HighFiber: Summer Sorrel

Showing posts with label Summer Sorrel. Show all posts

Monday, May 4, 2026

Jet Lag

The long trip home provided much knitting time. It's a little boring, though, just knit stitches in the round over and over again, with no movie to watch or audiobook to listen to. However, the Summer Sorrel top is coming along.

(You're looking at reverse stockinette stitch, normally done with purl stitches, but the designer has us turn the project inside-out, so we can knit instead of purl.)

Our first full day in Onalaska, Peter and I ran over to Fitting Knit Shop in La Crosse to pick up my yarn, which I bought in January after having bought two skeins in December and then decided I wanted more for a cardigan.

I started the project on Thursday. I couldn't wait to get started! Now, for a while, I have one interesting project and one mindless-knitting project.

This model doesn't look anything like me, but it will give you an idea of what the cardigan will look like when it's finished, only I'm adding at least one pocket, or two if I have enough yarn. The pattern is the 5 Naisen neuletakki by Lea Petäjä.

Our last two days in Wisconsin were very busy. Peter and I ran errands on Monday. I was still on PEG feeding duty and he was in charge of the Hoyer lift on Tuesday, so Karen could take Daphne for a regular doctor's appointment, but they retuned in time for us to leave early to drive back to Minneapolis. We dropped the car off at the car-rental place, which was a few miles past the airport but provided a shuttle.

At the airport I tried to use my e-passport again, but it didn't work, so I had to dig out my physical passport, which was OK, only I left my cell phone on the counter, so a TSA person had to run after me, and then I had to wait for the phone to go through the machine. The TSA rep had the nerve to ask how old I was! Fortunately, they weren't too busy, so I didn't hold anyone up.

I waited with Peter for his flight, which was a couple of hours earlier than mine was scheduled. I found out my flight to Seattle was delayed, but I had my knitting, so I was fine. That added an extra 40 minutes to the time I had to wait in the airport, but I had my knitting, so I was fine. On the flight, I was seated between two very large young men. One of them had lost access to his charging cord when he gave his carry-on bag with the cord inside to Alaska Air to check for free, and he was worried that his phone would die before he could call his ride from the airport. I didn't need to use my cord to charge my phone because I have the cordless charger now, and both it and the phone were fully charged, so I gave my cord to him, and he used it for the entire trip. He was very grateful. We landed a few minutes ahead of the original arrival time, which the pilot attributed to "short cuts." When I arrived in Seattle, I learned that my connecting flight to Redmond was also delayed, so I sent Charlie a text so he would know to check arrival times before he left home to pick me up. That flight also arrived ahead of schedule! I had checked my carry-on bag for free, and it arrived in Redmond when I did, praise be! Total time awake on Tuesday: 21 hours. (I never can sleep on the plane.)

The dogs went absolutely nuts when they saw me. Charlie even seemed happy to see me, too. I took two naps on Wednesday and then went to choir practice. I started cooking again with what was left in the fridge.

I made carob brownies on Thursday, because Friday was going to be Dusty's birthday, and dogs can have carob. I just left out the walnuts. We celebrated Dusty's special day by walking to Ponderosa Park, so the dogs could have some off-leash time. Dusty showed how he could chase the ball unaffected by the advanced age of ten.

Sandy got the idea of posing for a photo, while Dusty was focused on that piece of brownie on his plate.

Then we received our Voter's Pamphlet and ballots, along with some promotional materials from candidates.

Sunday's anthem was fun. "Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled" by Mary McDonald. It's a gospel-style piece and fun to sing. Steve, the saxophonist, joined us again.

As for the new book, I didn't really have time or the ability to concentrate on it during the trip, so only got minimal work done on it. I changed my mind about the fifth story and spent some time deciding which story to replace it with. However, once I made up my mind which story to use, it only took a day to switch out the story I had already put into the layout and then go through and adjust the photo sizes to make the layout look as polished as possible. Another read-through, and it should be ready to go to my editors. Ahead of schedule.

Now for another nap....

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, BlueSky or Spoutible if you need information.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon or B&N and search for Billy: Stories 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, Classic Tales Retold, Our Favorite Verses, More Classic Tales Retold or Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, 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 working on the Summer Sorrel top and now the Women's Cardigan by Lea Petäjä.

What's on my iPhone: Still listening to The Friend of the Family by Dean Koontz on the BookPlayer app. No progress at all since I got home.

What's on my sewing machine: Put away until the next project.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Pippa is disappointed that the thunderstorm is making it impossible for Mandy to take her to the beach. Mandy explains about lightning in this story from The Doll's Storybook.

What's my tip of the week: Using strongly brewed hazelnut herb tea as the liquid when making brownies or cake with carob powder instead of chocolate (which is toxic for dogs) makes the resulting dessert taste remarkably like chocolate.

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

The stories in Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are Talking About Boys, Changes, Shhhhh!, Staying After and Money in a Jar.

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: Stories from The Doll's Storybook 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, only 8%, because the vendor gets a cut. My author's page at Book Baby is here. Scroll down and click on any of the books that interest you. Find my books at Barbara's Bookstore as well, or ask your local library to order the books.

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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Monday, April 13, 2026

Making a Splash

The Summer Sorrel hit a milestone of sorts this past week: The yoke is finished. The rest of the body is reverse stockinette down to the ribbing.

Oh, no! All the rest of it is purl stitches? Actually, the rest of the sweater is knit inside-out, so it's easy.

Spring has finally sprung. We have blossoms on our cherry tree.

We have a flowering tree in front, right about on the property line with our next-door neighbor. I think it's a weeping cherry blossom tree. It has been blooming for several days. We went out and clipped a few branches and put them in a vase.

The next day we had extreme winds, rain and tiny hail.

Now the neighborhood is strewn with tiny white and pink petals from all the flowering trees. The flowers are still on our cherry tree, though. I guess it was a little more sheltered in the backyard.

Between the bad weather and Dusty's bandaged foot, we didn't get much walking in, but we did manage a couple of short walks when it was dry. Here, Sandy is checking our Dusty's leg-lifting technique. Sandy lifts his leg when he's marking during a walk, but if he just has to pee, he squats like a girl.

I take both dogs, even when Charlie comes along. He's still a little unsteady as a result of the procedure he had over a month ago, but he's making steady improvement and is back to driving, even if I'm going along.

As we were walking, we came across a little bird pecking on a tree. I tried to get a photo, but the bird was so busy, he's just a blur. I think it's a red-breasted nuthatch, based on the coloring of the feathers.

One of the important activities of the week was the return to Earth of Artemis II.

We watched the splashdown. It brought back memories of the Apollo missions.

It was great to see them exit the capsule in good shape.

The TV transmission has improved a lot since the Apollo missions, as have a lot of technology. The Apollo astronauts had to use slide rules for any calculations needed during the voyage. When Neil Armstrong exited the LEM on the moon, we got Timo (then a toddler) out of bed and took photos of him watching human beings walking on the moon for the first time. He doesn't remember it, because he was only 19 months old at the time, but he says he remembers Apollo 13.

Sunday afternoon we went to the concert given by the Central Oregon Chamber Orchestra. I took my knitting.

Two of the pieces they played I remembered from back when I had a large collection of vinyl LPs: Prokofiev's Classical Symphony and Haydn's Symphony No. 101, "The Clock."

One of the pieces, "Celestial Threads," was new, and the composer, Chris Thomas, was onstage, playing the cello in all of the pieces. It's heavily influenced by Korean poetry, read in Korean before the piece was performed.

The piece was written to highlight the voice of mezzo-soprano Charlene Chi. She was amazing!

Some time this week was spent on the trusty laptop, working on the stories I've selected for the next book. All the stories are related to science and/or nature. I made granola, regular sourdough whole wheat bread, and some banana bread, because we had three bananas that needed to be used. (Recipe under Tip of the Week, below.) I chopped up some walnuts to go in it, because Charlie had bought a huge bag of walnuts at Costco when I told him we were out of walnuts for granola. I'm throwing the walnuts into salads. They give them a nice crunch.

We had National Pet Day on Saturday, so in honor of the celebration of our non-human live-in friends, here are two of my three grandkitties, Olive and Mango, doing what they do best.

Besides all that, I had an endoscopy, Dusty went back to the vet to get a new bandage on his foot, the choir participated in a memorial service for a parishioner and Zachary turned 14!

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

What's on my needles: Still working on the Summer Sorrel top.

What's on my iPhone: Fnished The Strange Case of the Alchemist’s Daughter by Theodora Goss on the AudiobooksNow app. Now listening to The Friend of the Family by Dean Koontz from Discount Audiobooks and played on the BookPlayer app.