SailingKnitter

Life has been deliciously slow and easy for the most part these past few weeks. The days are all warm (hot) but a breeze kicks up in the late afternoon. We took a 2-day bus-jaunt over to the large city of Barranquilla to apply for renewals for our US passports at the US Consulate office. Have to go back next week to pick up our new passports - FAST service!

I've been concentrating on knitting socks for the kids in Akkol, Kazakhstan. Jonesy has been watching car racing on TV and his computer and making small repairs on the boat.

These yellow socks were knit with a German yarn - Wolle Rödel Sport & Strumpfwolle Color. Yellow is not a very popular color for clothing (or anything for that matter) in the USA, but I saw a lot of it in Central America and now here in Colombia. I actually enjoyed working with this bright varigated yarn - it made me a happy girl.

The orange, gray, and black socks were knit from some Opal Rodeo yarn (also German) and yes, I did purposely match the striping so that they are identical twin socks.
Then, there is another pair of Regia Jaquard (German again) self-patterning socks, this time in shades of blues.







Finally, I wove in the yarn ends and blocked out my Isla Buena Socks that I knit as one of the photo samples. I hope some kid likes bright colored designs in (German) Regia wool yarns!

Well, we did have a couple of "events". After 3 years of continuous use, I blew out my trusty hammock! Yep. As I was doing my knitterly meditations, watching the city lights and enjoying the breeze, the bottom fell out. Literally. Those cotton ropes just gave up holding my mass. Dang. The worst part was that as I fell, bottom first, the hair on the back of my head got caught between the now-tightly-squeezed-together ropes. Jonesy had to rescue me. I was bummed. But soon I realized that Hey! I'm a fiber person! This hammock is made of fat cotton yarn! I can fix this! So I did, and now I'm back out on the bow of the boat most evenings, swaying to the gentle wind waves.

We dodged a bullet of another "Blow Out" event this past week. Docked right next to us on our starboard side is a very old, rotten wooden boat with two masts. These masts had become rotted and were loose - moving about on their flopping shrouds (wires). Plus, the top two feet of the forward mast had snapped right off and was dangling from the wires! Well, all it took was another wind storm and SNAP! went the rear mast at it's base! (See the white painted pole that all the folks are staring at in the photo). Luckily for us - it fell away from our boat. Whew! But, it did smash into the radar dome and arch of the sailboat on the other side which will be quite expensive to repair.

Golf Sauce? Does anybody else like to mix ketchup and mayonaise together to dip your french fries into? Well, they are so into that here in Colombia that there are many brands of "Salsa Rosada" (pink sauce) sold in the grocery stores. Check out the plastic squeeze pouch with the spout in the corner. Many types of products are sold this way. Anyway, this brand tastes a lot like 1000 Island dressing without the pickles - yummy!!