Too Soon To Watch for Santa?

Our security detail is on duty, but if Santa showed up, Dusty would greet him happily. We are safe from casual intruders, and the UPS person doesn't have to ring the doorbell. Meanwhile, Sandy was off somewhere recharging his batteries.

It has been a busy week, as usual. We finished the greeting cards last week, and this week, I wrote our holiday letter. I had to make this map, showing our big trip during the summer. The green line was our route eastward, showing where we went camping in Utah, where Peter's family and Alex joined us. Peter's family followed the same route to Wyoming and South Dakota, and we camped together along the way. We parted company in South Dakota. They headed back, doing some camping on their return trip, while we continued on to Wisconsin to visit Karen and her family. Finally, we drove to Indiana to visit Tim with his family. We hightailed it home, covering the distance in only five days. It took less time to make the map.

I'm waiting for buttons for my Oregon Autumn Cardigan, which may turn out to be an Oregon Winter Cardigan, as winter is quickly approaching. However, I got a start on a doll sweater, which was supposed to be for Max, a Little Kidz doll going to honorary granddaughter Elsie for Christmas. Pauly generously offered to part with his pajama pants, a jacket, a sweater, his sleep mask and some sneakers, and I can take my time making new ones for him. that takes some of the pressure off. I can bring this sweater to Elsie when I go to the Yarn Crawl in March. 

I bake almost every week. This week I made Pulla. We're eating one now, and one is in the freezer for Christmas enjoyment.

Here's the recipe. I use a bread machine for the mixing and kneading and then bake it in the oven.

What do you suppose is in this box? Or maybe I should ask "who" is in the box.

My muses told me I needed a new character for the stories. I'm not sure yet where this will take the stories, but they always come to me in their time.

She says her name is Olivia. She arrived when the other Kidz were out (it had just snowed). We hadn't been expecting her until later in the day. She had some pretend tea and got acquainted with Mandy and Veronika.

She wanted some pretend toast with something called "Marmite" on it with her pretend tea. She is going to be interesting.

Fancywork yarn shop was having a trunk show with an indie dyer, A Skeiner Darkly. The owner of the company was there, Ann Woods. We had a nice chat and I saw some of her lovely yarns. I couldn't spend any more money this month, but I found out she will be at the yarn crawl in March, so I plan to pick up a skein or two from her then. She also has an Etsy shop. Before I left the shop, the shop owner drew my attention to a sheep in the window wearing a doll sweater. It's sort of redundant, I think, to put a sweater on a sheep, but he sure looks cute!

On Sunday, my back had been bothering me, and the choir didn't have to sing, so I watched the service on YouTube. Our (fairly) new priest included the children in the service and had them come up to the front for the sermon. 

For some cuteness, here is Soren, eating some soup (I think) while his two eagles listen to the discussion over by the fireplace.

There's still lots to do to get ready for the holidays. Are you ready yet?

I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for More Classic Tales Retold or Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart". 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 any of our books, including Emil, Mariah or Classic Tales Retold, please leave 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 need to finish off the raw edges on the inside of the Oregon Cardigan and sew on the buttons (when they come) and then block it. Working on the doll sweater at my leisure.

What's on my loom: Still in its corner under the windows.

What's on my sewing machine: Still its dust cover.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: This week's story from #TheDollsStorybook is 
Dreaming of Christmas. The Kidz go caroling at a home with a boy and a girl in a wheelchair. It's about where happy dreams come from when there are dolls living with you.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Now listening to These High Green Hills by Jan Karon. Still reading In the Shelter of Each Other by Milree Latimer. Didn't get much reading done again during the week.

What's in my wine glass: Empty, but will be having a nice Riesling on Tuesday, when we have another Madroña Pop-up meeting (party).

What's my tip of the week: If you get an email from some company or financial institution where you actually do business and you aren't sure whether it's really from them, look at the "full header." How you find that depends on your email provider. Sometimes there's a place to click on "show full header." If not, you might have to research it. In the full header, you will see the email address it came from. I like to report, if I have a phishing, spoofing, spam or scam contact at the company that is being impersonated. 

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes. 

The stories in More Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Welcoming a Stranger, The Rescue, Unmasked, Fuzzy Town––A Play and Sky Blue.

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook. Poems included are Valentine's Day, Keeping Pets, Back to School, Victor the Vulture, The Week Before Christmas, Insomnia and Veronika's Vocabulary Verses.

The stories in Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Little Green Greatcoat, The Boy Doll Who Cried Wolf and Lost in the Woods.

The stories in Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The stories in Mariah 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, because the publisher gets a cut. 

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>   

A Look Back, Part I: Knitting

While I'm on vacation, I thought I would report on some knitting projects I've made over the years, before I started my blog. For example, this is the first sweater I made for Charlie (my DH). 

As long as I've known him, he's been an avid skier. (It's funny; he didn't look like this when I married him. He's still pretty cute, for an old guy, though.) The pattern is from "Hand Knits for Men in Bear Brand and Fleisher Yarns, vol. 56. Bear Brand "Shetland and Wool" Purchased at Menlo Yarn Shop in San Diego, 1964.

I made this sweater for him in 1965. I wonder if that what why he proposed.

I made this one for myself in 1965. I was tired of the motifs I used for the previous sweater, so I used the same pattern but designed my own motifs.

This Fair Isle vest was completed in 1988 using wool yarn purchased in London in 1988. The pattern is "Katie's Fair Isle" from The Traditional Sweater Book by Madeline Weston, 1986. It's also found in her new book, Country Weekend Knits.

I found the yarn for this in Pitlochry, Scotland, in 1988, and bought enough for this coat and the afghan. It was hand-spun and cheap! The pattern is from Wendy #588 "Outdoor Arans", #1, Ladies Cardigan, shown on the cover, only I exchanged the chain cable for wishbone cable. I made it super-long just because.

Here's the Aran afghan from the hand-spun yarn I purchased in Pitlochry. I finished it in 1989 in California. Pattern is "Killarney," from the Spinnerin book, Fisherman Afghans, 1972.

Here's the intarsia cat pullover I made for our daughter in 1989 from Cat Knits by Melinda Coss. the mice are 3D, and each one has his own pocket. Besides the one you can see, there is one on the sleeve and one on the back.

This Fair Isle card vest I completed in 1989 using yarn purchased in London in 1988. The pattern is "Diamond Fair Isle" from The Traditional Sweater Book by Madeline Weston, 1986.

This Kaffe Fassett's "Carpet Pattern," made with leftover yarns and sale bin finds, using intarsia. It's from his Glorious Knitting, 1985. I also made the coat in that chapter in the book.

Persian Poppy Waistcoat from Kaffe Fassett at the V & A. Finished in 1989. Used miscellaneous bits and pieces of yarn for this project.

Sunbeam’s 1157, Aran jacket. I used an acrylic yarn, which I had on hand. I made this while we were living in Indonesia for a holiday trip to New Zealand. The photo was taken during a day cruise on the Milford Sound on the west coast of South Island. Matching hat pattern was not included in the pamphlet.

Cable-down Raglan from Interweave Knits Spring 2007. Made from Countrywide Windsor 8 ply D.K. from New Zealand, 100% wool. Completed in time for Easter, 2007.

There are more, but I hope you'll find something here that inspires you to knit a sweater for yourself or others. Next week I'll show some of my older quilts.

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.