ArgoKnot – Page 72 – A journal of my weaving, spinning, and knitting life

Busy Beautiful Days

January 14, 2013 | 4 Comments

We’ve been back on board Pandora for five days already, and it’s been a very busy cup of tea here. We thought we’d be crossing to the Bahamas on Wednesday this week, so there was a lot to accomplish!…. food provisions, engine maintenance, propellor cleaning, boat bottom cleaning…. various other small, but very important chores….not to mention getting ourselves further south so that the angle of crossing would be more favorable. And as weather often does, it has changed so that Wednesday is no longer our departure day. We are now cautiously aiming for Thursday… or Friday….

We left Ft. Pierce on Saturday morning and stopped in a lovely spot called Manatee Pocket that evening. Great name for the location where I did see my first manatee! No kidding, these creatures are unbelievably ungainly and touchingly sweet. I now fully understand why they are at the mercy of fast traveling power boats. They move very slowly and cannot possibly get out of the way of a speeding boat. When I saw my first manatee it had just started to descend back into the water, so its back looked like a giant black mooring ball!

There is so much beautiful bird life here … egrets, herons, osprey, kingfishers…. my favorite are the ibises. They are so delicate….almost ephemeral.

During our evening walk along the shore of Manatee Pocket (looking for the perfect restaurant), I found a weaving studio! Can you believe it??? Unfortunately for me, it was closed.

Who wouldn’t love spending time here??? That is a chenille warp on her loom.

Yesterday we motored 57 miles and went under 20 bascule bridges….surely a phenomenal logistical feat for any sailboat! We deserve a prize! I saw The Breakers from the waterway…. where I once spent a decadent long weekend with Bob about a million years ago! I thought I might want to jump ship and stow away in a luxurious resort suite….but oddly, I didn’t! At the moment I’m quite happy in my less than luxurious accomodations on Pandora!

The houses along the canals are getting more and more impressive. It’s more Mediterranean here than the Mediterranean with all the stucco and terracotta roof tiles….and porticos! The houses are huge, and are so close together. It would seem to me if you have a house with a full acre of square footage, you wouldn’t want to be looking right in the windows of your next door neighbors! To each his own…

On the knitting front, I cast on for a small Fair Isle purse at the airport in Connecticut. It’s Beth Brown-Reinsel’s design from Interweave Knits Fall 2004 issue. I’m making a number of changes to the pattern; the most significant change is that I could not stomach the idea of knitting this purse flat. I know Beth must have had good reasons for her design, but since I’m pretty stubborn about stranding in the round, that’s what I’m doing! I’ve got plans to make this a small tote bag, so I’ll be making a somewhat rigid insert for the bag when I return home next spring, along with a lining and leather handles instead of a drawstring.

I raided my J&S shetland and AS Scottish Campion stashes for these yarns (two large comforter-size storage bags stuffed full of yarn!), and I was quite surprised to find that I had absolutely no brown! So I solved that dilemma with a quick trip to Yarns Down Under the evening before my flight. Everyone needs a LYS who is willing to open shop for emergency travel knitting! My LYS is the best enabler!

We are leaving shortly for Middle River, Ft. Lauderdale.

January 6, 2013 | Leave a Comment

The best made plans…. I’ve looked forward to being home so much for so long, yet I’ve spent almost the entire month at home sick! And I’ve had one rather big disappointment in a tapestry project…..

….but the upside is that in spite of being sick, my kids spent most of the month with us. It was beyond wonderful to have time with them! And I’ve gotten some weaving and some knitting done. We’ve had some awesome meals, and I guess I will credit being sick with what has kept me from gaining weight (always the silver lining, right?)….

So, with not much to show for myself, I’ll share a couple of good cartoons I stumbled on recently….

From the New Yorker

and from ecards:

I did my bit on fiber purchases. I have a wonderful LYS called Yarns Down Under, in Deep River. During my visit I learned that Filature di Crosa’s “127 Print” is being discontinued (sigh) so I bought two colors to make a cardigan. I bought the black and the periwinkle blue, and I plan to use them in a vertically striped cardigan based on “Designs by Judith” pattern called “Buenos Aires” that called for Manos del Uraguay.

So this takes a bit of imagination…. I am knitting not quite random vertical stripes in my two colorways instead of the two-color stitch pattern used in Judith’s design. I just love the shaping of this sweater and hope it will turn out well in a striped stockinette stitch. Although the gauge is the same, my fabric will be considerably softer since it is not a texture stitch. Wish me luck!

And while licking my wounds about my weaving disappointments, I found this in my inbox today:

“Remember that not getting what you want is sometimes a wonderful stroke of luck.” –Dalai Lama

Farewell Winter

December 30, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Our last day in winter white New England was quite a memorable one! While doing a few last minute errands in town we noticed that our little museum has an annual train show over the holidays and that it was still on display. We had the entire exhibit to ourselves on a Tuesday morning.

Bags packed, rental car on hand for the next morning’s early ride to the airport, we decided to spend our last evening in Connecticut in the pub of the Griswold Inn with a burger and a beer. I swear that pub has live music every single night of the year, and while it’s always great fun and great music, I really wanted an early evening. The music venues usually start around 7.30. When we arrived, well before music should start, a wonderful glee club from Ohio was about halfway through an impromptu performance that had been arranged to precede the regular Tuesday night banjo group.

The glee club were the KoKos from Kenyon College, who were passing through the area on their January tour of concerts on the East Coast. Since they were staying at the house of a glee club alumnus who happened to be the local Anglican priest, the priest had arranged for the last minute performance at the pub.

Bob and I love a capella men’s groups. The songs were wonderful… “Sentimental Journey,” “Stand by Me”…… a couple of fun, bawdy songs.

As the singers were gathering their things the priest came over to introduce himself. I’m not sure I’ll ever understand why. Did he see how much we liked the group?? Did he think we might become new parishioners? Whatever his reasons, he introduced himself to us and even invited us back to his house for dinner. He promised the group would sing a few more songs…. what can I say? We couldn’t resist!

As we were settling up a friend of the priest walked over to say he’d be going back to the rectory for dinner as well. I kind of thought I recognized this younger man. The priest introduced us as “Bob and Brenda” and the young man’s face shifted with something like recognition. “Were you ever members of Fayerweather Yacht Club?” he asked. Well, yes we were….about a million eons ago in a distant time before children…. this young man is the son of a couple we used to sail with fairly often. Our friends, the parents of this young man, died over 15 years ago, within a couple of years of each other. We haven’t seen their son “Roddy” since he was about 12 years old, back in the early 1980s. That feels like ancient history…

What a world! Roddy remembers a particular long weekend in Great Salt Pond on Block Island, when he and his dad came aboard our little catboat Tao for an afternoon sail, while I went on board Lark to help Roddy’s mother to cook up a mess of mussels for dinner. What I remember is coming across our very first log book last summer as we were unpacking things in our new house, and reading about Roddy and his parents and some of our escapades together. When I read these passages, I realized what distant memories these are…..how long Bob and I have been making memories together and how rediscovering this brief period in our newly married lives helped me recognize Rod the adult when our paths crossed again. Amazing…..

….and now we’re off to make more memories on this sailing adventure to the Bahamas….. (I hope they will be mostly good ones)

Home Sweet Home

December 29, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Our return home was truly magical, and our first Christmas here has been wonderful!….complete with a powdered sugar dusting of snow on Christmas Eve! This is not my house, but a well known inn in our little town…. photo taken by Mark Cappitella.

We’ve seen lots of family and friends, and I’ve slept in my ‘cloud bed’ which I dearly miss whenever I’m away from home. Rob and Chris have joined me in the kitchen cooking and baking some of our favorite recipes.

And Santa brought me a wonderful surprise! A beautiful painting done by a tapestry weaver who feels like a friend even though we’ve never met in person. I’ve followed her blog for years, and we’ve emailed over several years, so I feel like I know her. I’m talking about Kathy Spoering who maintains a wonderful website on top of painting and weaving such beautiful images. She’s a very talented woman, and I’m so happy to have one of her paintings. I’m going to put it in my bedroom where I’ll see it every morning when I wake up! (At least for the next 10 days or so before we head back to our life on board Pandora!)

Seeing this painting each morning makes me so happy! A great start to the day. Kathy’s other offerings are in her etsy shop Yellow Dog Tapestries.

There has been a bit too much celebrating to spend any time in my studio (except to hunt for things and realize how much re-organizing lies in my future). Today I will finally spend a day working on my pear tapestry. Can’t ask for a better day, with the threat of coming snow and plenty of good food in the house!

Pearls of Wisdom

December 9, 2012 | Leave a Comment

We are in Eau Gallie, Florida now and have spent four days here with a group called the Seven Seas Cruising Association. Every December they gather here for socializing and learning from various well known sailors who volunteer to give seminars. This year we were lucky to meet both Chris Parker, our weather router (guru) and Jimmy Cornell who has written a number of cruising books that are well known to sailors. We also met Jimmy Cornell’s daughter, Doina, who has written a book herself about growing up on a circumnavigation, Child of the Sea.

I’ve been hearing about this town called “Oh! Gollie!” or “Oh! Gallie” and wondering how on earth it got its name. It turns out it is “Eau Gallie,” and since it sits at the water’s edge that explained the ‘eau’ to me. But what about Gallie? I’ve just learned that ‘gallie’ is French (galet) for rocky and the two words together are ‘rocky water.’ The town is named for the coquina rocks that abound here. Still, it’s fun to say…. Eau Gallie!

This has been an exciting weekend for me! I have met a weaver from Ontario! Her name is Lois, and she is sailing south to the Bahamas with her husband on their boat Astar. She has a large 8-shaft LeClerc, a 10-shaft draw loom, and the same 8-shaft Baby Wolf that I have. She knits and spins as well, so we had a lot to discuss! One of her wheels is the same Lendrum (made in Canada) that I have. We both had our knitting with us. She has her OHS certificate of excellence in weaving and has worked in some capacity for that organization. She is a member of very large guild in the Ontario area. I can’t wait to learn more about that. She has heard of my regional guild, MAFA (Mid Atlantic Fiber Association), but not my new regional guild NEWS (New England Weavers Seminar). We both started weaving in the mid-70s. It is so wonderful to have finally found another weaver!

Another woman mentioned to me that she knows of two weavers that she has met while sailing. She promised to find them in her list of contacts and give me their names. I made connections with these women and others during a seminar called Women and Cruising. This seminar was for those of us women who are new to living aboard. It was a time for us to express our concerns or fears or voice our hopes in finding other women who have similar interests. There were birders and shell collectors and bridge players….. One woman who has her sewing machine aboard along with bins and bins of fabric told me her wonderful experience from last winter.

In the Bahamas she likes to weave traditional baskets of local materials. I think she called it ‘silver grass’ or something like that. She said the local women taught her to weave these baskets. At some point she learned that some of the women have no access to the basket materials they need because it grows in places that are only accessible by small boat. She used her dinghy to harvest some of this basket fiber and brought it to the women who needed it.

What a lovely way to connect with the local culture, to make friends and learn something so precious! I hope I will find opportunities like this! Doina Cornell’s tales of spending her childhood sailing around the world with her family were also full of the experiences she had living in such varied cultures from all around the world. The weekend was rich with amazing experiences and valuable insights!

Walking about with my knitting led other women to talk to me about their own knitting projects.

Oh! I must not forget to mention that I finished my Ann Jacket! Woohoo! Just for the record I finished it on December 5th, in plenty of time to wear home! And since I cannot let my needles lie silent I have moved on to the “Ruffle Wrap Cardigan,” and it is practically knitting itself. Every time I knit what feels like a couple of rows an entire body section is finished. If only all sweaters would knit up this quickly! I have finished the back and both fronts, so yesterday I started the first sleeve while walking around the SSCA conference. The sleeves are the first opportunity to use the fun ribbon that gets knitted into this design. Wow! That ribbon is really over the top….perhaps a bit garish? I’m wondering if I have the guts to wear this when I finish….

We are homeward bound! Today we will sail down to Vero Beach and will have dinner with our friends who have a house there and split their time between living on the Connecticut River in the summer, in Vero for fall, and on board their boat Camelot for winters in the Bahamas. Then Monday I will get a rental car in preparation for our trip to the airport, and I’ll do our last minute laundry. Tuesday we fly home! I will have 1500 hundred miles under my belt and three full months onboard. The first tiny drip of experience in what Bob hopes will be many, many experiences living onboard.

Day 90, December 9th: Eau Gallie to Vero Beach.