SailingKnitter

Traditional Maya Huipil, Corte and Cinta

At the end of my last post I teased you with a future surprise for textile lovers. Here it is - a visit to the El Hibiscus Project Museum.

El Hibiscus is a lovely restaurant, garden, and museum which showcases the beautiful embroidered and woven textiles of the native Maya people of Guatemala. Not only is there a museum where you can get up close and scrutinize the displays, but in the restaurant area there are huipils (blouses) hanging over all the chair backs! In my 4 years in Guatemala

Guatemalan Hand Embroidered Men's pants

I've never been able to really study the craftsmanship of huipils. That's because they are in cases at the museum in Guatemala City or are actually being worn as clothing by folks so I can't (politely) put my curious eyes too close. When I find them in the market stalls up in the highlands I am overwhelmed with the agressive vendors trying to sell me something and telling me that it's all handmade when I can spot machine embroidery a mile away.

My favorite piece in the museum was this pair of men's pants which are hand embroidered with beautifully detailed birds. It wasn't very light in the museum so the picture just doesn't do it justice. Anyway, the design is on the bottom 12" or so of the pants. I've seen many different characters embroidered on men's pants when traveling in the highlands of Guatemala. I've even found the store where the women can buy the fabric for making pants already stamped with the outlines for embroidery. That's what I'd need.

Maya Huipil hand embroidery around neck edge

Many of the cortes (skirts) featured touches of embroidery as well. The traditional black and white ikat (tie-dying) of the weaving threads is seen in many of the village's designs. In Guatemala, each village traditionally had a favored color and weaving style for their skirt and blouse fabrics which still can be seen today.

Mayan Huipil traditional embroidery

We visited El Hibiscus this week on a day trip away from the hotel life and managing the boat repairs in the yard. David and Terri of s/v Sylvester came along on our adventure. The restaurant and museum plus gardens complex is only about an hour away from the Rio Dulce here by collectivo (crazily overcrowded public van for $1.50 per person) and just outside of the port city of Puerto Barrios. We all managed to get seats in the van on the way out because we picked it up on the first stop of the route. But I gave up my seat to a very young women with a newborn for the last part of the ride and half squatted on one butt-cheek over a wheel well. On the way back we couldn't all be seated - or even find a spot to stand or squat. We even had to ride different vans because only one of us could squeeze in (quite literally) for each van that came along. Jonesy was left for last and ended up riding part of the way hanging on the outside of the van's sliding side door (they conviently had installed an "oh sh*t" bar just for that purpose). No...this wasn't a slow moving van, he was going 50mph down a winding road. "Never again" Jonesy says.

David, Terri and Jonesy at El Hibiscus Restaurant Guatemala

Anyway I digress...because Jonesy needed to get his glasses repaired and we knew where to do that in Puerto Barrios (and he wanted to visit a real McDonald's!) he came along with us and toured the museum too.

In addition to the textiles, there were pottery shards displayed and some rustic weaving and spinning tools.

Yes, I'll be going back again and taking my fiberly friends with me next time. What I have shared on this blog post is just a very small portion

of all the fabulous textiles, arts, crafts and artifacts that are on display. We can spend a good part of the day there studying the textiles, eating traditional Guatemalan foods, exploring the gardens and hanging out in the hammocks...OK?

So scroll down and enjoy the photos below, better yet...come visit me in the Rio Dulce and I'll take you to some amazing places all of which are day trips!

ROPES AND COBBLESTONES SOCKS

Hurrah for October! I've been waiting months to be able to share with y'all one of my new sock patterns. These are the Ropes and Cobblestones Socks which are easy to knit and sized from Women's Medium up to Men's Large.
For the month's of October and November 2013 the pattern will only be available for members of the Six Sox Knitalong Yahoo Group. After that time it will be for sale on Ravelry.com.

This tiered distribution method has become my modus operandi for sock patterns the past few years. Why? Because I get excellent test knitting for every size (free!) from the stable of volunteers on the group who are sock experts. Then the group members get exclusive access to the new pattern for the first two months.

NIKI WIKI and Jonesy looking good

We're still holed up at the hotel while our boat is in dry dock. All of the blisters on the bottom have been repaired and the first coat of Gelcoat has been applied to the fiberglass. Many more layers of gelcoat, primer and anti-fouling paint need to be applied before we splash back into the water. Let's hope this wonderful dry weather continues so that it will go faster!

Jonesy was over at the yard yesterday and decided to turn on the ignition switch just to be sure the start battery was OK. Nope. It wasn't. So in addition to the 4 new deep-cycle batteries we've ordered for our house solar system, he just had to buy another regular 12-volt battery for the engine start system. It will be delivered to the yard at 3pm today so he's off to take the old battery out now and get ready to install the new one. I think I'll knit in the A/C here at the hotel.

If you are into textiles - just wait for the next post in a couple of days! We had an adventure that will knock your socks off!