Monday, May 12, 2025

Shades of Gutenberg!

I know I have it easier than Gutenberg had it back in the day, but it still is a challenge.



Most of my waking hours this week were taken up with working on the new book. I had enough material for this one to have been a two-volume set, at least. I have way too much material to publish one a year during my lifetime. 


The dogs and I walked every day, sometimes with "Daddy" but often just the three of us. I'm glad for the two-dog leash. Sandy has stopped pulling on the leash. I think it's because of the harness, which enables him to feel the connection with me without pulling. He still is usually out in front, though.



We often walk by a rocky slope punctuated by beautiful flowering bushes, mostly yellow ones, which I've identified as (potentially) as "Basket of Gold," or Aurinia saxatilis Brassicaceae. Two other slight possibilities are also from the Brassicaceae family.



We need to know this, because we want to plant some on this slope in our backyard, where we also have strawberries and a couple of fruit trees. One reason the pups and I have been walking alone some days is because Charlie has been working on this slope, pulling up some parasitic plants and building a little enclosure around the base of the fruit trees, so the water doesn't just run off.



Tuesday evening we had our MadroƱa Vineyards pop-up meeting. The winery is doing a trip to Portugal, and some participants had already left to get in a little extra travel while in Europe. We usually meet every two weeks, but it will be about a month before we meet again...unless they decide to hold it from Europe.



One of my Ravelry groups is having a "Join Along" event based on my patterns. Someone had picked my Cables and Herringbones cardigan pattern for Happy Kidz dolls and found a mistake in the written directions. There is also a chart, which is what I've used for the four times I've used this pattern. 



I published a correction, but I decided I should make one using the written directions and see if there were any more. I also had touted the possibility of using smaller needles and thinner yarn to make one for the smaller Little Kidz doll. Theoretically, a tension/gauge of 10 sts/in should be perfect for the smaller dolls. I wanted to test it out, so I cast on using some lace weight yarn and 2mm needles. I think it's going to work.



How did I come up with 10 sts/in? The Little Kidz are proportioned almost exactly the same as the Happy Kidz dolls, but only 80% of the same measurements all over. A sewing pattern designed for Happy Kidz dolls can be printed at 80%, although you need to add back a bit to make the seam allowances 1/4" unless you want to work with very tiny seams. With knitting, it's a little more complicated. You have to have more sts/in to make something smaller. By dividing the given tension/gauge for a pattern designed for Happy Kidz dolls by .8 (point eight) you get the new tension/gauge you need to aim for. If the pattern calls for working a given number of rows, you still work that number of rows, but if it says to work, say, 2" even, you will have to change the 2" to 80% of 2", which is 1.6".

I've done this a number of times, and it works. I only wish I had known how important math was to knitting while I was still in school.


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 More Classic Tales Retold or 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, Classic Tales RetoldOur Favorite Verses or More 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: Still working on The Love of Spiders shawl by Melanie Berg, but now making the Cables and Herringbones pattern in a smaller size..

What's on my iPhone: Still listening to Secrets and Lies by Selena Montgomery using the Chirp app.

What's on my sewing machine: Still waiting to do some repairs.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: The Writer and Billy are working on the new book, and The Writer needs the dolls to talk a little more quietly, so she can concentrate in "Shhhhh!" this week's story in The Doll's Storybook.



What's my tip of the week: I like to get those zipper plastic bags with a toggle you can use to close the bag rather than having to squeeze the two parts of the zipper together. They tend to be heavier plastic, too, so they hold up to frequent washing. When I wash and rinse, I turn up the edges of the opening, so they will stand open. When they're almost dry, I hang them on skewers I have sticking out of a pitcher on my kitchen windowsill. When completely dry, I fold them in half and tuck them into one of their own kind and store them in the drawer where I keep the unused bags, foil, parchment paper, etc.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes. 


The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a StrangerThe RescueUnmaskedFuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. Poems included are Valentine's DayKeeping PetsBack to School, Victor the VultureThe Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green GreatcoatThe Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best BudsGetting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Mariah are Being LittleBesties, 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, because the publisher gets a cut. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well.

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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