The buttons were a day late due to the weather, but I'm happy with them, and they're on the Kultainen käki sweater now, which means I can wear it.
The pattern was for a pullover, but I find I wear cardigans more, so I knitted it with a steek in the front. I like how it fits, although I didn't choose my turtleneck color very well to go with it. I'm happy with how the colorwork turned out.
I had to move the motifs over. Otherwise the front opening would have gone right through the design. I needed seven buttons, and they came five to a package, so I had to buy two packages, giving me three extra. I decided to fasten one of the extras to the inside of the cardigan, so if I lose a button, it will be handy.
This is the second time I've ordered buttons from Button Bin Etsy, and I've been pleased with them. Their buttons are lovely, and reasonably priced, even taking shipping into account. These are natural olive wood. I'm also very impressed with the yarn, Kelbourne Woolens "Camper", which came from Starlight Knitting Society in Portland. The yarn really made the colorwork look good, even before blocking. I think the color of the buttons goes well with the Autumn Heather (the camel color). The green is Moss Heather. The name "Kultainen käki" means "Golden cuckoo," which appears in the Finnish epic poem "Kalevala." The pattern is from the book Knitted Kalevala by Jenna Kostet, which is full of patterns inspired by "Kalevala."
The rest of Clue #1 for the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery Knit Along came out on Wednesday. I had finished it by Saturday evening. The next one comes out this coming Wednesday.
Attaching the beads can be a challenge, but this time was more so than the last time I did it. The holes in the beads are not uniformly large enough to use my Boye size 11 crochet hook for each bead. Also, my vision and manual dexterity have diminished, which doesn't help. Last time I used a needle and thread, but someone on Ravelry suggested dental floss for this project, so I gave it a go. I found using a needle threader helped. I pull the floss through the stitch with the crochet hook, put the threader into the bead, then pull the floss through so the bead is on both ends of the floss. Then I pull the floss until the stitch comes through the bead. I had the beads in a little bowl, but they skittered all over the place, and it was hard to grab them with the needle threader, so I cut a piece of fleece and put it in a little tray. That went better.
When I finished the first clue, I picked the EmPower People Kerchief back up. (It has been hibernating.) It was easy work to finish it. It's soft and warm. You wear it like a cowl.
When I wasn't knitting or sewing on buttons or working on my knitting projects, I took some time to work on Zachary's quilt. I had already cut the strips needed. I decided to use my Featherweight, since I wouldn't need to do any zigzag stitching, and I had stuff piled in the cabinet for my Eversewn Sparrow 15.
With rotary cutting and strip piecing, this quilt is quick and easy. Here's what my blocks look like.
By Friday I had all 20 blocks finished and sewn together in the diagonal setting, which is my favorite.
I got the borders on Saturday (a one-inch inner border out of the red fabric) and Sunday (the four-inch paw-print used in the blocks). Now to buy the backing fabric. I'm hoping the ice has melted enough that I can go to the store.
I should be able to to deliver it to the quilter sometime this week.
Peter, who was here to help out after Charlie's cataract surgery, left to go home on Monday and arrived home safely late in the afternoon. We had an appointment with the ophthalmologist late Monday morning. (Everything looks good for the recovery of Charlie's eye after surgery.) We knew some bad weather was moving in, so we decided to take the pups for a walk in the woods while it was still "nice" out.
It was good we did, because the anticipated bad weather moved in on Wednesday, causing a disruption in trash and recycling, as well as delayed mail.
The pups had an appointment with the groomer on Tuesday. Sandy's color gets lighter every time he gets a haircut. He's a very pretty color now, but he has lost a lot of hair.
Besides the snow and then rain, we had extremely low temperatures followed by thawing and then freezing again. The robins, who had been flitting from juniper tree to juniper tree, loading up on berries, suddenly found themselves with a salad bar. The rain had knocked lots of berries to the ground. The birds spent a good part of Friday in our back yard, feasting.
The birds were mostly undisturbed, because Dusty and Sandy didn't have much interest in spending time outdoors. Instead, they either snuggled with a pillow on the couch or tried to dig a hole in the carpeting. Figuring they must be cold, I pulled out some old dog sweaters for them.
The sweaters are a little snug, because they have been washed and dried so many times. I haven't had any complaints, though.
Our next-door neighbors gifted us each with a book as a thank-you for looking after their plants and collecting their mail while they were gone for a few weeks before Christmas. Since I had my dog-related accident and was recuperating the whole time they were gone, I really didn't do any of it, but I appreciate the gift. Charlie's book was about geology, and he seems to be very interested in it. Mine was a cookbook, Cook's Illustrated Vegetables Illustrated.
I had to make some substitutions, because we were missing some ingredients and aren't going anywhere. I found passable substitutions. For 1 T grated fresh ginger, I used 1 teaspoon powdered ginger. For 3/4 C minced fresh cilantro, I used 2 t dried. I cooked dried chickpeas instead of using canned. I used cooked rice instead of orzo (same quantity) and Chinese cabbage instead of chard. All the other ingredients were as-written, except I didn't find that it needed added salt, because there is salt in the canned tomatoes. I think it turned out great (although I still don't have much sense of smell yet). I baked a small loaf of Dutch oven bread to have with it. Yum!
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.
If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". 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, Mariah or Classic Tales Retold, 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 needles: Finished the Kultainen käki cardigan. Still working on the Happier Days Shawl, the Mystery KAL for the Rose City Yarn Crawl 2024. Clue #2 is due out on Wednesday. Just started a sweater for Zachary's birthday doll. In my queue is the Milk Thistle Shawl, for which I have the kit.
What's on my loom: Still folded up and waiting.
What's on my sewing machine: The binding strip for Zachary's quilt.
What's in The Doll's Storybook: In Trouble at School came out in 2019. In it, Billy got into a fight protecting Mariah from bullies. The dolls discuss why dolls become bullies and how to deal with them without getting into a fight.
What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to The House at the End of the World
by Dean Koontz. For something entirely different, now listening to Ginny by M. C. Beaton. Still reading Harry Potter und die Kammer des Schreckens by Joanne K. Rowling (in German), the physical book, which I received for my birthday.
What's in my wine glass: Dominic Hentall Puglia (Sangiovese/Negroamaro 2020). Not bad, but I should point out that my sense of smell still hasn't returned, so I may be missing something.)
What's my tip of the week: For placement of buttons, if I haven't made buttonholes on the other side, as I do when the button/buttonhole bands are knit along with the body, I like to use stitch markers (the kind that open and close like a safety pin) to test the location of the buttons. Depending on the size of the buttonholes, they can be clipped on and used as buttons to verify that the location is right. Then, when I'm happy with the placement of the buttons, I sew each button on and remove the stitch marker as I go.
Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes.
Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook is available from the BookBabyBookshop and other booksellers worldwide. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.
The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.
Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are also still available from booksellers. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories in Emil are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.
The three stories in Mariah 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.
<a class="blsdk-follow" href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/highfiber-7365001" target="_blank" data-blsdk-type="button" data-blsdk-counter="false">Follow</a><script>(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s);js.id = id;js.src = "https://www.bloglovin.com/widget/js/loader.js?v=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, "script", "bloglovin-sdk"))</script>
<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>
No comments:
Post a Comment