Knitting

What do we do with our down time when we are on board, not sailing, fixing things, or doing chores? We both enjoy reading so we spend a fair amount of our down time reading books on our Kindles. In the evening we watch TV shows on George’s iPad. We just finished the most recent season of The Great British Baking Show. What a great season! 

This winter I have also been knitting socks, often while listening to audiobooks. I started knitting last spring after joining former Purdue grad school friends in Indiana where we had gathered to watch the eclipse. One of my friends was knitting a gorgeous sweater and it inspired me to try knitting. I had found myself in need of warmer clothes when we returned from the Bahamas last March. Brrr! I thought I would enjoy knitting if I could make something practical for myself, like a sweater. I found YouTube instructions for knitting a sweater for beginners and bought the supplies I needed. Our daughter—who has been an excellent knitter for years—got me started and I made my first sweater. Then I knit another, then another. I also made a hat and a towel topper, then started knitting socks. My thinking was that socks are small and the yarn wouldn’t take up much room on the boat. So far I have made 3 1/2 pairs for myself and two pairs for George. I wore two of the pairs I made for myself last fall as well as one of the sweaters and I can attest they were cozy and warm. I find knitting relaxing. Also, it distracts me from distressing world events and boat problems, like an overheating engine or a broken windlass. 

Speaking of the windlass, we expect the parts we need to arrive in Fort Lauderdale by tomorrow. It will take another couple of days for Makers Air to fly them to Staniel Cay where we will pick them up. 

  

The maroon sweater in the middle is my first. My second sweater is on the bottom left and the third is on the bottom right. I made the hat with leftover yarn from my second sweater using pattern to practice stranded colorwork that I used for the third sweater—which was made from yarn gifted by a friend. I needed a new towel for the galley so I used more of the leftover yarn to make the topper so I could hang it on the oven door. It had been through the wash so it is now felted which I don’t mind at all. 





I made the socks on the bottom left for George, using a stranded colorwork pattern that I designed myself.