora.

First the men dropped the net in a wide circle between Pandora and the boat behind us. One of the crew jumped overboard wearing his shorts and t-shirt and snorkeling gear. Perhaps he was checking on how the net was laying before the rest of the crew began drawing in the purse.

As the crew began to draw in the circle of net at the water’s surface, the diver stayed at the opening. We are guessing that by being there, he discourages any fish from trying to escape at the opening of the net.

The crew began drawing in both the perimeter of the net on the surface as well as the purse at the bottom to trap the fish. As the net closed more I could tell that this was very hard work. In fact, once both the top and bottom of the net was closed, the diver got back on board to help pull it in.

There is a pelican inside the net, helping himself to a bit of the catch.

It was a good catch! My friend Maureen (Kalunamoo) told me that these fish get fried in strips and served like French fries. I have not seen this yet in any restaurants. But, when we were ashore yesterday, we came back to our dinghy to find several pelicans diving right around the dinghy dock and three dead fish in our dinghy, just like the fish in the net. There must have been a school of them being chased by larger fish and some jumped right into our dingy to escape certain death from the big fish– only to find themselves stuck in our dinghy. Out of the fire and into the frying pan, as the saying goes….

Experienced cruisers in this area, including Bill and Maureen from Kalunamoo, have told us that once you get to Antigua the islands just get more and more beautiful as you head south. It’s hard for me to imagine this! Both Antigua and Guadeloupe are so charming and scenic and dramatic with their ancient volcanic mountains–how can it get better? I guess I will have to wait and see.

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.

Traveling with Friends

February 5, 2017 | 1 Comment

It is early February, and I am writing from Simpson Bay Lagoon on St. Martin in the Caribbean. We are later this year in slipping our moorings in New England and moving aboard Pandora. Lots of things contributed to the delay, but we are here now, anchored near some dear sailing friends who are introducing us to others who will become friends as the months and years pass.

After entering this harbor on the first bridge opening this morning, we anchored near the ketch Kalunamoo, whose owners are friends who took us under their wings five years ago to lead us through the Bahamas on our first trip down there. Now they will surely be our tour guides though the Windward and Leeward Islands. We see each other each summer when our boats are back in north Atlantic waters, but this is our first winter rendevous in three years. It’s so comfortable being together again by water.

Before I left home another dear friend, one I’ve known as a weaver and land-based friend, sent me her map of St. Martin. She and her family spent a couple of weeks here only a month ago, and she wanted to share with me a map highlighted with the things they enjoyed doing, the restaurants they visited, the boat excursions they took.

Now that I’m here and am beginning to get my bearings, it’s wonderful to see the places she visited and know that I will follow in her footsteps. It’s going to be a fun part of this trip, finally visiting places that some of my friends have been before, even if they traveled very differently than Bob and I are doing. It should help me feel less isolated this year than I have in the past–especially last year, in Cuba. That was a wonderful trip in many ways, but it was also the most isolated place I have ever been, since at the time, the US allowed no communications with Cuba.

We left home a week ago, and already I get daily photos of my new granddaughter, the Tiny Super Moon named Tori. She is such a joy to both Bob and me. He still gets teary every time he sees a new photo of her. I get the lightest feeling in my chest….such happiness! Here she is beginning to celebrate her 2nd month birthday, although she won’t actually be 2 months old for another week! I guess it was a great photo op for her parents. Before I left I tried my hand at a bit of embroidery that I found on Facebook. It’s astounding to me what I stumble on perusing fb. I’m glad to know this technique–I think it will come in handy for all kinds of projects. I embroidered this little onesie as a practice, and clearly I need more practice. But I’ll get it eventually. I’ll do some spring colored onesies in this technique soon. Hmmm….no photo. Where did it go?

I have started a little sailor sweater for Tori. It is one I made a few years back for my niece. It’s a design by Debbie Bliss and uses her soft eco cotton. This time I am using a soft green/blue color that I call faded robin’s egg, with cream. I love it. I’m still stumped by what I feel is a bad design for the collar. Sorry Ms. Bliss, especially since I love your designs! It’s the focal point of the sweater and I still cannot make peace with wrong side of striped garter stitch showing. For my niece I knitted the collar in a single color. I am debating what to do for this version. I have time to decide.

After 4 days in the BVI, making very quick visits to West End, Jost Van Dyke, and Bitter End on Virgin Gorda, we have made the long, 100-mile passage to St. Martin. The weather has been challenging for the past month (since before I got here), and our weather router suggested that it is quite UNlikely that there will be a good time to head east for the next several weeks. So we took the lesser of bad weather days to slog eastward yesterday. It took us 15 hours to travel 100 miles, in fairly rough conditions. They were very rough for me, but nothing like what Bob and his crew endured getting down to the BVI. I was very sick for the full 15 hours. We anchored out in Grand Case Bay on St. Martin, which I understand can be very lovely in calmer weather. Last night there was quite a swell rolling in there that kept us rolling side to side. We entered Simpson Bay Lagoon on the first bridge opening this morning….not a moment too soon.

We have reconnected with our good friends and will join them for dinner tonight at a Middle Eastern restaurant called Little Jerusalem, where we will start to meet people we’ve heard of many times through various groups, and whom we’ve spoken to on the radio. The beginning of new friendships. I wonder if I’ll meet a knitter or a weaver. You never know.

Knitting to the Rescue!

June 27, 2016 | 11 Comments

It’s sad for me to report that my looms are in the same condition as when I arrived home. Life has gotten in the way of my plans…

While I was determining the most pleasing way to thread the pattern for the JOY (Just Our Yarn) yardage project, I had my semi-annual visit to the dermatologist and discovered that a worrisome spot on my arm had become melanoma. I noticed this spot had changed to something of concern back in January, but I could not get to a doctor then since we had already sailed away to tropical waters.

Still, the news was a bit shocking to me. I was already beyond Stage 1, so removal of lymph nodes was mandatory on top of removal of the offending spot which ended up being much bigger than what shows on the skin. It’s all behind me now. I got a consultation with a surgeon at Smilow Hospital at Yale, and the surgery was only a week later. Whew! Two weeks later I got the news that my lymph nodes are clear and that the surgeon got clear borders around the malignant cells.

Yet I’m still not weaving…. The long cut on my arm and the smaller incision in my underarm severed quite a few nerves, and regaining use of my arm is going to take longer than I imagined. That’s a small price to pay for getting rid of the melanoma, and I can certainly knit and also do bobbin lace. And every day I am doing arm motions to improve my dexterity. Very strangely, I have all kinds of odd sensations in my arm all the way down to my hand: burning, stinging, numbness. It’s very strange.

Meanwhile, back to talking about weaving. Diane and Cathy from Just Our Yarns gave a program to the Connecticut weaving guild last November, in which they demonstrated using two completely different handpainted yarns for warp and weft. One of the slides showed a scarf woven with a warp of one of their skeins painted from the cool side of the color wheel–mostly blues and purples. The weft was a brilliant contrast of oranges, yellows and peaches. You cannot always purchase colorways that you see and like in JOY yarns since they do not repeat any of their handpainted designs exactly. But I found two contrasting handpainted that should give a similar effect.

I chose a twill weave structure called “Raku” by Carol Bodin from the book Sixy Scarves for Sixty Years from the Weavers’ Guild of Greater Baltimore. Here is a partial view of my plan.

The long warp and weft floats should show off the color contrast of the warp and weft nicely. My warp is mostly muted greys, purples and blues, while my weft is a blend of peaches and creams. The sett will be 35 epi so those floats won’t be too long.

Now, the BIG question: Should I flip the threading at the center of the warp and have the second half of the threading lean the opposite way? Should I flip every other repeat of the sequence?? Should I just thread the whole thing in one direction and cut the fabric and turn it as needed for whatever I end up making?

I’ve favored each of these ideas at different times, and at the moment I’ve come full circle back to leaving the threading alone. It would certainly help if I already knew what I will make with the finished fabric. Typical of me, I have focused on the intrigue of working with this yarn rather than what I might do with fabric. The warp is 17″ wide on the loom and I plan to weave 5 yards.

Meanwhile, as I ponder what to do about that threading, I’ve been knitting and doing some Idrija lace on a bolster pillow. I don’t even have to prop up my right arm on pillows anymore in order to knit, so I’m definitely improving. This baby blanket is moving along nicely. Interestingly, after looking at innumerable lace patterns, I ended up choosing a Eugen Buegler pattern. He has designed lace patterns for many years and you can see many of his designs at the link above and on ravelry, as well as in numerous books by XRX. He designed the first lace shawl I ever knitted, over 20 years ago. I actually went to the local knitting store as I felt myself coming down with the flu in order to make sure that I had something to knit while I would be stuck in bed. I still have that shawl…. in butterscotch colored, fine merino yarn from Grignasco.

But back to knitting for little baby Ozzie. Here is the baby blanket as shown on Ravlery. It is called “Lace Plumes Baby Blanket” and is available as a downloadable pattern from Fiber Trends. Thank you, Eugen! I’m using “Sublime Baby Cashmere” which I ordered from Jimmy Bean’s Wool.

I’m now further along than this photo shows because I work on it almost every evening, and then I realize that evening is not a good time for getting a photo.

Next up will be this adorable sweater from Little French Knits on Etsy. It’s a bit feminine, but, since I am so smitten with this little gem, I am clinging to the fact that, should our little bundle of joy be a boy, they have traditionally dressed in rather delicate clothes as newborns. This is just too lovely to pass on. Oui?

I have not yet shown a photo of the first sweater I made for our future little one. The pattern is a design by Sephanie Pearl McPhee called Nouveau-ne. It is delicate and fun to knit without being overly feminine. I used Plymouth Yarns “Perlina” which is 100% merino which I bought at my LYS, Saybrook Yarns. The pattern has a matching bonnet style hat that I have finished but did not photograph yet. There are also booties which I have not yet started.

I have little limpet shells from the Bahamas that I will use as buttons instead of what I’ve shown here. I lent my stash of limpets to a friend, and as soon as I get them back I’ll pick out the tiniest ones for buttons on this sweater. I think it will be wonderful to have a little embellishment from our travels on our grandchild’s first sweater. Aren’t I clever??

And I turned my attention back to the little Idrija lace ‘doodah’ that I started at the lace retreat back in May. This little organic shape reminds me of a fiddle head fern or some kind of sea creature. I’ve decided to make this two more times in a combination of blue and green.

Second fiddlehead doodah in progress. As you can see, the piece is woven upside down. On the next version I will make the central ‘squiggle’ in green and the side ‘squiggles’ in blue. Then I plan to attach them to one of my summer tops. Hopefully soon!

So the past month has been taken up with the excitement of a first grandchild and the fears of having cancer–cancer that managed to progress past stage 1 before I got diagnosed. It’s been an emotional roller coaster, and as usual, handwork– mostly knitting– has saved the day. It took a full month to get diagnosed, have an initial consult with a surgeon, have the surgery, and get the pathology reports. Waiting may not be the hardest part of being sick, but it’s certainly not easy. Making these little projects and dreaming about future projects is what kept me sane during those long weeks.

Today I stumbled on this book of animal themed pom-poms made by a Japanese woman. She has captured the essence of each animal. After making each pom-pom with a mix of colors to imitate the animal’s fur, she adds details with needle felting. I looked for the book online, hoping to order it, but so far I only found it on Japanese Amazon with no ability to order from the US. I shall try harder.

And here’s a video of the author making a bear and teaching others the technique.

Just another little idea for Baby Ozzie to tuck away. I hope I can find the book!