ArgoKnot – Page 74 – A journal of my weaving, spinning, and knitting life

The Rainbow after the Storm

October 29, 2012 | Leave a Comment

As I write this hurricane Sandy is hitting the shores where all my family and dear friends live. I’m holding my breath until I hear from everyone, at least a day or so from now…

Meanwhile, the winds will continue strong here until the end of this week, and we are in glorious sunshine with clear skies and bright white clouds. The autumn colors of the cypress swamps in the Waccamaw River are stunning, and our rainbow came in the form of a woman named June.

June is related to my oldest childhood friend, and we were so lucky to spend some time with her on this journey. Her family has lived in this area for many generations. It’s an area of cypress swamps, fields of sweetgrass, so much bird life and aquatic life…turtles, fish, alligators…

June took us visit Brookgreen Gardens, which is not only a stunning garden set on the grounds of four historical plantations which were combined by the Huntingtons to create this space for displaying outdoor sculpture, but also over the years has acquired the largest collection of American sculpture in the US. And it’s a magnificent place. June’s family lived here when the Huntingtons began their plan for making Brookgreen, and I imagine June must have been a young girl when the gardens first opened in the 1930s. June’s mother worked at the gardens when she was growing up, and June herself also worked here for more than a decade. She made a perfect tour guide for our visit!

There are so many stunning works in these gardens, so beautifully displayed in the landscape…. it was a visual feast, and it didn’t take long for me to become visually overstimulated!

All through the landscape are live oaks dripping with Spanish moss. Stunning… As it turns out, they grow quite quickly, so although these trees look as old as time, in reality they are only about 300 years old.

Afterward June took us to see Murrels Inlet where we saw a large flock of Wood Storks! I did not know there were any storks in the US! What a thrill!

We ended the day on June’s back deck, watching the light change toward sunset along the salt marsh estuaries of the inlet.

I can’t possibly describe how special this day was to us! It was a day of days….and should I mention?…. well, okay, twist my arm…. this day of days was a landmark for us. Forty years ago, can you believe it?….40 years ago…. we had our first date. What a magnificent way to recognize our long life together.

We have motored a little further down the Waccamaw and are anchored in another secluded spot off the river called Jericho Creek. Today is about 10 degrees colder than yesterday, so I am bundled in my wingspan shawl and a pair of handknit wool socks. I’ll be making something hot and comforting for dinner.

Day 47 and 48, October 27 and 28: Cow House Creek, off the Waccamaw River, SC.
Day 49, October 29: Cow House Creek to Jericho Creek, SC.

Waiting out the Storm

October 26, 2012 | 1 Comment

I should get a good amount of knitting done while waiting for Hurricane Sandy to pass by. Luckily we are far enough south that Sandy will not even be a tropical storm in these parts, much less a hurricane. We expect winds of about 35 mph with gusts to 50. The downside is that this is a very slow moving system, and we may be stuck in one place for as long as five days. On the bright side, more time to knit and read….

As I write, Sandy is wreaking havoc on the Bahamas. Such a beautiful area, always so fragile due to these terrible storms. And New England is hunkering down for a combination hurricane/snow storm that is being dubbed “Frankenstorm.” Yikes!

I’m worried about all my family and friends who live from New Jersey up through New England. Stay safe, dear ones!

Meanwhile, I knit…..and knit…

I could not figure out a good way to photograph the finished ‘Wingspan’ shawl. This is the best I could manage…

I’ll be wrapped in it shortly when the temperatures drop tomorrow or Sunday…

It is beginning to feel like I’ve been knitting the “Ann Jacket” (Vivian Hoxbro) for half my life. It is a lot of knitting. I am about two-thirds done with the 3rd body panel (out of four total). Where am I going to get the energy for that last panel?? Then there will be all the plain knitting for the sleeves! Sheesh! I really do want to wear it so I’ve just got to muddle on. It is so cleverly designed, but it is endless knitting…

This is the finished back.

The two body panels are knitted together in a very clever fashion by picking up stitches going up the left body panel, place a marker, cast on a number of stitches (and the number of stitches cast on here are what will determine the width of this center panel!), place marker, pick up stitches going down the second body panel. As you knit along this very long row of stitches you decrease on both sides of each market (every other row) so that the knitting begins to form a mitered triangle at the very center back! By the time you have only one stitch between the two markers you hold the two ends of your circular needle together (with the wrong sides of the body panels facing outward) and use a third needle to cast off all stitches. Yes, that one stitch between the two markers does mean there are an odd number of stitches to be cast off…. so the last “K 1 st. from each needle together” becomes “knit last stitch from one needle together with the last 2 stitches from other needle.”

I know….it doesn’t show up very well in such dark yarn! Here is a close up view:

Funny how things often happen when they are meant to happen. I have put aside my swing knitted jacket “Soo Feminine” because I wasn’t happy with the finishing technique. Now, assembling that jacket looks like a perfect use for Hoxbro’s mitered technique from the “Ann Jacket!” Should be interesting looking with the long color changes of the Kauni 8/2 Effektgarn I used…and I hope will complement the swing knitted shapes.

But… before I return to the swing jacket, I really want to finish this one. So, onward….

Day 46, October 26: North Myrtle Beach

Ibis, Dolphins, Pelicans, and even a knitting store

October 24, 2012 | Leave a Comment

North Carolina has been a lovely place to visit! We’ve seen the first palm trees of the trip, although I doubt they are native. They look transplanted, but have adapted well to the climate.

There are flocks and flocks of pelicans! People here must take them for granted as such a common sight, but I find them so exotic! Yesterday Bob saw one sitting in the water, with the sun striking him just so that he could see the silhouette of the fish inside his bill! A great big fish….just like the limerick!

Couldn’t count them all!

Almost every inlet we’ve passed going down the coast has brought in dolphins who play at the side of the boat. One dolphin kept leaping out of the water right beside me while I was at the helm. He (she?) kept switching from one side of the aft quarter to the other, and I kept flinging myself from side to side hoping to photograph him in mid air! At one point he cleared his blow hole and shot water in our cockpit! He was so close….but I did not get the photo! I did manage to run aground….. new rule: the helmsman must stay focused, no taking photos while driving!

What a lovely soft landscape down here. All low country, with pearly white sand beaches, beautiful marsh grasses that are a brilliant gold/green in the sunlight….just like the amber waves of gold in the Midwest! Only these fields of gold are cut through with shimmering estuaries in an amazing color of bright turquoise. When I look straight down at the water next to the boat it is a wonderful shade of sea green. When I look out across the water, or into the winding veins of the estuaries, it is blue-green. Lovely. And there has been sunshine all week.

We’ve seen lots of Long Leaf Pines, the wood that Bob used to make my first loom 36 years ago. We’ve seen flocks of egrets sitting in trees like big white pillows. The fish are jumping everywhere, which makes us think there are dolphins chasing them. Certainly the hunting is very good for the bird life. There are so many birds. I realized that some of the egrets I saw are really ibis. How cool!

And speaking of birds…. North Carolina is chock full of man-made birds too! We have been inundated by military aircraft in these waters. At Camp LeJeune I saw two Ospreys flying in formation for about an hour. Quite impressive. We’ve seen more of those huge troop carrying helicopters than we can count! We hear them coming long before we see them!

We are in Southport, North Carolina, today. This is a quintessential lovely southern town. Big wide boulevards, gigantic live oaks (draped in epiphytic ferns called “resurrection ferns”) shading the sidewalks, lovely historic houses dating from the early 19th century. Many of the houses have huge upper floor porches for looking out at Cape Fear. That inlet is a scary piece of water, as its name implies!

Oh, how I’d love to sit on this porch with an iced tea!

We need to get away from here pretty soon due to hurricane Sandy, which will be arriving in the Bahamas in the next day or so. We’ll continue down the coast into South Carolina, only a few miles further. From there the ICW heads inland, and that should give us good protection from the coming storm.

I always check each port we visit to see if there is a knitting store. There is one in Southport, so mark your map if you travel this way! It is called Angelwing Needle Arts and carries embroidery and quilting fabrics as well as knitting yarns. It is a pretty shop with lots of temptations. I’m sorry to report that I did not find them as friendly as Frivolous Fibers in St. Michael’s, Maryland….but hey…that’s what makes Frivolous Fibers so memorable!

As I wrote this Bob took a walk and has returned with a pound of large shrimp fresh off the boat! They still have their heads! $5.00/lb….for that price we can clean them ourselves. Should make a great shrimp cocktail

Day 42, October 22: anchored in Mile Hammock at Camp LeJeune, North Carolina
Day 43, October 23: on mooring in Carolina Beach, North Carolina
Day 44, October 24: docked at “Fishy Fishy” Restaurant inSouthport, North Carolina (Cape Fear inlet)

Beaufort, North Carolina

October 22, 2012 | Leave a Comment

What a place! A quaint town with lovely houses dating from late 18th through the 19th centuries, on a beautiful piece of waterfront, where pelicans and dolphins play the waters, and wild horses graze just across the harbor on a bit of salt marsh! It’s simply amazing!

This egret was hunting the marshes right next to the horses.

We have heard that at nearby Cape Look Out there is a good possibility of seeing loggerhead turtles, so we hope to go there today for a walk on the beach and turtle viewing! Our plans may change though because the weather report this morning (marine forecast by Chris Parker via sideband radio) was all about the possibility of latest storm ‘Sandy’ coming up the east coast. Parker’s recommendation is for everyone to use the next couple of days to get as far south as possible.

So we may just get underway….

I did block the ‘wingspan’ shawl a coupld of days ago….

The Daily Routine Onboard

October 22, 2012 | Leave a Comment

It starts with a latte made by Bob. It’s a great way to start the day! I highly recommend it!

Then, of course, there is knitting. I knit everyday. And I plan meals… both those activities go without saying.

On this trip our new tradition is to read from The Boy, Me and the Cat at some point each day. This is a classic cruising tale about a man, Henry Plummer, and his teenage son who sailed a small catboat down the coast from Massachusetts to Florida during the fall/winter/spring of 1912-1913…. exactly a hundred years ago! Some things haven’t changed at all during the past century, and some things are light years different…

Henry started his journey a full month after we did. So, after all my complaining about being cold, I’m now reading how he woke to mornings with icy decks and had to break the ice in the basin in order to have a wash up. Yikes! I don’t know anything about hardship, do I?

Some of most entertaining parts of the book involve the antics of Henry’s cat, Scottie, who was drafted into the trip. She is a feisty little thing, and with no ‘kitty kibble’ onboard her meals are always interesting…

Eleven years ago Bob and I worked on a new edition of this book. I edited the text and chose some of Henry’s original photos to add to his wonderful line drawings, and Bob worked on all the details of getting the book republished. It came out in 2001, bankrolled by The Catboat Association, who are the repository for all of the Plummer family’s many treasures related to this book. Our edition got very high praise from Wooden Boat Magazine, Elizabeth Meyer (founder of IYRS) and even Walter Kronkite!…among others. We are very proud of this edition, and we worked hard to include lots of information that the previous editions (and subsequent editions too) could not. This is the only edition that includes Henry’s photos and appendices that include his correspondence from that time, newspaper articles about him, and family information and what became of the Mascot. It’s a great story whether you read our version of one of the others….but our edition has the most to offer!

So, as we sit anchored in Beaufort, North Carolina, we are reading about Henry’s visit here in early December of 1912.

Turned out at 5 to find all quiet, still and dark. So quiet that from the quarter I could hear the ticking of our little clock. So calm that each star was mirrored on the water. Away under power by 7. Out into a golden sunrise the pride and beauty of the day. Here was a morning for sun worshippers to kneel. Sea and sky melted into one great glory in the east and behind us faded into soft pearly mists in which horizons were lost, and we seemed to be floating in air. So flat the bosom of the sea that the meanest stepmother in the land would have been proud to call it hers. The duck feathers floated on the surface as lightly as — well, I can’t think just how lightly now, but gosh-dinghed lightly. We turned her on a 20 mile leg southwest at 8, and sailed all morning on this wonderful sea. Why can’t somebody come here and tell people of the beauties to be found?

You can see why we look forward to each day’s installment! Henry Plummer was one of the first adventurers to sail these waters for pleasure.

This evening we will have a little party onboard for other sailors we keep bumping into (not literally!). We will finish the last of that peck of oysters!