SailingKnitter

So, guess where we are now? Nope, not cruising, we're holed up in the Howard Johnson's Hotel while the Niki Wiki is on the hard in the boatyard next door, still in Puerto Vallarta.

What should have been a simple 2-day bottom painting job has turned into a major hull overhaul as we had blisters in the fiberglass on the bottom. The worker guys are taking ALL the many layers of anti-fouling paint off of the bottom in order to repair the damage. Then they will epoxy the blister holes, paint several coats of barrier paint, then several coats of anti-fouling paint. Ouch$$$$

Oh well, she's an old boat and blisters are fairly common on these hulls. But we'll have a beautiful hull by next week and off we'll go!


Here's my latest contribution to the Holiday Mystery Gifts Yahoo! group knitalong - Fair Isle Holiday Ornaments. These are quick to knit out of KnitPicks Palette fingering weight wool. I've got some more variations of these coming soon to the group. You know, this designing knitting stuff sure takes a lot of time! I have a new respect for published patterns now - even for the simplest of patterns.

Oh...and speaking of Fair Isle, I finally got pictures of the Elizabeth Zimmermann Signature Tote that I knit up last summer as my contest entry for knitting camp. The theme was "The Devil Wears Zimmermann" so I knit a "designer" tote, like Coco Channel and her "CC".

It is mostly garter stitch, which EZ loved, with her initials worked in intarsia on the front. The back is a garter stitch mitered square which uses decrease to shape as in the Baby Surprise Jacket. Finally, like the hems of many EZ sweaters, the gussets contain stranded work that spells out "Retreat 2.75 2007" and "Knit On"- an EZ phrase. Lots of fun to knit!! Oh, and of course it's WOOL.