A Hot Mess!

Well, that was fun, but I'm a hot mess! I think this clown expresses it well.

Our younger son's family, who live a few hours away by car left on Wednesday. Our daughter's family, residents of Wisconsin, were supposed to leave on Thursday, but the flights Thursday and Friday were all cancelled due to weather and/or the impact of Covid on flight crews. (Now, that's a job I wouldn't want to have during these times!) It was stressful for them getting new flights, but it gave us a few more days of fun, and it meant that they were here to help us usher in the New Year.

I had been knitting on my emPower People cowl with Abstract Fiber and Yarn Tahoma in "Ink," and making good progress.

I had a gift of a skein of yarn from the LYS, Fancywork Yarn Shop, from our daughter, for my birthday, so she and my DIL and I went there on Tuesday. I chose the same kind of yarn I recently made my In the Pink Shawlette from, but instead of "Sea Slug," I chose "Jay Blue." I'll have to knit something fancy with it, because it's a solid.

I wanted to get some yarn to make some samples for the shop. They have my books on display, and the owner/manager had come up with the idea to include the patterns for the knitted items that show up in the stories, so a customer could buy one of the books and make something for a child's doll to go along with it. I offered to loan two of my dolls (Dolly and Gabi) to model the Everyday Play dress and the Wonderland Turtle turtleneck sweater. The yarn had to come from the shop, of course, so the customers could buy the same yarns if they liked. I bought a skein of Koigu Wool Painter's Palette Premium Merino for the dress and CO on Thursday. Gabi will model it at the shop.

Then I chose this lovely yarn, Amble Mini in "Walk Me Home," for the turtleneck. The skeins were smaller, so I needed two, but it is also lovely yarn. This is also fingering weight, so you can tell the balls are small. (The measuring scale on my sewing desk also will give you a clue.) 

I had planned to make the turtleneck the size for American Girl dolls, which would fit Dolly, but when I got home I realized I needed thicker yarn for the larger version, so I decided to buy a smaller doll to loan to the shop for the one using this yarn. A little research and size comparisons led me to Glitter Girls by Battat, which are inexpensive, readily available and roughly the same size as Götz Little Kidz. I picked this one, because her outfit should go well with the yarn I had bought.

I still plan to make the larger turtleneck, and Dolly will model, but I need to get sport-weight yarn for it.

Two days after our trip to the yarn shop, I got a call from the manager. Someone had bought a copy of my first book, Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook! (Happy dance!)

Quilters will appreciate this present from our younger son and his family, picked up on their trip to Hawaii: a nice assortment of fat quarters.

New Year's Eve was quiet, but pleasant with family there, although I started to have mild chills, so I put on a mask for this photo of "four generations." (That's Rebekah, Daphne's Little Kidz, just like Pippa, only with freckles.)

Daphne had brought Rebekah and Zachary had brought his Billy, so they had them meet their counterparts in a story they made up themselves. They took photos for the story, too.

Our daughter gave the kids permission to take the Fisher Price My Friend Jenny and Mikey home with them. The other two (Becky and Mandy) will stay here for now.

The family left on Saturday, New Year's Day, and found out when they arrived at the airport that their flight was delayed and they would miss their connecting flight in Seattle. 

There was still the red-eye flight that left just after midnight. They arrived home, exhausted but relieved.

I get my Covid test later today.

Happy birthday to my daughter, Karen!

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 emPower People Cowl and the Everyday Play dress for Gabi.

What's on my loom: Still the trailer rugs.

What's on my sewing machine: It's cover, but if I'm up to it, I hope to get the sashing, borders and cornerstones cut for the T-shirt quilt.

What's in my hoop: Still the whole cloth quilt. A little progress happened before I got my yarn.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Happy New Year. Mariah suggests they each tell us three things they learned in the past year.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to All About Me by Mel Brooks on the Audible app. 

What's in my wine glass: I don't really know. I'm isolating in my fiber studio, to avoid giving DH my whatever, so I can't look at the bottle, but it's one we've had before.

What's my tip of the week: Black-eyed peas don't have to be pre-soaked, but if you think to do it, they cook faster. Here's my favorite recipe:

Simple Spicy Black-eyed Peas

Servings: 8 1C servings
Prep time: 22:21
Categories: Dinner, Main Dish, Vegan, Vegetarian, Winter
Source: Adapted from Parade magazine


Ingredients:
2 C dried black-eyed peas
6 cups water

1 bay leaf

1 tablespoon olive oil
2 garlic cloves ( minced or pressed)
1 bell pepper, diced
1 small onion, diced
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 teaspoon dried oregano ( crushed)
1 teaspoon dried thyme ( crushed)
2 (24-1/2 ounce) cans chopped tomatoes (do NOT drain)
1 (4 ounce) can diced green chilies (do NOT drain)
1/4 cup red wine vinegar


Directions:
Either presoak beans overnight or don't. Rinse and add to water and bay leaf in slow cooker. Cook presoaked beans for 4 hours on low (or 6 hours on low if they aren't presoaked), until just barely tender. Drain and remove bay leaf or not.
Combine oil, garlic, onion and bell pepper in a skillet.
Sauté over low heat until onion is translucent.
Add the cooked onion mix and all remaining ingredients to the black eyed-peas and set slow-cooker on low. Cook for an additional 1 1/2-2 hours, or until peas are soft.

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.

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Blossoms and Feathers

The Brioche Shawl Feathers shawl is coming along. 

I put in a lifeline, which I move every few inches. The buttons are to keep the lifeline from coming out. It's fairly complicated, so I have to pay attention when I knit, but it's entertaining, and I'm getting accustomed to putting my stitches back together properly when I make a mistake. If I'm watching TV, the hand-quilting is a better choice for something to work on. 

I do need to CO a project for the KAL in the Goetz Doll Lovers group on Ravelry, though. I plan to make something for Daphne's birthday doll. This will be the Cabbagetown Jacket, which makes a nice winter coat, but I'm sizing it down for the Little Kidz doll Lotta.

I've rewritten my Wonderland Turtle turtleneck pattern for Emil's book, including instructions for sizing it for the plumper American Girl Dolls. I think it looks good on Emil, though. I plan to include the pattern at the end of the three stories in the book.

Spring is trying to come to Bend. The daffodils are starting to bloom.

The cherub in our backyard is keeping an eye on some little white flowers. DH says they're weeds, but the cherub and I think they're pretty. Not much else is blooming outdoors yet.

Indoors, however is another matter. The tomato blossoms are fading and the little tomatoes are growing.

Speaking of growing, Zachary turned nine on Thursday. 

They celebrated after school on Tuesday, however, because his parents were scheduled to get their second dose of the Moderna vaccine on Wednesday, and they wanted to be prepared in case it made them sick. It did. Fortunately, they were well again within 24 hours and happy to be finished with the vaccine.

I put a "Shop Now" button on the Facebook page for The Doll's Storybook. It goes to the BookBaby store, rather than to Amazon or Barnes & Noble. This is because when you buy through the BookBaby store, $7.48 goes to pediatric cancer research and treatment, but when the book is purchased elsewhere they only get $1.26. The book still costs the same. However, people who get free shipping from a particular bookseller will save that cost. Anyone who would prefer to do that can donate through our fundraising page. 

What's on my needles: The Brioche Shawl Feathers Shawl, making progress. Also ready to CO a winter coat for Lotta.

What's on my sewing machine: PJs for Lotta...soon.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. A little more progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: http://thedollsstorybook.blogspot.com 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Black Madonna by Stella Riley. Now listening to The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman, recommended to me by an online friend..

What's in my wine glass: Monastrell Bacanisimo Red from Spain. Not bad.

What's my tip of the week: If you rinse more lettuce leaves than you need for your salad, you can store them in a plastic bag or container with paper towels. They will keep longer.

Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from Amazon worldwide. Also available from BookBaby, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. 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.

More Brioche, Adventures in Publishing and Easter

The adventures with brioche knitting continue. Here's how it looked on Friday.

By Sunday, it looked like this.

 

It has been an adventure so far. I misread Row 52 and didn't discover it until I was ready for Row 80. I had to frog back and pick up the stitches from Row 49, to get them all back on the needle correctly. A lifeline wouldn't have helped, because I would have moved it to above that spot. However, it was a good lesson in the structure of the stitch, as was my next mistake. That came when I thought I had a mistake a couple of rows down from where I was knitting. I tried to fix it. It turned out not to be a mistake, but then I couldn't get the stitches back the way they were and had to tink back two rows. The rows are getting longer, so I need to be more careful. I put in a lifeline yesterday.

The cap I knitted for myself a year ago was too big. It came down over my eyes. I had been thinking of shrinking it, but it wasn't until a friend, who had the same problem with a cap, gave his the treatment. Encouraged by his success, I resolved to give it a try this past week. Here's what it looked like before.

And here is the result after washing in hot water with soap and rinsing in cold.

The shrinkage was a lot more vertically than horizontally, which was what I needed. It's still a bit big, but at least I can wear it now. It's much better. I wore it when we went to the dog park on Saturday.

It was a big week for The Doll's Storybook. I managed to do photo shoots for the three stories I had already written, so I'm scheduled through April 23rd.

I learned that as of April 2nd, the book had sold 135 copies worldwide and earned more than $200 for pediatric cancer treatment and research. That doesn't count the books I've sold from home. I found out also that the royalties from Book Baby's bookstore is much greater than from other book sellers. They charge about $5 for shipping, so if you don't get free shipping from other book sellers, it's better to buy from them. Barnes and Noble has it in stock online now, and they have free shipping for members, or you can pick it up in their stores.

Our local yarn shop has decided to stock the book. I gave the owner/manager three copies on consignment along with links to the patterns for the sweaters the dolls are shown wearing in the book. Her idea was to market it to customers to go along with doll clothes they would knit for a child's doll. Now I'm thinking of including a pattern in the next book.

I still have a box with about 50 copies at my house. When most of those are sold, I will put out another book. I'm already working on Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook.

We're starting to see the beginnings of some tomatoes in the AeroGarden. DH uses a small artist's paintbrush to pollinate the flowers. I don't know if this is needed, but we're getting tomatoes. This was Wednesday.

By Sunday, the tomatoes were more obvious and easier to see.

I worked on tidying my fiber studio a bit and managed to get through all the papers. There is still a lot to do, however. 

Here's Sunday's service on YouTube. Our piece is at about 1:01, but there is other lovely music as well:

For this week's cuteness, here are the Oregon grandsons. They are back to in-person learning now.

What's on my needles: Brioche Shawl Feathers.

What's on my sewing machine: Dust.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. A little more progress this week. Very little.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Jolena lets Pippa watch her make bread in "Rising to the Occasion." 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Black Madonna by Stella Riley. It's a very long book, but I have less than four hours to go.

What's in my wine glass: Sishaye Shiraz 2019 from South Africa. "Sishaye" is Zulu for "Splash." It's the result of a partnership between winemaker Pieter Carstens and Splash Wines.

What's my tip of the week: If you're using interchangeable needles, you can use the little holes in them for putting in a lifeline. I like to use dental floss. Just tie one end through the little hole in the needle you're knitting with. It will carry that end through to the other end. Then cut it off, leaving enough hanging from each end that you don't have to worry about the stitches slipping off, or you can thread each end through a button and tie it. The button will keep it in place. If you find a mistake you can't fix, you can remove your work from the needles, rip back to the lifeline and then pick up the stitches from the lifeline, leaving it in place as you work, just in case. You can either leave it in place until you've finished the project or remove it to reuse higher up, if you're sure everything is correct. It's good to have two, so you can leave one in place while you put in the other.

Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from Amazon worldwide. Also available from BookBaby, Barnes & Noble and other booksellers. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. 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.

Busy, Busy!

Here's how my project for the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery Knit Along looked after Clue #2. I haven't started Clue #3 yet.

I've been busy working on projects for a knit/crochet along in the Goetz Doll Lovers group on Ravelry. We decided to focus on the designer Sugar Grove South. Everyone picks a pattern by this designer and makes it. We'll have a drawing for a prize of a free pattern from the same designer. I wanted to make some of the designs designed to fit Götz Happy Kidz and make the for Pippa, who is only 80% of the size. She doesn't have much in the way of clothes yet, and it's an interesting puzzle to figure out how to make it smaller. I started out with the pattern "Blank Canvas," so named because it can be a starting place for something fancy, if the knitter likes. I just made the plain version, but I used some leftover yarn that has a bit of sparkle in it. I used The Farmer's Daughter Fibers "Moon Sisters" sock yarn in "Blue." It has stellina in it for a touch of bling.

That worked out, so I went on to "Cold Winter Winds," also for Pippa. The pattern has you knit the body down to the bottom of the sleeves, then knit the sleeves and sew them up before moving on. I really hate to seam things, so I decided to join the body as you would after finishing the sleeves, then knit the sleeves in the found after finishing the body. Here's what I had after finishing the body. I was happy with the fit.

I was really involved with my audiobook, so I forgot I would have to reverse to P to make the garter stitch edging at the top of the sleeve...until I had finished the navy blue part of the sleeve, so down to the cuff. Looking at it, I thought it really did need the added texture at the top of the sleeves, so I picked out the end of the red yarn and pulled it out. After reknitting those rounds, I grafted the navy part of the sleeve back on and then finished the cuff.

I still need to make the hat. This buttons down the back. I'll show the whole thing when I have the hat made.

My sourdough starter has become very effective for making bread. I'm really happy with the result. I'm also making more kimchi (which you can see in the background) and sprouts of various kinds.

I decided to try air frying regular extra-firm tofu. I found this recipe. It made a nice, crispy, addition to stir-fry with home-grown bean sprouts and stir-fried fresh vegetables.

I think I'll try this with tempeh when I have some.

I've been trying to figure out how the royalties from my book, Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, would go directly to St. Jude, rather than coming to me first. I had three reasons to want to do this.

1) I didn't want to have to pay taxes on money coming into my account if I'm just sending it out again.

2) I didn't want a lot of bookkeeping to do.

3) I'm hoping this project will be around after I'm gone, and I didn't want my heirs to have to deal with it.

The solution was fairly simple. The publisher will send a check directly to St. Jude periodically. We aren't talking a lot of money. It works out to about $3.30 per book, but it's nice to know that every time someone buys one of my books, that amount is set aside for St. Jude. I don't know how many have been sold so far, but I expect to get a report about March 1st.

If you don't want to buy the book but want to give directly to St. Jude, I have a fundraising page here. I hope to be able to do something more with it soon. In the meantime, if someone orders a signed copy from me directly, and they decide to pay me more than the cost of the book and the shipping, I transfer the money to the fundraising page. I think that's all that's there right now.

We've been walking almost every day. We don't go too far. Long distances are getting difficult for Rocky, and we want him to enjoy himself. We use WoofTrax's Walk for a Dog app, so every walk we make over 1/4 mile using it provides a donation to Best Friends Animal Society. The app gives you a map of where you walked, how long it took and when you walked.

The pups sleep well at night.

What's on my needles: The Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL and a dress for Pippa.

What's on my sewing machine: Waiting.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Still more progress this week, but not as much because of the other projects with a time limit.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Sorry! Jolena learns that it's best to confess when you do something that hurts someone, and you feel better after you apologize.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: I finished Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. It was a good listen and enlightening. Now listening to A Castaway in Cornwall by Julie Klassen. It's interesting to notice a similar theme in both books, which I would think are totally unrelated.

What's in my wine glass: Atico Monastrell Estate Bottled 2019, from Spain.

What's my tip of the week: We will get our second dose of the vaccine on the 18th. We have heard that people often have a more severe reaction to the second dose than the first one. Some people even get sick from it. We will plan to not have anything important to do for a few days after we get the second dose, just in case. 

Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from Amazon worldwide. Also available from BookBaby and other booksellers. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment. 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.

Stitch by Stitch and Drop by Drop

Pippa's Fair Isle sweater is coming along. I will probably finish it today. Here's the front.

This is the back, although it could also be the front, if Pippa decided to wear it as a cardigan.

I put holes in the button band as well as the buttonhole band. This works as a guide for where to place the buttons. I still need to trim the excess steek fabric from the inside and finish the facings.

Here's the graph for the sleeves. It's superimposed on the body graph, but it's easy to figure out how the pattern goes through the blue and green sections.

I had to cancel my order for my new Roxanne's Thimble from the first place we ordered from They didn't actually have my size in stock. However, a new order was placed with Colonial Needle Company, and it arrived on Saturday. Apparently the middle sizes are pretty hard to find, probably because more people need those sizes. Perfect fit, and I am using it now to work on my whole-cloth quilt.

We were supposed to take Rocky back to the animal ophthalmologist on Thursday, but she was called out of town on a family emergency. We had just run out of Rocky's medication drops. He gets these two, one drop in his left eye four times a day, at least 5 minutes apart. Then he gets artificial tears in both eyes, one drop morning and night. I tried to get it from our vet, but they don't carry it. However, the small bottle is available for humans by prescription (which he wrote for us) and the other is an over-the-counter medication, which we were able to find at the pharmacy.

The pups went to the groomer this week, and they look tidy again.

My supply of books on hand is shrinking. I've been selling then one or two at a time.

A couple of weeks ago, someone bought two books and sent me a check for $100. She said to give the excess to St. Jude, so I had an opportunity to use my fundraising page. I hand to get some help from someone at the organization to be able to provide a receipt for tax purposes, but now I know how to do it, so it will be easy when I need to do it again. I'm going to check with the publisher to see if my royalties can just go straight into the fundraising page, so I don't have to explain the extra income to Uncle Sam. (If you want, you can donate directly to St. Jude through my fundraising page. Hint, hint!) The money is coming in about like Rocky's medications: drop by drop. My contact at St. Jude, however, says that every little bit helps, and the need is great.

We thought we were going to be able to make an appointment to get vaccinated a week from today, but the expected supply of vaccine turned out to be fiction, so we're now expecting it to be after February 8th.

We managed to find time to walk. Our usual route is smaller than it used to be, but the pups are grateful.

What's on my needles: Still Pippa's Fair Isle sweater, but soon to CO for the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL.

What's on my sewing machine: Sitting idle for now.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. A little more progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: A Story About a Boy. Emil goes to Mariah for help writing a story. Billy plans to provide the illustrations using photography.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Elsewhere by Dean Koontz. Now listening to The Thief of Lanwyn Manor by Sarah E. Ladd from Chirp. This website works a little differently from Audible. You don't have any membership dues, no credits to collect or use, and the audiobooks are really cheap...if they have what you want as a special deal. The app works in a way similar to the Audible app. It's a good compliment to Audible if you listen to a lot of audiobooks.

What's in my wine glass: Château Agnel Minervois 2017. Unusual.

What's my tip of the week: Face mask brackets, similar to these, can be very useful if you have to wear a mask for a long period. It keeps the fabric from going into your nose when you inhale. I've found that if you can get used to wearing glasses, hearing aids or a bra, you can get used to wearing a mask, especially if you do a few things to make them more comfortable. We will be wearing masks for a while, I believe.

Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from Amazon worldwide. Also available from BookBaby and other booksellers. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment.

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.