2020 Goes On...and On! Part I

To start off, here is some actual quilting:

With some of the other projects done, I've been able to get some quilting done, in spite of the hole in my thimble. I have some (maybe) substitutes on the way (similar stye, but adjustable and very cheap), but in the meantime, I'm just trying to avoid the hole. I'm hoping a jeweler can repair it. I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel on this project, though. Here you can see how far the quilting is from the edge. Outside the double lines, there is no quilting. it will be trimmed off there.

I wrote our annual holiday letter for 2020. It ended up being 18 pages. Cutting it down to two pages was a chore and left out a lot of stuff I want to remember, so I decided to include it in my regular weekly blog posts for the next two weeks. If it's too boring, or if this otherwise horrible year is too depressing, you can just skip down to the end of this post, where my weekly check-ins are found.

Let's start off with a summary of our social events for the year. (This part won't take long.) First we attended a fund-raiser for Family Kitchen, an evening of music by Kristen Grainger and True North. It was great music and for a wonderful cause.

Two days later we were at our second town hall meeting, having attended one for one of our senators early in the month. This time the meeting was with local candidates for various offices.

Then we moved in with Charlie's brother, Jim, for a few days while Webfoot came in to paint our cabinets. These are the same people who painted our exterior. They did a great job again. We walked the three blocks from Jim's about once a day to check on their progress. This reminded me of something out of a science fiction thriller.

They did the cabinets in the three bathrooms, too. It was expensive, but it really needed it after Mr. and Mrs. Jellyfingers moved out with all the little Jellyfingers kids. Here's what it looked like when the painters were done.

It took a few weeks before DH could get all the hardware on the cabinet door and drawers.

However, while we were staying with Jim, we treated him to dinner at Olive Garden. It was our last meal out together, just the three of us, for the year. (We're skipping my traditional breakfast out on my birthday, the day after Christmas.)

After the cabinets were painted, and before the hardware was on, my friend Carol, from Park City (daughter of my quilting buddy Ellen) came with her husband to visit and have tea while they were here in the area for skiing. Jim came over to participate in the visit. Carol's husband, Jeff, took the photo. (Carol's talented son Colby was the inspiration for my character Jolena's aerials and slopestyle ski activities.)

Our son Peter remains the family celebrity. The film he worked on, Missing Link, won a Golden Globe and was nominated for other awards, including an Academy Award for Best Animated Feature. Peter was part of the team nominated for "Outstanding Achievement for Animated Effects in an Animated Feature" at the Annies. When the Golden Globe came to the studio, Laika, where Peter works, each employee got to have his or her photo taken with it.

We have (had) been getting into the routine of visiting the special events in Bend, such as the Beer Fest and First Friday Art Walks. We attended this First Friday event. This was our last one...for now. We got to hear the Sweet Adelines group "Bella Acapella" perform.

March is when the Rose City (Portland) Yarn Crawl takes place. You may remember my visit from a blog post in March. Mandy, (one of the characters in my stories) attended, tucked away in my purse, with my knitting, a bottle of water and hand sanitizer. We already knew about the pandemic at that time, early March. I debated about going, but I decided that it might be my last chance to see any of the grandkids for a while, and there were few cases in the Portland area at that time.

We had a nice visit with son Peter and daughter-in-law Alexa and the boys. The two knitters had our photo taken when we finished all the year shops. It rained, and we were slippery with hand sanitizer before we got done.

Mandy came out to have her photo taken looking at yarn at a few of the shops. Another knitter noticed Mandy's cardigan and asked about the pattern. As we looked it up on Ravelry together, she recognized my name. She said she had a doll in her car with an outfit based on one of my other knitting patterns. She brought the doll in and the two dolls had their photos taken together.

Also during this visit, we went wine-tasting with the men. We saw a rainbow. I found that hopeful.

Our in-person social interaction came to a screeching halt after the Yarn Crawl. Even our trip to Belknap Hot Springs over the first weekend in June had us limiting our contact with others, in spite of being part of a group.

We did some hikes alone and with Jim, but kept our masks handy and stayed away from Jim and anyone else. People throughout the park were still meeting in large groups without masks. Their idea of "social distancing" seemed to be anything over two feet. The hikes were lovely, though, and we got in an average of five miles a day, usually broken up into two hikes with a break for lunch back at the campsite.

Next week: Part II.

What's on my needles: Getting ready to start the March of the Fibres cardigan/pullover soon.

What's on my sewing machine: Waiting for the next project.

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

What's in The Doll's Storybook: A Tree Grows in the Living Room. Pippa goes to get some water and finds a tree has appeared in the living room since the dolls went up to read in bed before going to sleep.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: I've just been listening to holiday music.

What's in my wine glass: Montevina Skyland Ridge Zinfandel 2016, one of our favorites.

What's my tip of the week: No thimble will last a lifetime if you quilt a lot.

Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from Barnes & Noble in the US, and 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.

Moving Along

I’m finally making progress on my “Delectable Pathways” quilt. (I’m calling it “Peggy’s Sistine Chapel.)

However, I took time out this week for a doll dress for Dolly for the April KAL, “Sisters,” in the Götz Doll group on Ravelry.

The project page on Ravelry is here.

The instructions were for knitting the dress parts in sections and sewing them together. Some of you knitters share my distaste for sewing up lots of extra seams, although doll clothes tend to have very small seams that go together quickly. I didn’t like the look of the side seams interrupting the pattern on the sides of the skirt, so for this project so I decided to have just one seam in the back. That led me to knitting part of the bodice (up to where it splits for the front opening and then the sleeve openings) in the round, as well as the sleeves. The only seams I ended up with was the back of the skirt, the two shoulder seams and setting in the sleeves. I need to make another one for the other “sister,” Gabi. I’m going to switch out the turquoise and green colors. (I’ve done the math, and I should have enough yarn.) This time, I’m going to try to work the skirt in the round and pick up the sleeves stitches to work down, rather than having that seam. That should take the seams down to just the shoulders. I didn't have any black yarn, so I used black sock yarn, held double.

We got more snow early in the week, but it’s almost all melted now.

Wednesday evening DH and I went out to dinner at Aristo’s Greek Restaurant in Salt Lake City, followed by a show at Pioneer Theater, “Cowgirls.” It was very entertaining, about six women who perform in a western bar. The three hired as a “cowgirl band” turned out to be classically trained, not “country.” They "made do." All of the characters evolve during the story. Fun, entertaining story and music.

The pups and I had a nice walk at a lower elevation on Saturday, and I didn’t even need a jacket. Spring is here...until the next snowstorm.

DGD1 did get the final paperwork signed and it’s official: She owns her own car. My car goes in today to have the interior cleaned and de-perfumed. No point in doing the outside until the winter weather is over. Just a regular carwash with the undercarriage sprayed clean will do for now.

Here’s an update on the new Ravelry group: "The Frog Prince and His Knitting Community Orphans:” We’re up to 42 members, as of the time I'm writing and scheduling this post, as more of our Knitting Community friends are finding us. It's so nice to have such a pleasant lily pad to land on.

There was no minigroup meeting this week because it was the fifth Thursday. Common Threads meets this week, though, so I should have some photos for next week’s blog.

Friday we went to the funeral for the husband of the amazing director of Park City Singers. He passed away just a few days after he performed in The Messiah Project on Palm Sunday evening. Most of us who participated in that performance came to sing two pieces from it, and our director, who is an amazing soprano, sang several songs of different origins. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house. It was a very moving experience.

What's on my needles: Still hand-quilting the “Delectable Pathways” quilt and working on the second April “Sisters” KAL dress.

What's on my Featherweight: Making aprons for the dolls.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished No Time Like the Past by Jodi Taylor and then A Lady at Willowgrove Hall by Sarah Ladd. Still reading A Lady of High Regard by Tracie Peterson on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Lindeman’s Bin 50 Shiraz 2015. Fruity and nice.

What's my tip of the week: Although yarn comes in some general sizes, there are some variations within a category, so it’s a good idea to knit a gauge swatch before starting a project. (A pocket lining or sleeve makes a good swatch; doll clothes and socks can be their own swatch, as long as you check your gauge after you have a few inches done.) If you don’t have the yarn called for in the pattern, you can usually substitute a similar weight. Ravelry and YarnSub are good resources for making substitutions. In a pinch, you can hold two strands of some yarns together, as I did with the black yarn for the Sisters dirndl dress for Dolly. Two strands of fingering, sock or 4-ply equal one strand of sport; two strands of sport equal one strand of worsted and two strands of worsted equal one strand of bulky.

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.

New Life

Here’s Rebecca’s version of a wool appliqué design Julie recently finished.

This was a week to contemplate death, but also resurrection. I see some parallels to my life, even if on a smaller scale. True to our theme, Rebecca has added a butterfly, long considered a symbol of resurrection and new life because it “dies” as a caterpillar and emerges from a tomb in a new form.

Here’s Julie’s wool appliqué wall hanging based on the same design. You may recognize it, as I included it in a blog several weeks ago.

Rebecca also had finished this lovely cross stitch for her daughter’s new house (I believe).

Another project you might remember: Barbara’s appliqué quilt. Marilyn redrafted the block so they would come out the right size, and Barbara managed to get the pieces out of the fabric she had left.

She was not happy with the directions, so it’s just as well the pattern is out of print. If you wanted to make one like it, you would have to reverse-engineer it. It's a very nice design, thought, and lovely fabrics in the kit. Here are the border fabrics that came in the kit.

The pattern was Apricot Preserves by Ann Danzig’s Granny's Attic. If you remember, this kit was left to Barbara by a dear friend who passed away some time back. She had started the appliqué, so some of her work is in it. See how this quilt fits into the resurrection theme?

Brenda has been busy. She finished her Ribbon Quilt, but packed it away, as they are moving to a new (local) location. She was happy to send me this photo for my blog, though.

The pattern is from “Strip Your Stash.”

She also had been working on this quilt, pattern by Sweetwater and fabrics from the “Noteworthy” line.

After eating and having show-and-tell, we sat around and worked on various projects.

A minigroup is a good place to share ideas about how to do things. We all learn from each other.

I’ve been hand-quilting my Delectable Pathways (AKA “Peggy’s Sistine Chapel”) quilt. Just to jog your memory, here’s the finished quilt top on my design wall:

I hope to get it up on the wall over my stairs this spring, but don’t hold your breath. The final knitted doll outfit (for now) is finished. The pattern, sort of spun off from the simple "Everyday Play" dress I designed, is now available as a free download on Ravelry.

Some of you may be aware that our DGD1 moved in with us January 2015. She has been driving my car ever since, first to look for work and then to get to her job, putting a crimp in my independence, as DH and I have had to coordinate our use of his car. Thursday evening DGD and DH went to a Salt Lake City car dealership and they found her a nice, high-mileage, pre-owned Nissan. (Hers is the one in front, and she's paying for it.) So I finally get my car back.

I'm checking into getting my car detailed. It deserves it. Again, fitting the theme of new life. One step toward getting my fiber studio back. Not exactly new life, but it feels like it.

Finally, you may remember my lament from last week regarding the impending loss of the Knit Picks Knitting Community. I can announce (for those of you who don’t know yet) the grand opening of the Ravelry group: "The Frog Prince and His Knitting Community Orphans."

We already have more than 30 members, as of the time I'm writing and scheduling this post, and it has been great to “see” some of our Knitting Community friends who haven’t been as active lately in the Community. One of the nice things is, some orphans of the Knitting Community have also been active on Quilt With Us, and we can have a quilting thread in our Ravelry group, because our group is mostly knitting, etc.

What's on my needles: Remember the Trickle Brick socks? Also back to hand-quilting.

What's on my Featherweight: Still working on cleaning fiber studio.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Listening to No Time Like the Past by Jodi Taylor Also reading A Lady of High Regard by Tracie Peterson on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Corbett Canyon Cabernet Sauvignon. I couldn’t find a vintage on the bottle, but it’s nice, and a good value.

What's my tip of the week: If you’re hand-quilting and get too many stitches loaded onto your needle, a hemostat comes in handy for pulling it through. Just be sure when you pull, you don’t twist your wrist--just pull out in the direction the needle is pointing, so you don’t break your needle.

 

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.

The Pitter-patter of Little Patterns

I’ve published a pattern on Ravelry, the first I’ve actually uploaded myself.

It’s for a doll, hence the “little.” Here’s the back:

It took me longer to write the pattern and post it on Ravelry than it took to knit.

This was my prototype, which I knit flat except for the sleeves:

I realized after finishing the skirt that the sleeves needed to be finished before joining the body, if knitted flat. This is the back, showing why I decided to do my second one in the round.

The self-striping works out well in the round, but the seam is very obvious when knit flat. The pattern now has directions for knitting in the round (using your method of choice: dpns, two circulars or magic loop) and flat. Although I have written directions for knitting the whole project with straight needles, I have only knit the sleeves in the round. I guess I should try knitting the sleeves according to my directions to make sure they work out. Now I’m working on a knitted jacket to go with each dress. I’ll probably publish the pattern when I get done, now that I sort of know how to do it.

Common Threads met on Thursday at Karan’s. Lynda is working on a Baby Surprise Jacket (BSJ) for a friend’s baby.

Lynda is an experienced knitter, but she keeps remarking on how weird the BSJ is. Karan is making a scarf using cotton yarns in Easter colors.

The pattern is from from Vogue Knitting, Winter 2013/2014, the cover pattern.

Friday night we went to the ballet. Free tickets. Free tickets to the ballet is like a free kitten. You have to consider the additional expenses: gas, dinner out, parking, etc. Still, like a free kitten, the expense has its rewards.

Of course, no week would be quite complete without a trip to the emergency room. DGD1 dropped her hair dryer on her foot, ripping a gash in her little toe, requiring four stitches. Good news: I have my car back. Bad news: We have to drive her to work and pick her up.

What's on my needles:  Jacket to go with the dress. The Trickle Socks, waiting.

What's on my Featherweight: Still doll socks, tights and undies. Will start on Regency outfit for Dolly soon. (I know: promises, promises!)

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Watcher by Jo Robertson, a crime novel, another Audible “Deal of the Day.” Then read The Curiosity Keeper by Sarah Ladd. Now Listening to The Lady of Milkweed Manor by Julie Klassen. Still reading A View to Die For by Richard Houston on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Glen Ellen 2013 Merlot. Nice.

What's my tip of the week: Wear shoes while you're drying your hair.

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.

Groundhogs, Wheels and Bowls

Last Monday the American Girl Knitters Ravelry group started its February knit along (KAL).

We were given a discount on any pattern by Una Hendry (from lots of choices) and had to finish one item from any of the patterns, post in the KAL thread and link to the KAL from our Ravelry page for the project.

I wanted to use leftovers and found Stroll sock yarn among my scraps in “White,” “Flagstone Heather” and “Rabbit Heather.” These last two are tweed. They were left over from three pairs of socks. It’s the middle of winter here, so I couldn’t see a sun dress or baby doll PJs, so I picked this one of the three ski sets. 

I made the ski pants from the “Rabbit Heather” first, because there seemed to be more of it, and I wanted to make them all one color. Dolly is holding her foot up so you can see the stirrup that goes under the foot.

After finishing the body of the ski sweater and as I was making the first sleeve, I realized I might run out of the “Flagstone Heather.” I decided to stop the first sleeve at that point and knit the second sleeve using the other end of the yarn. I got through the second pattern row at the shoulder before I ran out. I could have substituted one of the other colors without too much difficulty by altering the pattern slightly, but I had a skein of Essential sock yarn in “Ash,” which is pretty close to the “Flagstone Heather,” although not tweed. I substituted this for “Flagstone Heather” in the last two pattern rows on the sleeves. Some of it disappears into the seam at the shoulder anyway, so it wasn’t noticeable.

I used the leftover “Rabbit Heather” as the main color for the hat and used the Essential “Ash” along with the Stroll “White” for the contrast colors. Also not noticeable.

Part of the fun is the staging. As I did with the January KAL project, I used the chair and ottoman I made last month and the iPad for a roaring fire.

I added some “popcorn,” crushed styrofoam peanuts (an idea I found on Pinterest) and a cup of cocoa, with “marshmallows,” (also styrofoam peanuts, a couple of pieces that turned out the right shape). The perfect setting for après-ski.

I still have some things I need to make for Dolly before I put her aside to finish my hand-quilting and other projects.

The Spin Along started Friday and is still going on. I started out with this lovely fiber from Christina “Aloha Blu.”

We started Friday at noon. I chose to start with the two ounces of Targhee “Saturated Spring.” As of Sunday evening, after the bowl game, I had this much done with still about 45 minutes worth of spinning left to finish the 2 oz. bump of fiber.

If you’re reading this Monday morning, I am still spinning away. I plan on Navajo-plying, also called “chain plying,” because it’s similar to making a crochet chain. The loops are much bigger, and you make them as you spin in the opposite direction from the direction you spun the “singles,” which is what you call the individual ply.

Here in the high mountains, the sun shone brightly on Groundhog Day. I know that’s supposed to mean six more weeks of winter, but I wonder if it means ONLY six more weeks. That would turn out to be a short winter for us. To keep warm (even in the house it’s cold) the pups wear their sweaters and soak up the sun when they can.

Rocky’s sweater is made from left over Swish in “Lava Heather” with some “Squirrel Heather” and “Dove Heather” for contrast. Sunny’s is also made from “Lava Heather” and “Dove Heather,” but with “Dusk” as the other contrast color.

Even after a couple of warmer days (high 30s) we still have about three feet of snow on our roof.

Common Threads was cancelled because we had a blizzard, which creates a parking problem, but some of us managed to visit Joanie on Friday. Quilters: Vintage Stitchers meets again this coming Thursday, so there’s some hope for some quilting eye candy next week.

What's on my needles:  Still the “Time for Tea” party dress for Dolly. The Trickle Socks, waiting.

What's on my Featherweight: Still doll socks, tights and undies. Will start on Regency outfit for Dolly soon.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Ashley Bell by Dean Koontz, his latest novel, which came out in December. I really enjoyed it and think it’s his best so far. Then listened to Her own Devices by Shelley Adina. I’m looking forward to the next book in the series. I never thought Steampunk would appeal to me, but it does. Now listening to From a High Tower by Mercedes Lackey. Good so far. Still reading A View to Die For by Richard Houston.

What's in my wine glass: Crane Lake Malbec, one of our favorites.

What's my tip of the week: If you know who won the Superbowl, don’t tell anyone the result unless they indicate that they already know. They may have recorded the game.