Life threw me lemons in the form of bad weather.
We decided it was too dangerous to drive up to Portland for the Rose City Yarn Crawl, so I had to do the virtual version. Then Alexa decided to do virtual instead of in-person, too. The boys were off from school because of the snow, and driving around Portland wouldn't be any picnic, so we met via FaceTime and scooted around to the different shops. One advantage of virtual shopping is, you can visit all the shops looking for yarn for a particular project, and then go back to the shop where you liked the choices best. We started at Starlight Knitting Society.
I found this book, "Knitted Kalevala," by a #Finnish writer and knitwear designer, Jenna Kostet, and ordered it.
I checked out the patterns from the book on Ravelry before I made my purchase. I was interested in the book, because I knew that Kalevala is a Finnish epic made up from songs, poems, stories, etc., from the oral tradition. You may remember that my half-Finnish hubs gave me earrings for my birthday representing Kuutar, the Moon Goddess from Kalevala.
My mother-in-law told me all about Kalevala before we were married. It's an important part of Finnish heritage, and interesting literature. Of course, as a knitter, I had to have the book. Each project in the book was inspired by something from the epic. I can't wait to see what the author says about each one. I checked out the listing on Ravelry to see which projects called for fingering weight yarn, my preferred weight for sweaters for myself.
All three of these three pullovers from the book call for about the same amount of yarn:
Pohjolan emäntä (Mistress of Pohjolan)
Kultainen käki (Golden cuckoo)
Suolaulu (Salt song)
I checked out the options at each store to find yarn in the right quantities, but ended up going back to the store where I bought the book, so in addition to the book, enough of this yarn to make a pullover is on its way to me: Camper from Kelbourne Woolens.
Moss Heather is what I picked for the main color:
I needed a contrast color, so I picked Autumn Heather.
The virtual version of the Rose City Yarn Crawl isn't as much fun as in-person, but with a friend doing FaceTime with you it can still be fun.
I'm still working on the Talvinen sweater (but as a cardigan), so I will have time to decide. With the yarn crawl and some downtime while we wait for the weather (most preparations for travel being done, except for loading the trailer), I got some knitting done. Here's where I am in the Talvinen project. (The steek, where I will cut it open, is at the top in the photo.)
Earlier in the week Dusty went to the groomer. He got his usual haircut, which doesn't leave much to brush out every day or so.
He inherited Rocky's coat to wear outdoors when it's cold, as it has been here. He doesn't seem to mind the cold, and the ice and snow doesn't seem to bother his feet, maybe because they don't put salt on the roads here. (As you no doubt know, an old fashioned ice-cream freezer uses salt to melt the ice in the bucket that surrounds the container with the ice cream. The melting ice causes the ice cream to freeze. You crank it to stir the ice cream as it freezes to keep ice crystals from forming. Salt added to ice on the sidewalk does the same thing to your shoes and puppy feet that the process does to ice cream.) We've gone on several walks this week.
Dusty is such a good boy that I decided he needed some special treats to take when we finally hit the road. I adapted a recipe I found and made these doggie "brownies" by starting the process in the bread machine. They are a big hit with Dusty.
I'm going to try substituting oatmeal for part of the flour next time I make it.
The puppies turned 6 weeks old on Wednesday, and we have new photos.
(Important to note: All of these puppies are now spoken for, but Marie at Ash's Mystical Poodles has other puppies. I think posting all the photos on Facebook led to inquiries. We went back to her because she knows how to prevent her puppies from inheriting health defects.) We don't know yet which one is Rusty, but we're looking forward to meeting him. The puppies will be evaluated by dog trainers, and we will get the calmest, which is good, because brown or cafe au lait poodles tend to be feisty. All three will definitely be cafe au lait, not dark brown, so Rusty will look sort of like Dusty but brownish, rather than gray. Our session with the pet psychic will be put off until March 12, which is OK, since we didn't make the trip to Portland, but she did mention to me that the birthday of these puppies, 1/11, is the "angel number. That's supposed to be a good thing. We will tell this to Rusty when we meet him. I went out Saturday to get some fake fur for blankies for the puppy. They really like fake fur and fleece blankies in their crates. You just have to be sure they have something else to chew on. I got a yard of brown fuzzy fake fur, like sheepskin. His mother is brown, and this is a similar color. I washed it and cut it in two, so one to use and one for the laundry. It was shedding a lot, but just from the edges, It didn't leave much fluff in the washer or dryer.
The place we hope to stay in Pahrump when we stop there to pick up the puppy requires trailers older than a certain age to still look good, so we had to send them photos of our fifth wheel. It meant running around in the snow when it was sunny but very, very cold! I hope it passes muster. We bought our trailer in 2000, but it was several months old, built in 1999. We keep it repaired, but there's always something.
If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Classic Tales Retold: 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 any of our books, including Emil and Mariah, please leave 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 loom: Dust, but I still plan to make some placemats.
What's on my sewing machine: Still ready for back of T-shirt quilt.
What's in my hoop: Whole Cloth quilt, still no progress..
What's in The Doll's Storybook: The change in plans inspired this week's story in #TheDollsStorybook. Mandy was going to go with us. Find out more in Giving Up Disappointment.
What's on my iPad/iPhone: I didn't get very far in The House at the End of the World by Dean Koontz, because it has been a very busy week. I decided to start it over and use it for the trip. Charlie will enjoy it. Now I'm listening to The Governess of Penwythe Hall by Sarah E. Ladd. It's a complete change of pace from the last book I finished. I think this is the fourth of her novels I've read, and I've had it in my library for a while.
What's in my wine glass: Sayanca Malbec 2022 from Argentina. Yum!
What's my tip of the week: Those plastic boxes that lettuce and greens sometimes come in can't be recycled where we live, so I've been using them to hold yarn and other things, but have run out of stuff to put in them. While getting things organized for our trip with the trailer, I realized that I can use them in the freezer to hold small packages of things like bagels (which I freeze two-to-a-pack, since we eat them two at a time). When I open the freezer door now, I don't have to worry that a lot of small stuff will fall out. DH has a lot of small packages of coffee stored on the bottom shelf, so I'll keep collecting them.
Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes.
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.
I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry or Spoutible if you need information.
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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