SailingKnitter

Low tide + nature enthusiast son Ryan + a beautiful sunny day = Tidepool exploration! Ryan guided us around the tidepools explaining what we were seeing and the life cycles of each individual critter. If you study the close-up photo, you'll see all sorts of interesting sea life.

We also managed to squeeze in a kayak trip back into the canals behind the marina on our 2-man kayak. Ryan is so strong that I never had to paddle - now THAT'S the life! We saw lots of large water birds (many different heron species, greebs, plovers, etc.), lizards and giant iguana! The iguanas were just hanging out on the rocks and let us drift up to within almost touching distance!!! GIANT - as in 5 to 6 feet long! Wow - they were beautiful with spiky crests on their heads, red striped tails, and that wobblely thing that hangs down under their chins. It looked like it was made out of gold lame fabric! No photos as I was scared to take my camera thinking that we may tip over, but we stayed dry.

But too soon it was time for Ryan to fly back to the states.
I graciously escorted Ryan off the dock and up to his waiting taxi (those bruises on his ankles from me clinging to him as he tried to leave will heal in no time). Bye buddy! Come back soon!!

In my continuing quest to use up my yarn stash, and at the same time keep the kids of the Akkol orphanage in Kazakhstan warm, I've been doing some easy knitting. Sometimes I just have to kick back and just knit. No designing, no worry about gauge and size, just knit.

The natural colored Watch Cap is made from natural colored Wyoming Rambouillet Sheep. So soft! Yep, those are the color of the animals who donated their fleeces. Ryan went home with one of these hats knit in the "Badger Gray" medium brown color. I like to keep my babies warm too!

Next up...a small cap with more of the Rambouillet wool, and topped with Noro Kureyon.

Then there's the socks that I knit while riding the busses and trains to Copper Canyon last week. These are fingering weight, toe-up socks knit with yarn that I hand-dyed a few years back - kinda a watercolor effect of blues, violets, and pinks on an Opal natural base.

For the bind off at the top of the leg, I unvented something to make it more stretchy. With my goal being to add just a tidbit of extra yarn to each stitch, I did a backwards loop over the working needle instead of a plain wrap. Sure, there's a little flare at the top, but it stretches marvelously! After knitting these and comparing them I realized that the colors were different! I think I remember that I dyed the yarn "in the skein" for a
clouded effect. Oops. Oh well, they'll keep some kids feet warm next Winter.

Swatch Vest: And last but not least, I've started working on an adult sized vest from some leftover Lopi wool combined with new colors that Ryan brought down to me last week (good boy - thank you!). I've put together a simple vertical fair isle type design for this vest. As an experiment, I plan to combine different colors along the way to see what will work for a future sweater project.

Tomorrow morning at the crack of dawn we'll be sailing out of the Mazatlan Marina - destination: Bahia de los Muertos on the Sea of Cortez coast of the Baja California. This will be a two full day's passage, which means I'll be knitting on the overnight "watch". We've been working hard to get the boat ready this past week.

Next up: a couple of months of cruising the remote coves of the isands of the Sea of Cortez. We'll be out of touch for a few weeks until we head into La Paz to reprovision and can access WiFi. We've had a wonderful stay here in Marina Mazatlan - excellent staff and beautiful facilities.
Adios Amigos!