ArgoKnot – A journal of my weaving, spinning, and knitting life

Cartagena! I got there!

May 3, 2026 | Leave a Comment

While I was in Perugia I thought that Bob and our friends would sail to Cartagena, but Bob was mired in so many repairs. Our friends were supposed to meet Bob in Cartagena, and I was supposed to fly there from Italy when I finished my workshop in Perugia. Nothing has gone as planned on this trip, except for the incredible time in Perugia. Thank heaven for that! At the end of the workshop I flew back to Almeria, our friends joined us a day later, and we all waited an additional two days to set sail for Cartagena. In our original plans I would have missed Cartagena all together, so in the long run, some bad events open up great opportunities.

I am so happy to be in Cartagena! The Roman museum and amphitheater are beyond my imagination. The museum has some terrific artifacts from the Roman period, and the work to excavate the theater is impressive. The theater held 7000 people. It was built during Augustus Caesur’s reign. The Roman empire was failing, and Augustus wanted a place to hold events honoring his reign as well as theatrical performances. Reminds me very much of our current situation in the US.

It was definitely as impressive as the amphitheater in Rome that I visited while doing studies in Roman history in college—50 years ago. It was a thrill to visit something Roman again after so many decades! — almost as thrilling as getting to Tarquinia when I visited Umbria the first time, in October of 2024. These moments returning to places so important to my past life are quite exciting.

A beautifully carved capital on a column

Other capital carvings in the museum. I often imagine weaving tapestries of images that were originally carved in stone.

Afterward we walked around the area where this excavation continues. The Roman forum is not open to the public because they are still working on it. Here is a beautiful garden and fresco in the area.

Some sights from the center of Cartgena

May 1 is Labor Day in Spain, and the Spanish know how to celebrate a holiday better than we do. The shops and museums are closed on May 1, instead of being open for big sales. Afterall, it’s a holiday to celebrate workers so they should have the day off! The entire city of Cartagena was turned into a giant festival with live music, including some famous bands and singers who performed on a big stage near the city’s promenade that runs along the edge of the Mediterranean. The festival lasts from Friday through Sunday.

There were many women and young girls dressed in flamenco costumes.

And here is a group of women ‘of a certain age’ dressed in Victorian costumes, enjoying cocktails together. Gloves and lace fans!!

On Saturday the Labor Day festivities continued, and another celebration took place as well. From what I understand the May 2nd celebration is specific to Cartagena. It is called “Gesta del 2 di May” and honors the soldiers who served in the war against Napolean, when in 1808 the Spanish succeeded in defeating Napolean’s forces and expelling them from Spain. But the parade and exercises seemed to honor more than that. There were speeches that seemed to cover the history of Spain, medals were given to soldiers from various branches of the military. The ceremony opened with the military band playing while a small corp gave a 21 gun salute on the four canons that had been placed on the parade grounds. Here are the canon guard before the ceremony started.

All the branches of the military paraded in to the site while the drum corp set the pace.

Trumpets and drums playing for entrance march.

The final event of this ceremony was another gun salute on canons and the placement of a wreath on the black obelisk that honors those who served in the Spanish American war that was fought in Cuba. This ceremony was well attended by locals who heartily sang the two songs the band played that had lyrics. I don’t know which song was their national anthem, but surely the anthem was part of the ceremony. I also don’t know why this event only takes place in Cartagena each year.

Before this festive weekend in Cartagena, we took our friends to the airport in Alicante to fly home. Boy! Do we wish they could have stayed with us longer to experience this weekend in Cartagena. We dropped them at the airport in mid-morning and then used the rental car to visit Alicante, which has a castle dating from the Moorish middle ages through the Catholic renaissance.

Here is Bob sitting at the highest point in the castle.

The Castille de Santa Barbara (surely the name given to it in the Catholic period) has an interesting exhibit on the pottery shards found on this site. The first item on display is an incredible assemblage of shards from the entire time the castle was in use.

While I love pottery, I can also imagine the beautiful imagery on these pots being used for a tapestry.

The info on these pieces date them to the 1st century BC, yet they are so timeless.

There was glitch to this visit to Cartagena and Alicante. While standing in line to pay my entrance fee to the Roman museum, I got pickpocketed! I had gotten out my very smal travel wallet, then put it away when my friends paid my entrance fee. The pickpocket probably saw where I returned it to the tote bag I was carrying, and I have to admit that I was not hugging the tote to my body as I should have done. Also, there was a cruise ship in port, which always brings out the skilled thieves. Within an hour there were charges on the two travel credit cards I carry, and also an attempted withdrawal on my debit card. The banks involved caught all the attempts right away and closed my accounts. While that is a burden, we are thankful that Bob has one credit card that was not affected, and I still have one card that does not have currency exchange exemptions. We’ll be fine for the next month on our continued travels.

I returned to the Roman museum yesterday to buy a silk screened silk scarf that I would have bought if not for the pickpocket situation. It is designed and silk screened by an artist named Ron Torres. I have not yet found him online, but I will. Here is the unboxing…forigve me, but I was so smitten by the scarf and the presentation.

Wasn’t I lucky to get to visit these two cities with such long histories? There are signs throughout the center of Cartagena noting its 3000 year history. I am thrilled to be here, especially since I thought our sailing plans would make me miss it. That’s one thing no one can predict about traveling by sail, and it worked out very well for me on this adventure.

How Hard Can It Be to Make Lemonade?

April 10, 2026 | 2 Comments

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!

Puntexsa yarn shop in Granada–just one of numerous yarn possibilities in Granada

So the weekend should hold some interesting opportunities for me, not to mention a much needed change of scenery. Lemonade is now made, thanks to Bob who is very good at lemonade.

Small Bites

March 29, 2026 | Leave a Comment

We seem to be living on tapas and small bites here in Almerimar since we don’t want to eat dinner at 9pm. In that vein I have two of my own small bite creations to post here.

I have finished the “Sonann” sweater with time to spare before the deadline for test knitters. Hooray! It is a design by “Journey through Wool” on the Isle of Uist in the Outer Hebrides. The suggested yarn is from Uist Wool, which I was not able to get in time, nor did I want to deal with our unfair tariffs. Instead I have used Jamieson’s “spindrift,” which is also a yarn from the Outer Hebrides, that I could buy through various US distributors. Of course that meant I paid the tariffs anyway, but the shipping was faster. My colors are “Sand” and “Wild Violet.” The sweater pattern will be released in mid-April on Ravelry. I enjoyed test knitting this design.

Here is a close up of the stranded pattern on the yoke. I am posting this on my ipad which doesn’t seem to allow me to re-size the photos. Since my computer will not connect to the internet I am attempting to use an ipad. Mysterious electronic glitches always occur when I am out of the US. I know it’s user error.

I may decide to rip back a good deal of this sweater, now that I’ve finished in time for the deadline for test knitters. I’m not entirely happy with the shaping, and I need to dive back into the instructions to see if I made an error in the increases or if it was in the pattern. It’s a big job, ripping all the way to where the sleeves get put on holders, but since I love the design and my yarn choices, I must do it!

My new tote bag is a gem. I am on cloud 9 that I found it almost a year after I first saw it. And I am notorious for getting my photo taken in windy places so that my hair is winging out like it’s going to sail away. Just look at the gorgeous tote bag and ignore the model. Please also notice the cute sweater on the hair-challenged model. The vest pattern is by Elenor Mortensen, and you can find her on Ravelry. This pattern is called “Eowyn Tee,” and it is knitted in the round from the top down with a clever boat neck that morphs into lace on the shoulders. I enjoyed knitting it, and enjoyed using cotton yarn (Rosario) that I bought in the Açores last summer. I certainly love knitting with yarn from places I visit. It’s the highlight of traveling for me!

The next project on my needles also uses locally sourced yarn. I saw the pattern and the yarn on a US website for the yarn store Wooly Thistle. They are carrying a variety of Spanish yarns from a company called Wool Dreamers. The yarn for this sweater is “Soana,” a 50/50 blend of Spanish merino and cotton grown in Spain. I couldn’t order it in time to get it from the Wooly Thistle before we left, and then I realized I would be in the country where this yarn is produced. So I looked at Google Maps to see how I might buy this yarn in person. No luck there as most of the yarn shops were a lot further north. Even though we had a car for a few days, it would be a really long drive to Barcelona or to Madrid. So I ordered it online and had it shipped to a local shop in Almerimar that offers package deliveries. I’ve never heard of this before. Boy, was I happy when I walked to the shop to pick up my package!

I am knitting the pattern that Wooly Thistle recommends for this yarn, and I’ve chosen a muted celadon green because I am thinking “spring.” It’s a design by Tete Beche (Orlane Sucche) called “Ilha.” I’m particularly enthralled with this design because it is supposed to evoke the baskets that are made on the islands off Portugal. What a wonderful idea, and the designer has done a very clever job of creating cabled and eyelet patterns that are quite like the wicker woven baskets from these islands. The name “Ilha” is Portuguese for “island” and is pronounced “ilyah,”. Since I enjoyed my time in the Açores so much last summer, this sweater will bring back sweet memories from that adventure.

At the moment my knitting looks like a blob. The cable and eyelet yoke will need a good wet blocking to bring out the pattern. Here is an image of the finished yoke that comes with the pattern.

And I want you to see some of the baskets that inspired this design. The open designs on some of the baskets and the braided edges on others are so well translated into knitting by this clever designer.

We have not yet moved aboard Pandora because it’s been too windy to put her in the water and move to a slip. Bob is also deep into cleaning and doing some repairs himself. Luckily the prickly man who was to rebuild Pandora’s rudder sent over a small crew to make it better. It looks quite good now. Thank heaven because a boat needs a straight rudder to steer properly! The current plan is to move aboard on Tuesday, March 31. We’ll start a new month aboard, and as soon as Mother Nature gives us a weather window we will sail to Cartagena, where I”m sure there will be more delights.

Time to knit. As always, thank you for following me!

Costa del Sol, Nijar, and Weavers

March 27, 2026 | Leave a Comment

Before I left home I searched onlinr to see if there were weavers in southern Spain as well as the Balearics, Corsica, and Sardinia. I got a long list of weavers keeping traditional patterns alive, and where to find them. I was excited to find so many possibilities of seeing the textile treasures of these places as well as connecting with weavers. Yesterday was the first adventure on the journey to meet local weavers.

Last year Bob and I had driven to Nijar, a bit east of Almeria to look for weavers. Yesterday I found all the same places! Last year I regretted not buying a handwoven tote bag from one of the shops in Nijar, and I was hoping to find it again, still full of choices. And we did! I remembered an entirely different shop, but Bob was convinced it was a place I don’t even remember seeing last year–that is until I walked inside. Then I was certain we’d found the place, and what a thrill that was. The same tile work outside the shop.

The very bag I wanted to buy last year….so I bought two in order to bring one to a weaving friend. I hope she loves it as much as I do. I will be carrying it today.

çThese were the other temptations. This wonderful loop work seems to be prominent in this part of the world. I bought a table runner in the Açores, on the island of Sao George done in this technique. I decided that as a table runner it would likely cause mishap with things falling over that I might place on it. Instead I intend to make into a long bolster pillow for our bed at home. It’s not done yet! While these bags were so tempting due to the skillful work involved, I went with my first love from last year–the simpler tote bag.

Here is the woman who was manning the shop during my visit, sitting at the loom demonstrating for me. The loom is only 2 shafts, and looks to have about a million meters of pretty fine cotton on it. The weft is heavier cotton, and she uses a fly shuttle to weave. At the moment she is weaving a rug, also a prevalent item for sale in this area.

There are tags on the tote bags I bought, so I asked the woman waiting on me if she is Isabel. She showed me a group photo on the wall and pointed to Isabel. Why didn’t I ask her name? I learned that she weaves the many handbags and tote bags that have the loop weave, yet I didn’t think to get her name. Hugely disaapointed about that.

Last year we found a cafe where we wanted to have an afternoon glass of wine and some food before driving back to Almerimar. It was just after 4pm, and they were closing until dinner at 8pm. They could not give us any food, but they did pour us two glasses of wine and asked us to leave our glasses on their door step when we left. They closed the restaurant and left while we had our wine in their scenic spot near the courtyard of a historic church. This year we arrived in time to have wine and a several tapas for lunch.

After lunch we walked through the town where I revisited a number of shops from last year. There are handwoven rugs and blankets in many of the shops, along with baskets, which this area is also known for making.

I bought a cotton blanket for Pandora, for those nights when I can’t sleep and end up in the main saloon reading or knitting. I bought a moss green twill patterned blanket like the one on the top shelf at the right of this photo. I wish I could get the table and chairs home somehow, but this photo will have to do.

There were also lovely hand embroidered pillows, and a remarkable collection of baskets. Just a reminder–both baskets and handwoven tapestry can still only be made by hand. There are no machines that can weave tapestry or baskets.

In taking a walk through the town I found this beautiful cutwork embroidered curtain. Too bad about the reflections, but I hope you can tell how well it is made.

We arrived here on Monday, where Pandora has been waiting for us since August. The repairs are not done to Bob’s hopes, which is something we always face when having things done at a long distance. The man managing our repairs did not stay on top of things, so the big inverter never got diagnosed to be either repaired or replaced, and the man who was doing the repair to our rudder from the orca attack, did a less than stellar job. He is quite prickly and declared that Bob is too much of a perfectionist (not his exact words–he used more colorful language) to appreciate the work that was done. Hmmm….

But on more positive subjects, this is almost a perfect time to be on the Costa del Sol. The sun is brilliant, while the temps are quite cool, so I am wearing sweaters every day! At this time of year–late winter/early spring– the winds are very strong, coming down from the mountains. Since this is desert, there is fine sand everywhere. Sometimes the mountains are shrouded in a cloud of sand somewhat similar to fog.

We have rented an Air BnB in a condominium complex. It is quite nice, and gives us a way to relax in comfort while Bob deals with various things to get Pandora ready to sail. It is too windy to launch her into the water at this point. On top of repairs and replacement of the inverter, we have to put all the sails back on her. We have a new Code 0, our biggest sail, but as I understand it, it’s the main sail that takes the longest to put back on. We haven’t tackled any of the sails yet because of the strong winds.

In the evenings we have a glass of wine on the balcony overlooking the rooftops of other dwellings and the boats in the habor. It’s quite magical. I should finish the Sonann sweater today and hope to get photos of me wearing it on this wonderful balcony with a view. The residences are low enough (right hand photo) that you can boat masts beyone the rooftops.

It will feel great to finish the Sonann sweater (photos soon), and even greater to move on to my next knitting project. From one of Wooly Thistle’s newsletters I learned of the Spanish yarn company, Wool Dreamers. They use locally sourced wool and cotton to make their line of yarns. Soana (not to be confused with the Sonann sweater name!) is a 50/50 blend of local merino wool and locally grown cotton. Wooly Thistle carries this yarn, but how could I NOT try to buy it in Spain?? As it turns out, I could not get it within a reasonable driving distance of this area. However, I could order it and have it delivered to a postal receiving place right here in Almerimar. So that’s what I did. Here are photos of the yarn and the pattern I will make with it.

I’m happy to be here, encountering weavers and seeing the skills of locally made textiles and baskets, not to mention pottery and other wares. It’s a great start to our season sailing in the Med. I just need calm seas to move to our next destination, and only the wind can decide when and where we’ll head next.

Treasures from the Bilge

February 17, 2026 | 2 Comments

There are no bilges in a house, but often I think of the creepy, under-the-stairs closet in my studio (basement) as pretty bilge-like. It is dark, sometimes there are dead spiders in there, and I’m always reluctant to open the door.

When we moved here 14 years ago, I put bins in this closet filled with things I made decades ago. Mostly Bob packed these things for me because I was busy saying goodbye to the various groups I had been a part of over the 30+ years we lived in New Jersey. It wasn’t easy to leave. I put those bins in the creepy closet and haven’t dared look in any of them since.

But lately there are things I’ve remembered that I’d like to see…sweaters, for one. I am missing some sweaters I wouldn’t mind seeing again, if only to look at the designs for possibly knitting them again, or getting some new idea based on these past designs. I spent much of the 80s and 90s engrossed in Elizabeth Zimmerman’s ideology of knitting your own way through your own ideas. For a while Alice Starmore was encouraging this, and Meg Swansen still does. So I wondered where those sweaters had gone, when I thought all my sweaters were in the blanket chest at the end of my bed. I’ll spare you photos. Some of those sweaters were so trendy at the time, but could not stand the test of time. I did find a few that were truly classic. I’m glad to have them again.

I’ve been curious to find a woven jacket I made in the distant past, when I was a new weaver, and Anita Mayer gave assurances that you could make good looking clothing out of simple rectangles. I wove some Harrisville Designs shetland in two colors that conjured up raspberries and blackberries. I loved that fabric, but not the ill fitting jacket it became! That was likely 1979 or 1980.

In the 1990s I learned to spin, and got a Jacob fleece that I washed and carded and spun without separating the colors. I wove that fabric with the Jacob in both warp and weft. It looked like a crazy plaid, and I loved it. I always envisioned it as a boiled wool vest with a zipper in the front. So I lightly fulled it, and the plaid got even muddier. I did not have the courage to sew it. Now I wanted to find it.

I made a set of cotton placemats for myself and for my oldest friend before either of us had children, and my children are now in their 40s. It was an interesting overshot pattern, based on honeysuckle, that had a white warp and white as the pattern thread. The tabby was the color. What an interesting take on overshot that was. I think it came from an early Handwoven Magazine.

Then some of us in my very first guild — Shore Fiber Arts on the New Jersey shore — decided to make placemats and exchange them. We chose four colors that we all bought together, and we could make any woven structure we chose. I chose waffle weave, not realizing that when the mats were washed they’d look like rags if I didn’t press them with starch. I was so embarrassed by this project, but the placemats I got from the other three weavers were well done. I could never part with them even though I haven’t seen them in decades. They all had fringe–another requirement of the project, and I don’t like fringe on table linens. So, 40+ years later I have unearthed them and christened my new walking foot to sew hems on these. There are only three mats, since I must have thrown mine out. I’ll use them this summer. I remember two of the three weavers, and I hope to remember or find out who I am missing.

You know how things always get better in memory when you cannot find them? Well, some of these things are as good as I remember and some are definitely not!

At some point in the 90s I joined an overshort exchange. We were to use a black 10/2 cotton warp and then pick any overshot pattern and use any color for the pattern weft. I think the goal was to sew them all together into some kind of throw or blanket. They are a frightening group of overshot squares that would give me nightmares! Still, it was fun to find them and lay them out for a garish photograph. My square is the green ‘Orange Peel” on the right in the 2nd row.

I found some of my first tapestry exercises when Archie suggested I try letters. I’ve gotten much better at this, but I’m happy to see these awkward attempts after so many years, so I added them to my bulletin board yesterday.

Along with the Greek word Logos and some letters I wanted to use in the border of a piece I never wove, I found some samples of scarves I wove in the 90s to sell at local craft fairs, and a sample from from a set of placemats I wove for my older son when he got married (middle right in the photo). I also found two small tapestries I bought on ebay, that were kit designs sold in Sweden. Then there is just the general chaos of my wall size bulletin board.

Both Bob’s parents and mine had their 50th anniversaries in early 2000s, and I wanted to make something for both couples. What can you give couples who have been married so long they have just about everything? Bob and I decided for a joint project. He’d make footstools and I’d weave the fabric. I wanted something that looked like weaving to symbolize their long lives woven together. This was a draft from the book The Shuttle-Craft Book ofAmerican Handweaving by Mary Meigs Atwater. It’s called polychrome summer and winter, and I wove it on my then new 16S AVL mechanical dobby. There is a fine gold thread in the tabby to commemorate their golden landmark. I had enough fabric for a footstool for Bob and me, and we will soon have our 50th anniversary–in one more year. I now have all three footstools since our parents are now gone.

Today I wove for a couple of hours on my current project, Hebridean wool for fabric that I’d like to use to make a ruana. I’m almost done, 18″ to go, and it will be a game of chicken to see if my weft will last another 18″. I have no idea how many projects I’ve woven of the past 51 years. Too bad I didn’t keep better records, but it’s been a fun and surprising adventure to unearth these ‘ancient’ projects from my youth. Onward!