First Sailing Lesson

Autumn is the perfect time to acquire boats and horses - no one wants to find space to store the "extra" boats under cover and no one wants the expense of feeding an "extra" horse over the Winter. The Beloved Favorites will always have space in the shed/barn, but what about those second string contenders? Not that we're acquiring any horses. Or chickens, either. But boats? Well, they seem to be following us home.
A recent addition to the Boat Shed is this Ed Monk designed sail boat -

She's called a 15-foot knockabout sloop - no fancy name, history, or design.

Built by Rich Johnson of Toledo, Oregon, her name is Lively and she sails with a Marconi rig. She has been used as a demonstration boat by members of the Eugene Yacht Club at the Toledo Wooden Boat Show the last few years and everyone who goes out in her comes back with a big smile on.

Today was my turn. The afternoon was dull, and after complaining that I was bored, Doryman suggested we take a trip over to Toledo and see if there was enough of a breeze to take Lively out for a quick sail before dark. We had another almost perfect weather window - partly sunny with variable light breezes - just enough to waft Lively from one side of the river to the other and back again before it got too dark to see what we were doing.

I experienced a few "firsts" today - moving from one boat to another (without falling in,) shipping the rudder and tiller, getting a demonstration of putting up the jib and main sails, handling the jib sheets (sailing, and Boat Stuff in general, has its own language) and tacking back and forth. Or was it gibing? It's a bit hazy still, but I'll learn the ropes in time. The soft breeze was just perfect for getting the feel of the boat without having to make any quick moves because of sudden gusts that would upset a small boat. 


Lively will need to be hauled out of the water very soon and put under cover until the weather is more congenial to making a few repairs. I'm sure she'll be ready to sail by the time Boat Show Season comes around again, and I'll try to get some pictures of her under sail. She needs a new suit of sails and we're not sure if we'll tackle that job ourselves or hire a professional sailmaker to do it for us. Her sails aren't that large and we do have a stash of sailcloth in the back room, but we picked up Mistral's mainsail from the sailmaker, and it needs a bit of hand work done before it's finished and that will be the main sail project for this Winter.

More Cold Water Wash Musings

I posted about my first experiments with Cold Water Wool Washing here, based on comments on Ravelry about an article from last year in Spin-Off magazine.

The almost-black fleece I spoke of at the end of that post deserves a bit more comment now that it's clean and I've done some sampling. That fleece (it was free) is quite fine with lots of crimp and lots of tiny VM. It was left in the pot for a couple of weeks before the first rinse, with a small amount of original blue Dawn dish soap. It was rinsed twice, at one week intervals but otherwise left alone. When it came out of the pot it felt very clean, but there was still quite a bit of VM. It was laid out to dry for some days and then some samples were hand carded to see how sound the fleece was. Imagine my surprise to find a large number of tiny sprouts throughout the fleece! The little bits of VM had sprouted after being removed from the water. Kinda gross, but I carded anyway, figuring that the sprouts would be chewed up and spit out by the cards. More on that fleece with my next Brooks post...

So. I was given two white Coopworth fleeces a few months ago and one of them was next into the pot. The fleece is quite dirty and I skirted heavily to get rid of as much hay and other VM as I could. Coopworth is not a wool that I've worked with much (Romney remains my favorite) and the fleeces were quite large so I skirted mercilessly. The locks are over 6", with a loose crimp and shiny appearance. There is not much lanolin, but plenty of dirt.

The tips were a bit matted, but not felted - they pull apart without much trouble, just a shower of dirt. The locks are sound and quite uniform throughout the fleece.

About half a fleece was crammed into the pot, some Dawn added, the pot filled with water from the hose (the pot sits outside in an inconspicuous corner of the yard, away from the prying eyes of local dog walkers who I am sure think some strange things go on around here, what with the stray clumps of hair that always seem to litter the lawn - wool, dog hair, rabbit fleece...) the lid put on and I walked away.

The weather turned colder and rainy and the pot sat for at least a month with no disturbance from me. At that point I remembered my little experiment and went to see if anything was growing in the pot. I changed the water twice, rinsing the fleece in the cooker basket with the hose, but not doing anything special to get out more dirt. The water was quite smelly but I'm thinking the cooler weather kept any molds or whatever from taking hold. The wool did not appear to be rotting and no VM was sprouting.

The inner cooker basket was removed and a hose run over the fleece for a final rinse. It still surprises me that the wool doesn't smell like the water does.

The end result didn't look all that spectacular, to tell the truth - I was afraid there might be a yellow stain on the wool (it was free, and obviously not from a spinner's flock) but as it dried I teased the locks apart and the resulting shiny cloud is perfectly white. The fibers are lustrous and sound and better than 6" long - quite a nice fleece.

I don't think this fleece will even need to be carded - I'm going to try to spin it from the cloud into a firm, tight yarn for weaving. I have no idea if it will work, so sampling is in order.

The color is a bit wonky in the pictures as there's not much natural light at this time of year and I haven't made a light box yet. The teased fleece really is a lustrous white with no traces of yellow or dirt.

Overall, I still think the Cold Water Wash is a great way to get a fleece clean if you aren't pressed for time. I like the feel of a bit of lanolin in a washed fleece and that's not easy to accomplish with hot water. The small amounts that fit in the crawfish cooker are easy to card and keep moving forward, which is nice as it means that there are fewer paper sacks of wool sitting around waiting to be spun up.

Another batch of Coopworth is now soaking in the pot. Hopefully I'll get the first batch spun up before the next is finished. Or not. I have quite a bit of clean fiber to work on this Winter, but I plan on keeping up with the washing, too, so that maybe by Spring all of the wool will be washed at least. Anyone want to come over for a carding party? ;-)

Have a fiber filled weekend!

BaggyWrinkle

This is Chuck Gottfried's newest project, S/V BaggyWrinkle, being lowered into the Yaquina River for her short journey downstream to the South Beach Marina where she'll be moored for the Winter.

BaggyWrinkle is a British Channel Cutter built in 1982 at the Northwest School of Boat Building. Chuck has a bit of restoration work ahead of him and the finished boat will look quite a bit different with bowsprit and mast mounted. I'm sure Dory-Man will write up a detailed post about bringing her back to full service and I'll link to his post then.

 

Dory-Man and I went along with Chuck and his wife Shay as crew in case anything should go wrong. We hit a good weather window and the trip was picture perfect, gliding for a short time upriver to see how she handles and then downriver to her mooring. It was chilly, but the wind was less than it had been on Saturday and we got a bit wet in a slight drizzle - a precursor to the storm that raged all Sunday night and all day Monday.

Tied up safe and sound! All in all an enjoyable way to spend a Sunday morning.

A Dark and Stormy Night

Could Weasel sit any closer to the stove? I think not! This is her favorite place to be when the temps are cold, say something less than 70 degrees. She's becoming quite the wimp - no more late night escapes into the rain chasing cats. She would much rather just stay inside napping and dreaming of past adventures.

The wind has been howling all day with occasional showers of rain. The trees are swaying in all directions and we're all happy to wait it out inside next to the fire.

Yesterday was overcast and threatened real rain, but we went out to help a friend move his boat from the boat yard to it's new home at South Beach Marina. Pictures tomorrow...

Another Day in the Fog with Dory-Man*

We did a reverse of this trip today, rising well before the butt-crack of dawn to move SV Mistral back to her home port of Toledo, Oregon.

Much like the last trip, the Yaquina River was shrouded in fog with a freshening breeze gently wafting it away before the end of the trip.

We had the river to ourselves, the only noises those from various ducks, coots and greves with an occasional splash from a jumping fish. We even saw a seal peek above the water to watch us go by. None of the wildlife came near enough to photograph, so I had to settle for the sinuous design made by our wake as we ghosted along under motor power -

It was chilly and a bit breezy, but a perfect trip upriver to Home Port, ready now for the Winter rest.

* Not Dory-Man's fog - he wants my readers to know that he is never less than crystal clear. I may have been a bit foggy - it was early, after all.

Wet Weekend

Thursday was Opening Day of the Rainy Season here on the Oregon Coast. The rain started late in the afternoon and has continued, with high winds, thunder, lightning and hail, most every minute since. We were able to finish up some outside chores before the deluge and so are snug inside, fire in the stove and a stack of DVD's to watch while spinning. The dogs surround my chair, the cat mews imperiously from the desk and a paper sack full of carded Romney awaits.

Happy weekend!

Yes, this is still a Fiber Blog!

I haven't forgotten the original purpose of this here blog ;-) I actually made some yarn. Two batches of yarn, but they are both white, one slightly fuzzier than the other, and neither photographs well, so you'll have to take my word for it. One batch is Corridale from prepared pencil roving. It's dense and about sport weight, smooth (like you would expect) and has taken me about 3 years to spin up the 3 pounds I bought from a friend. (Elaine - are you still around?) The other batch is (IIRC) a lovely Shetland, white with strands of black here and there. Also about sport weight, but with a lot more air in the yarn. Lovely stuff for hats and neck warmers.

I've started hand carding the Romney for Dory-Man's sweater and it's next on the Spinning To-Do List. Now that we've made the switch back to "regular" time, the evenings get dark sooner - perfect for spinning beside a roaring fire and dreaming of knitting projects to come.

My first Mockery Sock is done past the heel turn. The heel flap and turn was all the Fiber Stuff I did on the Very Long trip North. It's not easy knitting something so fine in the Big Truck! I'll get back to them soon and will post snaps another day.

The Cold Water Wash is going fine for the Coopworth. I've changed the water twice now and I think it's as clean as it will ever get. The forecast is for more rain starting Thursday, so I will try to get the wool inside today and start another batch. It's a great method if you need to wash small amounts and aren't in a big hurry. Detailed post to follow...

Shearing is almost done for the next 12 weeks. Whew! Seems like I'm always shearing or getting ready to shear or trying to find a place to stash all the Angora baggies. I've listed some for sale in The Shop. I have bags and bags more, so if you're interested in getting your hands in some Very Nice Angora fiber, take a look or drop me a note (catmccall at gmail dot com) and let's make a deal! I would be very open to a trade if you have more stash than cash - don't be shy! A little bit of lovely Angora goes a long way and once you try some you won't be able to resist getting more ;-)

Changing the topic - we have ditched our Credo cell phones. While we've been very happy with the service and the helpful people at tech support, the fact that we don't have coverage at home has become a huge problem. Rather than carry on with a 2-year contract with another provider, we went with Net Ten pay-as-you-go phones. We actually get a signal at home! So, if the only number you have for me is a cell number, drop me an e-mail and I'll update you with the land line number. The new cell phones will be emergency/travel phones only. Not that anyone ever calls...

All Hallows Tradition on the Yaquina River

Dory-Man and I went rowing the Good Little Skiff Paku down the Yaquina River with a flood tide on All Hallows Day.

Dory-Man took a video of me rowing -


Rowing on the Yaquina from doryman on Vimeo.

He makes it look much easier, though -


Yaquina River Run-off from doryman on Vimeo.

I have a lot to learn about rhythm and pacing myself!

The water was smooth as glass (much like last year) and the sky was clear of rain, making for some lovely reflection shots -

We've had some heavy rains so most of the leaves were gone from the trees, but a few remained -

 
Of course I took some snaps of the big red barn -

 

I love the silhouette of bare branches against the sky -

 

I long for a better camera! These photos just don't capture the beauty of that day.

We've started our own All Hallows Day tradition. There's no place I'd rather be than with Dory-Man in his element - a wooden boat on a beautiful river. This may be the last trip for Paku  this Season, but maybe we'll get lucky...

Port Townsend Messabout

Friday dawned wet. Buckets of rain were falling from the sky in a never-slackening torrent. Loading the truck became problematic as we searched about for a solution to keep the dogs dry in their kennels on the back of the flatbed. The sky looked foreboding and we almost called the whole thing off, but we trusted Laingdon's weather forecast for Saturday and headed North into a gale.

Six hours later we were snug with friends in Olympia where the rain had stopped an hour or so before our arrival. The dogs were totally dry - seems the kennels just fit into the lee of the cab and they were happy enough. A run in the fenced horse arena and they were ready for a long nap.

Saturday morning dawned bright and clear, crisp but not too chilly. Back in the truck to travel another two hours to Fort Worden Park in beautiful Port Townsend, Washington.

We were so glad we decided to come -

The weather was perfect with enough of a breeze to make the sailors happy, but not so much that the rowboats couldn't go out. There were a total of 14 boats on the water -

A great slide show can be found at Dory-Man's blog.

Every boat there was just gorgeous, and every one of them got out on the water - no lookie-do this event! Everyone was there to show off their boats and try out the others.

Our "host" Laingdon sailing by the pier in Sparrow -

 Our other "host" Tom Regan, who seemed to be everywhere at once -

Tom built several of the boats at the event and each one is a beauty!

This guy refused to get out of the frame until I took his picture -

Of course Lamb Chop got her moment in the sun -

Before and After pictures of Lamb Chop later this week - she deserves a post of her own.

We're still pretty tired here and trying to catch up on all of the things that had to slide to get ready for such a long trip. Company tomorrow and then life should settle down a bit and I can post about all the other happenings going on at the Rockin' Red Rabbit Ranch.

She Swims!

Lamb Chop got wet for the first time in maybe 20 years late this afternoon. Dory-Man asked me if I'd like to be the first to row her out into the Yaquina River and what a treat it was!

She's come a long way in two short weeks. Dory-Man has been working night and day to get the weathered wood sanded down, oiled and painted, and she's a beauty! She's not finished by any means, but we're taking her to a gathering of wooden boat enthusiasts in Port Townsend, Washington this weekend.

Before and After pictures, as well as some under sail (weather permitting) next week.

Have a great weekend!