SailingKnitter

Manatees by the boat dock

The Final Assembly of our boat's engine is complete! Today is Day #2 of trying to get the dang thing started. So far....No Go.

Once you've opened up these diesel engines it's a real pain to bleed the fuel lines and get it to start again. There's only so much battery power (we've even hooked up the "house" batteries to the engine start battery to get more power), so we have to pause and recharge the batteries after about 60 seconds of running the starter motor. While Jonesy studies the repair manual and the internet forums after each try, my part of all of this is to keep Jonesy fed and to sit in up in the cockpit and press the start button every hour or so. It's not looking good - could even be a very expensive repair/replacement of the fuel injector pump. Yet another failed part?
As these animals are protected we had to be very quiet and not disturb them. So I tippy-toed along the dock and got a photo of my latest little pair of socks for the Motherless Child Foundation.

I'm sure a lot of long-time sock knitters will recognize this older Regia sock wool used for these. When this self-patterning jacquard yarn first came out from Germany I know lots of us added balls and balls of it to our stashes. As we became more experienced sock knitters, we realized that the best way to use this yarn was to knit very simple and basic socks - no special stitch patterns - just boring to knit. Cables and lace designs just don't look good with this busy yarn. So that's probably way I get so much of it in donations for me to knit socks!

Notice the lines on the backs of the manatees? Those marks could be scars from the propellers of boats. As these gentle beasts often hang out just inches below the surface, getting hit by boat propellers is a major threat. Poor babies.

I'm still knitting the sweater for the teenager in Kazakhstan and only have 1/2 of a sleeve to go! But, as you know, I am not monogamous in my knitting/crafts so there were other projects that attracted my time and attention.

This is a "Fur" coat for one of the 18" teddy bears that we knit for the younger kids in Kazakhstan. It was designed by one of the other knitters and I knit this one in Bernat Boa yarn ($1 at the Dollar Tree Store). It is so soft!

It turned out that there was a pair of black mittens needed for a different teenager so I volunteered to knit those up too. I just happened to have some black Knit Picks worsted weight yarn on board and of course I have plenty of time.
It's hard to photograph black knit projects (and black dogs my friends tell me). But here they are in all their dark glory.

When a fellow liveaboard cruiser here in the marina saw my latest ceramics work she made a special request. I had just gifted her a center piece for her pine needle baskets that she makes. She wants to make a bread basket and loves lighthouses so she asked if I could make that for her. Yep.

I'm no artist, but I gave it my best shot. I left it as natural (red) colored clay and used some iron oxide to accent the textures. Then I added the two gun-metal black stripes with copper oxide, and just a splash of glaze on the top piece. For the holes, I used a plastic straw from a juice-box to punch out pieces of clay. The first couple of basket bottoms that I made the weeks before had the holes too small to fit the needles and weaving strings after they were fired (clay shrinks a lot with the 2 firings).

Now, she has taught me how to make the pine needle baskets! Yipppeeee - a new craft and one I've always wanted to try! I so enjoyed going out and finding the long-leaf pine needles too. What a great excuse to wander about a pine forest.

There's some work involved in the preparation of the needles in that you have to remove the sheath from the ends. But other than that, it's really pretty simple. For my first few rounds I used some of her synthetic sinew. This stuff is very easy to work with. Next, I used some nylon twine/cording that I had on board and a different stitch style.

So here's what I have so far....4 hours of work for a novice basket maker. The center is a filigree style piece of metal that came from an earring set. Yes. I have made several more ceramic basket centers and will use those for my next pine-needle creations.

Yesterday, in the ceramics studio I spent a couple of hours glazing the new basket centers, a couple of trivets and a few smaller "accent" pieces. The accent pieces feature some glaze technique experiments for me and the finished items can be used as buttons (for knitting or sewn pieces) or accents woven into baskets or simply as necklace cabochons.

My favorite trivets so far that I've made are the woven clay trivets (as in hot plates/table protectors). I'm hooked on these!! Not only are they fun to make, but I really like how they turn out. Now I need to get some wood or bamboo slices to add "feet" to the trivets. Here is a photo of a couple of them. I'm already using another two.

There's so much to explore with this woven clay strips technique!

Another technique I used to add texture to some trivets was to knit up a simple cable in worsted weight cotton and make a mold (sprig) with it. Then, after bisque firing the mold, I pressed clay into it and then added some gansey-style looking rows. These I simply used the iron oxide to accent the texture on one and copper oxide (the darker one) on the other. A final clear glaze finished them off.

Knit cable pressed to make a mold

First, here is a photo of the original knit piece in pink and white yarn and the resulting mold. The cotton yarn is a little soft and didn't leave much of an impression. I'm thinking that I'll try to knit some items up using a sturdy twine made out of nylon? I want the stitches to hold their shape and not flatten out.

Also, I think the string should be larger. Because the clay shrinks so much the detail gets a little lost. So perhaps going bigger would be better.

You can (perhaps) see that the cables on the trivets below are a raised design - but not by very much. There's just so much more to explore someday.

Life is good.

Trivets with raised knitted cable motifs