Interesting Yarn

You never know what a thrift store is going to yield. I don't know what I will do with this. I don't even know what it says. But I thought it was interesting and worth my dollar investment. Anyone read Japanese?

Back to Doilies

What with Tall Ships and the Museum of Glass, I haven't written much about knitting recently. But I have been knitting. I finished a doily, still in size 30, on my path to smaller numbers.

• Pattern: Anna Burda 1086 19A
• Thread: Clark's Big Ball size 30, color 26B, maybe half of the ball
  
• Needles: 2.25mm
• Finished size: Approximately 13 inches in diameter
  

I am currently working in size 50 thread on my way to size 100; stay tuned.

More Glass

The Museum of Glass offers the opportunity to see artists who are the best at what they do. This week it was Czech artists Jiri Harcuba and Petr Novotny (pardon the lack of diacritical marks; I don't think Blogger knows how to do that).

Harcuba is a master etcher. This week, he was etching on pieces made by Novotny and by the museum Hot Shop crew. He starts by making a drawing on paper, often a napkin, then uses a Sharpie to make the drawing on the glass. Then he etches the design on the glass. (It sounds a lot simpler than it is.) He works on a dozen pieces at the same time, going back and forth between different pieces.

Hot Shop visitors who sit in the front row of the gallery often have a chance to speak with the artist and ask questions, which is great fun.

In addition to making pieces for Harcuba to etch, Novotny (red shirt) made some of his own pieces. He called this one a "cage," although to me it looked like a basket or like this Knotted Openwork Scarf stitch — in glass.

He then had the Hot Shop crew make a gold bubble that was blown inside the cage to create a lining.

Watching glass being made is so interesting that I can't even knit while I watch.

Tall Ships

The place to be in Tacoma this weekend was the Tall Ships festival. I won two tickets to board all of the ships from a Port of Tacoma drawing. We aimed first for the "premium" ships, which was a smart move. We had only a 45-minute wait. (Lines for the Coast Guard ship Eagle and the "general class" ships was upwards of two hours at some times.)

The premium ships included the Merrie Ellen, Kaisei and HMS Bounty.

I was impressed with all of the ropes.

The Bounty — built for the 1960 movie "Mutiny on the Bounty" — was one of the more popular ships, especially the fully clothed figurehead.

Tacoma has a long history with shipping. On almost any day, you can see container ships, grain ships, power boats, tugboats, sailboats, kayaks and ferry boats. During Tall Ships, add traditionally rigged sailing ships.