The Rainbow at the End of the Pot of Gold

The Rose City Yarn Crawl started Thursday. I left my last stop with enough different colors of yarn to make a cardigan I’ve been hoping/planning to make for at least seven years. I've had two of this designer's books about stranded colorwork, one of which I bought because I saw the photo of this cardigan in the book and thought the pattern was included. This is 35 little 25g center-pull balls of Jamieson's Spindrift. I spent hours picking out the colors.

It didn’t cost exactly a whole pot of gold, but it was still more than I usually spend at any one yarn shop. I picked up what I thought might give me a start and came home on our first day of crawling with four skeins that would work and three that didn’t. I selected the colors from pages of different colors of Jamieson's Spindrift yarn on For Yarn Sake's website. (That link goes to only half of the colors.)

I made my own swatch cards by making screen shots of the online colors, then matching them with the recommended colors for my pattern, which came from an old magazine. Alexa and I went back on Saturday, picked up the yarn I ordered and returned the three skeins that would not work.

On Thursday and Friday, we went from shop to shop, getting our passports stamped and signing in to be contacted if we won a prize. I looked in every shop for a break-resistant yarn bowl, because I had learned that Sandy likes to chase a ball of yarn if it runs away from me while I’m knitting. At our last stop, I found a nice one made of wood.

At that shop, we turned in our passports and were recognized as having completed the crawl to all of the yarn shops participating. We basked in the cheers and applause, and had our photo taken. 

It was nice for Sandy to get to spend some time with Louis, our granddog.

Louis and Dusty have always been best buds. They are only a couple of months apart in age and have know each other since they were half-grown.

We went on some pleasant walks with the dogs. The trail has been refurbished and extended in the other direction, so we braved a slight drizzle to explore the new section.

We had some delightful meals and enjoyed time with the boys. Charlie went with a group of family members to a hockey game Saturday night, which he enjoyed.

We feared we wouldn’t get to Yarn Crawl at all, because it kept snowing each day for the few days before our trip. The weather was why we didn’t go to the yarn crawl last year. We have to negotiate some high mountain passes, and sometimes they close the roads.

Fortunately, the weather cleared on Wednesday, and the highway workers had plowed and sanded the roads. We had some light rain and a tiny bit of snow at the higher elevations coming back, but made it back safely.

During the trip I managed to finish a knitted jacket for Zachary's doll, all but the buttons and blocking.

I didn't have the buttons with me, and I had no way to block it in the car, so I cast on the Chullo hat. (I’ve had the kit for years.)

Now I can't wait to cast on the new cardigan project!

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: The Andean Chullo hat. 

What's on my loom: Still folded up.

What's on my sewing machine: Slacks for Zachary's doll Alex.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In this reedited rerun from July 2019, Jolena finds the news sad in The Philosophy of Sad Times.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban. Now I'm listening to Attack from Within by Barbara McQuade. For my physical-book reading, I've finished Die Letzten Magier by Andreas D. Hesse, in German. Now reading Elfen Königin by Holly Black, translated from English.

What's in my wine glass: Spicerack Zinfandel 2019.

What's my tip of the week: if you want to see if yarn or fabric is dark, medium or light, take a photo and then convert it to black-and-white. The differences will really show up.

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.

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Life Gets in the Way

It has been a crazy week, but the Busy Bee Throw is coming along.

The arrow points to the top row of the three that still need sewing together. Coming down the home stretch. I think I have enough of the "Obsidian" to sc around the outside once, which should help it stay together.

Dr. Griffith (from Carnegie Hall) coached Park City Singers' Tuesday evening practice and ended the evening by inviting all of us to Carnegie Hall next year, at our own expense, of course, but it's nice to be invited.

There was no stitching group meeting this week, because it was the fifth Thursday, but I made a trip to the big city to pick up my winter shoes that were being repaired and my engagement ring, which had to be enlarged slightly to fit over the knuckle on my right hand (something I've been planning to do for several years). While I was in the city, I stopped in at the Apple Store to get help making my photos accessible on my new iPhone. I saw my first snowflakes of the season coming home from choir practice Thursday evening. It won't be long now.

Then there was the odd pain that came and went all day Friday, and finally was so severe I sought medical help. The tentative diagnosis was that I might have had a kidney stone, as they found one had taken up residence in my right kidney, and it may have had friends. The doctor didn't think the stone they found was obstructing anything and might just stay there forever. Or not. The pain went away, but I'm having it checked out further. Anything life-threatening has already been ruled out.

This week I'm giving you a look at Superior Threads quilt shop, St. George. They carry threads as well as fabric. (Call ahead for thread, as that department isn't always open.) Batiks are there specialty. I don't think I've ever seen so many in one place.

Here's the address, in case you want to visit:

87 East 2580 South

St. George, UT 84790

(435) 652-1867

For cuteness this week, here are the grandchildren in their Halloween Costumes. First, the pirate crew:

Then The Boxtrolls:

And finally, Velma from Scooby Doo:

Speaking of Velma...er, DGD1...I should be getting my car back today. She'll be picking up her own car (paid for with her own money) at the dealer. Wait for it....Yaaaaaay!

What's on my needles: The hexagons for the Busy Bee Throw and hand-quilting the Delectable Pathways.

What's on my Featherweight: Kaleidoscope Quilt. No progress this week.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Banished Love by Ramona Flightner, another WhisperSync deal from Audible (a free book from Book Bub and low-priced audio if you had the Kindle book) and then went on to the sequel, Love Reclaimed. I wasn't very impressed with the narrator, but the story was good and a good picture of what life was like in 1900 and why the suffragettes were so determined. Also finished Auld Acquaintance by Ruth Hay. It was a good story, sort of like a vacation spent in a rustic farmhouse in Scotland. Now I'm listening to Just Deserts (which the narrator pronounces "Just Desserts," as in the saying, which I'm sure the title is a play on, but it's set in the desert, so I wonder if she knows the difference). It's written by Jinx Schwartz. The narrator seems good otherwise, and I'm enjoying it. Also just started reading Three Silver Doves by Deborah Garn on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Apothic Dark. Wonderful, dry and slightly fruity. I don't know if it's as good as the Apothic Red. Guess I need a tasting.

What's my tip of the week: Keeping your sewing machine plugged in to a power strip saves wear and tear on the plug.

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 were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Confessions of an Obsessive Project Starter

I'm really, really, trying to finish up some UFOs before starting any new projects. However, with two grandsons coming up on second birthdays, I'm under the gun to make two I-spy quilts. 

This week I started cutting out 4.5" squares for both quilts. So far, I have 31 cut for each. I need 25 more. I have fabric for a few more, but needed to find additional fabrics with pictures of everyday objects for the boys to recognize and name as they learn language. You may remember the I-spy quilt I made for Daphne:

It was backed with some Dr. Seuss fabric and a panel with The Cat in the Hat, Daphne's favorite book at the time. I managed to find an Etsy shop that had packs of 24 5" squares of I-spy fabrics, so I ordered two packs.  

I'm still making an effort to complete UFOs, though. I'm on the third panel of the Delectable Pathways quilt, and this week I finished sewing the stems down and cutting out the leaves. 

Now for the Christmas Waffle sweater for DH. Well, here's what's been happening. I've been making progress on the first sleeve, but with growing discontent. The body is worked from the bottom up. The sleeves are worked from the top down. With many motifs there isn't much difference, but for the waffle stripe (at least from close-up), there is a definite direction. I don't know if you can tell here, but the lace part makes little triangles that point down. On the sleeve, worked from the top down, they point up. Not a big deal unless you look closely, especially with such dark yarn. (I used a flash for this photo, but I don't have that much light when I'm knitting.)

Then there's the issue with the process. I haven't been enjoying working on the sleeve. My lack of enjoyment has transferred into a tighter gauge (not a huge difference, but still). It has been hard to keep track of the decreases, on the dark yarn, and hard to fit them into the pattern. It's also difficult to count sts because of the dark yarn and the YOs. In addition, the instructions for the Waffle Stripe are in one place, the Tunisian Stripe is in two additional places, and how you put it all together is elsewhere, not to mention there's a separate page for the sleeve shaping. Flipping through pages can be annoying. Even though I have the pattern pretty much memorized by now, I still like to keep track of where I am, so I don't have to find a good light late at night to "read" my knitting. All this means I haven't been enjoying it. Now this knitter isn't entirely about the process, but it's an important part of my knitting fun. Last night I finally decided I might need to REBOOT. I haven't frogged the first sleeve yet, but I started a new one from the bottom up, and I'm finding I'm enjoying it much more. It's also going faster. I already have the ribbing and three stripes done. I'm keeping track of the increases with stitch markers. I also wrote out the pattern, row-by-row, so I can keep track of where I am in the pattern without flipping through pages.

I received a Knit Picks order last week. My Christmas/birthday shopping spree included my choice of items from my wish list on Knit Picks. I decided on Wool of the Andes Bulky for rugs.

The colors are (top, from left) Avocado, Navy, Bluebird, Yonder, Cadet, Silver, (bottom, from left) Bare (2), Caribou, Chocolate, Coal (2). However, I have to finish the scarves on my loom before I can warp for more rugs. (One of the nice things about weaving is you have to finish what's on the loom before you can warp for a new project, unless you have more than one loom.)

Soren's Green Pastures cardigan is finished and ready to go into the mail.

Vintage Stitchers met at Diane's on Thursday. Joanie and I braved a blizzard to get there and back. Here are some of Diane's wonderful quilts, displayed on the walls.

Carol was there. She has continued to make Mother Bear Project bears. This one is all done except for the face.

Barbara was having knee-replacement surgery, so we missed her, but Rebecca says she's recuperating well.

While at Vintage Stitchers, I sewed the buttons on the cardigan for Soren and then worked on the Delectable Pathways appliqué quilt panel.

This week will be busy. Sundance starts on Thursday. We pick up our uniforms on Tuesday, DH works Thursday afternoon and evening, and my first shift is Friday. I should be able to take a portable project along to work on when I have a job that isn't inside the theater. I pledge to keep my nose to the grindstone to finish my UFOs. Watch this space!

What's on my needles: "Green Tea" socks for me, second sock past the gusset. Dogwood Blossoms holding, and Christmas Waffle sweater moving along.

What's on my loom: Belated Christmas present scarves, making progress. I have 18" done on the first scarf. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Fairy Godmother by Mercedes Lackey, then Emily Goes to Exeter by M. Beaton, and now I'm on The Gates of Sleep, also by Mercedes Lackey, all from Audible. Reading Dragonseye by Anne McCaffrey from the library on the Kindle app, checked out using the Overdrive app. Also listening to the Fiber Hooligan podcast and the Knit Picks podcast.

What's my app of the week: I have to mention The Recipe Box again, now that I've used it more. http://therecipeboxapp.com/. I've been adding my favorite recipes to it. I love that it doesn't turn itself off while I'm cooking. (Now, if I can get my cooking to stop turning family off....)

What's in my wine glass: Tres Pinos "Three Pines Cuvée" red wine, 2011 vintage. Very nice!

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 were harmed during the production of this blog post.

High Fiber--Finishing Projects!

Quilts, amazing quilts! My Vintage Stitchers group met at Brenda's right after she went to the International Quilt Festival in Houston. Brenda brought each of us a bag as a souvenier. Here, Rebecca shows hers off:

Several people (besides me) brought quilt tops to give to Julie for professional machine quilting. This is a batik top made by Barbara:

Carol made two tops that will go on the same quilt, so it will be reversible. Here's one side:

...and here's the other:

Brenda showed off her wonderful workroom and quilting machine:

...and we got to admire this applique project Carol is working on:

...and this one by Rebecca:

In knitting news, I'm almost done with the Baby Surprise Jacket. Thursday my Common Threads group took a field trip to Bountiful, UT, to visit the quilt shop, Quilter's Haven, and the yarn shop, Hemstitched Heirlooms. At the yarn shop, I found these wonderful buttons for the Baby Surprise Jacket:

I have been working on a felted knitting bag, and I found this great lining at Quilter's Haven:

I finished the bag today. Here's a glimpse of the lining with its pocket:

I used button thread to sew the handles on, and then covered the D-rings with brown sock yarn.

A lucky family member will receive this as a present:

One of the benefits of living at high elevation is snow, and visits from very big wildlife, like this moose cow, who has come to eat some salt off the road. Yum!

I also finished carding the rest of the pacapoo (alpaca/merino/poodle blend) to be used to make a hat for Christmas for DH, so he can "wear" his precious pups on the slopes and while blowing the snow in the driveway. I'm finishing up the last of the dark chocolate Corriedale now, and then I can start on spinning the rest of the pacapoo blend.

We are expecting three more days of snow, and all the resort workers are doing the happy dance. Family will be coming in for Thanksgiving, so this will be a busy week for me. I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday. Let's all remember what we have to be grateful for! I know I have many things, some of which I discussed in this blog.

Remember, too, to keep some fiber in your day...every day!