Careful Ventures

Quilters, I'm down to another corner.

The corners are much more interesting. However, the cross-hatching is easy to do and makes a nice background for the feathers.

I discovered I have a superpower! I can bring on spring. All I had to do was finish my mittens.

I used the Mummers pattern from Saltwater Mittens by Christine LeGrow and Shirley A. Scott. The yarn is Harrisville Highland Worsted in Aubergine and Silver Mist.

On Wednesday I CO the Brioche Shawl Feathers shawl. It's very complicated, so I will need something mindless to work on when I'm out and about (which is seldom these days) and I have enough dishcloths. The CO was strange, but there is a YouTube video that shows it, and it was helpful. There seem to be videos for just about every step, which is a welcome aberration. I'm ready to start the brioche section.

I needed 50" US2/2.75mm circular needles for this shawl, but the longest I had in that size were 42". I could have made do, but I wanted to be able to spread the stitches out, so after I had my bone-density scan on Wednesday I stopped at Fancywork Yarn Shop to see if I could pick up some. They had interchangeable needles (the kind where you can take the tips off and use them on a different size cable) in that size. I didn't know they came with tips that small. While I was there, we got to talking about my book, and the owner/manager asked for several copies to sell in her shop, even though they aren't about knitting, so I'll be going back on Tuesday to drop them off.

This week brought a friend to town, so we had our first nonfamily guests since the pandemic started. Carol and Jeff, in town to ski at Mt. Bachelor with Jeff's grandkids, came to lunch before flying home. They've each had their first dose of the vaccine, and we're fully vaccinated for more than a month, so it was relatively safe.

I gave Carol a copy of my book for her granddaughter, Stella. She asked me to sign it.

Carol and her husband were our last guests in January of the Pandemic Year, when they came for tea and DBIL Jim was here, too. We got a similar selfie this time. No Jim, but the knobs are on the kitchen cabinets now.

Carol's son Colby had a competition early the next morning, our time at 3:00 AM-something. I didn't get up to watch, but Carol sent me a text and said he got the gold!

This was the FIS World Cup Freestyle competition, and his event was Slopestyle.

If you have no idea what this is, here's a video of his winning run.

Colby inspired my character Jolena, who is on the US Doll Ski Team and tries to do some of the same tricks Colby does, but with the help of a little fishing line. I had hoped to get photos of her in her ski gear, flying through the air this past winter, but we didn't get enough snow down here, and I was reluctant to go up to the ski area to look for a tree in the open I could use. Next year.

I used some of my money from the government to buy some extra orthotics, so I don't have to switch them when I change shoes to go out. One of these pairs is for indoors and one is for outdoors. The Nikes on the right are water- and sand-resistant. (The orthotics maker bought one of my books!)

Saturday was a lovely day. It was almost warmer outdoors than in for the first time this year. (I did this by finishing my mittens, remember?) I sat out on the front deck and listened to the last two chapters of the book we're using for the Adult Forum on Sunday.

The lettuce in DH's AeroGarden is taking over. I will have to pick a couple of leaves each day to add to our regular lettuce for salad. The tomato plants are covered with blossoms!

We sang, virtually, on sunday. If you want to watch and listen, go to 1:06 on the video of the service (unless you want to watch the whole service, which is OK, too).

I went in to record my part for Easter Sunday on Saturday. If you watch the Palm Sunday piece or the Easter piece, you can tell by the background which people recorded at home and which ones went in to the church to record. We had 15-minute time slots for recording. We wore masks until it was time to sing. We never touched anything anyone else touched, and the director stood a long way back from the singer.

We live in challenging times.

What's on my needles: Brioche Shawl Feathers. Just starting the brioche.

What's on my sewing machine: Thoughts and ideas. My turtleneck shirts are wearing out right above the cuff. I'm thinking about taking the cuffs off and turning up a hem. They would be 3/4-length sleeves then. (They're almost that now, because my arms are too long for my shoulders and chest, but the shirts would still be useable. Sweaters will keep me warm. First I need to clean the workroom!

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. We're getting there.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: "Ripples." Charlotte tells everyone about how she discovered that one simple thing she did to help a friend started a chain reaction that ended up helping another friend and herself.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Love Is the Way by Bishop Michael Curry. It was an amazing book and puts a lot of things in perspective for me. A little more progress made in The Black Madonna by Stella Reilly.

What's in my wine glass: Tucana Cabernet Sauvignon Pinotage 2019 from South Africa. Excellent, IMO.

What's my tip of the week: The ends of a loaf of bread often get left behind and shoved to the back of the fridge. I try to take them out before they get moldy and grind them up in my little food processor. Then I freeze the crumbs. They are good in faux meatloaf, mixed with texturized vegetable protein crumbles (but you could use ground beef or turkey, if you eat meat) or used as a topping for casseroles.

Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from Amazon worldwide. Also available from BookBaby, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. The three stories in the book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. The stories (and links to them) are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

Note: This blog post was produced on the iPad and the MacBook, using the iPhone for some photos and some photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for, cleaned or broken. No animals or dolls were harmed during the production of this blog post.