Escape from Alcatraz Swim

Alcatraz island.

From 1934-1963, the Federal Government operated a maximum security prison on this island in the middle of San Francisco Bay.

Most prisoners incarcerated in Alcatraz prison were those who were considered violent and dangerous, inmates considered escape risks, and who refused to follow the rules and regulations at other Federal institutions.


They were the worst of the worst.

And they were placed on Alcatraz because it was escape-proof. The emphasis was on punishment, routine and discipline -- rehabilitation was not an option.

Because of its location, the prisoners were forced to look over the Bay at San Francisco and see all that they were missing out on. They say that it was death by boredom.

I did note that there was one inmate who knew how to crochet (thanks to his grandmother) and he proceeded to teach about 21 other men how to crochet as well to pass the time...this blog is Plays with Needles afterall...

The morning of the swim was a little chilly with air temperatures around 57 degrees Fahrenheit and water temp at 53. Due to the many wildfires burning in California, the air was foggy and overcast which made it feel even colder. Many of the spectators had on winter coats, scarves and hats. We were wearing bathing suits and wet suits. Who was smarter?

The prior day we had taken a ferry out to the island for a tour. At the time, the water had 1-2 foot swells with white caps and looked pretty turbulent. I was a bit anxious about the swift current and being able to site the landmarks properly in the foggy morning. I hadn't considered the water temperature...

My friends, however, were scared to death of the cold. They told me that they had purchased "wetsuit hats" for their heads. I am not really wimpy about the cold and had done many practice swims in 58-60 degree water, so I blew them off...

My friend's doctor had told her the importance of protecting the ears since they were so close to your brain. OK folks, I had ignored her until that story.

So, I relented, and I finally bought a special hat for under my swim cap. It sure did make me look goofy!

picture courtesy of Cats' Paw on Flickr

Here is a view of the island and the park into which we would swim to finish. We needed to make sure we swam through that little opening and didn't let the current wash us past it.

Here is the view from the water. The morning of the swim I couldn't see the opening when I was swimming so I just aimed just left of the two towers.

We don't actually jump off the island. They ferry us out to the island and we jump from the boats. I met swimmers from all over the world (Ireland, Australia, Germany) who had come to San Francisco to swim this race. So, there are nuts like me all over the world!

The horn sounded and it was time to jump. I felt like I was jumping off an airplane. We had to disembark quickly and without hesitation. "GO, GO, GO" The three of us held hands and jumped! No turning back.

photo courtesy of allswede on Flickr

AHHHHH!!! When I hit the water, the breath was knocked out of me. I felt like I had just jumped into a tub of ice cubes. My first thought was..."I cannot do this. How do I get back into that boat?" It was absolutely freezing! I looked around and thought...ok, all of these other people are not climbing back into the boat...if they can handle it, so can I.

In a few minutes, my arms went completely numb and my body began to get used to the cold. Everyone in the water started to yell and I joined in too. It sounded like a battle cry and there were kayakers all around us to support us should we need it. They weren't yelling...but they were dressed in hats and coats...


At the start, I just put my head down and started to swim. In a few moments I was into my groove and just wanted to swim like heck until I could get warm again. A couple of times the waves were high and I swallowed the very-salty bay water. The choppiness plus swallowing the salty water made me feel a little queasy but that passed.

The current was stronger the closer I got toward the opening in the park wall and I had to push a little harder at that time. The fog did make it hard to see, but I used those two towers to sight by and that worked out great.

Nothing felt better than when I made it through the hole and headed toward shore. It took me about 42 minutes but it felt like an hour!

Wetsuit pictures are never pretty but I'm trying to be "real" here. I kind of look like a line backer but I am what I am...

And here I am the happy finisher...trying to stay warm under the wrap they give you. I swam from Alcatraz and it was definitely an adventure. Here are some pics of the brave women who were along with me on my journey...

Somehow Carin looks less goofy in HER hat...

And Natalie spent her time calling everyone telling her how nervous she was...

And our team cheerleaders, photographers and psychiatric support...

and here is a picture of the dolphin tattoos that our swim team gave us to make us extra strong...they worked! Then they sent us a bottle of champagne for celebration later that night....that made us strong too!

The rest of my San Francisco trip was wonderful so I'll have to tell you about that later...


I'm including a link to a YouTube video if you're interested. The conditions in this video are almost exactly the same as the day of the swim. It's a little long at 9 minutes but it's a good simulation of my swim.

Oh yeah, did I mention that there were two people taken to the hospital for hypothermia?

I'm Swimming from Alcatraz...

The Ripple Effect...

This pink and white ripple afghan has been on my bed since I was 10.


It was made for me by my grandmother who shared a room with me for about five years when I was growing up. Her favorite color was pink too and she crocheted all the time. She was forever making baby booties and blankets for the white elephant bazaar at church or making granny square afghans. She didn't make as many ripple afghans so mine is extra special...

I tell my son that my blanket has special magical properties like a magic item from Harry Potter. I feel secure, protected and like my grandmother is still with me when I'm under my blanket. It's a real treasure.

It's time for me to start another crocheting/knitting project that I can work on at night while watching TV, when my eyes are too tired to do anything else.

I have a dream of making Jack and each one of my nieces an afghan for when they graduate for high school and go away to college. I missed my first niece already who is going into her third year at the University of Wisconsin. I'm aiming to finish hers before she graduates from college!

OK, so I bought my yarn at Knitpicks because it's CHEAP and I like to use superwash for my afghans so you can toss it in the laundry.

I'm also playing with the Random Stripe Generator. This tool allows you to enter your colors of yarn, your stripe widths and your length. It then randomly generates combinations for you to use as a pattern. It's great fun!

I've decided I like the stripes to be the same width, though I imagine with 10 to make, I will eventually experiment with lots of styles.

I had lots of fun getting ideas from the Ripple-Along group on Flickr.


I like this one from purejuice2 because of the vertical stripes. This one will make the bed look thinner!


And I love the color combination on this one from attic24 but I don't think I have this many colors to choose from...


And I love the random colored stripe of green on this one amidst a monochromatic pink style from twolimeleaves...

Stay tuned for what I choose...my niece loves pink too so that will have to figure prominently...

In the Woods...

We like to spend a lot of time hiking, running, and biking in the Patapsco State Park that is near my house. As a kid, we lived on the other side of this park and we spent many hours playing here as kids. I know it inside and out.

I just finished this book and I could not put it down. Set in Ireland, three 12-year old kids play every day in the woods near their house. One day they go missing and they find one of the kids, the narrator of our story, in shock up against a tree with blood all over his shoes and his fingernails dug into the trunk. He has no memory of what happened or where his friends are.

Fast-forward to modern day, the boy is now a homicide detective investigating a murder of a 12-year old girl in the same wood. It's a gripping read...I read it while doing laundry, unloading the dishwasher...my nose was definitely in this book!

And my SIL just gave me this book which I haven't yet started. It's about a man who re-acquaints himself with America after living in Britain for 20 years. He and a friend walk the Appalachian Trail which stretches from Maine to Georgia and covers 2,100 miles of wildnerness. This is their story.

I'd love to know what you thought of it if you've read it!

A Couple of Details...

Day 9

Day 8

I have stopped stitching my details sequentially since I'm trying to complete my Tea Therapy pillow and not every seam treatment "fits" in the spaces I have left.

I rather like the button flower and intend to add a grouping of them to the project.

I'm heading off to San Francisco this morning for a family vacation and to participate in the Alcatraz Sharkfest Swim next Saturday. I've scheduled a couple of posts while I'm away but I'll return with lots of goodies to share about my exploits! Be well!

Zoo Inspiration...

Yesterday, we went to the Baltimore Zoo to meet Samson, the new baby elephant who is 3 months old. At birth, he weighed around 260 lbs. and now he's close to 475 lbs!

Here's the proud Mama

If you live in the area, the baby is only available for viewing between 10 am - 12 Noon so plan accordingly. There were also three baby chimps which were my favorite to watch. They rough-housed, tumbled and got into all types of mischief -- non-stop action over there. I could have stayed all day watching them!

But the biggest surprise of all was that Mr. Peacock decided to strut his stuff. What a marvelous bird! I didn't get a picture of the back of the bird but I believe the back is as fabulous as the front.

The kids had a great time and we were there ALL DAY (The big guy in the back is Jack; he's the only one that belongs to me)!

I think the colors in this picture of the peacock are so glorious! I had to play with them a little.

I decided to use some of the color tools that Sharon B has identified on her blog at different times. I use them all pretty frequently for different reasons.

Here's a page from The Color Palette Generator. I LOVE this tool. It think the color palette looks like quilt squares. Often, I will take the palette and head off to my fabric stash and select the colors to use in a block. The embellishments will be in the highlight colors of the peacock...so all the blues and the chartreuse greens and white, of course...can't you see how they would POP on top of all of those greens! I love the pale bluish tones too...they give the block balance because they're a different value.

I took a sample of the peacock blue and plugged it into The Color Wizard and here's a list of the monochromatic thread colors/beads/buttons I could use.


Now, it just turns out that the Pantone Fashion Color Report for Fall 2008 has all of the following colors...

Except for the orange/yellow/red, looks like there will be a lot of people wearing "peacock" this Fall. And check this out...

from the Bill Blass Fall 2008 Collection!

And to think I came at all of this from a trip to the zoo...

Making Cake...

I love pretty cakes. I don't really care to eat them. I just like to look at them. In fact, it makes me feel very happy to look at a beautiful cake.

When faced with Detail 6 of 100 Details in 200 days, I needed to stitch a motif...so I chose a cake design from Sublime Stitching to add to my Tea Therapy pillow.

I took step-by-step pictures thinking that there may be a few women in our group who have never stitched a motif onto a quilt block. There are many methods to do this but this is the method I use most frequently.

First, I traced my design onto tissue paper. I placed the tissue paper over my block and stitched over the design using a line of held thread (or you could use a running stitch). I then scored the tissue around the stitching and tore the paper away.


I was left with my design in white thread on my fabric which I can cover with my stitching. A good rule of thumb is to use a transfer thread color that either matches the background or matches the color of your embroidery.


Now, for the fun part...the decorating! I stitched the cake in brown long-and-short stitch.

I stitched the cake plate in a chain stitch...


and the icing in an outline stitch. I wanted the icing to "pop" so I added silk ribbon florettes and beads. Three cherries topped it off and...voila!

Cake with our tea.

I couldn't help but think of the movie, Calendar Girls, when I was stitching this cake. Especially the scene where they take this picture. It's a hoot! Oh, if you haven't watched it, it's a must!

If you like cakes as much as I do, then you absolutely have to check out these ribbons by Laura Foster-Nicholson. All her ribbons are fabulous. Many of them you can purchase at Farmhouse Fabrics or you can see them all at Renaissance Ribbons.



And almost every item in Jenny's Bake Shop on Etsy has some kind of beautiful cake.

So, there's lots of ways to have your cake and eat it too!