End of Hitch

When you work on a boat there are different ways to count down. The captain likes to count down by pizza days, which are every Sunday night. Working two months get you eight days of pizza, so counting this way makes it seem like time flies by. I like to count by days, because I feel like you get to chip the time off a little every day. Then, before you know it, you're down into the single digits and the week just. won't. end. I don't think the pizzas are special enough to warrant counting by, unless you figure that each week it's a different type of pizza. When I asked them to make me a vegetable pizza (so I wouldn't end up with one that had tuna fish on it), I got instead a pizza with ham, onions, olives, mushrooms, heart of palm, and banana. The week after had sausage, onions, olives, mushrooms, heart of palm, cucumber, and maraschino cherries.

Anyway, the point I'm trying to make is by the end of whatever count down you're going by, you'll crash at the end of it.

This may look comfy but it isn't. You'd get a softer mattress at the hotels in Rio if you lined it with rocks.

By the end of the hitch there are things you intended to do but didn't do because you got channel fever and people stop caring about what needs to get done on the boat and worry more about when they need to start packing. Or what to pack. Or, can I fit everything into one suitcase instead of the suitcase and bag I brought?

One bag less...or at least it was until I realized I still had to fit my hard hat in there.

At least this hitch I remembered to take pictures of my room. The room I've frequented the most is an odd L-shape. There are two bunks. The floor looks like crap and the air conditioning unit starts vibrating madly when you use it on any setting after 3. Thankfully it still cools the room to subarctic temperatures.

The beds are twin size. My bed at home is a queen. It takes a little to remember that when I first get to the boat and start doing alligator rolls to get comfortable. I may have fallen out once or twice.

Then you turn left and you have the desk with one light. The ceiling light doesn't work because the ballast broke in it and they're almost impossible to get in Brazil. 

On the left side of the picture there are two cabinets. 

Then you hang another left and there's the bathroom.

No matter how many times you clean it, it'll never be fully clean. 

And that's all she wrote. I have a plane to catch (let's hope it doesn't snow tomorrow).

New Year's Resolutions and Other Things

I have no idea what FPSO and tanker this is. I just really like how gray the picture is with that one burst or orange and red. 

I spent New Year’s on the boat thinking of a proper New Year’s resolution. Should I vow to lose weight? Stop buying yarn? Actually write some blog posts? I made the decision to stop buying yarn, unless I’ve A) used at least three skeins of what I have in my yarn chest or B) am going to a foreign country where I can’t get that kind of yarn again. This means no more random buys from independent dyers on Etsy. Honestly, I didn’t even think about the blog post resolution until today. Maybe I’ll try for at least one post a month, maybe more?

How often am I going to be in a foreign country to warrant that clause of the New Year’s resolution? Well, much to my excitement, a friend and I have decided to hit up England and Scotland for a couple of weeks this January. I’m hoping to talk her into visiting Loop (a yarn shop in London) with me, although I’m hoping even more to stumble upon a skein or two of wool somewhere along the way.

An ultimate goal either this year or next is to go to Germany to visit and possibly buy out the Wollmeise shop. I’ve used her yarn on a couple of different projects and really like how the stitches are very defined, although that makes it more difficult to hide mistakes (of which there are usually plenty in my knitting. I’d really like to get my hands on a skein of her lace weight yarn, although to be honest I’m still kind of shawl-ed out after last year’s 12 Shawls in 2012 and am unsure what else to use lace yarn for.

This hitch I finished a My Dolphin Cowl using A Hundred Ravens Llyr in Baharat (a club colorway), a Carnaby Skirt using Sheepy Time Knits Sheepy Wool in Embers, and a pair of Broad Street Mittens using Wollmeise Merino DK in Pesto (for my brother). Everything still needs to be blocked and if they require buttons, the buttons still need to be sewn on. I got some great wooden buttons for the skirt that I hope fit. I'm contemplating putting in a fleece lining for the Broad Street Mittens...do they make My Little Pony fleece fabric? I'm positive that's what my brother would like.

I’m currently working on a pair of Roses For Margaery using Countess Ablaze Dr Donegal 4-ply in Shooting Leaves. It’s a great sock pattern; it has all the looks of being cables without the hassle of actually being cables! I fully expect to be working on them for a while, though.

Must-resist-tempation to pull out the tweedy bits. That's also a chicken project bag. I sometimes regret not buying the Star Wars project bag.

I intend to take some pictures of the boat, so if you've ever been interested in what my berthing area looks like, stay tuned.

So Many Things To Do....So Little Time Off

Whooooboy. Yes, I was home for two months from August to the end of September. No I did not write a post during that time period because I was busy. Busy looking at houses (although to be fair, this had been a constant thing every month I was home since last January) but also busy actually buying a house. The end of August saw me in Oklahoma for a cousin's wedding (awesome, by the way) and afterwards, I closed on the house.

My spare time after that was spent in moving and painting. Seriously.

Not sure why they had gone with red, but I made it my job to get rid of said red before I moved in.

Trying to decide on paint colors by slathering the wall with paint by using my fingers because at this point (day one, actually) I had no paint brushes.

That purple color is the color of the mudroom by the front door. I gave up on figuring out their color and renovation choices after finding the counter that wasn't bolted down in the bathroom. And the eight layers of wallpaper they put more wallpaper over in the study.

Living room pre paint job. I like cozy living rooms, so a darker color is what I decided to go with.

Two layers in the kitchen and two (at this point) in the dining room.  It took four coats to completely cover the dining room. To be honest, both of my brothers stopped by to help paint which was a HUGE help.

Kitchen after things got put away and cleaned.

The bathroom I decided to do on my own because it's small and was pretty quick to do.

Blue tub! Why the blue tub?

Ah, well, tried to match the tub as best as possible. If you can't beat them, join them.

Yes, I painted the octopus towel holders.

The morning light in my living room is ridiculous. As in, can't see the TV for all the light ridiculous. 

A lot of the furniture I get I get second hand from estate sales or auctions. Mostly because I feel older stuff is made a lot better than newer stuff.

As you can see, I have been busy. That, coupled with the fact that it is impossible for me to add photos with the internet on the boat has been why I haven't updated as well as I should have. I didn't even knit for the longest time because I was busy and I was frustrated with a pair of socks I had been working on.

Eowyn Socks by Claire Ellen made with yarn from Sheepy Time Knits (Grapes of Wrath). Totally finished these suckers off this last hitch. Amazing what using a set of circular needles and not using a cable needle can do for finishing a pair of socks.

And, I was taking photos for the month of October. Awesome photos, I might add. Mostly of sunrises and, well, sunrises, because I got put on the midnight to noon watch this time. I did manage to snap a few horrible photos of this giant sea turtle I saw when it was flat calm enough for sea turtle sighting.

This is a turtle. Trust me.

Flat calm and a full moon made for a weird couple of days.

There's a good chance I'll be going to Connecticut with my mother this weekend for Stitches East even though I really, really don't need any more yarn. For a yarn addict like me to say that, you know I have a ton of yarn. Enough that I could probably clothe a small army if I could knit quick enough.

In Which I Apologize

I had meant to take photos of my berthing area on the boat. I had meant to also take photos of the engine room to share with those interested with that sort of thing. Unfortunately, this hitch was the hitch of "I can't be arsed" in which I couldn't be arsed to do anything productive (besides actually working) mostly because the people I worked with would slam doors during the time I would be sleeping, one of the worst things about working 6pm to 6am. Another bad thing about working 6pm to 6am when it's winter time in Brazil is the complete lack of sun. Thankfully I stole pictures from the Captain, although there weren't many I felt I could use in the blog.

Photo stolen from the Captain. I can take no credit for its orangey existence

Anyway, hitch was a bit of a rough one. The month on my second boat started out flat calm. Then, possibly because of the whistling crew (guys, it's bad luck to whistle on boats) the wind began to pick up a little bit.

As you can see from the maximum wind on the right side of those there anemometers, we had just a little brisk wind. Just enough to knock your hats off. Nah, I'm kidding, 98 kts? We could have flown the deck cadet like a kite if we tied enough line around her waist.

Thankfully the hitch ended and I got home without any delays this time, although I did finish a pair of socks the last time my flight took 8 hours instead of 3.

Yep, finally finished these socks. 

I've two months off, which is great because I'm finally able to buy a house! And be in Maine for the closing! That'll be in September, so be wary of the house project photos I'll start posting. I'm sure it'll be something along the lines of "Oh, I'm just here fixing the shingles on my garage roof....here are the photos of me messing up and falling through the roof...and here are the photos of me using the phone book to find a contractor to fix my mistakes." Good times.

Also going to be included are photos of the crafts I'll make to decorate the house. This was done with coffee and a fern and about a metric ton of Mod Podge. 

Epic Fail

I've strayed with writing blog posts this last month or so. I apologize, but don't worry, I have a reason excuse for it.

The short version involves flights getting delayed over two days and me sprinting from one end of the Miami airport to the other and just barely making my flight to Rio on time. Sometime between waiting in Atlanta to get flown to Miami, my cell phone broke. The short version also includes Delta losing my luggage and me having to get put on a different boat until my luggage arrived because my original boat was leaving the night I got there. Five days wearing the same clothes and washing my underwear in a sink I can handle, but a whole month? Nope. Not going to happen.

New Boat spent most of its time in Rio, although we did go out for 15 days and hung out by an oil rig before being told we weren't actually needed. New boat also had no internet to speak of except for on the bridge and even then the internet was probably slower than dial-up. Once my "permanent" boat got back to Rio I was transferred, and I figured I'd be able to update the ol' blogaroo. No such luck. As with everything else this hitch, something had to go wrong. Between the internet dying and the three hours of sleep I've been getting, updating the blog kind of got put on the back burner.

I was going to put a few hilarious photos that include Grumpy Cat, since Grumpy Cat is my spirit animal for this hitch but the hideously slow internet wouldn't allow me to. Just like it won't allow me to buy yarn right now. How am I supposed to feed my addiction, Internet Connection, if you won't let me get on Etsy?

Fiber Frolic or How I Lost My Money Buying Yarn

My family had a yard sale on Saturday. It was quite interesting, actually. I had a bunch of kitchen stuff that I wanted to get rid of before I moved (if I ever find a house). I figured the money I made off of the yard sale I'd spend on the Maine Fiber Frolic in Windsor. I ended up making some money, but not enough to pay for all the yarn I bought.

I got me some purdy yarn that I'll someday turn into something wearable. Or just keep because it's lovely.

All right, I didn't buy that much yarn. I could have bought from everyone there, but I limited my buying to two shops. String Theory out of Blue Hill has some of the prettiest yarn I've come across. I've bought from her before, even when I was at school and I didn't have a lot of money (I once spent an entire night's worth of tips when I went into the shop, but that can't really be helped, her shop is a knitter's dream come true). The other yarn that's there came from A Hundred Ravens who mainly sells on Etsy. Such pretty yarn. I would have bought it all, but I'd really like to cut down on my stash this year.

Let's not talk about my stash. Ever.

My mother went to the Fiber Frolic with me, as I like to corrupt her with the awesome that is fiber. I almost have her talked into buying a sheep or two. Nantucket Baggs was there and I introduced my mother to Jo. If you like the bag I've been dragging to work with me but don't like the color, they have these beautiful looking tapestry ditty bags available. As an early birthday gift to my mother, I bought her one. She had a tough time figuring out which one she liked best, but eventually went with the one I would have gotten myself (thankfully, which means I can steal it at some point).

Jo and I at the Fiber Frolic. It was a gorgeous day for spending money on yarn. And bags.

After the frolic, we picked up my father and headed to Kennebunk so I could visit with my brother's family before I leave for work again on the 5th. He has a daughter and a son and both of them grow so much while I'm gone. We all went to the beach to walk around for a bit and I was able to snap a few photos of the bag, my license plate, and a knitting project. 

The yarn is from Spunky Eclectic in Lisbon, ME. She does incredible work and this pattern, called Show Off Stranded Socks, does a great job showing off the colors. Probably why it has the name it does.

I may have gotten a few strange looks for toting around a license plate on the beach, but I will be changing the plate this year to something other than "Knit."  

I need to finish yarn bombing the strap.

In other home news, the beehive I declared mine has swarmed (I chose the color so that makes it 99% mine, right?). Since I was home, I got to snap a couple of photos.

The middle hive was empty and we were hoping the swarm would decide to move in there. Bees have a mind of their own and decided to go somewhere else.

Some day, when my father isn't home, I'm going to stencil a bee-skull and crossbones on the side of this hive.

We would have moved the swarm into the hive ourselves, but they swarmed on a pine branch thirty feet in the air and none of us wanted to climb up that high to get a bunch of insects with stingers.

This hitch off has been deemed a success. I learned to spin on my wheel, finally, and figured out that embroidering isn't as difficult as it sounds. Come Wednesday, I'll be heading back to Brazil. Jo gave me a couple of ideas for my next blog post, so as soon as I get to the boat I'll start trying to take some decent photos.

Home and Hobbies

One of the best things about working overseas is coming home. One of the worst things is trying to fill your time with things to do that are productive or fun or both. If I owned a house I could fill my days with doing house stuff. Like paint a room. Then repaint it the next day because the color was wrong. Or pay someone to paint it because seriously, mariners should not be painting anything that's not a boat.

Since the house thing is not going according to planned right now (mixing house hunting with shipping out is a bit more difficult than imagined), I try to fill my days doing things I've wanted to try but previously was unable to afford it. Number one on my list was gambling at a casino. Got that one finished and ended up breaking even. After the gambling came the various hobbies I've been itching to try. This hitch off I tried embroidery.

Super successful. My lettering is a bit off, but I like to claim that I meant to do it that way. 

I thought for sure that embroidery would not only be difficult but expensive to start out with. To my surprise, everything you see in that picture cost less than six dollars. I'm sure you can go out and get super nice silk thread made from silk worms fed silk-worm-ambrosia to embroider with, but since I've just taken up the hobby I don't think it's wise to be choosy like I am with yarn. Look up yarn snob in the dictionary and I think you'll find a picture of my yarn stash. I'll use that yarn...someday.

Another thing I like to do is go to flea markets and yard sales and antique stores. Not to find anything super serious, although once I get a house I'll start trying to find furniture (right now there's no where to put it). Today was a good day at one of the antique stores I went into with my parents.

I love chickens. The more hideous the better. 

For the price, I couldn't resist the bronze whales.

And the piece d'resistance, an iron octopus  towel holder. This would go in my tentacle themed bathroom. I'm going to try to figure out a way to make more of these without pulling out an anvil.

On Monday I'm going to learn how to do the one thing I've been meaning to learn for years, ever since I bought that non-working spinning wheel from the antique store across the street from where I lived. Yes, I'm going to try learning to spin yarn, although not with my antique wheel. That one's still in Vermont with David at Merlin Tree.

I'll post my hopefully positive results of my spinning attempts.