ArgoKnot – Page 34 – A journal of my weaving, spinning, and knitting life

A week in St. Martin

February 12, 2017 | Leave a Comment

We’ve been here a week now and have enjoyed many of the local attractions. Yesterday was a particular highlight for me since it was the weekly open air market. There were plenty of stalls with cheap, manufactured souvenirs , but on Saturdays the locals set up stalls with handmade items, like hot sauces, spice blends, shell creations, beaded jewelry, watercolor paintings. It was a colorful market, and I bought some fun things.

We bought several kinds of spice blends and several bags of nutmeg,–of course! We now live in the nutmeg state, so we had to have some straight from the source. The reason our state has this distinction of being the nutmeg state is because the early trading ships along the Connectiuct River sailed to the Caribbean and brought back spices.

This was a fun purchase!–a peyote stitch, beaded starfish made by a woman who had set up a booth at the yacht club on the Dutch side, which overlooks the drawbridge where all boats enter and exit Simpson Bay Lagoon. Bob and I had stopped there for a drink to watch the drawbridge open and see what big boats might go through. Finding the tables of beaded jewelry was a bonus for me. I just know my beading friends Karyn and Janet will either already know how to make this little gem, or will quickly figure it out when they see this. The both live on beaches, one on the Jersey shore and one on the Cape, so I think they would enjoy making something like this.

After years in the Bahamas, I have to say that the best thing about these Caribbean islands is the food! And on St. Martin it’s mostly French food! I do not know how they can make bread and pastries as delicious as their mother country when it is so hot and humid here. The baguettes are amazing and the croissants are too! At the markets I’ve been able to buy food that looks like it was picked locally each morning, even though it has been flown here from France. Such fresh baby heads of lettuce…tiny romaine heads and heads of red leaf lettuce. Cooking is so much more enjoyable with these beautiful ingredients!

Here is the pastry case at Serafina’s boulangerie et patisserie. Are you salivating?

Earlier this week we had lunch at a beach bar, and my lunch was so beautifully displayed, and such good food, that I had to take a photo of it. In the US, you can imagine lunch at a beach bar as a greasy hamburger and fries, or a hotdog, or maybe fried clams on a roll. Look at this and weep!

Shall I describe what is on the plate? First, three big prawns with a bit of aioli for dipping. Then a half dozen little snails with a muslin covered lemon to squeeze on them. Then there are two glass containers stacked at the far end of my plate. That top dish is a salad of crabmeat topped with alfalfa sprouts and caviar in a lemon vinaigrette. It was fabulous! Underneath is fresh guacamole to go on the toast points. There was also a remoulade sauce not shown here… so a collection of shellfish, served with 3 sauces, a salad and bread!–and a view of the beach to set the mood!

St. Martin is a must stop destination for all cruisers, so whenever you are here you will meet boats you’ve seen in other locations. Thursday evening we had a farewell party for some couples who were headed in other directions, both back north and further south. There were 12 of us for dinner at LeCanal, a wonderful French restaurant that sits on a canal on the French side, run by a husband and wife. They also live on a boat and hope to make a go here for a few years, before returning to France. They have a beautiful 3 year old daughter who came out to greet us during dinner.

We are going back today at noon to enjoy crepes for brunch. Sarah makes the crepes at your table, while I believe the fillings are made by her husband back in the kitchen. I’m looking forward to this! The idea is to have a savory crepe first and then a dessert crepe. There was a time in the distant past when I made Julia Child’s crepe batter almost every weekend. It’s been a few years since I’ve made crepes. Today will be a treat!

More later when I have returned from another fun visit ashore in St. Martin!

More photos, less words…

February 9, 2017 | Leave a Comment

This year’s trip started with a revisit to a romantic hotel we stayed in 31 years ago. Where did the time go? In some ways it definitely feels like a different lifetime ago, but I am stumped at where all that went…so quickly! It’s still a very romantic spot, and dinner here was quite wonderful. 30 years on, I am even more appreciative of a stunning setting and excellent food.

The road in front of the Sugar Mill runs along the coast and looks north to Jost Van Dyke. Last time that didn’t mean much to me, but this time we visited that island shortly after our evening here, so now I know a little about Jost Van Dyke.

We made sure we got here in time to enjoy the sunset, which is beautiful from this lovely Victorian porch with cushioned settees for relaxing. It was very relaxing. To mark the occasion I had a Pimm’s Cup to remind me of spring evenings in England with my dear friend Lesley.

The dining room is just as I remember….the stone walls of the old mill yet open air to the ocean. That’s me at the back of the room on the right, deciding what to have for dinner!

The Sugar Mill does not show up in any of the guide books we’ve got with us, which is rather baffling. It is listed in “Romantic Inns of the World,” but that might not be the place you’d look if you were researching where to stay on Tortola. Anyway, clearly they are doing something very right. We would have loved to see the owners from 30 years ago, Jeff and Jinx Morgan, who wrote for “Gourmet Magazine” for many years. We missed them by only a year or two. I hope that they are well, wherever they are these days.

We are now in St. Martin/St. Maarten which is new territory for me. The island is a range of tall volcanic mountains, some so steep that there are no roads and no inhabitants up those slopes. Part French and part Dutch, there is lots to see and do, and two rather different cultures to enjoy.

Here we are at the top of one of the highest points. We drove partway up with our rental car, then walked the rest of the way. Our friend Bill took this photo which looks idyllic. You cannot tell there is a gale blowing up there, and we were afraid to go any closer to the edge for fear we’d be blown right off!

Aren’t these pretty? The petals are so like an oncidium orchid that flutter in the breeze, but those long stamens are definitely NOT an orchid. These flowers come in yellow and orange, and my favorite here, a blend of the two! They grow on a somewhat shrubby plant that has leaves similar to a maiden hair fern. I would love to have a plant onboard, even a red geranium. So far, I have not found a nursery where I can buy something green. My friends aboard other boats suggest I get over this. If I get a plant it will just be taken away when we enter a different island nation. Sad face….

Along that road to the top of the mountain were some very impressive villas, and some houses that looked like they’d been built by hands that did not know much about building a house! I think some of these diy houses were hideouts for people who no longer wished to be known.

Along with wild goats and chickens that roam the roadsides, here there are also wild cows. They do not cross the road quite as quickly as goats or chickens.

On our way down we stopped at a large park called Loterie Farm. It is preserve for wild monkeys, iguanas, and had a maze of zip lines for use in getting a wonderful view of the flora and fauna from some thrilling heights. That is a bit too much of a thrill for me, but I enjoyed seeing the views from the tree house style tapas bar, where I had a tropical drink with a salad and a crab cake. Far more sedate than zip lining!

I was happy to enjoy the restaurant views, rather than experience them from the tree tops on a zip line!

Next time it would be fun to rent this tree top cabana near the pool.

We ended the day at the beach right near Princess Juliana Airport, where some of those adventurous zip lining people line up at the end of the runway to be blown off their feet whenever a jumbo jet lands or takes off. There is no end to the risk taking you can experience on St. Martin. I’m happy to watch from the safety of the nearby bar, thank you.

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.

Promises Made

January 9, 2017 | Leave a Comment

It may be the dawn of a new year, but I am not writing about resolutions. I am writing about promises. These are the promises I made during the past year.

The first was a rather casual statement I made to my husband, Bob, after finding out that it would cost over $200 each for simple throw pillows for the main salon of our new boat, about a year and a half ago. In spite of the fact that I’m not the best seamstress, and my blood pressure goes up whenever I plug in that sewing machine, I offered to decorate our main salon with pillows that I would make myself…. because for that price I was willing to endure the possibility of having a stroke to make our our own decorative pillows for about 1/4 the price. Early this year I found great fabric choices at Mac’s in West Palm Beach. It’s great town to visit, and for me, a dip into Mac’s is the pinnacle of all the wonderful things to do in West Palm!

Time flew by and suddenly–during the week between Christmas and the new year– it was time for Bob to start packing for his long voyage to the eastern Caribbean. I have to admit that I had not given those pillows much thought in the months since I’d bought the fabric. It was time to get sewing.

The first hurdle was making the bias cut binding for the welting that would go around the pillows. There is an efficient way of cutting bias binding that I can never quite grasp. I may never get this down, so thank heaven for YouTube where I can find almost anything right when I need it.

My four pillows needed 11 yards of bias binding that would then turn into cording. I need to hear gasps here….puh-lease… 11 yards. It was a LOT of sewing, and it was daunting for me.

Just pinning the 11 yards of binding around the cording took an age. I really need some shout outs here for enduring this effort…. And, just so you know, that box of pins was full to overflowing before I started pinning the 11 yards of binding.

YouTube to the rescue again on how to make a pillow with a bias binding welted edge AND a zipper. Yep….that was no small feat for me, the intrepid and not so dexterous seamstress. You really can learn almost anything on YouTube, thanks to the efforts of countless folks who are so willing to share their expertise. Here is my source for inserting a zipper into a welted edge.

Happily, the pillows are now adding a touch of elegance to Pandora–two of the four.

On to my next promise….made more recently in time. In fact, it was April, in Havana, when I had the thought that I knew plenty of bobbin lace makers, tatters, knitters, and embroiderers who would be thrilled to share their excess stash with women in Cuba who love to work with their hands, but have so few choices of materials to use. The generosity of the women I know through various groups was quite astounding. The most touching incident happened during one our Cuba talks which were mostly geared to sailors. Diane was in the audience at a local yacht club for one of Bob’s talks, and she approached me to say that her sister had once owned an embroidery shop. When it closed Diane had offered to store some of the excess embroidery threads for her sister– beautiful threads, such as Danish flower thread, hand-painted embroidery cottons and silks from Watercolors by Caron Threads, and a treasure trove of other exquisite threads for handwork. Huge thanks, Diane, for letting these treasures go. The New England Lace Guild also contributed fine lace threads, books on bobbin lace, tatting shuttles and threads, and even a large stash of knitting needles. The bounty just bowls me right over.

Where’s the photo? Well, right now it’s on the camera that is traversing the north Atlantic with Bob who is on his way to the Caribbean! What a snafu! He took a fun photo of me siting on the floor ensconced in piles of beautiful lace and embroidery threads. He is out of internet range for the next 10 days, so I just have suck it up that there is no photo.

Well, now Bob has landed in Tortola (1.11.17), and is enjoying soft tropical breezes under thatched pavilions, drinking fruity concoctions with little paper umbrellas in them. And he has sent me the photo.

Bob packaged up all this swag in vacuum seal bags that are now aboard Pandora on their way to the Caribbean, where they will then get transferred to other sailboats that are headed for Cuba in the spring. Mail to Cuba is not yet an option since I’ve been warned that packages get opened and raided. These packages will get delivered directly to Adriana in Havana by various sailing friends. I know she will share them generously with other women. All good! A promise well kept.

I am in the midst of my most recent promise, so I cannot yet tell how well I will fulfill it. I never made this promise out loud, but in the depths of my heart I made it, which is perhaps a more binding place for promises. My father died over 5 years ago and left my mother in the care of my sister and me. He died with his whole family surrounding him, including four grandchildren. My mother has not been well since long before he passed away, and she has endured the past 5 1/2 years mostly alone….not so much in actuality, but certainly in her soul. She was not an easy person to care for, and my father’s death was in part due to the heavy burden of caring for her. She has been hurtling toward death for the past few months. Although she and I were not close, I felt a strong desire to help her– to be whatever she might need to me to be, in order to help her make this transition. Over the past weeks I have touched her –held her hand, stroked her hair, rubbed her shoulders– more than I remember her ever touching me or my sister. I hope it gave her solace. I hope she felt comforted.

Her time came this afternoon. It is so fresh I am probably rash to write of it so soon. It’s certainly too soon to say if I’ve kept my promise. Neither my sister or I was with her, but perhaps that is how she wanted it. Her favorite nurse was with her, and that means a great deal to me. In the coming days of this new year we hope to honor her memory and scatter her ashes as she would want.

Only today I realized what I might miss most about her — her whistling. It was a brilliant feat of delicacy and finesse. It was a mystery of nature–of human dexterity. I hope I will always be able to hear her trilling the piccolo part of “Stars and Stripes Forever” in my memory. I hope she’ll be whistling for others wherever she is–they will love it!

I’m in orbit around the moon!

December 17, 2016 | 2 Comments

The first real snow of the season is falling, and I’m watching it out the window next to my computer, as I drink coffee late into the morning. It’s the end of an exhilarating week, and we’re all in free fall toward Christmas, Hannukah, and Kwanzaa, which fall so close together this year.

Our grandchild arrived on Monday evening this week! We were on the Jersey Turnpike , heading south, admiring the rising supermoon when our son called to say the baby is a girl! She has a lovely moonface, and I’m calling her Tori Tiny Super Moon.

She’s blessed with a full head of hair, isn’t she?? –Just like both her parents. Rob’s hair fell out when he was about 4 months old, leaving behind lots of blond peach fuzz, but Mom kept her head of thick hair. We’re very curious to see what happens to our Tiny Super Moon’s head of hair.

Also, she has dimples! I didn’t know that babies could have dimples when their cheeks are so well padded to help them suck. Well, she’s got big ones! Her parents were wondering where on earth the dimples came from– and then I arrived! When I smiled at Tiny Super Moon they both noticed! Voila! She has a little something from me. You cannot imagine how happy this makes me!

Like the heavenly lunar body she is, she wakes up in the evening and shines all night. She sleeps during the day. We are satellites in her orbit.

That last photo was taken in her adoring Grampy’s arms. I happened to have caught the ring that Bob got from his father when his father passed away. Boy, would he have fallen under her spell.

When we left to drive to Maryland, I had not yet finished Tiny Super Moon’s Christmas outfit! Horrors! I figured I’d knit in the car on the way down, but I completely misjudged the high state of emotion I would experience! Then came the days of visiting in the hospital, running errands for the parents, doing a few little chores at their house. No knitting! Finally, on the night before the new family were to come home I got out the little sweater and knit ’til it was done….ran all the loose yarns into the wrong side of the sweater and lightly blocked it.

Finished!

On the drive home I found that my hands were itching to knit something else for my little lunar gem. I just happened to have brought some yarn and this little book with me–yeah, just happened! I never go anywhere without at least two extra projects on hand! I started the sheep, Spud….and as the years go by, maybe I’ll knit the whole barnyard!

This is not a good photo of the book. I took it as it lay on my lap in the car! Isn’t Spud adorable?

When she’s older I will knit Chloe, giving her the appropriate hair and eyes of our tiny one. I am so looking forward to watching her grow!

If Tiny Super Moon and her dad are sleeping it must be daytime!

We are going back exactly one week from today (not that I’m counting the days or anything) to visit for Christmas. Uncle Chris will join us from San Francisco. Tiny Super Moon is so excited about her first Christmas, and mostly about seeing me again!