SailingKnitter

Niki, affectionately known as Niki Wiki, died quietly last week. He was active and pesky right up to the end - even trying to knock a taco out of my sister's hand just days before he died. He led a long and full life - 19 years, which for an outside kitty is pretty dang good. And with appropriate timing, we finally got the boat's new name - Niki Wiki - lettered on the back of the boat.

It's Official now - both the boat and the documentation have the new name. Here we are with the graphic artist and the newly applied name. It's hard to see in these pictures, but the "dot" over the first letter "i" in Niki is a cat's paw print. As the boat is named after our beloved pet, we thought it would be fun to add the paw print. So Niki will travel on with us on our cruises.

Finished the Pacific Northwest Shawl !! It really was a fun (although tedious at times) project - and has gotten me inspired to start another lace project. Oh wait, I have a lace project on the needles already. Coolness.

Here's a pic of the unblocked shawl on the deck.

OK - how do you block a large shawl on a sailboat? I remembered seeing pictures of shetland shawls stretched out on frames, and I know some folks use wires, so I thought why not string it up on nylon cording? That's what I did. I threaded the nylon cord onto a blunt needle and wove it into the top edging of the shawl. Then I did the same thing only I just picked up the tips of the shell edgings. I then tied the whole thing to the aft radar arch on the boat. Ta-da!

See the shawl here?

And of course, here's the requisite photo of the finished shawl blowing softly in the evening breeze....

It is so light, airy, and soft.

Our first guest on the boat was my dad - he came down for a few days while there were work crews at his house in Palm Desert doing some remodeling. We had a GREAT time - he took me out to dinner at marvelous restaurants and talked to me only when I wasn't counting knit stitches. Jones was at the Chicago race giving his VIP tours so it was nice to have the company.
Knitting camp in 3 days - yippeeee!!!


Harry - First Official Niki Wiki visitor