the faraway island

nantucket!

this summer i decided to make a nantucket knitting basket.

shamelessly stealing the knitting needle idea from michael kane.

i ordered a 14" piece of figured maple from burlwood online.
excellent customer service! and look at the figuring in that maple.

the inside of the basket is 13" , so i measured for a concentric ring to fit snugly inside the basket, cutting the outer circle out on the bandsaw with a circle cutter.

next karol and i roughly cut the inner circle of the ring with a jigsaw. then i sanded it on the drum sander.


the smaller circle left in the middle of the ring becomes the base for the basket. it is also cut on the bandsaw with the circle cutter.


the base is turned on the lathe.


here are the rough cut staves. the staves are cut on the bandsaw from green oak, which is oak that is still wet.



each stave is tapered on both sides of one end to compensate for the curve on the bottom of the mold.


next the edges of the staves are beveled on the belt sander, the edges are shaped like a letter opener.


one finished stave.

the oak staves take a long time to shape and sand, it feels like forever.

the base is screwed into the bottom of the mold, and the staves are shoved into a slot cut into the side of the base.

i had all good intentions of giving you a photo step by step of the basket process.

but i ran into a time crunch when the knitting needles didn't arrive in the mail when i thought they would ;-)

10 pair of 10" lantern moon straight needles, blonde wood shaft, ebony tops. each needle will have an ivory scrimshawed disk glued to the top.


lots of math and a template went into figuring out the placement of the holes for the needles.

each pair of needles fit perfectly into their holes.

the basket will be finished next summer.

i'll weave a pagoda shaped top with an ivory turned finial and knob in the center.


it was hard to leave my basket on nantucket.


film festival- we missed not having the beach movie :-(
it totally sucks that corporate sponsorship was so low. thank the fsm for stella artois!

all the movies i saw this year played at the sconset casino.


we stake out our favorite seats early.

rebecca with bobby and karol, they are the friends who we stay with in june. karol is my basket teacher/mentor/friend. bobby is the director of the nantucket artist association gallery and a fantastic painter.



the sconset casino has the coolest trelliswork all inside.


being the total luddite that i am, i LOVE the old fashioned ladies room in the casino.


aren't the doors too cute?

i know, i'm weird.

movies-

frozen river- 2 needles up but depressing

the deal- 2 needles up, better than expected

transsiberian- 2 needles way up

choke- please stab me with a sharp dpn, 2 needles down

baghead- 2 needles down

inbetween movies we grabbed a picnic dinner at the sconset market. the stairs on front street.

the view from the stairs on front street toward the ocean.

time before the next movie for ice cream at the market!


this charming cottage was part of sconset's original artist colony.



yummy cookout :-)




shop til you drop day. rebecca in front of the club car, our favorite restaurant.



a few shopping bags later.




for me, the holy grail of basketry- the mattapoisett basket. originated by gladys ellis, this basket was woven by letizia reilly.

the mattapoisett is woven over a mold like a nantucket, but it is woven with long pine needles and rafia. the woven lace inserts are similar to tenerife embroidery.

someday...


we love dukie, bobby and karol's kitty :-)

see you next june dukie!