The Landlocked Sailor

Imagine that you’re on a sailboat in the middle of the ocean. You feel the sun beating down, and the gentle sway of the vessel in the water. You turn your face to try to feel the direction of the wind, but there is no wind. Not even a breeze. You hear the creaking of the masts and the gentle lapping of the water on the hull, but you are dead in the water.

There’s no telling when the wind will pick up again; it could be several days. In the meantime, what will you do? The year is 1854, and you are a topman aboard a merchant vessel bound for some Pacific Island. You can’t pass the time by reading, because you don’t know how to read; you don’t feel like singing at the moment, and you can’t whistle because you are superstitiously worried about whistling up an ill wind.

What’s a sailor to do?

Maintenance.

There’s always plenty to be done to keep the ship in top condition. There are sails to be mended, lines and rigging to be repaired, old rope to be turned into baggywrinkle, decks to scrub and tar… the list goes on and on. However, when that “Sailor-Do” list is completed, what’s next?

Fancywork.

Have you ever seen a particularly handsome bell rope and wondered, “How on earth did they make that?” Or how about a boat’s ladder (stairsteps) all decked out with ornamental ropework? It’s not strictly ornamental, after all. On the ladder, for example, it serves as a nonskid surface for climbing around in your wet boat shoes. There’s a  name for this combination of form and function: it’s called Marlinspike Seamanship, and it’s not exactly a lost art.

The next time you have an opportunity to get up close and personal with a sailboat (or even see one in a movie), look for examples of Marlinspike fancy work. It’s all done by hand, and it’s a tradition worth carrying on.

If you’re in the Morro Bay/San Luis Obispo/Central Coast area of California and you’d like to participate in a Marlinspike workshop, leave a note in the comments below. We’ll let you know when we have one coming up!

Also, check out these books (click the covers to see them on Amazon):

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This red and black flag signifies a storm warning. One flag means Tropical Storm Warning, and two flags together mean Hurricane Warning. (The signals for Gale Warning and Small Craft Advisory are two red pennant (triangle) flags and one red pennant flag, respectively.)

I thought these marine weather flags would make kind of cool throw pillows, so I’m knitting up a couple of envelope-style pillow covers. I’m just making it up as I go along, but I know that if I don’t write it down I’ll forget how I did it.

What this means:

I just finished writing out my first ever knitting pattern. It is very simple– just a black square inside a red square, using very basic stitches (it’s only the front flag part, not the entire pillow cover), but it was HARD to write the pattern, and I’m still not sure it’s accurate and user-friendly. So, if you use the pattern, please help me out by leaving a comment about how easy or difficult it was to follow, and what I should do to make it better.

The way it’s written assumes you know how to make basic knit and purl stitches, as well as how to join a new color in an intarsia style. (It’s not as hard as it sounds! I learned it pretty quickly from YouTube– check out these videos for instructions: Intarsia Knitting Basics and Intro to Intarsia. The second video is by KnitPicks, and it features nautical flags, so yay! Perfect.

Click here to download the PDF pattern.

Thanks!

Sarita Li

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So today, in lieu of Wordless Wednesday, I am FINALLY posting a few photos from our awesome family photo shoot aboard the Tall Ship Lady Washington. Thanks to the lovely Ginger of Sandprints Photos in Morro Bay for her amazing photography and cheery personality. Also a big thanks to Captain Miah and the Lady crew!

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Urban areas are overrated.

OK, I admit it: if I had a free ticket to Anywhere, USA, I’d be in NYC quicker than you can say X-ray scanner, and if I had to pick a destination on the West Coast it would be Seattle. I do love the big city, but I know I’d soon be back home in my tiny town. All things considered, I can’t think of a better place to experience life with my son every day. Morro Bay, CA is a small town of a little more than 10,000 residents scattered over 5 square miles.

Reasons to love Morro Bay:

• November, 10:00 a.m., 63° (17°C) and sunny
• I can put the baby in his stroller and run all our errands on foot
• When business people ask for a phone number, they look at me like I’m crazy when I include the area code
• In 2 hours of running errands, we see approximately 6 people we know
• At the Post Office, we see a letter carrier walk right out the front door with his satchel of mail and start delivering to the businesses across the street
• On the way home, we see 2 more letter carriers, on foot, with their satchels
• Plus, there’s this dog that hangs out at Legends Bar:
  

  Legends Dog

Small town ♥ !

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Actually, he has not been out on the water yet, but since he is the son of two sailors, I think it’s fair to call him a little sailor boy!

So this is why I have not been blogging lately. I’ve been busy taking care of this little one. He’ll be 6 weeks old on Wednesday! I had originally planned to reopen my Etsy store on August 1st, but that was just wishful thinking. Then I pushed it back to September 1st, which is only about a week and a half away, so we’ll see!

Anyway, I wanted to name him after the wind and the sea, so I did… in Hawaiian. Isn’t he sweet?

Refinishing the Mainboom on the Split Square-Tops'l Ketch Hawaiian Chieftain (That's Me, in My Starbucks Shirt, a Long Long Time Ago.)

Brightwork is a term that sends some sailors running for cover; it makes others jump up and down and leap for joy. Well, it makes me leap for joy, anyway. And no matter if you love the work or hate it, it’s hard to deny that the end result is beautiful.

So what exactly is “brightwork” on a boat? It doesn’t usually refer to the brass, although (if it’s polished regularly) that’s pretty bright and shiny too. Nope, it’s the wonderfully varnished woodwork that gleams like a jewel in the sun.

Let me tell you a little story to give you some background on my obsession with brightwork.

My first two or three months on the sailing vessel Hawaiian Chieftain were spent doing brightwork. She had sat boarded up for several months on Lake Michigan, getting absolutely no TLC, before she was brought to Westport, WA in 2006 for “100 Days of Summer.” This was code for “100 Days of Maintenance,” something many sailors are not very excited about.

Since at first I was only able to work on the boat in the mornings before slaving away at my day job, I did a whole lot of maintenance and not a lot of sailing. Those early morning hours spent scraping off the old, cracked varnish and then sanding the wood to a nice smooth condition, bleaching out the black spots and then sanding it again, were such meditative hours. Nobody on the crew could figure out why I loved it so much; but then, none of them were forced to spend the rest of the day standing in a stuffy, artificially-lit building in a button-down shirt, keeping track of several thousand dollars and trying not to get robbed. (Did I mention I used to be a bank teller?) Out there in the fresh air, with the boat gently swaying in the current, I felt as free as a bird, even though we were tied up at the dock. For most of the crew, maintenance was a necessary evil so that they could keep on sailing. For me, it was respite from the “real world.”

So there you have it. Some people do yoga. I did brightwork.

Now that I have a baby on the way, I try to avoid painting and varnishing. But I did marry the Bos’un after all, so when our family gifted us a brand new red wagon as a baby gift, he decided to varnish the wood before putting it all together. With a gale warning all along the central coast and plenty of sunshine to work in, it was almost like a day of boat maintenance… almost.

Maintenance Day on the Wagon

Instead of using varnish, we used Cetol Marine, which is a little more flexible and a little easier to apply. It has this deep golden color, as you can see in the photos, and it’s pretty durable too. Most of all, it reminds us of our days on the Chieftain!

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The Bosun made this tiny Ocean Mat the other day. He intended it as a mock-up of the larger mats he’s making for household use, but I can’t get over its adorableness!

I think it would be great as a door mat on a doll house or on the miniature Westport, WA Maritime Museum. I could also add it to a headband or hair clip, or use it to embellish a handbag.

What do you think? What would you use this tiny sailor art for?

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So I decided to try the iPhone app iHeadlines, and it’s pretty good! But a lot of the headlines it generated were also very funny. (Like the one I used to name this post.) My other favorite was: “Thousands Now Knit Nautical Flags Who Never Thought They Could …With These 26 Letters”

But anyway, moving on.

You’ve probably noticed that I recently posted a couple of free (and low quality) knitting patterns. They are the first 2 letters (Alpha and Bravo) of the International Code of Signals, aka Nautical Flags. And if you’re wondering how to say “I am trying to communicate with you” in 9 languages, you just hoist up the Kilo (letter K) flag. You know, it’s the one that’s yellow on the left and blue on the right.

The problem is that I am (STILL!) in the process of moving across the country, and since I am doing the driving I am not able to knit. So you’re left with untested patterns and poor graphics. But, I thought I’d let you know that I’m working on a comprehensive collection of Nautical Flag knitting patterns. And eventually they will all be worked up and written out nicely… oh, and charted. Yay!

Stay tuned for updates: Enter your email over there on the sidebar or follow me on Twitter!

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Image via Wikipedia

The Bravo, or letter B flag, when hoisted on its own means “I am taking in, discharging, or carrying dangerous cargo.”

It’s another swallowtail, just like the Alpha flag, so it’s a little tricky to knit, but not too bad. It’s also one of only two solid colored letter flags. (The other one is Quebec, or letter Q.)

There are two basic ways to knit the Bravo flag:

In two pieces:

1. With red, cast on an even number of stitches to equal the desired width of the flag. (For an 8″ x 12″ flag, cast on 12″)

2. Work in garter stitch, decreasing by 1 stitch at the end of every right side row until piece measures 12″ by 4″. Bind off.

You should have something like this:

3. Repeat step 2, then stitch the two pieces together to form the complete Bravo flag.

Intarsia Style:

Start with the short end (the end that would be attached to a flagpole)

1. With red, cast on an even number of stitches (for an 8″ x 12″ flag, cast on 8″)

2. Continue in garter stitch for 8″

3. On the next right side row, knit across only 4″ (half of the row), and put your remaining stitches (the other half of the row) on a stitch holder.

4. Continue in garter stitch, decreasing by 1 stitch at the beginning of every right side row, until you have only 2 stitches remaining on the needle.

5. Bind off.

6. Pick up the stitches from the stitch holder.

7. Add new red yarn, and continue in garter stitch, decreasing by 1 stitch at the end of every right-side row, until you have only 2 stitches remaining on the needle.

8. Bind off.

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The Alpha, or letter A flag, when hoisted on its own means “I have a diver down; keep well clear at slow speed.” It looks like this: (That’s white on the left side and blue on the right side)

Since it has a swallowtail shape, as opposed to the square or rectangular shape that most of the other letter flags have, it’s a bit tricky to knit. One simple way to do it is to knit two trapezoidal blue pieces and one white rectangle, and stitch them all together. Here’s how:

Pieced Version (also easily adaptable to crochet):

1. With blue, Cast on an even number of stitches (to measure half the desired width of the finished flag). Knit each row (garter stitch), decreasing by 1 stitch at the beginning of each right side row, until you have half as many stitches as you originally cast on. Example: If you originally cast on 30 stitches, keep working in garter stitch, working a decrease in every other row (every other row because, if you do it on every row, you will end up with a triangle instead of a trapezoid) until you have only 15 stitches left on the needle. Cast off.

2. With blue, follow #1 above so that you end up with two identical blue pieces.

3. Attach the two blue pieces by their short ends to make the shape of the blue field in the flag pictured above.

4. With white, Cast on the same number of stitches you cast on for the blue pieces, and work in garter stitch until piece measures total height of blue area.

5. Attach white to blue, weave in ends, and you’re done!

Alternatively, you might want to work in an Intarsia style, in which case I recommend beginning with the white and working up to the pointy bits. Here’s how:

1. First, how big do you want the flag to be? For turning into a tote bag or displaying on a wall or as part of an afghan, you might want it to be about 8″ x 12″

2. With white, cast on an even number of stitches to equal the length the shorter side. (In this case, 8″)

3. Work in garter stitch for 6″

4. Change to blue, and work in garter stitch for 2″. You should now have an 8″ by 8″ square, with 6″ of white and 2″ of blue.

5. On the next right side row, knit only half way across (4″). Note: You might want to put the other half of the stitches (the other 4″ which are still unworked) on a stitch holder.

6. Continue to work in garter stitch, decreasing by 1 stitch at the end of every right side row, until you have only 2 stitches on the needle.

7. Bind off.

8. Go back to those unworked stitches, and work them in garter stitch with blue, decreasing by 1 stitch at the beginning of every right side row, until you have only 2 stitches left on the needle.

9. Bind off.

Here are links to some great YouTube videos about adding color and intarsia knitting:

• How to Add Color to Your Knitting Knitting Tips by Judy. Basics of adding color (always on a knit/right side row!) This technique also works in the middle of a row.
• Intarsia Knitting Basics Explains how to chart and knit in intarsia color blocks, and when and how to twist the yarn. Come back to this video when something in your intarsia knitting is just not working.
• How to Wind a “Butterfly” of Yarn for Fair Isle or Intarsia Knitting Using a whole skein of each color yarn for intarsia knitting is silly. It makes a HUGE tangle, plus you have to have multiple matching skeins for each color. Don’t do it! This video shows how to wrap a butterfly of yarn, or a miniature center-pull skein, for color work.

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