HighFiber: June 2022

Monday, June 27, 2022

The End of an Era

Finally! The T-shirt quilt top is finally finished.

Now, on to the back, which will include a few other T-shirt pieces.

So, during an online party with Madroña Vinyards, I managed to finish few more rounds of the Hinterland Pullover. Not that you can tell, probably.

Early in the week, before our current mini-heatwave hit, I baked some more Dutch-oven bread. This loaf is from my half recipe, which works well in my smaller Dutch oven.

The Rhododendrons are blooming. I cut a few blossoms for our kitchen window.

Early in the week, before it got too warm, we took some walks.The stroller was a big help, as usual. On Wednesday we went on the trail to Bear Creek Rd. and back.

Then on Saturday, we walked through the wilderness/woods, back to the trail and then to the Recreation Center and back. Dusty got some off-leash time, and Rocky walked home from the trail with the help of his seeing-eye human.

Unfortunately, my phone wasn't charged up enough for me to be able to take photos and run the Walk for a Dog app, too, so I only have the screen shots of the route for each day.

For some cuteness, here are Soren, Cousin Leo and Johan, at Sunday's mini-triathlon.

I went through my online list of all the stories in The Doll's Storybook and numbered each one. Every time there is a new story, I add it and the link. The latest story is number 210.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. Every click on the page for the book makes it more likely they will keep a good supply in their warehouse and stores. If you are outside the US, you may have a separate website for these retailers. If you have a copy of our first book, Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, it would help if you left an honest review on the websites, especially if you bought from them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: A few more rows done on the Hinterland Pullover. Soon it will be long enough for the ribbing. No progress on the emPower People Kerchief.

What's on my loom: No progress on the Trailer Rugs.

What's on my sewing machine: Still the T-shirt quilt, ready to start on the back.

What's in my hoop: No progress on the Whole Cloth Quilt.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In this week's story, The Anniversary Party, we take a serious look back on how The Doll's Storybook began four years ago.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone on the Audible app. Getting close to the end.

What's in my wine glass: Mundus, vine regional Lisboa from Portugal.

What's my tip of the week: If you carefully run your pins through your hair before putting them through your fabric, they will go through more easily. This is a trick I learned when my kiddos were in diapers, which was (mostly) before disposable.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is now available for preorder from booksellers world wide. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less.

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.

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Monday, June 20, 2022

Another Week, Come and Gone!

During breaks in the rain, a few things happened outdoors. The squirrel picnic table was installed. It took the "tree rats" (as a friend calls them) about overnight to find the "picnic."

The next day: picked clean. The squirrels even cleaned up after themselves, gathering up all the corn that fell onto the ground.

The vegetable and herb pot is producing tomatoes. They're small, Siam Mini Tomatoes.

The hydrangea bushes in the front of the house are blooming nicely and growing, too.

We finally have some apples, after three years in the ground. I'll go out on a limb (tee-hee) and say that the birds are going to love them.

The birds should love the strawberries, too. This one is about 1" long. There are quite a few. I hope they leave us one or two to pay us for our work.

I finished Pippa's Stripy Pullover. I published a revision to the original pattern (Pauly's Stripy Pullover) to make the ribbing tidy. I had forgotten that you have to knit one row/round of the ribbing color before starting the ribbing. Otherwise the top of the ribbing appears in the other color.

All the blocks in the T-shirt quilt are sewn together with the sashing. Just the borders to go, and the top will be finished.

The quilt would go together faster, but I have to keep an eye on Rocky when Charlie is out in the yard. Now that the weather is nicer, he likes to go outdoors, too, and walk around. Someone has to supervise him, though, because he can barely see or hear, and occasionally he collapses on the ground and can't get up again. He has a hard time getting down the stairs from the deck, and he can't get back up them, so we have put up a baby gate to keep him on the deck unless we're out in the yard to watch. I put him out on the grass in the morning for ten minutes while I fix the dogs' breakfast. Then I put him out several times during the day. I have to go get him, because he can't find his way back. (He never did have a very good sense of direction.) Rocky just visited the groomer on Friday. It's still cool, so he wears one of his fleece jackets until his hair grows back in a bit. I'm so glad he survived long enough to enjoy some nice weather again.

The Doll's Storybook just reached four years. I thought about taking some time off, but the stories keep coming to me and I have to write them down. I have a post that lists all the stories, starting with the first one on June 22, 2018, along with the links to each one. The way the blog is organized, it's hard to find the earlier stories otherwise. There are 209 of them, one each Friday. I've been starting to think about another published book, perhaps one with all the classic stories and fairy tales, retold as only the dolls can tell them.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Finished Pippa's Stripy Pullover. A few more rows done on the Hinterland Pullover. Soon it will be long enough for the ribbing. No progress on the emPower People Kerchief.

What's on my loom: No progress on the Trailer Rugs, but I'll be needing them soon, so....

What's on my sewing machine: Still the T-shirt quilt.

What's in my hoop: No progress on the Whole Cloth Quilt.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In this week's story, The Perils of Pauly and Pippa, Pippa finds out that she has had an advantage over Pauly by coming into a family of other dolls who know what kinds of things are dangerous. She teaches Pauly all the things you have to watch out for, including how to cross the street.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone on the Audible app.

What's in my wine glass: La Crima Purpura again, "Vino Tinto Seco" (Dry Red Wine) from Spain, notes of cherry, but dry.

What's my tip of the week: If you weigh your yarn before you start on a project, then weigh how much you have left when you're done, it will tell you how much you used. It's better than weighing the finished project afterwards, which might have several different kinds of yarn and perhaps some buttons. It also will take into account any tails you trim off after weaving in at the end. (High humidity can make yarn weigh more.)

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less.

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Monday, June 13, 2022

Finally Progress!

Some progress happened this week. A few more rows on the Hinterland Pullover. Mindless knitting goes faster, of course...except that it doesn't, because it isn't as interesting. When I have a meeting or a Zoom call with the kids, though, I can get a few more rows done.

I published my pattern for Pauly's Stripy Pullover a couple of weeks ago, but I wanted to see if I could make the transition to the ribbing look smoother, so I'm making a new one. It's working, so I plan to publish an update to the pattern.

I have the sashing strips for the T-shirt quilt all sewn to the strips of blocks, so now I have to finish sewing the rows together. It's going quickly...when I get to it.

I had my mammogram this week, and while I was waiting another lady stopped to see what I was knitting. We chatted, and I found out she was a quilter, too, and in the course of conversation, I obtained the name and phone number of a machine quilter in Terrabonne (town close to Suttle Lake, which has been mentioned in my blog before, so not too far away). That gives me a potential place to get my T-shirt quilt quilted.

We had four bananas that were getting a bit...ripe, so I made oatmeal banana bread.

Usually when I have a couple of overripe bananas, I either make my banana-oat waffles or use them in a smoothie. Four was a bit much, though, thus the banana bread. (Recipe below.)

As is the case each week, I made a loaf of sourdough bread and bed my starter, which responded by expanding in its jars. I rarely use purchased yeast anymore.

Saturday we participated in the local gun-safety march. It was raining, but we met at Drake park, where at least the ducks and geese were happy.

The rain was mostly just a drizzle, and we wore our parkas. We had umbrellas with us in case the rain got too heavy.

I meant to get selfies of us, but we were late getting there, and as soon as we had finished signing petitions, the march took off. We passed people sitting and eating at sidewalk restaurants. I did manage to catch Dusty in one photo, though. He had a great time.

Rocky rode in his stroller. He was wearing his red fleece jacket. The back and sides of the stroller have mesh windows, so you can see Rocky, labeled here, "Dog." That's my foot in the lower part of the photo.

Sunday was our last day to sing as a choir. We had a baptism and confirmation, so the bishop was there. Our bishop lives in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, and drove over on Saturday.

Later that afternoon, the choir had a party. We met at one of the choir member's homes. They have a lovely lake with ducks.

I should have taken photos of her lovely quilting studio. She makes art quilts and has a long-arm quilting machine. The workshop was impressive to say the least.

The grandkids and their activities are always fun to include. Here's Johan with Louis. I don't know where Soren was; probably home with Dad.

The other grandkids were in Florida with their parents this past week. They saw all the sights: Disney World, Epcot Center, Universal Studios and Disney Springs. They will remember this trip forever.

I have looked at so many of their photos showing where they went, my feet hurt!

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Hinterland Pullover, a few more rows done, and the emPower People Kerchief, removed from the dog stroller 😆. (I guess that's progress!) First sleeve of the blue and white Stripy Pullover for Pippa.

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/hinterland-5

https://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/empower-people

What's on my loom: No progress.

What's on my sewing machine: T-shirt Quilt.

What's in my hoop: Whole Cloth Quilt, no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Rolling Into Summer Camp. Emil gets a letter from Pen Pal Holly, who is at summer camp with her human child. The camp is special for children who need to use a wheelchair to get around. Holly included photos.(I was able to get permission from Boise Parks and Recreation to use their photos from a similar program they have for kids who use wheelchairs or otherwise have challenges making regular camp impractical.)

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone on the Audible app.

What's in my wine glass: Sancho Garcés Rioja Tempranillo from Spain. Nice. Different.

What's my tip of the week: Here's my recipe for Oatmeal Banana Bread:

Ingredients

3 ripe bananas

2 eggs

1/2 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup milk

3/4 cup slow-cooking rolled oats

1/4 cup oat bran

1 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp nutmeg

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350ºF.

Spray a bread loaf pan with cooking spray.

Place bananas, eggs, maple syrup, milk, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder, baking soda and oats in blender. Blend until smooth.. Add in whole wheat pastry flour, Mix until just combined. Pour batter bread pan. Bake for 50 minutes or until an inserted toothpick comes out clean.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less.

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Monday, June 6, 2022

Finally! The Return of the T-Shirt Quilt.

Finally! I'm back to the T-shirt quilt! All the blocks are now sewn to sashing strips.

Back when I left off, we had arranged then in way we thought was pleasing. Then I took a photo, before stacking them up in order.

I was glad for the photo when I got back to working on the quilt. I printed it off and taped it up on the wall in the workroom.

Yesterday I put the strips out on the guest bed to get a photo of my progress. Next step is to put in the rest of the sashing and the cornerstones. I laid out a couple of sashing strips (not yet cut to the right length with a cornerstone between them, so you can sort of see how it's going to look.

The border fabric is the same as the cornerstones, with a big square in each corner from the same fabric as the sashing. It's all cut out and ready to go.

I finally put Pauly's trousers/slacks together.

I used quilting cotton in a pattern that resembles sort of a twill weave. Here's a closeup of the fabric, with a pencil for scale.

I used the Liberty Jane Boot Cut Jeans pattern with my special back piece, which I've shown in my blog before. I substitute this piece for the two separate pieces in the original pattern, which normally would be pieced to make the back of the pants. There is also a square back pocket, but I leave it off, because on this scale, the pockets tend to stick out.

All the pattern pieces have to be printed at 80%, and then the seam allowances have to be enlarged by about 1/8". Hems have to be adjusted back to original, too.

Spring has finally hit us, with rain almost every night and sometimes in the day. They say that spring is when a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of love, but I would add that an old man's fancy turns to thoughts of gardening. (They may be related, though.) Charlie took out the bushes in the front of the house, which you can see here, under the living room windows.

They were probably very nice at one time, but they only grew leaves on the top part, which had to be trimmed off each year to keep from blocking the windows. A few days ago, he came home with a couple of hydrangea plants. These shouldn't get as tall. He said 2-3 feet high, but I remember his parents had one in their backyard that was about 10 feet tall, However, it stayed bushy almost to the ground, and it will probably be a long time before these get as big, if ever. The parents lived in San Diego, and the climate is very different. I had never seen this color before.

When the weather is nice, we have started walking again on the trail. We discovered something new had been added. You may remember the home along the trail with these interesting planters.

Their next-door neighbor has added a complimentary set of planters. These are for herbs.

You may also remember this sign we saw along the trail: Oscar Wilde the feline.

We actually met him on one of our walks. He was not at all intimidated by Dusty. I didn't get a photo, but he's a lovely black-and-white kitty.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: A few more rows on the Hinterland Pullover, and a few rows on another Stripy Pullover for Pippa. The emPower People Kerchief is still in the stroller. (I really should keep it in my purse.)

What's on my loom: No progress.

What's on my sewing machine: The T-shirt quilt.

What's in my hoop: No Progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In A Friend Moves Away, Daphne's Vali plays a friend of Jolena's who is moving away, and Pippa worries that Pauly might move away, too.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Woman Who Smashed Codes by Jason Fagone on the Audible app. Close to finishing. Very interesting true story.

What's in my wine glass: Saltram Shiraz 2019 from Southeastern Australia. Excellent, IMO.

What's my tip of the week: It is said, "Don't believe everything you read and only half of what you see." Sometimes I find photos posted online that say they are X, Y or Z. I try to be skeptical, because I have found out after sharing something that it wasn't what it was supposed to be, either because the photo had been altered or because accompanying attribution was purposely misleading. Now, if I see a photo online I think I would like to share, I look it up, using a "reverse image search" service to find out when and where it has appeared online. I use one called TinEye, but there are others. It can tell you where and when the image first appeared.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop, because 50% of the price goes to St. Jude. Other booksellers pay much less.

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