SailingKnitter

The Light Bulb store? Isn't that kinda like the Scotch Tape store on Saturday Night Live? Well, believe it or not, we had to make a trip to this place today to buy some rather special bulbs for the boat because they all had been recently "fried" by the electrical system.
Yep, while I was away at Meg Swansen's Knitting Camp, Jones & Ray were uncovering massive & dangerous wiring issues on the Niki Wiki - to the extent that a large part of the boat was wired BACKWARDS! Yikes!! So, as they worked to upgrade the electrical systems (added an inverter), they kept coming across shorts, cut wires, and the lack of circuit breakers on some systems. Anyway, we blew out our deck lighting which are very expensive bulbs. To save some $$$ we went to the Light Bulb store instead of the marine supply house. Wow! Saved lots of money which is a good thing because I spent lots of money at knitting camp on yarn--whoo hooo!

Knitting Camp was wonderful! I'm in awe of the talent and skills some of the other campers displayed via the Show & Tell sessions. Meg, the grand Poobah of knitting, was her usual naturally charming and encouraging self. I was so inspired that I broke my yarn diet and indulged in the purchase of some beautiful yarns & accessories:

• Icelandic Laceweight wool - for the Roseleaves Tunic by Meg Swansen, in A Gathering of Lace
• 5 Skeins Satakieli wool for a self-designed fair isle vest
• Numerous skeins of Jamieson & Smith Shetland jumper weight wool for swatching for several projects I'm thinking about
• Joslyn's Fiber Farms: 1 skein - 2500 yards! "Shine" 50% silk 50% wool laceweight in brown for a shawl
• Joslyn's "Angel Hair" hand-dyed laceweight wool - 1700 yds.
• Circular Solutions special Breast Cancer Awareness pink striped Port-a-Pocket. Rhoda - the creator of Circular Solutions was a fellow camper.
• Shetland Lace Knitting from Charts book by Hazel Carter - who visited camp one day and signed the booklets
• Festive Wool hat with flying swallows, Latvian Braids and Swirling crown pattern by fellow camper Lucy Stroschine - she showed her hats using this pattern for show & tell and they were so beautiful - and use only 1/3 a skein of Koigu + a coordinating solid yarn. What a great way to use up those Koigu leftovers!
• Kingston Trials Guernsey pattern by Mabel Corlett of the Woolroom - again, she brought the finished garment to show & tell and I was floored - it is stunning! Another camper, Debbie also showed one of these in a different color - again stunning.
• Grass Creek Park Vest pattern by Mabel Corlett. Actually, I also bought the wool pack kit for this vest - a beautiful Fair Isle design. To provide some incentive to actually knit this vest within the next year, Debbie, a fellow camper and I made a pact to show up next year at camp with a completed vest each!

Here we are at camp - let the challenge begin!

Check out the beautiful Rose of England lace shawl that Meg knit recently - so striking!

We had access to many of the sweaters that Meg, and her mother the late Elizabeth Zimmermann knit. This is the Norwegian Rose Cardigan.

Gotta go knit!