HighFiber: September 2022

Monday, September 26, 2022

New Beginnings and Old Finishes

Our vet nabbed me as I waited for Dusty to get a couple of inoculations he needed. Dr. Kelley remembered my iPhone tote and wanted one for his mother, who is in a wheelchair. I'm using my own pattern again, but it's a freebie on Ravelry here.

Then he wants this logo on it...somehow. I'm thinking maybe felt cut out in this shape...or maybe the white part embroidered on.

To get some yarn in the right color and be sure it would felt, I made a trip to Fancywork Yarn Shop. I spotted Dolly and Gabi high up out of reach. I didn't ask, but perhaps a little person wanted to play with one of them. They have a new friend who has joined them.

The proof copy of my book arrived on Wednesday. I found a couple of little things to fix on the inside pages, but it should go in today for the full run.

Here's a look at a couple of the inside pages. The size is 8 1/2 X 11".

Even with all the excitement over the new book, a story to write, the usual laundry and cooking, and helping Charlie fix the gate to our backyard, I managed to finish the first sleeve of the Hinterland Pullover.

Daphne finished sewing on the elastic and ribbons for her toe shoes.

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: Still the Hinterland Pullover (some progress made) and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating) and another iPhone Tote.

What's on my loom: Still dust, but I used it to wind yarn this week.

What's on my sewing machine: Still ready for back of T-shirt quilt.

What's in my hoop: Whole Cloth quilt, still no progress..

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Billy and Pauly get into trouble at school with two other dolls in Staying After.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Big Dark Sky by Dean Koontz. Classic Koontz!

What's in my wine glass: Crystal Range 2020 Barbera from Madroña Vineyards. Anything from Madroña is worth drinking!

What's my tip of the week: Rocky has a little bit of trouble bending over on the slick kitchen floor to reach his bowl. Putting his bowl on the open dishwasher door makes it easy for him to reach, and if he spills any over the sides, cleanup is easy.

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, September 19, 2022

So Little Time...So Much To Do!

Well, I really thought I was going to get the quilt back put together this week, but life got in the way again. To begin with, the cover of my book has some...faults. Fortunately, the printer picked it up. There was something wrong with how the spine was placed, which caused a change in the color on part of the cover back. That spine placement was the bane of my experience with InDesign. I asked the member of the production team if it had to be a separate piece. No, it didn't. I could have the front and the back meet in the middle.

The only reason to have the spine separate would be if it had writing on it. 🙄

It was good I made the mistake, though, because I noticed when I started working on it again that some of the type was missing on the back. Apparently I had moved the photo up over the text box just a tad, and with my failing eyes, it wasn't obvious. The fix turned out to be much easier without having the spine as a separate piece. Here's the new cover.

The bar code will be added when the full run is printed. The proof copy is on its way to me and should arrive Thursday. If it looks OK, the book will be printed and distributed, as planned. So that was my Monday.

Tuesday, we had planned our vaccinations around Dusty's grooming appointment. I was going to drop him off at 3:00 and then go to the Larkspur Senior Center to get in line for the clinic that started at 4:00. Charlie was going to go after I came back. That way, someone would be with Rocky the whole time and both of us could get our new boosters. The groomer called at 1:30, asking if we could move Dusty up to as soon as I could get there. We talked it over and decided that would work out OK...maybe. After dropping Dusty off, I went back home. I left home at 3:00 and walked to the Center, arriving about 3:08. There were already about 30 people in line. I got my shot about 4:20, waited my 15 minutes and then walked home. Charlie walked over to the Center for his shot, and I took the car to get Dusty, who was ready to be picked up. It worked out great.

What we got was the new bivalent booster, which protects against the Omicron variant as well as the original. They had to give us new cards, and they stapled the new one to the old oneI checked in with V-safe. My first shot doesn't show on this screenshot, because I had to scroll down, but you can see that it had been five months since my last booster.

Because I signed up to be part of the survey, they check in with me periodically. It's every day the first week, and then the check-ins spread out. I had a sore arm the next day (Wednesday), but that was almost entirely gone by Thursday morning.

We still need our flu shots, but we plan to wait a bit for those. The main flu season is still a couple of months off, and we have learned that the effectiveness wanes over time. We'd rather have it closer to flu season.

Thursday was our anniversary. I fixed us a brunch to celebrate.

The other big thing this week (and for the last couple of weeks) was the air quality. Fires in the forests around us have brought smoke, which was often so bad we didn't want to go outside at all. Occasionally, the wind would come up from the right direction and blow the smoke away. We have had air purifiers in every room running all day and night. Our Air Quality Index (AQI) often would get close to 200, which is very bad. Here's the filter we just changed.

Saturday night it started to rain, which helped a lot. Here's Sunday afternoon's AQI.

You can see it's a bit better to the south of us. I'm not sure it rained hard enough to put out the fires, though. The Cedar Creek Fire is the one that impacts us the most.

Miss Daphne is experiencing the joys of dancing en pointe. Here she is, sewing the elastic and the ribbons on her toe shoes.

Today is Charlie's birthday. He's turning 81. We were young once. This photo was taken by his mother in Charlie's apartment in Missoula, Montana. I had been in San Diego to attend my graduation ceremony (having actually graduated in January) and traveled by car with my future in-laws to Missoula. We visited a few of the National Parks together while we were there. (Classy decor!)

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 Hinterland Pullover (two more rows of cuff ribbing, so not much progress made) and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating).

What's on my loom: Dust, thanks to fires.

What's on my sewing machine: Still ready for back of T-shirt quilt.

What's in my hoop: Whole Cloth quilt, still no progress..

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Pippa and Pauly learn where human people get their money in "Salary or Celery."

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Big Dark Sky by Dean Koontz. Not much progress.

What's in my wine glass: Murciélago 2019, a Spanish Cabernet Sauvignon.

What's my tip of the week: COVID19 testing kits will be useable for a longer time if they are kept in the refrigerator, according to a person with a doctorate in chemistry.

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, September 12, 2022

Things Come Together

The first sleeve of the Hinterland Pullover is almost done. I had started the colorwork on the sleeves, but I began to think about having baggy sleeves and decided I would probably wear it more if the sleeves were plain, with ribbing, so that's what I'm doing.

I bought the fabric for the backing for the T-shirt quilt. This is what I picked out. It sort of reminds me of SCUBA diving, which was one of the activities we participated in in Indonesia, so suitable to go along with the T-shirts from those days.

We laid out the quilt top upside down on the floor and played around with the two blocks that we planned to put on the back.

In the end, we decided to put a square in the middle using the dark batik left over from the top. When I cut the tracks of footprints off the two blocks we will have four strips of footprints. We decided to put them in each corner, all running in the same direction, but one on each side and floating just a bit from the edge. This complicates piecing the back, especially, since the fabric has a pattern that is different when the piece is vertical versus horizontal. I wish I had noticed that when I picked it out. However, my diagram shows which way the pattern goes on each piece. Now I have to press the fabric and cut out the pieces with the pattern going the right way.

The nights have been getting cooler. The days aren't too hot, and probably won't be again until spring/summer '23, but our little garden is doing its best. The birds and squirrels got some of our tomatoes and our entire first crop of apples (two).

This little squash is almost ready.

Choir has started up again. We had a fairly small group this week, as some people are still away or otherwise occupied. It's hard to sing with a mask. I took mine off for the anthem and for the communion piece, but in a couple of weeks I shouldn't need it at all, because the new bivalent boosters are available here now, and we're getting ours on Tuesday. It has been five months since our last booster, so we're having to be more careful again.

The Oregon grandkids started school. Here they are, ready for the first day.

Daphne is going en pointe! This week she was fitted for her first pair of toe shoes.

The proofreading is finally done and my book is off to the publisher. Timing is still OK unless I have some problems with photos, as I had last year. This book has the same format as the first two, but the type is smaller and it has 10 more pages. There are still three stories, but this time the dolls act out the roles of characters in familiar stories.

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 this book or our first one, 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. The new book is going to be Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook. Here's the cover.

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 Hinterland Pullover (more progress made) and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating).

What's on my loom: Awaiting ?

What's on my sewing machine: Still ready for back of T-shirt quilt.

What's in my hoop: Whole Cloth quilt, still no progress..

What's in The Doll's Storybook: This week's story is School Days––a Poem, and it's a poem (no surprise). The dolls show us what they do at home before and after school and think about the coming cooler weather.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finishedl listening to Come a Little Closer by Rachel Abbott. Now listening to The Big Dark Sky by Dean Koontz.

What's in my wine glass: Villa di Mare Nero d'Avola from Italy (Sicily). Very nice. (I couldn't find a vintage on the bottle, but sometimes the type is too small.)

What's my tip of the week: Flu shots are available now, but the height of flu season is January/February. The vaccine looses its effectiveness over time, so we will be waiting a bit longer.

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, September 5, 2022

Happy Birthday, Rocky!

Rocky needed to be restrained when we put his cake down on the floor. Dusty just gave me "the look." Rocky can't respond to commands anymore because he can't see and can barely hear, but the nose works, and he knew that birthday cake was for HIM! They both wanted to get on with it. Skip the ceremony!

I didn't let them loose on the cake, though. I cut a corner off the cake and divided it in two.

Rocky's was gone in a flash. We couldn't even get a shot that wasn't a blur.

Dusty's manners were much better. He waited until we said it was OK to eat.

Here's the recipe I use. This time I used the second frosting, because I didn't have any cream cheese or unsalted butter.

Doggy Cake

Ingredients

Cake—
• 1 1/2 C Whole milk
• 2 Eggs
• 1/4 C Melted unsalted butter, oil or applesauce or combination
• 2 C Unbleached flour
• 2 teaspoons Non-aluminum baking powder

Directions

Mix milk, eggs and melted butter in a medium-size bowl. Mix flour and baking powder in separate bowl. Add dry ingredients to liquid and stir until mixed.

Bake at 425ºF for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool while you make the frosting.

Slice cake horizontally into two layers. spread frosting over one layer. Top with other layer and finish frosting top.

Frosting 1—
• 4 oz Cream cheese
• 1/2 C Unsalted creamy peanut butter
• 1/4 C Unsalted butter, melted

Frosting 2—
• 2 ripe Bananas
• 1/4 C Peanut butter

Both frostings:
Combine all ingredients until creamy. Frosting 2 will drip, so don't worry about frosting the sides of the cake.

Rocky went to the groomer on Friday afternoon. They can't do the feet very well, because he has trouble standing for long. The grooming is mostly to make him more comfortable.

You may remember the dishcloth I was trying to make from loom waste, the pieces all tied together. I finished it and ran it through the washing machine in hope the knots would meld together, before trimming off the loose ends.

Here's what it looked like after trimming. I'll let you know how the knots stay together.

The knots are on both sides, depending on which side I was knitting.

Speaking of knitting, I haven't shown my progress on the Hinterland Pullover for a while. I did manage to get another inch or so done on the first sleeve this week.

As for the book, I haven't sent it in yet. Charlie wanted me to make some changes to the last story, mostly for consistency (and he was right), but a couple of things he wanted to change made me realize he had misunderstood what I was trying to say, so I was being unnecessarily vague. I fixed those, too. DDIL still finishing the final proofing.

I make bread about every 10 days or so. Lately I've been experimenting with making small loaves and this week I decided I wanted to have a more normal-size loaf, one that would fit the sliced cheese and faux lunchmeat we use. My normal loaf is too big for the cheese and four small loaves are too small, so I decided to make one small loaf and put the rest in another loaf pan. Next I think I'll try the pan that's just a little smaller for the big loaf. Here are my loaves and my happy sourdough starter.

The Wisconsin grands are off to school already. Here's Zachary on the first day of school.

Here's Daphne.

The Oregon grands start school this week. Here's Soren, who was reading to his mother. Apparently he didn't like that she stopped listening to take a photo. Louis didn't seem to mind, though.

that's their new patio at the front of the house, where they get shade in the afternoon. They put it in themselves.

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 Hinterland Pullover (some more progress made) and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating).

What's on my loom: Waiting to be warped for the next project.

What's on my sewing machine: Ready for back of T-shirt quilt.

What's in my hoop: Whole Cloth quilt, still no progress..

What's in The Doll's Storybook: The girls are back from their vacation on the coast, but they want to understand what causes tides. Mandy is more than happy to explain to them in "Brought Back with the Tide."

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Come a Little Closer by Rachel Abbott.

What's in my wine glass: Pinelli Montepulciano D'Abruzzo 2019, from Italy.

What's my tip of the week: For some reason, no one wants to eat the ends of the loaf of bread. I cut them into pieces and let them sit on a cookie sheet until they are dry, then use them as dog treats. Once dry, they can be stored the way dog biscuits are stored.

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>