HighFiber: February 2022

Monday, February 28, 2022

Yarn Crawl 2022

Our trip to Beaverton was exciting, due to a car stopping in the middle of our lane in a two-lane Highway to make a U-turn and then was waiting for oncoming traffic. He was hard to see because he was in the shade, and it was bright where we were, with the light in our eyes. We could have rear-ended him. The sudden stop disconcerted the pups, but we avoided an accident.

We started the Yarn Crawl on Thursday, visiting eight shops before quitting for the day. We both spent a lot of money! We visited the last two on Friday, finishing at The Knotty Lamb, which is where we stopped two years ago. (Last year was virtual.

Mandy went along to shop for herself. She isn’t used to walking fast enough to keep up with human people, so she had to take a break during the long first day.

Not having enough projects still in the works, I bought some yarn for a sweater. The navy is the main color, and the lighter blue and white are the contrast colors. The pattern is Hinterland by Jennifer Steingass.

I used my trick for doing a long-tail cast on without risking running out of yarn (see below). I’m having to use Magic Loop, because the needle I had with me was the right size, but only one long circular needle. Of course, I could have borrowed one, but this is convenient.

I’m at the back of the neck now, doing the short rows.

DDIL finished her Gresham Wrap while we were there. It was a kit that was a Christmas present from us. (Still needs blocking.)

The dogs are enjoying their visit with Louis. Dusty and Louis have played a lot, and Rocky has been learning his way around the house, a challenge, since we haven’t been here for two years, and he can’t see.

Charlie has been enjoying time with the boys. Here, he’s playing Battleship with Johan.

The boys wanted me to read the two latest stories to them. They’re so nice to humor their old grandmother.

Johan was in a chess tournament on Saturday. Here, he’s practicing, playing with Grandpa.

The tournament went well. Johan provided his team with 1 1/2 points, which was enough to move them from fourth place to third. It was a great first tournament!

On Sunday, we braved the light rain to walk to the park. Rocky rode in the stroller until we got there. Then he wanted to get out and walk at his own pace.

The two younger dogs chased the ball or the Frisbee, or both at once.

It was a great visit, and we left to go home after this was posted, so if you're reading this early on Monday, maybe we're on the road now.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. 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 our first book, Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, it would help if you left 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 Hinterland sweater.

What's on my loom: No change.

What's on my sewing machine: No change.

What's in my hoop: No change.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: This week's story in "The Doll's Storybook" is Winter Games.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Listening to The Last Bookshop in London by Madeline Martin in the car and still Unthinkable by Jamie Raskin at home, both on the Audible app.

What's in my wine glass: Sheep Thrills Red Blend 2019 by Terre Siciliane IGT.

What's my tip of the week: If you have a long-tail cast on and don't want to run out of yarn before you finish casting on all the stitches you need, try taking the two ends of the yarn (one from the inside of the ball and one from the outside) and tying them together, then start the cast on from there. After I'm sure I have the right number of stitches, I cut the one from the outside of the ball.

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with few changes. Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is now available for preorder from booksellers world wide. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book 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.

<a class="blsdk-follow" href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/highfiber-7365001" target="_blank" data-blsdk-type="button" data-blsdk-counter="false">Follow</a><script>(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s);js.id = id;js.src = "https://www.bloglovin.com/widget/js/loader.js?v=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, "script", "bloglovin-sdk"))</script>

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Monday, February 21, 2022

Mistakes

Well, the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL Shawl is finished. Here it is, blocking:

It just fit the dining table with the blocking mats angled diagonally from one near corner to one far corner at the other end. I didn't have to add another leaf to the table. (Its too long for the table in my fiber studio.) No mistakes here. Well, nothing serious.

Here's how it looks after blocking.

But I digress. We didn't do much of anything special for Valentine's Day. I did make a chocolate pie, using my recipe for silken tofu pudding to have with my Italian Pronto entree (basically, polenta, a jar of bruschetta, some frozen vegetables, a can of beans and a little cheese, layered and heated up) and some of my Dutch oven bread with a nice salad.

However, the next night, we had one of our monthly online Zoom get-togethers with the owner of Madroña Vineyards. Almost everyone who participated had made he recipe the vineyard had sent out, Penne Pasta with Italian Sausage and fresh spinach. Some of us had ordered the "correct" wine to go with it, their 2018 Cabernet Franc. The vineyard shipped them out, along with the recipe.

Of course, we used vegetarian Italian sausage. We used the one made by Tofurky, which is our favorite, when it comes to faux sausage. We had some shaved pecorino cheese on it. (That piece of paper on the other side of the wine bottle is the recipe they sent.) No mistakes here.

We made use of some leaves from our current resident basil plant. Basil lives in our kitchen window, in a bowl that always has about an inch or so of water in it. At night, I take him down from the window and put the shade down. Basil plants don't like the cooler temperatures.

Rocky went to the groomer on Wednesday, although we're only having him bathed and face and...um...butt shaved. He doesn't know whether it's day or night, these days, and we can't let him have access to the back yard unless we're awake to watch, so we close the dog door at night now, putting down towels in front of the door, in case he can't hold it. I get up at 5:00 AM to open the dog door. Then I can go back to sleep...usually. The sweet old thing gets a treat every day just for breathing. No mistakes here. Not mine, anyway.

We managed to walk several days, as the weather was pleasant enough. The highlight of our walks was this Daddy-Dusty Doggie--Deer encounter.

That deer had friends. We counted five more.

They aren't as dangerous as the moose we used to encounter in our Summit Park neighborhood in Utah. If they don't like you, they just leave. A good example for all of us. We left them alone. No mistakes here.

I also spent some time outdoors taking photos for a story for The Doll's Storybook that will come out the end of this week, when I expect to be gone. Here's one of the "outtakes." Clearly, it won't do. 1.) There's no snow, so the ground can't show. (Insert laughing emoji here) and 2.) The doll (Jolena) is supposed to be up in the air. Not to worry; I did manage to get some good shots that work for what I needed. Jolena is a good sport. OK, here's a mistake. At least I took a lot of photos.

I've been replacing some kitchen equipment and had ordered a couple of bowls the size of one I cracked beyond use and one I cracked slightly, but is till useable. I ordered these two bowls that were reasonably priced, but when they arrived on Friday, there was an unpleasant rattling sound in the box. Here's what I found when I opened the box. This was a major mistake, but not mine.

Here's what they looked like taken out of the box. They must have been improperly packed.

They would be pretty, though. (Replacements are on the way. I wonder what we would have done before smart phones, cameras and email. Maybe I would have had to send the pieces back to them.)

I thought you would appreciate some cuteness, so here is Soren, reading "Peter Rabbit" to his mother. High fives!

We'll see him and the rest of his family on Wednesday, when we head up there for the Rose City Yarn Crawl.

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

What's on my needles: The emPower Kerchief.

What's on my loom: Still!

What's on my sewing machine: Still.

What's in my hoop: Still!

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Songwriting. Mariah writes the lyrics for some songs, and Charlotte will write the music. Any mistakes have been erased and fixed.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Unthinkable by Jamie Raskin on the Audible app.

What's in my wine glass: Tucana Cabernet Sauvignon Pinotage 2019 from South Africa. Yum!

What's my tip of the week: Parchment paper works better than foil for many purposes, although in the oven, the edges will darken with high temperatures. It can go into the microwave. It's great for wrapping up a sandwich or a burrito to heat up. Food doesn't stick to it very easily and it often can be wiped clean and reused a few times.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book 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.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Monday, February 14, 2022

Competitions!

It' has been an eventful week. We've been watching the Olympics, especially the Men's Freeski Big Air event, because we know one of the American athletes personally. It was especially exciting, because he took the silver medal on Tuesday.

He has a very amazing backstory, worth looking into if you're interested. We've watched him grow up from just a boy. He's entered in slopestyle, too. The qualifiers were postponed due to weather, but I know he'll give us a great performance.

It was Colby, in fact, who caused my character Jolena to participate in competitions doing just what he does. Here she is coming in for a landing during summer practice at Utah Olympic Park. (They land in a pool at the bottom, which is why she's wearing a bathing suit.)

I need to get a photo of her doing her tricks in the snow. That will be a challenge!

The new iPad arrived on Wednesday. I was able to set it up easily and load all my apps onto it. I had deleted some, because they didn't work anymore on my old iPad, without the iOS updates I couldn't get anymore. I tried out the camera and was very happy with it. I just held it up and took this random photo. I'm looking forward to using it on the photos for this week's story.

I was making supper, so I tried out the camera again on this salad.

I couldn't believe how realistic it looks, although I don't know if it will look as good in my blog post. (See recipe below.)

On Friday, I had a training session online and by phone with a specialist at Apple. I was waiting to get the iPad before ordering the case, because I didn't want to order the wrong thing. It was harder to work with without a case. It's sort of slippery without the case, and hard to hold, but I did a few things with it. I did have a major chore to do on Saturday, though. I had to gather all my receipts and records for 2021 for my book sales, so we can include all that on our taxes. I'm not making any money, but money comes into my bank account and back out again, and it does count as a donation for tax purposes. (The case arrived on Sunday and is installed.)

I'm almost done with my Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL shawl. It just needs blocking.

Of course, we had to watch the Super Bowl. One thing I can say is, it wasn't boring!

We met our new doctor this week. We really like her. When we first moved here, we couldn't get a primary care physician, so we signed up for a concierge doctor, because we had to have someone. He helped us with our immediate issues, and we're grateful, but it was very expensive, and since replacing the roof, we decided we couldn't really afford to continue. Also, his office used to be very close, and he just moved it to another location that's far away, by Bend standards. We had our checkups with the new doctor on Wednesday.

We've been trying to walk almost every day. Rocky rides in the stroller a bit, and then he wants to get out about the time we turn around, so he can walk. This was one of our walks. There's a big open lawn about where our route crossed itself at the bottom of the map. We stopped there, so Dusty could have some ball-chasing time. We use the Walk for a Dog app. They make donations to dog-related charities, funded by ads in the app. We get a nice little map and a record of how far we walked, how fast we walked (not fast) and how long we were gone.

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

What's on my needles: Back to the emPower People bandana.

What's on my loom: Still....

What's on my sewing machine: Still its cover. I was hoping to get the quilt pieced already, but I may have to take some time out from all the other things I'm doing..

What's in my hoop: Still....

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In "Kaleidoscope Eyes," Pippa tries on Emil's special glasses and wonders why she can't see properly.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Unthinkable by Jamie Raskin on the Audible app.

What's in my wine glass: We're having Madroña Vineyards Lake Tahoe Zinfandel, one of our favorites.

What's my tip of the week: Here's my recipe for a variation on the Caprese Salad. The only ways it's different are that I don't boil the balsamic vinegar and I added cucumbers.

Slice enough cucumber and tomato for the number of servings you need. Arrange them on the plate with fresh basil leaves and fresh mozzarella. Drizzle a little balsamic vinegar and olive oil, then sprinkle some salt and freshly ground black pepper on top.

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book 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.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Monday, February 7, 2022

Some Good News

Remember my little red Dutch oven mentioned last week? I got it to bake bread in. I've been using a much larger one, but this kind of bread is best when very fresh, so I cut the recipe in half, which is why I needed the smaller pot. Here's my resulting loaf.

I've put the recipe in my tip (see below). Here's what the bread looks like sliced. We had it with some special olive oil.

Not exactly a great reveal, but here's is my Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery Knit Along shawl after Clue #4. I'm working on the last clue now, but it's no longer a mystery. There are just a few rows left, sets of six rows of each color: K row, P row, and four more K rows. I should be finished by next week.

The Doll's Storybook had some excitement this week. First of all, I was notified that St. Jude will be getting another check with royalties. Not a big one, but as they say there, "Every little bit helps." Then I stopped by Fancywork Yarn Shop to visit the "girls." Here's the display.

They are selling the books with the free patterns, so someone can make one of the patterns for a child's doll and gift it with the book as a special present.

Then DH located this lovely letter from a girl in Germany who uses the blog to help her learn English. It had fallen into some papers and was never opened. I've mailed her a copy of the new book and an apology for not responding. It must have come last year. ("DH" usually means "Darling Husband," but in this case, it means something else.) I was very excited to read this letter. I often hear from parents and grandparents that their children love the stories, but this is firsthand, so it means a lot more.

For a little humor, I came across this on Facebook:

I had to take some time this week to visit the ophthalmologist a bit early, as I've been unhappy with my glasses. I even took out the left lens in my computer glasses, because I can see distance well with my right eye uncorrected. I now have a prescription that corrects my left eye for close up, but slightly under corrected, and the other eye for distance but also slightly under corrected. This is working better.

Another exciting bit of news was that Daphne was selected to be on the honor roll for the quarter. It isn't just grades. They have to be nominated by a teacher and must be a good citizen.

Also, my friend Ellen's grandson, Colby Stevenson, is in the Olympics. We'll be watching and wishing him luck.

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 Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery Knit Along shawl, now almost finished.

What's on my loom: Still the trailer rugs. I will have to get back to them soon, so we can use them in the trailer this spring.

What's on my sewing machine: Still the T-shirt quilt; not much progress.

What's in my hoop: No progress this week on the whole-cloth quilt.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In "A Story About a Story," Veronika reads us the little book about her birthday from the new copy I just had printed. It arrived this week.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Unthinkable by Jamie Raskin on the Audible app.

What's in my wine glass: I think this is getting to be a habit. Red Blend Portugal by Casa Santos Lima.

What's my tip of the week:

Dutch Oven Bread Recipe

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups (1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons)
• lukewarm water, between 90˚-110˚F (30˚-40˚C)
• 1 teaspoon (1/2 teaspoon) active dry yeast
• 3 cups (1 1/2 cups) all-purpose flour, lightly packed and leveled off, plus more for dusting
• 1 teaspoon (1/2 teaspoon) kosher salt
• 1 teaspoon (1/2 teaspoon) olive oil

Directions

Method 1: put all ingredients except oil into bread machine pan and process on dough cycle. When done, remove from bread machine pan. Place in bowl. Continue as below.*

Method 2:
Stir the yeast into the water and allow the yeast to bloom until foamy.

In a large bowl, mix together the flour and salt by hand. Once incorporated, create a small well in the middle and pour in the water and yeast mixture.

Mix by hand, wetting your working hand before mixing so the dough doesn’t stick to your fingers. The water and flour should come together and a form rough dough that pulls away from the sides of the bowl. If the dough is too sticky, add more flour in small increments, about 1 tablespoon at a time. If the dough is too dry, add more water, 1 tablespoon at a time.*

*Continue with both methods:
Cover and let rise until doubled in size (about 1 ½-2 hours).

Uncover the dough and give it a few pokes with your finger. If the dough has risen properly, it should indent under the pressure of your finger and slowly deflate.

Using your hand or a rubber spatula, start from the rim of the bowl to work the dough loose from the sides and fold it up and towards the center of the bowl. Turn the bowl 90 degrees, and repeat until all the dough has been pulled from the sides and folded towards the center.

Once finished, cover and let the dough rise again for another 1 ½-2 hours.

Once the dough has doubled in size again, gently transfer it from the bowl to a lightly floured surface.

Sprinkle a bit of flour on top of the dough. Using your hands, begin to shape it into a loaf. Fold the dough under itself several times to form a ball, then pinch together the seams of dough underneath.

Place the dough seam-side down in a clean bowl that has been lightly coated with olive oil and dusted with flour.

Cover and let rise for 1 hour.

Meanwhile, place a 4-quart Dutch oven (or heavy cooking pot with oven-safe lid) inside the oven. Preheat the oven to 450˚F (230˚C) with the pot inside for 45 minutes-1 hour.

Carefully remove the pot from the oven and place it on a trivet or heat-safe surface. (Be careful! It will be VERY HOT.)

Turn the proofed dough over onto a lightly floured surface and carefully place it inside the pot.

Cover with the lid and return the pot to the oven.

Bake for 30 minutes, then remove the lid and bake another 15 minutes.

Remove bread from pot, cover with a clean towel, and let cool for 10 minutes before slicing. Enjoy!

Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is also available. The three stories in the first book 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.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>