Making Progress...or Not.

There are not a lot of photos to show this week's activities. However, the shawlette is getting bigger.

I worked a little more on the whole-cloth quilt, but, as usual, it doesn't look very different. I'm at the corner now, ready to finish the last strip of cross-hatching. The trailer rugs are right where they were last week.

The air quality improved quite a bit for most of the week, we we walked almost every day. This was our usual route: Along the Larkspur Trail as far as Bear Creek Rd. and back. Rocky has been walking more than half the distance each time.

I had gotten behind on the stories when we had company, so I took the photos for two more stories this past week. We're scheduled now through October 1st.

It took a couple of days to replace all the photos in our new book, but it's ready to go now. There is only the cover to redo, and then I can order a new proof copy.

I decided since I had to remake the cover of Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, I might as well use a new photo of the crew/cast of characters, as we've added Pippa since the last one was taken. I had one photo I had taken on the stairs, but the lighting wasn't very good, so we all went out to the deck on Thursday to take a new one. It took a lot of photos to get one with all of them looking at the camera. Someone always looks away. (At least I can count on them not to blink!)

Laika, the film studio where our younger son works, revealed the topic of its next film, "Wildwood" with this picture.

The film will use the studio's usual stop-motion technique as their previous films. This one is based on the book Wildwood by Colin Meloy. 

I haven't read it yet, so I had to get it from Audible. If I like it, I'll listen to the others in the series. The character Prue and her friend Curtis enter the Impassible Wilderness, a world of warring creatures and powerful figures, to try to rescue Pru's baby brother, who has been carried off by crows. The Impassible Wilderness is located in Forest Park, located on the edge of Portland, Oregon, although no one goes there and and no one can find it.

For something different, some leftover rice went into this recipe for Nasi Goreng, which was our breakfast Friday morning.

Wednesday was our 56th wedding anniversary. DH pulled out this bottle of wine we have had since 2004. The owners of the vineyard had given it to us for our 39th anniversary, which we spent tasting their wines. We have kept it unopened all this time. It was amazing! The vintners are clearly better at producing wine than they are at spelling!

DH turned 80 on Sunday. I baked a cake Saturday evening. Devil's food with butter cream frosting. Very decadent. We don't usually eat stuff like this.

We had our regular Zoom call Sunday afternoon. DH's brother, who lives three blocks from us, came to participate in person. The three of us who were here in person each had a piece of  cake, and the rest went into the freezer for whoever is with us at Christmas. The Zoom call was very nice. We don't usually have our oldest, but he stayed home from other family activities to be there with us virtually for this special occasion.

The choir sang in person again on Sunday. I missed the rehearsal Wednesday because I decided to get my flu and pneumonia shots on Tuesday after my dermatology check, since I was out anyway. I got both: one shot in each arm. The next afternoon I began to have chills and a temperature about 1/2 of a degree above normal. I decided not to go to choir because I didn't feel well, and I also wasn't sure that it was the vaccines causing it. I called my doctor the next day, although I was fine by then, to see if I should be tested. He said it had to be the vaccines causing it because I hadn't been around anyone without a mask. The choir director wanted me to come on Sunday. There was only one other soprano, and he wasn't worried that I might infect someone, since we would be distanced and masked.

You can find us at 51:30 here:

We need a new roof, so we're scheduled for the middle of October. We knew it was going to need replacing, but a roof inspection revealed that the old roof was just shingles put on top of the old ones, and no flashing in the valleys, and the shingles were in bad condition. It wasn't unexpected, but we had thought we could wait until next year. It will be good to have it done, though, and it would probably have cost more next year.

Where's my blog: If you want to follow my blog, go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Still the Taina Shawlette.

What's on my loom: Trailer rugs.

What's on my sewing machine: Repairs.

What's in my hoop: Whole cloth quilt.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Little Green Greatcoat––A Fairy Tale. You may think you know the story of Little Red Riding Hood, but this story tells what really happened.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Deserter by Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille on the Audible app. It's an exciting book, so I want to finish it before starting Wildwood, which I have already added to my library.

What's in my wine glass: Sishaye Consult 2020 from South Africa.

What's my tip of the week: I hate having to count stitches after every row or every other row, so when I have a pattern like this, where there are increases at one edge of each row and a K2tog every other row on the other edge, I figure out how many stitches I will lose from the K2tog by the time I have enough stitches as called for in the pattern and put a stitch marker to indicate the stitches that will be gone. Then I just count to check when I have to remove the stitch marker. 

This pattern has you Kfb at the beginning of the RS row and then K all the sts. Then, on the WS row, you K2tog and then make another Kfb at the end of the row. This means you're adding two stitches and subtracting one for each two rows (one RS and one WS), for a net of one stitch every two rows. Where I have the marker shows I have 8 rows still to knit. I find this easier than counting the rows, too. The stitch marker is a good reminder it's time to stop and count stitches.

Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from booksellers worldwide. If you don't get free shipping from Amazon or B&N, buy from the BookBabyBookshop. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment, and that's 50% of the price when you buy there. Other bookseller take a much bigger cut. The three stories in the book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. The stories (and links to them) are Being Little, Besties, and Distraction.

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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