ArgoKnot – Page 27 – A journal of my weaving, spinning, and knitting life

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!

Antigua, Ho!

November 19, 2017 | Leave a Comment

My trip to Antigua went smoothly. Once I arrived at the airport in Baltimore, I connected with another sailing friend, Judie. We made our connection in Miami, and even enjoyed a couple of leisurely hours in the American Airlines member lounge! There is a saying among sailors that “nothing goes to weather like a 747.” It’s certainly true! While Bob had his easiest passage this year, there was still one long day when he and his crew had to schlog through 20 squalls. My passage was much shorter and much smoother than Bob’s! His journey took 9 days, 23 hours. He had estimated 10 days, so how’s that for accuracy on something as hard to predict as sailing conditions and boat speed?

It is shockingly hot here, but lush from all the rain during hurricane season. Antigua has had little damage compared to its close neighbor Barbuda whose entire population has now been evacuated. We spoke with a waitress who is from Dominica who said that the rainforest, the best in the Caribbean, has been flattened. No one here has gone untouched by this year’s violent weather.

I have made things as cozy and homelike as I can for the moment. I’ve put out the little woven table mat that I bought from Chris Hammel during the Greater Boston Open Studios a few weeks back. It is just right for our dining table aboard Pandora. I hope she knows how much I love it! Bob got fresh bougainvillea for the table to greet me when I arrived, as well as a vaseful of pale pink oleander. He knows I love flowers!

The day before I left home I visited the Hartford Artisans’ annual weaving sale with my friend Jody. We both bought some great treasures, and I bought this kitchen towel to put onboard to help me remember fall at home….there are no naturally occurring autumn colors in the Caribbean, so this feels a little like New England in November. It’s the towel on the left.

Our mascot, the little sailing mouse, French Louie (who came from a shop in St. Martin, but is originally from Denmark!), has a new hammock. My friend Mary made it for me when she was trying out her skills at net making. She did a fine job, and Louie and we love his new spot for relaxing! Thank you, Mary! Sadly, we will not be visiting St. Martin this year due to the hurricane damage suffered there.

Before he left on the long passage, Bob made a lot of entertainment plans for the boats arriving here. There has been cocktail party one night, and a ceremony by the Antigua and Barbuda Royal Navy Tot Club last night. We were guests at their daily meeting, where in historic fashion one of the members reads from the logbook various events that took place on this day over the past 700 years or so, then toasts enemies and lost friends (Thursday’s toast-there’s a different one for each day of the week) and the health of the Queen, and THEN we each take a tot of rum, all in ‘one go.’ For men, a tot is an 1/8 of a pint. That is 1/4 cup of rum, straight, all in one go! For women guests the tot is half that. Well, let me tell you I failed at getting it down all in one go, and I decided not to attempt the rest of it. I gave it to Bob, who was successful at his own full tot. Sheesh!

Here is Bob in the white shirt at center, thanking the Royal Tot members for their hospitality in hosting us for their daily ceremony. It’s a beautiful setting in the Copper and Lumber historic site that is now an inn and restaurant.

Tonight, Saturday, Bob has arranged another dinner, the first of three. Tonight we will be having fresh sushi, Caribbean style. There is a traditional Caribbean dinner coming up on Monday to welcome the rest of the arrivals–boats who had various equipment problems and boats that are simply slower or had weather issues getting here. One of the restaurants here in Falmouth Harbor is hosting a Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday for all of us who will not be home for that holiday. There are plenty of English and Canadians in our sailing group who will join us for this holiday dinner. Other boats in the harbor are flying home port flags from Sweden, Holland, and France. As the weeks go by there will be more and arrivals from many other places.

For the moment Pandora is in Falmouth Harbor, where we spent a few days on the dock, enjoying the ease of stepping ashore for me, in addition to being plugged into electricity so that I had some air conditioning to help acclimate to this tropical climate! Now we are off the dock and anchored out in the harbor. There is plenty of breeze, but it still takes some getting used to!

This lovely water garden is near the entrance to English Harbor, just a short walk from Falmouth. I would love to add something similar to my own garden next summer. I know I’ll have to settle for something far less interesting than this giant iron pot that might have been in use when Lord Nelson was stationed here.

My last post had a photo of Pillars Restaurant where we had dinner after my arrival. Pillars is equally beautiful before the sun goes down.

Before I left I had three wonderful days with our son and his wife, and our adorable granddaughter Tori. She is getting cuter and cuter as well as bigger and bigger! I’m so glad we will see her again over Thanksgiving weekend.

In fact she will be our Princess Tori when she has her christening day on Sunday after Thanksgiving. And speaking of royalty, we have been hearing for days that Prince Charles will be visiting Antigua today as part of a tour to see the hurricane damage among islands that were once British subjects. I am keen to see him! Wish me luck!

Changing Gears

November 14, 2017 | Leave a Comment

Tomorrow at this time I will be in the air heading for Antigua. Hard to believe that time marches on as it does. For weeks now I’ve been entirely focused on other things–things with deadlines that had to happen before I took off to warmer shores.

First! The dress fits! Can you imagine what a relief this is??? I am not an experienced seamstress, and not particularly knowledgeable about how quickly a baby grows during the six weeks since I fitted the muslin to my granddaughter. I thought she might get taller, but I was counting on her NOT getting wider in the chest.

She is such a beauty! –not that I’m partial or anything! I owe the success of making this dress to my sewing teacher Marie, and to my lace mentors, Mary and Clare. This dress was beyond my limited sewing skills, so I’m lucky to have found such a great teacher!

At this point I don’t even remember what projects I put onboard Pandora before Bob left to sail south. I will have fun discovering what’s waiting for me. I will bring Tori’s Mini Mouse dress to finish during the 10 days we’re there. I decided not to bring my new band loom on this trip. I’ll wait to let Bob help me with the logistics of that when we return at the end of December. We will be in Antigua for only 10 days before we come back for Tori’s christening and to spend the month of December celebrating her 1st birthday and the Christmas holiday. Our younger son Chris will come out for both the christening and Christmas, so I’m thrilled we will all be together twice in one month.

Tomorrow afternoon I’ll be arriving here. Bob says we are one of only a handful of boats on the dock right now. It won’t last as the super yachts will be arriving everyday now, until the docks are full of mega-yachts. We’ll move off the dock and out into the breezes in the middle of the harbor after I arrive. But tomorrow I will move aboard while Pandora is at the dock…

…and we will enjoy dinner together at Pillars on my first evening there.

I imagine I will have a bit of culture shock as I transition from all the conveniences of living on land along with the transition of late fall into tropical weather. Now I’ll be in permanent summer, while living off the grid. When I get used to it, it does have its pleasures, but I never get entirely beyond missing home. One thing I cannot live without these days is good internet! I need to get photos of my Tori Tiny Super Moon at least once a week!

Internet Shopping

November 8, 2017 | Leave a Comment

Boy, have I had fun shopping in cyberspace lately. Remember the old days when the ‘modern’ thing to do was ‘let your fingers do the walking?’ This is lightyears beyond that!

Internet shopping is hardly new, but the wealth of websites devoted to weaving/spinning/lace making/sewing….etc…etc has expanded into a galaxy of wonderful places to shop!

A couple of posts back, pre-christening dress dilemma, I wrote that I had ordered a tape loom on etsy. Well, it arrived! And it was beautifully packaged so that opening the box was like a well choreographed dance. I enjoyed every moment of unpacking this treasure! I hope I can get a warp on it, and figure out how to get it to Pandora, now that she sailed away with Bob–OR rather, Bob sailed away with her.

The woman who made this loom and all the accessories that go with it calls herself HandyWOman. What an attention to detail! My loom has images of England and Scotland branded (?)/burnished (?) into it on all sides, inside and out! The accompanying bag (sold separately) is so well made– it shows the kind of sewing expertise that I am trying to attain in my classes! Just take a look!

Here is the box with the first bit unpacked. She made the drawstring bag that holds some small items you’ll see shortly!

I enjoyed the unpacking process and had to document it! The rigid heddle is embellished with a Tudor rose.

The set came with this little Scottie dog comb–adorable!

Everything unpacked and displayed on the kitchen table! I wish I’d gotten a better shot of the London skyline on the side of the loom that is being blocked by the instruction papers.

You need to see a closeup of the tote bag that holds all the pieces with plenty of extra room for other stuff. Note that HandyWOman’s logo has been machine embroidered on the top of the bag. What a great touch! I’m finding it hard to believe that she can be such a good wood worker as well as such an accomplished seamstress.

I can’t wait to try weaving on it!

Going back a couple of weeks now: my lace group made a trip to the Windham Textile and History Museum in Willimantic. My friend Mary descends from some mill workers and foremen, so she has particular interest in this time period. She was searching the internet for some mill related information and found the clothing designer Carolyn Denham (of Merchant and Mills) who makes timeless yet modern clothing with a nod to the mill workers of years ago. I couldn’t resist ordering this pattern, and today I found it in the mailbox! There’s no time to make it now, but hopefully I can tackle it in the spring when I return. In fact, I hope Mary makes it while I’m away so she can give me pointers on the process!

Last week I went to an extra sewing class on a day I don’t usually go. There were students there I hadn’t met before, and lots of projects to sigh over. One woman is making her granddaughter a quilt out of large and small panels of woodland animals drawn in a wonderfully graphic style. I love the owl and the fox and think that Tori would love them too! So, of course, I had to go hunting for them, letting my fingers do the walking so to speak, across the keyboard rather than the phone dial of old….and they were easy to find! They also arrived in my mailbox today! (The panels are from fashionable fabrics)

There are actually four animals in this set. I’m smitten with the owl and the fox so that’s what I’ve photographed. There are also a bear and a bunny. I bought the coordinating fabrics at the top of the photo at a local fabric store in Glastonbury called Close to Home. I’d never been there before, but I will be going back in the future. I just love the addition of that kiwi green and hope Tori will too.

The arrival of these treats could not have come at a more opportune time! It’s post-christening dress trauma and just in time to plan things to work on when I return home in the spring!

Calm after the Storm

November 7, 2017 | 1 Comment

This morning I sewed on the newly bleached lace to the front bodice of my granddaughter’s christening dress. What a relief that it looks good to these old eyes of mine!

Here is the front of the dress, looking rather golden because of my kitchen lighting and the cherry cabinets in the background. Trust me, this dress–and the lace!–is bright white!

Here is the back. As you can see, I cannot finish attaching the narrow lace to the back until I’ve done the buttonholes. That will get done on Wednesday at my sewing class. Actually, my teacher is going to do that….if you mess them up the dress is ruined, so that is WAY out of my comfort zone.

I tied off the the rest of the lace on the pillow and have just finished bleaching and soaking it in hydrogen peroxide. When it dries I hope I will find that it got as light at the lace I did yesterday…my fingers are crossed and I’ll just pause here a moment to go throw some salt over my shoulder!

Alrighty then! It’s a damp fall day here, drizzly and dreary. It will get dark an hour earlier than I’m used to this evening. I have taken a moment to enjoy what will be close to the last things blooming in the garden. It’s been such a mild fall, and surely the first hard frost can’t be too far away now.

These are the last few roses in the garden.

I couldn’t resist cutting a few of them, along with some lavender, to bring inside. The summer colors looked quite out of place in the house. I’ve moved them to my bathroom (of all places!) where a bit of pale pink, bright pink and purple look better.

It’s almost time to bring in my extended sheep family. During the winter they stay warm in front of the fireplace.

The birds who lived here are long gone, along with all the hummingbirds who were attracted to the red mandevilla and sat on the wire waiting for a drink at the feeders. The mandevilla doesn’t have much time left, so it’s singing its swan song.

I’ve already brought in some of the plants I want to keep for the winter. l didn’t realize this geranium cutting had a bud on it. It is sitting on the window sill above the kitchen sink, and it opened yesterday during my trials with bleaching. Today this bloom seems like a benevolent onlooker to yesterday’s events.

Lastly, here is the kitchen table. It hasn’t been used much lately for eating! While Bob is off sailing to Antigua, I haven’t felt much like cooking for one and sitting down to a meal at the table.

Mostly I’ve been using the table as I am now, to write emails and blog posts, with morning coffee or a glass something stronger in the evening. I’m feeling pretty lucky that I had the opportunity to write this particular post. The storm is past, and it’s looking pretty likely that there will be a christening dress worthy of dear little Tori, my tiny super moon!