How Hard Can It Be to Make Lemonade?

As of the end of this weekend, we will have been in Almerimar for three weeks! How did that happen? We planned to take 10 days to check repairs on Pandora and do some maintenance, like putting on the sails, checking the systems, etc. But the work that should have been over the fall/winter was mostly not done. Some of the work was not done well and had to be re-done. It hasn’t exactly been a nightmare, but as charming as Almerimar is, I’d love to move on.

We had plans to be in Cartagena by early April. Now I won’t see it all. I will miss seeing the Roman amphitheater and forum, along with the museum. I will miss seeing the local fine crafts—weaving, basketry, and pottery. A good friend was hoping to see fabrics that I might get for her. None of it happening. It’s a big disappointment for me.

And I haven’t mentioned the wind! Egads! It started yesterday, and on top of being fierce, yanking us all over in our slip, it is deafening. One of lines on the boat next to us has chafed our brand new paint job on our port stern quarter. The wind is screaming through the rigging on all the boats, and boat halyards are banging constantly. I am someone who comes unglued with too much noise, and boy! This is too much. It’s a bit quieter today, but I need a break from it.

Yesterday evening Bob began looking into what we might do for a few days while we wait for our new roller furler for the jib to arrive from Denmark. Tracking says it will arrive on Tuesday, so Bob and the rigger will spend all day Wednesday installing it and putting the sail back on. On Friday I fly to Rome to meet three weaving friends to travel together to Perugia to take a week long workshop on weaving on manual jacquard looms. My flight is from Alicante, and because of delays on Pandora, we can’t get there by boat in time for my flight, so we will be renting a car then as well as now.

But…lemonade! Bob noticed that Granada, which is closer to us than Cartagena or Alicante, has some very interesting textile possibilities. Finding a place to stay and a car to rent has been Herculean, and it’s not done yet. So perhaps writing about it now could be highly jinx-able. We have a room booked in the historic part of Granada, but no car yet for getting there! And of course we cannot get a car here in Almerimar on such short notice, so we will need to take a 2-hour bus ride to the airport in Almeria to get a car. We’ll spend the day in Almeria, so that will hopefully make up for the long bus ride.

The history of silk weaving in the area around Granada is fascinating. The Arabs brought these skills and materials with them when they overtook the area in the 8th c. They planted mulberry trees in the area and brought with them horizontal looms (like today’s floor looms) for producing silk fabric on a large scale. Granada became part of the Silk Road. The outlying area has a number of workshops known for tapestry, rug weaving, and finer textiles. I’m a little worried that what I’ve seen online looks a bit touristy, but it will be a much needed change of venue.

And this will fill the bill nicely. It’s the Casa del Aljarife, where we will stay from Sunday to Tuesday, and will certainly enjoy this terrace view of the Moorish castle

And here is the entrace to the current ‘silk market’ in Granada.

We will spend tomorrow in Almeria where I hope to find a knitting store so I can buy a crochet hook, which I forgot to bring, in order to start my next knitting project with a provisional cast on. It seems like I should be able to do a chain stitch with a knitting needle, especially since you can do it with nothing but your fingers (just too large a scale for what I need). I plan to look into that! But this shop should make a very nice distraction for me whether I need a crochet hook or not!

So the weekend should hold some interesting opportunities for me, not to mention a much needed change of scenery. Lemonade is now made.