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):

 

Related articles

• Baby Goes to the Capitol, and Dad Goes Sailing (thelandlockedsailor.com)
• nautical tattoos (bowsprite.wordpress.com)
• Wrecks that promise to unlock the mystery of Francis Drake’s final resting place (telegraph.co.uk)

 

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.

Related articles by Zemanta

• How-to: Stylish Pennant Flags (craftzine.com)
• Knitting Without Patterns (thelandlockedsailor.com)
• 23 Ways to Capture Creativity (rowdykittens.com)