ArgoKnot – Page 85 – A journal of my weaving, spinning, and knitting life

Knitting and Fabric Shops in Coastal Maine

August 10, 2011 | 1 Comment

Several of our usual ports have surprised me with wonderful knitting and fabric shops! Our ‘guest room’ is quickly filling up with my treasures!

Bath: Halcyon (the photo on their homepage is that Ecobaby sailor pattern! Ha!) I have to admit that I’ve never been to Halcyon by

HALCYON-YARN-STORE-PICTURE — Halcyon Yarn

boat, but I have been going by car for 15 years. You could get there by boat if you wanted to go that far up the Kennebec River and brave its challenging currents. In all the years I’ve driven over that bridge I’ve never actually seen a sailboat moored in the river near Bath. That’s not to say no sailboats ever go, just that I haven’t seen them on my yearly visit. And what can I say about Halcyon, other than it is a weaver’s and knitter’s Mecca, not to mention spinners, rug hookers, crocheters, braiders, felters, etc…etc… If you do anything related to fiber, this is a great resource! Halcyon is celebrating its 40th anniversary this year. I had a wonderful shopping spree there!

Boothbay Harbor: You need a car to get to Onboard Fabrics, but it is really worth it! It’s a barn on Rte 127 (and their address is Edgecomb but my point of view is the harbor where a sailing seamstress might disembark), not far off Rte. 1 on the way to

onboard_fabrics_barn — On Board Fabrics, near Boothbay Harbor

Boothbay Harbor. They have lots of nautical fabrics, inweights from upholstery to cotton lawn. This year I bought fabrics to make aprons for gifts. No sewing machine on board Pandora, so these projects will have to wait ’til I get home (meanwhile, my husband does have his sailrite sewing machine on board…but it will only sew heavy canvas and sail materials!).

Rockland: Quilt Divas. They have fabric and yarn! And the selections for both are great! It is walking distance from the harbor

for us sailors! I bought the Debbie Bliss “Ecobaby” book here as well as the yarn for the sailor sweater that is currently challenging me to re-design the collar! I also bought more fabric for aprons here. Now I’m going to make a lot of aprons for gifts!

Camden: The Cashmere Goat is new this year, in a good location right in the center of town (what used to be a shoe store). The shop

cashmere goat camden me — 'The Cashmere Goat in Camden

is not yet full, but they do have some wonderful yarns. I bought Manos del Uruguay’s “Serena” (kettle dyed, 60% baby alpaca, 40% pima cotton) in a handpainted colorway (#9796) of watery blues and greens. I’m going to knit a lace shawl from one of the free patterns at Interweave Knits

Belfast: Sock Heaven. This yarn store has been in business for about 10 years now, but I haven’t been to Belfast in about 15 years,

Knitting Sock Heaven Belfast ME — Heavenly Socks in Belfast

so it is new to me! There is an entire wall of yarns produced in Maine, including Hope Spinnery and Done Roving. My big score here was Louet “KidLin”(49% linen, 35% kid mohair, 16% nylon) which I’ve been hoping to find during all my yarn store hunting. It was hard to choose a color for Louet’s “Cia” Pattern, but I finally settled on “Mexican Orange,” a fun blend of gold and warm pink.

There is also a beautiful fabric store on High St. in Belfast. I did not note the name yesterday, but I hope to go back today to spend more time there. I will take a photo and get the name!

Other places. I’ve been to the guild shop in the center of Blue Hill, as well as the yarn shop slightly out of town that has since gone out of busines (sigh…), and I’ve been to Shirley’s Yarns in Hancock (where I bought Dale microfiber years ago for a tank top I never finished because it was so unflattering on me!). Now I understand there are two shops in Blue Hill that I may not know: Blue Hill Yarn shop on Ellsworth Rd. and String Theory on Beach Hill Rd. I don’t know if we’ll get to Blue Hill this year, but now I hope so! And a google search shows two promising shops on Mt. Desert, one in Southwest Harbor (Lilac Lily Yarn Shop) and one in Bar Harbor (Bee’s, Inc.), so I hope to visit both of these since we are on our way there for the weekend.

I am putting aside the Debbie Bliss sailor sweater for the moment. This is quite a disappointment to me, but I do want to give some thought to that collar. The knitters on Ravelry did not have any solutions that appealed to me, so I will take a look in my library of knitting design books when I return home in September.

Here is my next knitting project, Louet’s “Cia.”

Louet KidLin Mexican Orange — Louet's KidLin Mexican Orange

First I will finish my own design that uses Tess Designer Yarns’ micofiber ribbon. I’ll be writing up that pattern to share here and on Ravelry. It’s a very simple pattern, and I’m almost finished!

Maniacal Knitting

August 8, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Can there be such a thing? I don’t feel driven, but I will surely finish two sweaters this week (I am so close!), and that will make four sweaters in six weeks. Three of the these sweaters are for me….how decadent! The fourth sweater is an adorable Debbie Bliss design from her pattern book EcoBaby.

The yarn is luscious to knit with….soft and almost as bouncy as knitting with wool. It makes a heavenly knitted fabric.

This is the sweater I’m working on. It is for my niece who is 18 months old. I’d love to make some linen pants to go with the sweater. I’m ready to knit the collar, and I realize now that the collar ends wrong side out in the pattern which you can see in the photo! Yuk! I thought it would be a simple change to pick up stitches for the collar and just knit it with the right side facing in so it would be right side out when folded back. But it won’t be that simple! The collar is knitted as your finish the front the of the sweater so it is all one piece. I need to keep the shoulder area right side out while the collar part switches to right side in. I’ve got one idea on how to transition into having the right side switch, but I think I will check on Ravelry and see what others may have done to improve this design.

Aside from that glitch, I do love Debbie Bliss’s designs! I met her a couple of years ago when she had a trunk show at Creative Knitworks when they were in Hillsdale, NJ (they have since moved to a larger space in Westwood, NJ….now isn’t that a great situation for a LYS!). At that time I got to handle and even try on a number of Debbie’s sweaters. I saw first hand how many differently shaped women looked attractive in her designs and how well one size could fit a rather broad range of shapes! Kudos to her!

And we are still sailing the coast of Maine and the islands of Penobscot Bay. Yesterday was our first rainy day in six weeks of being here….amazing. Previous to that we have only had rain during the night! Pretty perfect! I spent the day down below knitting the sailor sweater until I ran into the collar dilemma. We ate hot comfort food all day, our favorite way of passing rainy days on board, and I also made a second beaded bracelet and did some reading.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA — Restaurant in Stonington, Maine....I want awnings like at home!

This was a lovely spot for lunch in Stonington, which has always been a busy harbor, initially for the schooners picking up granite and now for lobster fishing. Last weekend we ate out at the very end of this dock overlooking the water!

Isn’t this stunning? I envision myself having coffee in the morning, wine in the evening, knitting, reading, star gazing…. in other words, living in this magical garden on the water!

I bought this bracelet pattern as a download from I Dream of Beading in Poughkeepsie, NY. I am not a beader by any stretch, and I had no experience with either herringbone or tila beads, so if I can follow the directions they must be superb! I love wearing my new gem!

There is more news, but I’ll save it for another post….

Impressions

August 1, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Famous Knitter or just Famous?

July 28, 2011 | Leave a Comment

Each year at some point in our Maine sailing adventures we go out to Allen Island, a lovely getaway for the well known Wyeth family where they have very nicely placed a few moorings for visiting boaters to enjoy. Last year I was thrilled when Betsy Wyeth arrived at the island and waved to me from her launch. But this year’s visit topped even that. Betsy sat outside her house with a basket of knitting; I sat aboard Pandora with my knitting. We each sat knitting and watching the other knitting.

So, Where in the world were my Signature Arts knitting needles? At Allen Island, a rather private place only accessible to those with means of traveling on the water, where they rubbed shoulders with Betsy Wyeth’s needles!

And, by the way, there are about 100 sheep on Allen Island….and it is the spot where George Waymouth landed with his ship Archangel in 1605.

And that was the day I finished my “Garden Tank” by Deborah Newton. Deborah’s designs are extremely attractive and wearable for many body shapes which makes her one of my favorite knitwear designers!

What I love about this design: the simple lace pattern that does not overwhelm the sweater, the flattering boat neck, the A-line ‘swing’ shape, the armhole shaping, the way the lace creates a scalloped edge at the hem!

In Interweave Knits the sweater was knitted with Manos del Uruguay “Serena” (60% alpaca, 40% cotton). Now maybe I’m missing something, but isn’t alpaca one of the warmest fibers? So even with the addition of 40% cotton, wouldn’t this be too warm for a summer tank top? I decided to use raw silk, and since this yarn has virtually no elasticity I made the top with zero ease. I’m very happy with the fit!

Glorious Summer

July 21, 2011 | 2 Comments

Pandora 2011 botanical gardens 004 — herb garden on board Pandora

This is the extent of my gardening on board (well, almost)! Rosemary, thyme and a bright red geranium! I have no idea how my gardens at home are faring in the 90+ degree heat of the past few weeks, but this little pot makes me quite happy!

A visit to the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens in Boothbay with a good friend was a perfect summer day. These gardens sit on 128 acres that border the shoreline of Back River. The idea for the gardens started in 1991, and the land was purchased in 1996, with some of the founding directors using their personal homes as collateral for the land purchase. The grand opening occurred in 2007! There is a wealth of inspiration here, and most plants are clearly identified. There are tranquil spaces, such as the Meditation Garden and the Waterfall garden along with several quiet woodland paths. And then there are spaces that are strikingly beautiful such as the Children’s Garden and many perennial borders.

Pandora 2011 botanical gardens 024 — One of several mazes in the gardens

Pandora 2011 botanical gardens 016 — Birdhouse at edge of Cleaver Event Lawn and Garden

Pandora 2011 botanical gardens 019 — Really large bonsai planter

Pandora 2011 botanical gardens 026 — So many daisies!

Pandora 2011 botanical gardens 043 — Path through the Vayo Meditation Garden

Pandora 2011 botanical gardens 033 — Pond in the Children's Garden

And here is the winning idea I took from my tour: a wall of plants! It is made by filling wire baskets with soil, then stacking them and framing them into an attractive wall. This wall of plants not only saves space, but also makes a good screen to block unsightly views! I want it!

Pandora 2011 botanical gardens 006 — Herb wall

This example of a planted wall is filled with herbs. You can see one of the wire boxes in the lower left on the ground next to the wall. They had walls planted with annual flowers and one shade wall planted with ferns.

Today the wind is howling so we will sit on our mooring in Boothbay Harbor. I am going to work on my Nantucket purse and remember my wonderful day in the gardens!