SailingKnitter

We have a finished knitted object! After quite literally days of tedious work to carefully weave in all the little loose yarn tails from the 11 different colors, my Zapoteca sweater is officially done.

This warm sweater should fit a 2 or 3-year old at the orphanage in Kazakhstan. The diamond pattern is created by working 2 colors of yarn at the same time in most rows and stranding the unused color behind the stitches on the wrong side. This technique creates not only fun patterning, but also makes a thicker, and warmer sweater as air will be trapped between the fibers. I made the body and sleeves about 1 3/4" longer than recommended in size charts as the little ones in the orphanages tend to be thinner than American/European kids so the length to width ratio is different.

The yarns are Knit Picks Wool of the Andes and were leftovers from my Christmas Stocking knitting adventures last year. Again, I even had leftovers from my leftovers so I knit up a size 2 or 3 Wonderful Wallaby Hooded sweater. This is a really fun knit and is totally seamless! Oh, yes, I did have to weave in a lot of ends but after working on the Zapoteca sweater this was a piece of cake.

Of course there have been socks on the needles a lot lately too. The knitting group within the Motherless Child Foundation is hard at work churning out hundreds of pairs of socks for this winter's delivery to the kids in the orphanages in Kazakhstan. These socks will be included with other goodies for these kids many of whom have never received a gift before these annual parties began. My finished pair is already on it's way to the collection point for the socks to go Kaz later this year thanks to fellow cruiser Pam who is hand-carrying these back to the USA for mailing.


I named these "Rum Punch" because the lace design travels a wobbling path down the leg. Kinda like how someone (who shall remain nameless) walks after she has consumed too many delicious Rum Punches made with orange juice, rum, a dash of Angostura Bitters and the juice of 1/2 a lime.These lacy socks are a new pattern of mine called Rum Punch Socks which were developed for the Holiday Mystery Gifts Yahoo group.

Sorry I couldn't get a better photo of the lace, but I had lost my sock blockers on the boat. Thankfully I found them after I moved the big spare jib sail in order to search in the storage locker below for craft supplies. My sock blockers had slid down behind the sail bag. Eureka!
There always has to be a pair of plain socks on my needles to travel with me and for working on while socializing. These are some smaller socks made from 2 different colors of yarn pulled from my stash. Nothing exciting - just warm wool socks for the kids. Now, there is a pair of blue socks on the needles. Always socks, but not exclusively socks. I've never claimed to be monogamous in my knitting.

But my marriage - that's another thing. We just celebrated our 35th wedding anniversary and we're still having fun. Whenever I need groceries or even just a change of venue, Jonesy fires up our launchita and drives me to town. My job on the trip is to be on the lookout for improvised floats for crab nets (such as empty pop bottles or chunks of styrofoam) and point them out. Also, I make great ballast to keep the bow of the boat down when the wind whips up waves. Over the course of the 2 summers that we have spent here on the Rio Dulce, I have also learned to sit to the port (left) side of the boat to balance it better and to let Jonesy see over the bow.
So, what did I pick up in town this day? Among other things this GIANT cabbage (about 90 cents) from the vegetable vendor which we shared with one of the workers in the marina 'cause it wouldn't fit in our refrigerator. Also, I bought a pomelo (from the fruit farm vendor) which is a sweet citrus fruit that tastes like a non-acidic grapefruit, a stack of fresh, warm handmade tortillas from a tortilla lady, and 3 candied sweet potatoes from the candy boy. These sweet potatoes are cooked with the local unrefined sugar and are so tasty as a quick snack! Oh yeah, I think I'll go slice one up and heat it in the microwave right now...