The Help

Well, it was a busy week. No Vintage Stitchers, no Common Threads, but the H-word, Thanksgiving dinner, cooking, eating and guests. I did finish Vroni's turtleneck, though.

I wanted to make the pattern available on Ravelry, so I worked up another one to test the pattern. Lotte and Vroni each have one now.

The pattern is available in my Ravelry store here. They're selling like hotcakes. (Of course, the fact that that pattern is free may have something to do with it.) Several people have already finished theirs.

Thanksgiving was nice. I fixed a turkey, which I didn't eat, but our guests enjoyed it. Our next-door neighbor, who helps us with things from time to time came and my friend Lynda and her husband, who live in our neighborhood. Our next-door neighbor brought a pumpkin pie, and Lynda made an apple pie and a Brussels sprouts recipe that was heavenly. 

I made the traditional Lanttulaatikko (the Finnish rutabaga casserole my MIL always used to make for holidays) and a Quorn Turk'y Roast. I also made yams, stuffing and salad, and expertly opened cranberry sauce from Trader Joe's, and  Pacific Wild Mushroom gravy (because it's vegetarian, and everyone could eat it). Needless to say (but I'm saying it anyway), we have leftovers.

Lynda and her husband offered to stay and do the dishes, but I insisted on waiting until the next morning, when I could do them peacefully alone. Imagine my surprise when I got up on Friday morning and found this:

The little rascals didn't notice me at first. They had one to wash and two to dry.

Then they saw me. "Oh, good morning! You're up!"

Because the dishes were stacked (sort of) on the left, they gave the lefty the job of washing. I don't think Vroni ever saw me.

They were doing a good job, so I left them to it. (Yes, I know Lotte is wearing pearls to do the dishes, but she's organizing and managing.)

I think they know we are traveling over Christmas, and only one of them can come along.

Things to do this week: Get the horses and other Christmas presents mailed off. Clean up my fiber studio. Wish me luck!

What's on my needles: Part 2 of a design in development.

What's on my Featherweight: Coats.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to music for the Park City Singers Holiday Concert.

What's in my wine glass: Lanzos Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y Leon, from Spain. Because of the label. Lynda brought it to our house for Thanksgiving, again, because of the label.

What's my tip of the week: If you have a bread machine, you can mix up (on the dough cycle) a loaf of bread, remove the dough from the pan, wrap it in plastic wrap and freeze it for one of those busy days. The day you plan to serve it, take it out of the freezer and allow it to thaw entirely. Let it rise in the pan you plan to cook it in (without the wrap, of course) and bake it as usual when it has risen enough. It will rise more slowly, because the yeast has been sleeping in the freezer. 

I keep my yeast in the freezer, because I buy it in bulk to save money, and it keeps nicely there for months.

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.

Turkey Trot

 It's that time again!

I made it to Park City Quilt Guild, held at Davidene's Thursday evening. Lynn gave a demonstration of how to make pillow cases with enclosed seams. She used this method.

The quilters had some great stuff to show, like this Kaleidoscope quilt.

There was this rail fence quilt top, using fabrics left over from a baby quilt this quilter made, I think for her niece.

There were some fabrics in this she thought she would never use. Here's the back:

There was also this Mickey Mouse quilt, from a panel in the center, but the quilter made it her own.

Common Threads met at Georgette's earlier in the day. Kathleen had finished the scarf she has been working on ever since she started coming to our meetings.

Karan is still working with wool flannel. She had finished this block:

And Margareth was decorating this wreath:

Lynda has taken up Brioche knitting. She says if you make a mistake, don't think you can fix it on the next round. It's fun, but it's complicated.

Mandy came with me to demonstrate steeks. She forgot to bring her own knitting, but she entertained herself with the birds Lynda is working on for Christmas Ornaments.

On Friday, we got our first blizzard of the year.

As often happens, our power went out and was out for 4 1/2 hours. Fortunately, we have a gas stove, so we can cook on the burners if we light them with a match. We also have a wood-burning fireplace on the main level and a Jøtul gas stove downstairs, which can heat the whole house if we leave the door to the downstairs open. We need this so the pipes don't freeze during outages. This was Lotte's first experience with real snow.

Since the power was out, so was the TV and the Internet. Mandy suggested she teach them to knit.

When it got too dark to see to knit, they sat in front of the fire and looked at a quilting book, discussing what kind of quilt they would like to make.

You might have noticed that Mandy is wearing her new steeked Fair Isle sweater.

Lotte wants one, but I'm working on Vroni's turtleneck, so she will have to wait.

You can't tell from the photo, but the color is sort of an aqua. It's a nice match for the pants she will wear with it. This time, I'm making up a pattern that will fit the girls. I'll make it available for free in my Ravelry store, along with the Fair Isle sweater I made for Mandy.

In the meantime, you won't hear from my blog before Thanksgiving, so have a happy one.

Be careful shopping next weekend. Online is safest. My Sibling is having a 20% off sale. Use the code: CYBERWEEKEND2017 at checkout.

What's on my needles: Vroni's turtleneck.

What's on my Featherweight: Getting ready for coats.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Music for Park City Singers Holiday Concert.

What's in my wine glass: Fish Eye Shiraz, 2015 vintage.

What's my tip of the week: If you live in an area prone to power outages, keep your devices charged up, or you can also get an emergency power supply to charge them if the power goes out. Just remember to keep it charged.

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.

Coffee, Tea and "Treats"

As always, there were some lovely projects to see at Vintage Stitchers.

Barbara, who hosted, had received  this lovely appliqué quilt back from the quilter. The photo, sorry to say, doesn't do it justice. She told us she had used the binding fabric (the same as the border) for something else. Marilyn thought she might have some of it in her stash.

Here's the back:

A relative had asked her for an "autumn quilt," so she put this top together. She found she had enough blocks for quilt for another relative. She will put a border on it.

Then she showed us this quilt she had made for a widowed friend to give to another friend who had helped her when her husband died.

Carol had this wall hanging almost finished, just in time for Christmas.

Several people were knitting or doing embroidery. I worked on hand-quilting my "Sistine Chapel." (I could finish it quickly if I just put away my toys and worked on it.)

Speaking of toys, we finally got to have the tea party to celebrate Lotte’s arrival.

Lotte wore one of the dresses I made for her long before she left England to come here.

You’d think tea party would have gone off without a hitch; the girls have been planning for sooooooo long. They managed to get into their dresses and set the table in the little "breakfast nook." 

They have five of everything in the cutlery, but they only have four of the regular chairs and four of everything in the tea set. Dolly offered to use a cup and saucer from the old set, because she said "Mum" bought it back before any of the others lived with us.

Gabi had brought in an extra chair from the nursery. She said she should use the odd chair anyway, because she was in charge of the tea, and would be getting up and down. (Actually, she's better at standing than sitting, anyway.)

Gabi brought the tea she had prepared in the kitchen, and each of the girls offered her their cup to fill. They chatted about how nice it was to finally be able to have their tea party, so long postponed because of Lotte’s delayed departure from England and then Rocky’s injury, because they needed Mum to help with the table and tablecloth, and to provide the treats. (I really had to scrounge around the kitchen to find "treats" that looked to be of scale.) The girls talked about how nice it was to have snow on the ground and what they would do for fun when they went out.

Speaking of treats…Mandy picked up one of the miniature donuts. “Doesn’t this remind you of a giant Cheerio?” she asked the girls.

After a moment’s silence, Vroni asked, “Has anyone tried the cookies?”

I probably won't be allowed to provide the food for their next tea party.

I'm working on another stranded and steeked doll cardigan, this one with a shaped neckline, avoiding the need for a steek to make the neck opening, which some people find too challenging. A shaped neckline, requires some knitting flat, which adds a challenge when purling back across the wrong side, because you can't see the pattern, just the last row of stitches. Fortunately, I managed to minimize the pattern work at that point, with most of it being either solid or a checkerboard, so you know to use the opposite color as the stitch you're knitting into. Here's how it looked after the steeks were cut and before I joined the shoulders.

I changed the motifs, too, because I've made this sweater so many times with the old ones. I needed a change. 

The neck ribbing was easier without the steek stitches in the way. The button/buttonhole bands are done, too. Now I'm working on the first sleeve. It's for Mandy, so she had to try it on.

You can see we had to get a second opinion. I'm using my 6" dpns for the sleeves, but I worked the body in the round with two circular needles.

Lotte's hair is very pretty, but it had some tangles and seemed slightly gummy when compared with Mandy, so on the advice from a couple of doll "experts" I gave her a shampoo on Saturday, using baby shampoo and a mild conditioner. Here she is, wondering how long it will take to dry.

I ended up putting her on my bed under the ceiling fan, because the hair dryer was taking too much of my time, having to use the low setting and hold it at least 8" away. She had a nice nap on my bed while I was able to knit. Her hair was much nicer after it dried, and I was able to get the tangles combed out.

Saturday evening, Felicia, who sings with our choir regularly, and Keith, who sings with us occasionally, had a concert of fun and/or emotional songs as a benefit for the People's Health Center in Park City, which provides health care to people who have no insurance and limited means. It was a treat to listen to them sing.

My shoulder had been bothering me for several weeks, and I was worried I might have a fracture (a sign of thinning bones) or a repetitive-motion injury (a sign I needed to stop typing and knitting--yikes!) It turns out my bones look good and the symptoms, including the pain my doctor caused by moving my arm in different positions, aren't consistent with a repetitive-motion problem, but indicate an infraspinatus sprain, probably from lifting a reluctant Dusty from the back seat of our car by reaching backwards from the door. The bad news is, she wants me to have physical therapy for a few weeks and see if that helps. I'll take my knitting. :-}

Rocky will have his stitches out today (Monday). We took the bandage off after three days, as directed. It was still swollen a week after the procedure, so our regular vet suggested an anti-inflammatory twice a day and a heating pad. The pups go to the groomer on Wednesday, as planned.

What's on my needles: Mandy's Fireside Snuggle, a Fair Isle doll sweater.

What's on my Featherweight: More doll clothes.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Just listening to music for the Holiday Concert.

What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec.

What's my tip of the week: When I'm knitting and picking up stitches around an armhole or along an edge for a ribbed border, I tend to lose count, or I get to the number I'm supposed to have and I still have more edge that needs stitches. I've found that if I just pick up stitches without counting, then count afterward, I can put stitch markers along the needle, evenly spaced, to tell myself where to decrease. Occasionally, I might be a stitch or two short, so I do a Make 1L or Make 1R distributed in the same way.

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.

Tales of Lotte and Rocky

What a week!

Halloween, the World Series, Common Threads, two deliveries of doll stuff and dealing with a doggie injury. Whew!

DH had bought "Halloween costumes" for the dogs, but they didn't cooperate by wearing them. We tired them on Vroni and Mandy, and they worked pretty well.

When trick-or-treaters showed up at our door, we told them that we were surprised that they dared come to our house, after what we did to the first kids who showed up. They looked at the dolls, their eyes got huge, and then they laughed. One of the older ones even said, "Honey, I shrunk the kids!"

After most of the trick-or-treating had tapered off, the "girls" were allowed to sit and watch the World Series game, while helping themselves to some Halloween candy.

The package from My Doll Best Friend (two pairs of shoes, my prize for having my photo selected to be in their In-Site online magazine) had come early in the day, so Mandy was wearing her new sandals. She was the model for the photo, you might remember, so she got to pick. Vroni was happy with the white satin flats, but they were dress shoes, so she put on Lotte's new dress before she tried them on. The ankle straps are too big, but I can fix that, and they look good without the straps, too. Mandy's sandals must be for the beach, because the soles have little sea shells embossed on them.

I had already finished the dress, coat, hat and turtleneck for Lotte, but Mandy, who modeled it, said she needed one, too. I finished it November 1st, just in time to start the colorwork KAL (knit-along) on the first day we could participate. Here's Mandy modeling her turtleneck.

I made this one with the button/buttonhole bands knitted with the body of the sweater as one unit, to save having to weave in four more tails.

I told Mandy it made me feel cold to see her wearing sandals and to go put on something warmer. This is what she did.

I give up! We discovered that the turtlenecks also made great cardigans.

Common Threads met at Margareth's. She and Karan have been working on wool flannel quilting projects (shown in previous blog posts), and Margareth had made this new project bag, using one of the motifs she had used to make some wool flannel coasters.

She also was working on this bird:

Speaking of birds, Lynda was working on some knitted birds from a book, The Field Guide to Knitted Birds by Arne & Carlos. Very cute and funny!

That afternoon, we found that the gardener had come to prune the neighbor's bushes.

She had a young apprentice with her, probably a family member. They bedded down on the other side of our backyard for the night, so they were there again in the morning. I guess they hadn't finished their work. Needless to say, the pups had a lot to say to them.

Friday, tracking on my big package indicated that it had reached Park City and would be delivered by 8:00 PM. The "girls" took turns watching for the mail lady.

Vroni and Mandy were on hand when the package was delivered.

We could hear whinnying, barking and cries of "Let me out!" I had to get the kitchen scissors to get it open. Inside we found the horses packed carefully on top of Lotte. (She was in her own sturdy box, so was unhurt. It took a while to get to her box. Vroni climbed up to look in, and Mandy asked for a lift.

After we got Lotte out, the "girls" decided they wanted a group photo, but, of course, they all wanted to be next to Lotte in the photo. This was how we compromised. (You can barely see Dolly, but she's the one who is closest to Lotte, so she doesn't mind.)

The horses will be a present for the two grandkids who are learning to ride at their other grandparents' ranch in Texas.

Lotte said her little dog needed to go out, so even though she was dying to get out of her travel clothes, she put on her new coat over her traveling dress, and they went out to the back. I got this photo of her before we came back in.

The girls offered her a choice of pajamas, even though the pink ones were made just for her, thinking she might be sick of pink. She said that she loves all colors, but pink is her favorite. She changed into them right away and had a nice lie down, looking out the window at the trees.

When she got up from her rest, she tried on her new dress:

Then her turtleneck and slacks.

The girls turned in early, because it had been an exciting day, and they were looking forward to more of the same. I think Lotte looks a little zonked.

As often happens, life got in the way of the planned tea party, for which they need me. The "girls" had just gone to bed, when Rocky got up from his nap on the couch, where he had been since early afternoon. I noticed he was limping and licking his right front paw. Closer inspection revealed that it was very swollen and hot. We piled into the car and drove down to Salt Lake City to doggy (and other animal) urgent care. After a long wait (there were other, more life-threatening cases that took priority), the cause was revealed as an abscess between the toes. They kept him to clean it out and sew it up when they had time during the night, and I went back in the wee hours of the morning to pick him up.

Rocky's already doing better, but working his regular medication (thyroid) into his pain meds and antibiotic has been a challenge because some need to be given on an empty stomach and some with food. Some every eight hours and some every twelve. Then we had the time change to deal with. Thank heaven for my iPhone!

Not much sleep for me for three nights. He knows not to lick his injury, but we also have to keep him from getting up on or down off of the furniture by himself, playing with Dusty or using the stairs. 

Wouldn't you know it snowed early Sunday morning. We have to bag up Rocky's foot so he can go out without getting it wet.

With any luck, the tea party will be in next week's report.

What's on my needles: Mandy’s Fair Isle sweater

What's on my Featherweight: Pajamas for Alister and Gabi.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to practice tapes for Park City Singers. Finished Amy Corwin’s novel All She Loves on the Kindle app, but haven’t started another yet. I like this author for a clean romance. The stories are well written and entertaining, and the characters are not just good or evil.

What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec.

What's my tip of the week: A pill cutter is a very handy and inexpensive item to have, especially when the dose is "1 and 1/4 tablet."

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.