SailingKnitter

Snakes & Ladders gansey sweater - that's what I've been playing with for the past couple of days. This is a child's sweater by Beth Brown-Reinsel which I'm knitting in the wool sportweight yarn that's left over from Jonesy's gansey. For no good reason. Just because I can. Just have the neck finishing to work - then what? Where does it go? I don't know. But it sure is fun...

I've had to make myself scarce off the boat these past few days as men invaded my space to install our new chart plotter & radar. They unscrewed paneling & ceiling panels to try and find the wiring. It was HUMID yesterday and they were all sweating. Would you have hung around for that scene? Thought not. Finally, they found the wires they needed in the aft shower stall. Yup. This boat is like a jigsaw puzzle - while looking for the wires we found where the water / sewage pipes rise to get above the water level. We wondered where those were. One discovery after another.

Here's Jones and his new chart plotter. It's really cool - the GPS shows a color chart and an icon of a boat where you are located. Showed that we were right where we, huh, were. OK, not too exciting at the dock, but when we are out at sea in the fog, or on a dark night, we'll know right were we are relative to land. Plus, the radar will tell us if there are any other vessels in the area such as tankers & freighters that might run over us.

This is the Radar dome with the little GPS antennae which is mounted on the electronics arch at the back of the boat.

Well, it's much cooler this evening - dry, with a nice sea breeze. Jones went up topside this evening to ensure that the sun sets in the west. This is his routine; work hard on the boat all day, then grab a cold beer and his music and supervise the sun set. It's a tough job, but somebody has to do it.



I remembered to get the camera tonight and go up forward to get this picture of Jones. Usually, I'm sitting in the cockpit, knitting or reading so my view of this nightly ritual is...




Oh! Yesterday while we were out for the sunset we saw a Delta IV MISSILE launch from Vanderberg. It was beautiful - rose up out of the sunset so fast!!! Then we saw it go through a "stage" where it separated from the rocket boosters - and kept on going. What a rare treat!

Knitting on...

Way, way up in the sky is where Ray - an electrical engineer - went yesterday to replace our Anchor Light, Deck Spotlight, remove the Hailer speaker, and install a line for our courtesy flags. The top of our mast is about 65 feet above the water and that little dark spot on top is Ray doing his high wire act. What percentage of the world's population do you think would willingly climb up there?

Standing safely on the dock are Jones and Phil (a fellow boat owner), and of course me, taking the picture.

Then, while all this activity was going on, the holding tank pumper guy came by for the regular weekly pump out of the heads. So much manpower working on the boat at the same time - whew! I had to hide in the cockpit and knit on my shawl to stay out of the way. Can't a gal get any peace and quiet around here?




Pumping the heads - love the hat!

Sometimes I just can't stop myself. I know I should finish up the current knitting projects, but then I have a brain spasm and go dashing off in another direction. This time is was the DNA cable hat for a friend of mine. No, I didn't make up the cable design - that was done by June Oshiro and can be found as the primary design element in "Dr. Montville's Double Helix Seaman Scarf: http://www.twosheep.com/helix.
I simply used the cable design to create a beanie. I knit a panel of the cable design with garter edges, then grafted the ends together to make sort of a headband. Then I picked up stitches along one edge and knit the top part of the beanie. Voila - got hat. The yarn is Reynolds Harvest - 50% wool, 40% acrylic, and 10% Alpaca. This project has been lurking in my head for months then yesterday for no good reason just popped into the forefront of my brain, sparked a neuron, got adrenaline going, and the beanine was born.

In the planned knitting arena...I finished the "Here Comes the Sun" Opal socks.

I turned the pattern on the legs around 45 degrees so that the "sun rays" were worked up the sides of my legs.

So, because I must have (need or I'll go stark raving mad if I have to wait in a line with no knitting), a sock project going at all times to sit in my carry-along basket, I started a simple ribbed sock in a wild yarn that my dad brought back from Germany for me. The colors look like a mix of citrus (lime, lemon and tangerine) with a honeydew melon tossed in. This was my mindless knitting while I manned our stall at the Chula Vista Marina Marine Swap Meet this morning.

Oh yes, we were up before the chickens this morning to unload our boat gear and other stuff at this event. Yesterday, I whined that our gas grill on the boat was too small, too hard to light, and didn't keep an even temperature. So we (when I say "we" with boat stuff it usually means Jones did the actual work) disconnected the little grill and added it to the swap meet pile.


And to prove that whining does pay...check out the pic of my new grill!!!! It even has a table with a cutting board in front!!!! I can't wait to grill up something tasty!!! I'll be cooking all the time now!!! Wait, maybe THAT'S why Jones agreed to replace the grill. Have I been "Had"??

Whooo hooooo! The entry package for this year's Baja Ha-Ha Rally to Cabo arrived in today's mail. Lots of yummy reading. We have some meetings (aka parties) to go to in the next few months for this event. Plus, we have some overnight sailing to do so that we both are comfortable with skippering the boat in the dark which is a requirement during the rally.

And then on the knitting scene: I'm plodding away on the shell edging for the Pacific Northwest Shawl. For those of you planning to knit this pattern make sure you have a sharp size 6 doublepoint needle for this edging. I have a set of birch wood Brittany needles and the points are too dull making it hard to knit all the K2togs.


It's been sunny and in the low 70's here today with a mild breeze - absolutely perfect weather for knitting on the boat.

Last night we were sitting on the back of the boat watching the sunset over the ocean when we noticed these little green glowing bits in the water. They were some sort of sealife that were emitting phosphoresence light - so cool! They were about 1/2" long and wiggled like a larve or something. I wish my son Ryan was here - he would know what they were.

Knit on...

Official count = 12,262 Pairs, and 1,289.5 meters long!!! Somewhere in these photos are 13 pair of little socks that I knit for the longest laundry line of handknit baby socks. For more pictures and a video go to

http://www.sockenwolle.de/index2.html

Yes, I know it's all in German, but you can get the drift of what's going on anyway...

I've got 8 "shells" done on the border of the Pacific Northwest Shawl with only 20 more to go. I was curious as to how they would look against the body of the shawl because I changed the pattern from all garter to stockinette except for the edging (adding a few short rows to compensate for the difference in row gauge). But I do like the garter stitch shells - it emphasizes the border pretty good.

Knit on...

A new day...we've canceled the credit cards, been to DMV this morning to get Jones a new Driver's License, bought replacement shave kit gear and new shorts. Life goes on after the theft. We're back on track enjoying the sunshine, cool breeze, and taking advantage of rare day when the 2 slips beside us are empty so that we can take a full-length picture of our boat, Niki Wiki.

So here she is. And another picture of the aft deck with the dinghy hanging from the new davits that Jones installed. Now, because of the pulley system, it only takes one person to be able to haul the dinghy out of the water and up high - away from thieves. Apparently the most common theft in other parts of the world for cruisers is the dinghy because they really want the outboard engine for their fishing boats. So you have to haul the dinghy every night and lock it up. So now we're set.
The electronics are going to be installed next week - Yippeee!: new radar, chart plotter and a pedestal mount for all this gear. The chart plotter will show our position on a screen (like a car GPS).

So for Knit in Public day, I joined a group here in San Diego. They have been meeting the 2nd Saturday of each month for 10 years now!! What a special group of knitters!!! It's a small world too. There are only 68 knitters in a small online Opal Sock Kit group I belong to and two of us met at this event! Bobbi recognized the socks I was knitting as the "Here Comes the Sun" kit from this group.

Here's a picture of some of this group knitting in the park. I'm on the left, sitting on the ground, knitting, and gabbing (they go together). That's the Pacific Northwest Shawl that's in my hands. I finished the last few plain knit rows of the body. Started the shell edging last night - it's all so simple really but looks complicated.

It was so comforting to be in the company of "like-minded" folks who share my passion for fiber arts. There is a common thread that makes it so easy to begin talking, sharing, and learning from each other immediately. No, I don't remember many of their names - but I can match the knitting project with a face! I guess it's like how doctor's recognize their patients in the hospital - "oh the kidney infection lady or the fractured leg man". I know them as the "Encore crayon colored baby afghan lady, or the prayer shawl gal".

Knit on....

Jones was robbed this morning while taking a shower in the marina men's locker room!! The creep took his wallet, shorts, undies, "La Paz" t-shirt, WALLET, KEYS, toothbrush and electric razor. What is strange is what the thief left: the ditty bag that everything was stuffed into, hairbrush, dental floss, long pants, shoes, and dirty sweatshirt. Huh? So from these clues we can guess that it's a Male, Bald (didn't take the hairbrush), shaves, but doesn't floss his teeth.

You have to have an electronic key fob to get into the locker room so either the thief is a boat owner or he "tailgated" his way in with another guy (not Jones). Just on the theory that the creep would throw the wallet away after he took the $12 inside, we dumpster dived all around the marina and into the public parks on both sides. I even went into the public restrooms to check the trashcans. Since it was Saturday yesterday, the trash cans are all full to overflowing of picnic trash, dirty diapers, yuck!!! No Luck. So...we called the police, then cancelled the credit cards. Now Jones needs to get a new driver's license, and keys to everything. Of course, we're changing the lock on the boat.

Jones wants to snuggle the guy with the front bumper of our car at 50 mph. Hmmm...the thief has the "clicker" to our car too so he can just cruise the parking lot clicking away until the car answers him. Well, that's grand theft auto - a felony - and I doubt that a petty thief would do that anyway.

The good part is that this was a non-violent crime, Jones is fine - just pissed as hell. We can go on with our plans.

Hard to see the (black) cat in this picture, but this is where Niki spends about 23 hours of every day - sleeping on the arm of the black leather sofa at our son, Ryan's, house. Funny, he never hung out on the arm of this sofa when both he and the sofa lived at our house. But this is in the center of Ryan's living room so I guess Niki wants to be where everyone else is hanging out. Poor old thing...since it's June, I'm officially declaring him to be 19 years old - that's like 96 in human aging.

Since Ryan is going to Kenya in a few days, my nephew, Jon will have to be the primary caretaker of old Niki for a couple of weeks. Hope he continues to hang on. (Niki I mean, Jon is just fine)

On the boat front...Niki Wiki (the boat) is doing fine. With the help of our friend Bruce, we turned the boat around in the slip so that Jones could work on the davits on the back of the boat from the dock. That's the farthest this puppy has traveled since we started living aboard. Soon, yes, soon we'll go out to explore the San Diego Bay. We bought charts of the bay so we know where the dredged channel is located - very important because this south end of the bay is VERY SHALLOW - only a few feet deep! Bruce has even run aground in his dinghy out there!

We also mounted the ring buoy that the folks at Siemens gave me when I left working there - they all signed it too! So there it is hanging on the aft (back) deck pulpit (rail).

Knitting... Been working on the Pacific Northwest shawl and have only 8 rows to knit on the body. Then I'll be turning the corner and knitting the shell edging. Tomorrow, Saturday June 10th is Knit in Public Day and I'll be joining a San Diego group over in Balboa Park.
The shawl still looks like a rumpled jumble of yarn - until I stretch out a section, then I can see the patterning. Not too much longer....

Then what's next?? A UFO project. I'm going to try and alternate working on a new project then an UnFinished Object project. But which UFO? There are so many.

Knit on...

Be VERY careful how you ask a strong-willed 3-year-old what yarn he wants for his new cardigan. Years ago, I told my youngest son, Brett, that he could choose any yarn in the nice yarn shop we were shopping in for his new sweater. He looked everything over and finally, enthusiastically picked out a KELLY GREEN ACRYLIC yarn!!! Agh!!! Now, some moms would have tried to talk the kid out of this choice, but we were struggling with a very strongwilled kid and I had to choose my battles carefully(like not letting him wear the Harley Davidson shirt my sister gave him to his first day at the Southern Baptist preschool in Georgia). Thus, I knit his sweater - a horseshoe cable pattern with this yarn.

Obviously, he loved his sweater. This picture was taken in his pre-school - no, I didn't know it was picture day that day. He choose this outfit; the mustard yellow teeshirt, the too-small pastel shorts, and his favorite sweater. All that really counts is that his mommy knit him a sweater with his chosen yarn.
Knit on...