SailingKnitter

Niki Wiki gets moved to the water

We've splashed! After 4 weeks of continuous manual labor (by others) to repair the fiberglass blisters on the hull and many coats of anti-fouling paint, we are looking good and are back in the water. Our move from where we were set up on stands in the boat yard to down in the water took only about a half hour total. No real splashing even occurred - it all went smoothly as Niki Wiki was simply slipped into the river. It's always a worry for boaters though, as a lot CAN go wrong and often does.

Hauling out a big boat, and especially one that is also your home, is nerve-wracking, expensive and very inconvenient.

Jonesy supervising the "Splash"

But we did survive our 3rd (in the past 8 years) adventure to dry dock and living on land. We are now happily back in our slip at Mario's Marina (and summer camp for cruisers).

I'm always tickled when my crafting supplies come to the rescue in one of Joney's boat projects. This week he repaired the steps from the salon down to the galley which flip up on a piano hinge to provide access to some mysterious inner boat workings. He needed some sort of material

Craft foam used on base of stairs

to shim up the gap at the bottom of the stairs which had caused the intial hinge/woodwork failure. What to use? What about some of the craft foam sheets that I had in my stash? Yep! Those, plus the contact cement that I had just purchased for a cosmetic repair in the aft head were the perfect solution! Here's a photo of the double layer of white foam strips cut and glued onto the base of the stairs. Not only does it shim up the height correctly, but it also protects the teak and holly wood flooring of the galley.

That reminded me that I wanted to also share the way we hang our rolls of paper towels in the galley. See this? These are two cintas which are

Paper Towel Holder

lengths of handwoven belting that local Mayan women wear in their hair. I recycled a plastic buckle cut off of a snorkeling vest which failed and tacked the ends of the belts to a wood trim piece on the ceiling around our mast (yes, the mast comes down thru the galley to the bilge and no, I don't mind poking holes if the result is a practical solution).

To add a new roll of towels we just unclip the buckle, reload, and clip the buckle. The friction of the towels against the vinyl mast covering makes it easy to take just one towel at a time. Voila!

I know, these will sway when we are at sea making passages from one place to another. But it sure beats having a paper towel roll flying around the galley! Plus I love the colorful textile crafts of Guatemala and like to incorporate them into my home - the boat.

Tacked to ceiling trim

KNITTING (always)

The knitting of socks for the kids in Kazakhstan has continued. First up is a simple ribbed pair knit with mystery yarn from donations at knitting camp. The red/magenta hand-dyed yarn was wonderful to work with and has a soft halo. There was a lot of yarn leftover so naturally they'll be a second pair soon. These are sized for a younger child.

And there was yet another pair of monster socks which flew off the needles. I love knitting socks from all the leftover yarns because it is thrifty - AND - challenges me to combine the colors in a way that isn't ghastly. It's just my my warped idea of fun and because it actually produces something that someone will find useful I don't consider it a waste of time. This last pair uses a mixture of different self-patterning yarns knit by alternating yarns every 2 rounds. Yep. I got them to match too!

But they have a secret! I played around and knit in a little pocket using a different technique than I'd used in the past for my little pockets. This one is knit as a tube and then has a 3-needle bind-off finish.

Perhaps I should put some sort of closure on the top? I've shown both a view of the little pocket pulled out to the right side of the leg, and then how it hangs on the inside (wrongside). You can see from the photo of the completed socks that there is nothing on the outside that hints at a pocket being there.

I'm just putting little pockets in for fun for the kids. I like to tuck in a "treasure" like a little coin from whatever country I'm in. But pockets in socks would also be convenient for adult socks so that folks could keep spare folding money, a hotel room key card, credit card, car key, female supplies, etc.

TEXTILE ADVENTURES

Monster Socks with Tube Pocket

Last week a friend and I took a little day trip out to El Estor with the goal of purchasing local Mayan fabrics and crafts. We were successful - so I'll be posting about that another day. Let's just say we left there in sensory overload and with our shopping baskets full. Life is good.