Preparations in the Works

The Talvinen is coming along, now that the Rose City Mystery KAL project is finished. It's a little easier to see what I'm doing, although the chart is hard to see in dim light. 

The increases are M1L (make one, left), which requires pulling up the yarn between two stitches on the row below and knitting it so it twists (left, in this case). I noticed it made a difference in how it looked if I took the background color under the float for the design color versus over it. I wanted to minimize having the light blue color show through. I know the yarn will fluff up a bit when it's washed and blocked, and the puckering will disappear, so I think it's going to be nice. Those vertical stripes at the top of the photo are for the steek. The pattern is for a pullover, but I'm making a cardigan. The steek is where the opening is going to be. Doing this is fairly easy, except that the beginning of round was in the center back, and I moved it to the front, which is where it normally would be if you make a cardigan. The orange stitch marker shows where the center of the back is. I needed to know this for the short rows across the back, but I think it also will be useful when I divide for the sleeves.

My scarf/stole for the Yarn Crawl turned out very nice. 

We're planning to leave Wednesday to go up to Portland, but the weather forecast looks nasty. I'm hoping we don't have to miss it, although the Yarn Crawl has a virtual option. We did that in 2021. The problem is we pretty much have to go over mountains to get to Portland. Snow storms aren't very safe to drive through, and sometimes there's an accident, so we could get stuck. Find out next week if we went or not. It will leave you in suspense.

I made the bread a little differently this week, just to see if I could get the loaf a little shorter in height. I bought a slicing guide awhile back, and the loaves I make using two batches of sourdough starter are a bit too tall. They also make very large slices––more than I really need for a sandwich. I only used one batch of starter this time. When I take 113 g of starter out of one jar to feed, the discard goes into the bread machine. I have been using the discard from the second jar, too, with 1/2 C water, 1T each olive oil and honey, 1 t salt and 3 C flour (whole wheat mixed with 1/4 C each oat bran, wheat brand and wheat gluten). I was hoping that only using the discard from one jar would make a smaller loaf, and it did. With no added yeast, it took longer to rise, which was OK. I increased the water to 3/4 C and kept all the other ingredients the same. The loaf fit nicely in my bread slicing guide.

The larger loaf stuck out at the top, making it difficult to line up the guides. Here's the  photo from last week's blog post. It isn't in the guide, but maybe you can get an idea of the difference. They were baked in the same pan, so the width of the slices is the same.

I used the second jar of starter for a second loaf, which went into the freezer for the trip. I was worried about having to take the starter along on the trip, because our trailer fridge is fairly small, but I found out that the starter can go up to a month without feeding, so it should be no problem. What I read said that you just need to leave it out to warm up a little longer.

I did some cooking for our trip to Arizona with the trailer. 

The Mexican TV dinners (tamales, beans and rice) went into the freezer, along with a black-eyed pea stew, a pan of lasagne and a pan of potato Alfredo. I used the same 8" square pan for both the lasagne and the Alfredo. I lined the pan with foil, put the food into the pan and covered it with foil. when it was frozen, I slipped it into a plastic bag and reused the pan for the other recipe. I just need to remember to take the pan to hold the food when it's heating up. With a frozen pizza crust, we should have enough meals for 10 days in the freezer. I'll take stuff to "decorate" the pizza with.

Then I'll put some things in the trailer's pantry to make up easy meals, like rice, stir-fry sauce and an Indian pouch or two. We can take the rice cooker along, because it doesn't weigh much, and I've found a good place to store it.

Charlie has been shopping for the new puppy. We're calling him Rusty for now. The leopard-patterned pad is a self-heating pad for dogs and cats. We can put that into his crate. The breeder recommended a folding playpen, which is in the navy bag with handles, and some "potty pads." We also have a supply of food for the little guy, and Dusty will probably end up with some of it, just because he enjoys something new every once in a while. It's like having a baby!

My computer problems are mostly solved, but there are still some problems with syncing to iBooks. I have some PDFs on my computer but no longer on my iPad and some PDFs on my iPad but not on my computer. I still have 23 photos that wouldn't sync to the cloud.

Dusty and I have been walking when the weather isn't too cold or rainy. We're using the Walk for a Dog app, as usual. For this route we start out walking down to the entry to the Larkspur Trail. We head South on it, then get back on the sidewalk at the end of Bronzewood and walk around the block, including one of the cul-de-sacs. It's nearly a mile, and it gives Dusty a chance to brave walking by the sewer grates, which he's afraid of. I'm trying to desensitize him to it before we start walking with the puppy.

The app gives walkers points for every walk of 1/4 mile or more. It's supported by advertising, and a donation goes to your selected animal-related charity (chosen from their list) based on your points. It's free to use.

Now there's snow in the forecast for when we expect to be traveling north for the Yarn Crawl. We may not go. 😢

Finally, Daphne played her flute in a duet with a classmate this week.

If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for "Classic Tales Retold: 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 any of our books, including Emil and Mariah, 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: Finished the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL. Now back to the Talvinen cardigan. The EmPower People Kerchief is still hibernating.

What's on my loom: Dust, but I still plan to make some placemats.

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: In this week's story, the dolls find themselves again worried about The Writer, who seems perpetually behind in things that need doing. We hope you enjoy this story from The Dolls Storybook, "Taxed." 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Das Vermächtnis der Drachenreiter by Christopher Paolini. I really enjoyed it a lot, although there was a lot of fighting. I'm hoping to listen to the next book in the series. Right now I'm listening to The House at the End of the World by Dean Koontz. I always enjoy his books, and this is a new one. I also have a few podcasts on my phone and iPad. I signed up for Spoutible a couple of weeks ago, and I'm enjoying it. Bots are pretty much screened out, and trolls can be blocked, although I haven't encountered any yet. Some discussion is bound to happen, but it's interesting, pleasant discussion. It doesn't function well on the iPad yet, so I'm looking forward to the app, which will be coming out in a few weeks.

What's in my wine glass: Cédez Cabernet Sauvignon 2019. Very nice.
.

What's my tip of the week: I think this blog post is full of tips. Do I really need to add another one? I don't think so, so I'm going to leave it here.

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

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

Emil: Stories from The Doll's Storybook and Mariah: Stories from The Doll's Storybook are also still available from booksellers. The link for Book Baby is here. The three stories in Emil are Best Buds, Getting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.

The three 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. 

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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Cookin' the Books!

It's tax-preparation time, and while DH is working on the taxes, I've been cooking food. I made our favorite enchilada casserole, which we had with beans and Spanish Rice. My rice recipe makes a lot, so I planned to make TV dinners out of the leftovers. I just got out an extra can of refried beans to fill in the third compartment in the tray when the first one was gone.

For all my TV dinners I cook in the oven at 300ºF for about 50 minutes. 

Also going into the freezer was another batch of bran muffins.

We often have French-style lentil soup, and it seemed like a good time, so after using all the leftover enchiladas to make TV dinners, I cooked some lentils and vegetables in the pressure cooker.

I received a gift of an immersion blender for Christmas. (Maybe it was for my birthday. Having a birthday the day after Christmas and a childhood of presents that said, "Merry Christmas and Happy Birthday" may have had their impact.) I would have put this soup into the blender, but instead, I just blended it with my immersion blender, and voilà! It's certainly easier, and with less cleanup.

When the kids were here, we bought a big bag of potatoes and still have most of them left. Then DH came home from Trader Joe's with another bag of potatoes. I made a Tuna Potato Bake by modifying a recipe I found at The Spruce Eats. It turned out great! I basically just reorganized the order of the ingredients and substituted olive oil for the butter. I used soy milk and soy creamer left over from Christmas visitors.

Tuna Potato Bake

Ingredients

• 5 medium yellow potatoes, cooked and sliced (I cooked potatoes in water to cover and saved the water to use when making bread.)
• 1 can tuna, drained
• 1 C chopped onion
• 3 T olive oil
• 1 1/2 T prepared mustard
• 1/4 C flour
• 1 t salt
• 1/8 t pepper
• 2 C milk

Directions
Heat oil in saucepan. Add mustard and dry ingredients. Gradually whisk in milk. Cook over low heat until thickened.
Arrange potatoes, tuna and onion in casserole. Spread milk/flour mixture over  all and bake at 350° F for 1 hr. (We're at 3500', medium-high elevation, in Bend, so yours may cook faster if you're at sea level or more slowly if you're living in the clouds.)

I cooked some green beans to have with it, cut up some home-baked bread and made a salad. (I think I could easily have added a layer of vegetables to the casserole. Might try that next time.

I wish I could show you the progress on my Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL project, but I don't want to spoil the surprise for people working on it. I'm a little behind. Clue #3 came out on Wednesday, and I didn't get to it until Friday. Here's a hint, though.

My favorite doll company, Götz, has come out with a Little Kidz boy, "Paul." He looks a lot like Pippa. These are "official photos."

Here's a photo someone took of their doll, posted on Facebook. I'm hoping to order him in February. I have plans for him. Stay tuned. 

Saturday, we had a memorial service for Liz, a lady who used to sing with the choir. She had not sung with us for a while even before the pandemic and finally passed away on Christmas Day, surrounded by family members. She was 88. Eight members of the choir sang at the service, and after that, a couple of bagpipers from Bend Fire Pipes and Drums played Amazing Grace out in the courtyard. Liz owned a set of bagpipes that had belonged to her grandfather, which she donated to this group. After their performance with modern bagpipes, they demonstrated with Liz's grandfather's pipes. They spent some time with tuning, because it was cold, and the antique bagpipes were not built to perform in the cold the way the modern ones are. They couldn't play indoors, because they would have needed special equipment to mask the instruments.

My second iPad is nearly nine years old and can no longer be updated, so some of the apps are starting to malfunction. Safari has been running slowly, too, and often malfunctions. After some research, I came to the conclusion that it needs to be replaced. That will give me an opportunity to get a better camera, although it remains to be seen how difficult it will be to take photos with the iPad rather than my phone. This is the one I've decided on, the 11" iPad Pro 128g.

Everyone locally is temporarily sold out of this model, but I was able to order one from Apple and still get it in about 10 days. I could have picked it up at Best Buy in a little over a week. It's a fairly long drive, and then I would have had to go into the store with lots of people ignoring the mask mandate. No delivery is available from them. I could have ordered it from Amazon, but it would be March before I could get it. That's too long, as I've become very dependent on it. I could have bought a different model, but that would have cost more. They would only give me $55 for my old iPad as a trade-in, so I'm keeping it for use by the dolls for a fireplace and TV. It fits into the frame that hangs on the wall, and I'm not sure the new one will. I can still use it for my Recipe App, too. I'm afraid the app is no longer available for the iPad, although they have it for the iPhone.

That's what I've been up to. DH is still in his study, cooking the books.

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 Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL shawl.

What's on my loom: Still the trailer rugs. No progress this week.

What's on my sewing machine: Still waiting for the T-shirt quilt. The iPad issue took up a lot of time this week, while I decided what to do.

What's in my hoop: No progress this week on the whole-cloth quilt.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In "A Bigger Footprint?" Jolena worries that she might have to quit the ski team because carpooling to practice and flying to competitions might be adding to her carbon footprint. An explanation of greenhouse gases for children.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Unthinkable by Jamie Raskin on the Audible app. 

What's in my wine glass: Crystal Range Barbera 2019, one of our favorites.

What's my tip of the week: I discovered that my air fryer really doesn't need cooking spray to come clean after using.

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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