Staying In and Venturing Out

Monday I got some use out of my mask.

I had to go to Simply Mac to see if they could fix my laptop, which has worked fine for 10 years but had become unusable recently. The track pad stopped functioning correctly, and the images on the screen would zoom in and out, or sometimes the windows that were open would all separate, or the image for a Zoom call would suddenly close. Although it was better if I used a mouse, it still happened sometimes. I was hoping they could just disable the track pad, but they said it was not possible. The newer ones can be fixed this way, but not those from 2010. I had to bite the bullet and buy a new one, but I got out of Simply Mac as fast as I could. They were only allowing three customers in at a time, which was good, but masks were optional. The other customers weren't wearing masks, and the employees kept pulling their masks down when they talked, so I decided to shop for my new laptop from home. I ended up with a 13" refurbished MacBook Pro.

Everything is mostly the same as I was used to, and I was able to set it up and transfer everything over by myself. It only took two days to get here.

I managed to knit Mariah a turtleneck and make her a skirt to go with it. She will be in this week's story, so I thought it a good idea to give her a new outfit.

We were out of whole rye flour, which I like to use, especially since I can't get whole wheat flour. There is none in the stores around here. I looked online and ended up going directly to Bob's Red Mill. The smaller packages were sold out, so I had to buy the 25-lb. bag, which was the smallest they had in stock. That should last me for a while. They had no whole wheat, either, but I can use unbleached all-purpose or bread flour and add bran and toasted wheat germ to it to get pretty much the same thing.
I see some sour rye bread in my future, since the sourdough starter is ready to use.

My second mushroom kit has arrived, this one for Golden Oyster mushrooms. This kit was easier to set up. It came from North Spore. You just remove the front panel from the box, slit open the plastic underneath and spray with the little spritzer bottle that came with the kit. This one is supposed to take a couple of weeks to produce anything.

In the meantime, we've been eating the Shiitake mushrooms our first kit produced. It seems to have slowed for a time. We'll see what it does next, but these were good.

DH has been working in the garden. We have zucchini, eggplant and winter squash already planted. We started some seeds for chard and peas.

Our strawberry plants have a lot of flowers, and we have two blueberry plants that are flowering.

Our lilac bushes are blooming. I'm not sure actually whether there are two bushes or one, but we have both white and purple flowers. I picked some to bring inside, so nice, since our tulips are about done. They smell lovely! (The purple ones are just starting to open.)

We had our Zoom meeting on Sunday, as usual. We were missing a few family members, but heard from them that they are OK. We used my new laptop and had no problems!

The Wisconsin grands had their dance recitals, during the week, all online, so we got to watch. The health department is working out a way they can perform onstage, one at a time, with the red carpet and everything, but only immediate family will be allowed in for each performance. That will probably be a real ordeal for the teacher and her staff.

We will miss the Zoom meeting next week, because DH, DBIL and I will be on the road to a campground for four days. We are taking our two RVs. DBIL has a Class C, which is all in one. We have our 5th wheel, which we can leave if we want to drive somewhere. We will be able to spend some time together with him and other people in the meet-up group, but with masks and social distancing. We will have our trailer to escape to if there are too many people.

Sunday afternoon we watched the Memorial service put on by the National Council of Churches for all of the people lost to COVID-19. It's still available as a recording, A Time To Mourn. It was a lovely service.

The weather has finally turned nice, so maybe we can start walking again.

What's on my needles: My COVID19 Rewilding Shawl. It's the Rewilding Shawl by Helen Stewart. "Rewilding" is sort of a rebuilding of an area of land to put it back in its natural state. This sounded comforting to me at this time.

 I started out with some yarn I bought during last year's Yarn Crawl, Moon Sisters from Farmers Daughter Fibers in Montana. I had written "Rewilding Shawl" on it, so I must have seen it finished and bought the yarn to make the shawl.

What's on my sewing machine: I'm going to try to oil the machines this week. Really!

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Growing Things. The dolls learn about growing seeds to produce food, indoors and out.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Just finished An Hour Unspent by Roseana M. White. Just downloaded The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow.

What's in my wine glass: Apothic Inferno 2016. A strange name for a delicious wine. Very chocolaty. (We tried it because Apothic Red is so good.)

What's my tip of the week: If you grind your own coffee, it's messy to measure from the grinder. You can measure it before you grind it, even if your grinder doesn't have measuring marks in the cap. Just use a standard coffee measure to scoop out the beans for grinding, but level off completely, so the level isn't heaping. It will grow slightly when grinding.

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.

Symbiosis

It has been another busy week. The Charlie's Kep is off the needles.

I blocked it on Sunday, using a Tupperware lettuce keeper.

Here's a look at the top.

And the finished hat.

I have plenty of yarn left over, so I could make another one, just not the whole thing with this color in the background, because I used a bit more than one skein of that.

The mushrooms have been doing their thing. By Wednesday we had visible mushrooms.

By Sunday the bigger mushrooms were 3" in diameter and more were coming on. I put a mirror down below the bottom one, and the edges of the cap were starting to unfurl to reveal the gills. When the gills are exposed and the caps haven't completely unfurled, they are ready to use. I decided the one on the top was ready, so I cut it. 

Here it is off the mycelium. (That's what the root matter is called. It's sort of like the tree and the mushrooms are the fruit.)

You can see the gills are nicely developed when you can actually get a look at the underside.

The pups went to the groomer on Thursday. They had their summer cut. The groomer has been open for a while. Their building is closed, though. They come out and get your dog, and when you pick up, you wait outside, and they bring the dog to you. They only take checks right now. That's fine. We wore our masks. They look skinny. The dogs, I mean.

I'm still growing (and eating) sprouts, using the sourdough starter for bread and other things. 

Since Friday's story was the 100th in The Doll's Storybook, I made a list of all the stories done so far with links to them, in hope of having some input into what kind of story would be good to publish.

DH has been gardening, mostly outdoors.

His little indoors herb garden is moving along, however.

He made a trip to Costco to pick up some things. They now have hand sanitizer made by an Oregon distillery. He picked up the refill bottle. (Not for drinking!)

We helped celebrate Daphne's birthday using Zoom on Thursday. We got to see the other grandparents, both of our SIL's sisters along with our younger son and his family. It was a big party. 

Since the "Kep" was off the needles, I decided to make a turtleneck for Mariah. (My characters do need clothes, and I keep giving them away.)

I'm almost done as of this writing. I need another knitting project. Maybe something I purchased during the Yarn Crawl.

What's on my needles: A turtleneck for Mariah.

What's on my sewing machine: Still waiting for that oil & lube job

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Memories. The dolls take a look at some of their favorite moments from the past 100 stories.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still An Hour Unspent by Roseanna M. White.

What's in my wine glass: Colossal Reserva Casa Santos Lima (from Costco). We really liked this one.

What's my tip of the week: Don't depend on YouTube for quick information about how to do something. Often people will video their first attempt, and you don't find out until they're done that they did something the wrong way. It can be educational, but not good if you're in a hurry.

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.

More Time in the Kitchen

Spring has sprung. As the daffodils fade, we now have tulips:

The sweatshop is closed for now, the masks having been picked up by a volunteer on Wednesday to be mailed to the Navajo Nation, which has been badly hit by COVID19. Our little group sent 200 masks.

Still making face masks? Here's an innovative design from Lee & Pearl that you can try out. It uses the materials you have.


I did do some more sewing this week, however. Veronika needed a new outfit, so I made her some leggings and a blouse from the Joy Blouse pattern. It's small, fairly complicated and fits nicely, so it was entertaining to sew.

I finished the knitted dress for Charlotte. It's a pretty quick knit, so it only took a few days, now that I'm done with masks for a while. The pattern is my free Everyday Play, which can be made to fit 18" dolls like American Girl or the slimmer Götz Happy Kidz, like Charlotte.

I put these outfits together, along with Mariah's from last week, to make a little story about how the three girls planned to go to a movie and then to a restaurant for dinner. In this scenario, they tell me what their plans are, and I remind them that the movie theaters are closed and restaurants are only doing take-out, because of COVID19, and they remind me that they are dolls, so they can pretend to do anything they like. Veronika is going to pay, which is why she has the purse. (The dolls only have one purse to share.)

They apparently have an Uber waiting for them outside. This was my contribution to an activity in the Goetz Doll Lovers Forum on Ravelry, which had the topic "Fun Together With Friends." The outfits made were supposed to be for going out and doing things that we haven't been able to do since the virus arrived, a little vicarious satisfaction for the participants.

The Charlie's Kep (Katie's Kep pattern) also got some attention this week, with a few more rounds knitted.

My sourdough starter is finally ready to use, but I've been trying to use up the sourdough "discard" from all the feedings to get to this point. Now it's time to use some of it and then feed it again. I'll have to use some and feed it once a week from now on.

What do you do with the "discard?" Well, you can throw it away, but that seems like a waste. There are some recipes that call for it. For instance, you can use some of it in waffles. We did this. It makes the waffles rather tough, but I might try using it in my oat bran waffles, which have no added flour, just oats and oat bran. Maybe they won't be as tough. The waffles were tasty, though.

I decided to make bagels, because we have run out. I used a small amount of "discard" in the bagels, and this worked better.

As the bananas ripen, I've been slicing a few, arranging them on a cookie sheet on parchment paper and freezing them. Then they go into a plastic bag after they're frozen. This is about eight bananas.

They will keep for months like this. You can use them in anything that calls for bananas, or just eat them frozen or slightly thawed.

The bean sprouts were ready, so they went into the fridge, where they will keep for days or maybe a couple of weeks, although I don't think they will last that long, because we plan to eat them.

I used about two cups of bean sprouts in a stir-fry Saturday night. I added onions, garlic, carrot, celery, mushrooms, kale and sweet peppers. 

Toward the end, I added half a package of Quorn Meatless Pieces and a bottle of Trader Joe's Thai Red Curry Sauce. We had it on brown rice.

You may remember from last week that we had some growth in our aero garden. Well, things are a little bigger this week. Still no sign of life with the chives, however.

We're getting the garden ready to plant. There are a few bedding plants ready to go, and we have some seeds. Stay tuned.

Our weekly Zoom meeting went as planned. Our older son is back to working full-time, which includes Sundays, but he managed to pop in using his phone. We had him or a while until the store bell rang, and he had to put on his mask and attend to a customer. We have one more meeting scheduled.

We have a date to celebrate Daphne's birthday with her on Thursday. We'll use FaceTime for that.

The mushroom kit has arrived and set up, but we haven't had it long enough to see any mushrooms yet. They will be Shiitake mushrooms.

What's on my needles: Charlie's Kep. There's a group on Facebook for working on this project.

What's on my sewing machine: Both machines are due for oil change and lube, or at least cleaning and oiling/lubrication.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In Bloom. The boys wonder what flowers are for, and Mandy explains. There are birds and bees mentioned, but it's not your "birds-and-the-bees" kind of story.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Lost Girls: The Maine Murders by John Mills. Now I'm about halfway through An Hour Unspent by Roseanna M. White. I stumbled upon this author when I had the Audible "Escape" package. I've listened to several of the series, and I have one more in my library.

What's in my wine glass: Red Boar Bobal Vino de España 2018. Another good one.

What's my tip of the week: I keep green head cabbage on hand for a fresh vegetable that keeps for weeks in the fridge if you don't cut it but just peel off individual leaves to get as much as you need. Run out of lettuce and still want salad? Just slice the cabbage thinly and add your favorite salad ingredients. We've been adding mixed sprouts these days, but here's one of our "cabbage" salads from the end of March.

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.

Closing the Sweat Shop––for Now.

Here you see 78 more masks, and two more under construction.

The hospital has reached their goal of 10,000 masks for their staff and don't need these, so someone will be picking them up to take to the Navajo Nation on Thursday. By then, I'll be able to give them 80, as the last two are almost done. It has been fun, but I'm looking forward to doing other things. I'm sure I will still make a few more. The Wisconsin grandkids are using bandanas, and they will need real masks as things start to open up. The Oregon grandkids have some masks made for them by someone else.

I've been throwing fabrics onto the floor after getting as many masks out of them as possible. That led to a big pile of small amounts and scraps. I was able to get this blouse out of one of them, all but the neck band, and I had homespun fabric left over from another project for the slacks. I was able to get the bias strip for the neck band out of the homespun. Mariah wore the new outfit in Friday's story.

Masks were the priority this week, but I was able to get a few more rows done on Charlie's Kep. (Pattern: Katie's Kep by Wilma Malcolmson.)

The Goetz Doll Ravelry Forum is having a JAL (join-along, which is knitting, sewing, etc.) focusing on getting out with friends, sort of a way of giving us some vicarious socializing through the dolls. I'm not competing, because I'm providing the prize this time, but I'm playing along. I decided to knit my Everyday Play Dress pattern for Charlotte. I've had this Knit Picks Felici in "Sorbet" for some time. I had enough for a pair of socks, and I can still do that with what's left; I'll just have to use another yarn with it.

I picked up orthotics for my dress shoes from the orthotist last week and have discovered that they can also be used in my dress sandals, so I'll be back to wearing my hand-knit socks again. (Yaaaaay!)

I've been having nesting urges since the stay-at-home orders began. We had bought a lot of apples in one of our last grocery deliveries, so I decided to dry some of them before they go bad. We unearthed the dehydrator in the garage and hooked it up. It only took about 14 hours, because I had sliced the apples fairly thinly. The dried apples are like candy!

Along with more sprouts, which we have been enjoying, I made another loaf of bread baked in the enamel casserole and started some sourdough starter. I'm using the recipe from King Arthur Flour. You have to feed it once a day for a couple of days, then twice a day for a few days. It's ready in five days or so.

This is what I had after 48 hours.

The recipe says to remove 113g of the starter, "feed" that 1C flour and 1/2C water, then discard the rest. Um...I'm not throwing food away! Fortunately, there are recipes you can use the "discarded" potential starter in, like bread (which won't necessarily be sour), pancakes, waffles, muffins, etc. I made some rye bread with some of it and planned to cook waffles this morning. (That's what I'm doing as this appears.)

DH decided to set up the AeroGarden a couple of weeks ago. We used this a lot in Utah, but it has been dormant since we moved, as have the herb seeds we had for it. We weren't sure if they would sprout. They might have been a little slower than usual, but all have sprouted except the chives, and they might just take a little longer.

We have a basil plant we have kept going ever since DH made his last trip to Trader Joe's, and that has been several weeks. I have discovered that keeping it in a dish of water and watering it by pouring water into the dish instead of onto the plant works best. 

Just for a change of pace, I made myself an "Ifill Tower" from stamps I ordered online from the post office. I probably won't use these until Christmas, so Gwen Ifill will adorn my Christmas Cards instead of Santa or an angel. I was just doing it to support the USPS during this time when we depend on them so much.

Our Dusty turned four on Friday. Here he is during one of his few quiet moments.

We got the doggy birthday cake out of the freezer and both dogs got a piece. They will have to eat some every day, so we don't have to throw it out. I don't want to freeze it again.

I need to check with the groomer to see if she has a way to deal with clients safely. The pups are really getting shaggy.

What's on my needles: The Charlie's Kep (Katie's Kep) and the Everyday Play Dress for Charlotte.

What's on my sewing machine: The last of the masks for now.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Distraction. Mariah tries to write an essay, but can't find a place to work where she isn't distracted.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished An Argumentation of Historians by Jodi Taylor and am looking forward to the next in the series. Then listened to The Witches Are Coming by Lindy West, a nonfiction work about women's rights. Next I listened to The Hike by Drew Magary. This book was a work of fiction that reminded me of a role-playing game or video game that meets up with Alice in Wonderland finished by O. Henry. It made me laugh. It made me roll my eyes. It was poignant at times. (Caution: Bad language. Lots of bad language.) Now I'm listening to Lost Girls: The Maine Murders by Jon Mills. I'm almost done with it. It's mystery/crime/horror and pretty creepy. As you can tell, I've not only been burning through my fabric stash, I've been burning through my Audible library. It's about time.

What's in my wine glass: El Tinto from Madroña Vineyards. It's a favorite when we can get it. Always good, but it not always the same.

What's my tip of the week: If you have two spools of the same color thread, you can rewind bobbins without taking the thread out of your needle. It's easy to thread the Sparrow 15, because it has a threader, but my wonderful little Featherweight doesn't have one, and it's a nuisance when I'm sewing with my computer glasses on. When I have to rewind the bobbin, I just remove the thread and put it down on the base of the machine. Then I put the other spool of thread in place, rewind the bobbin, switch the spool backs replace the bobbin and I'm good to go without having to thread the needle. (Of course, you could have a lot of bobbins already wound and ready, but most of mine still have thread on them in various colors, and I hate to throw away thread if I don't have to.)

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.