SailingKnitter

BLACK SWEATER

Busy, busy bees we've been. Although we do spend a lot of hours just chilling in the sea breezes, we do actually get things done and have some fun too.

We managed to move all of our camping gear and other treasures from our large storage unit in Georgia down to one in Florida. This took 2 long car trips and a couple of hundred dollars in clear storage boxes, but we did it! Our much smaller unit in Florida is organized and has no dead, mummified marsh rats in it like the Georgia unit had. Yuck!

One of the hurricanes washed away the rat traps and the facility failed to set up new ones. Of course, the marshes were flooded at the time so all the rats scurried to find new nesting places in safe high grounds. Storage units were hard hit. Disgusting.

The good part about the long drive was I got to get a lot of knitting done. I've designed another wool worsted weight Gansey style sweater for one of the kids leaving (aging out) the orphanage in Kazakhstan. He requested the color black - as did many of the teens.

Scottish Kep (Fair Isle stranded knitting)

I can only work on this in the daytime as I simply can't see what I'm doing at night even with an Ott Light. Size 38-40"

Also for the kids in Kazakhstan, I've been playing around with my many balls of yarn and knitting up traditional Scottish "Keps" (hats). The brim is doubled (folded back on itself) for extra warmth. These hats I made are shorter than the traditional pattern and I omitted the tassel. I don't think that the kids would appreciate a floppy long hat and a wriggling tassel. It's a lot of fun to play with color combinations.
I'm not quite traditional when it comes to the colors. Another good thing about clearing out the storage unit was that I found even MORE of this same wool yarn. Whooo hoooo....more hats to come.

Of course there have also been socks falling off the needles too. There are always socks on a few sets of double point needles. Two pairs of plain socks knit from yarns donated to me to work sock for the kids were finished. These projects live in my purse and go everywhere with me. I can get a few rounds in while doing errands. A lot more rounds were accomplished waiting at the Department of Motor Vehicles to correct our Florida Drivers Licenses (see? I told you we were having fun).

For more entertaining sock knitting I finished up a pair of "monster socks" that I had started at the hotel when we were holed-up for Hurricane Irma. These socks use up my small balls of leftover yarns - waste not, want not. And another pair was worked with 2 coordinating 1/2 balls.


During the storage unit move, I discovered my giant stash of Knit Picks Wool of the Andes worsted weight yarn. As a rest period from the black sweater knitting, I knit this "Baable Hat". I just love sheep and I hope the kids in Kaz will find this amusing and warm.

So what was Jonesy doing while I was so busy knitting? Well, he cleaned the BBQ on the stern of the boat and discovered it needed replacement parts (rust). When the parts came in, he made it whole again and has been grilling some of our dinners outside.

He's also been doing all the routine maintenance on the boat to keep her in top shape.

Jonesy also took me out to the auto races at Sebring for the 12 hour race. Actually, I wasn't planning to go but at the last minute he asked if I would go and keep him company. So off we went. It is a beautiful track here in Florida but the
crowds were boisterous for most of the 4 days we camped there and the cars were LOUD. I wore earplugs both day and night.

In February I taught 20 lovely folks from Tybee Island how to coil Pine Needle Baskets. Each student was provided a baggie with a wood centerpiece and all the tools needed. Jonesy had drilled all the holes in 24 bases for me.

Then the victims students could choose a hank of #3 cotton thread and a bunch of pine needles.  We managed to have quite a few ladies end up with some nice baskets started. They scarfed up the remaining needles and thread to take home and finish their projects. I sure hope that some of them will get the same pleasure as I do making these works of art.

AND...I've been sewing again. I've joined the American Sewing Guild and attend a group every week. My first project was some cushions for the boat. Now I've cut up some fabric and an old shirt of Jonesy's to make myself some lightweight sleeveless tops.

Jonesy took this photo today of me wearing a top that I made from a men's shirt that I bought for 50 cents in Guatemala.

I was asked on a Facebook group how I cut my tops from old shirts so I shared this photo. Jonesy LOVED this shirt, but the collar was too frayed to wear with pride. So now it is mine.

That's all for now....

Life is good.