Off in All Directions

This has been a week of adventures, so first the progress on the Maine Memories Cardigan. 

Just a few inches to go before the bottom ribbing. Then on to the sleeves! For more information, see "What's on My Needles," below. 

Remember the fabric from last week? The Victorian outfit for Jolena is finished.

I used the pattern "Carrots" by Luminaria. It was made for an American Girl doll, which is shorter and much more...um...full-figured. I printed the pattern a little smaller, but otherwise made it as-is. It was still really big in the waist, so for the dress, I sewed the Velcro on the back so it overlapped more at the waist. If I make this again, I will adjust the dress bodice back pattern piece to fit better, maybe for the pinafore, too. I closed the pinafore with a heart-shaped button over a snap.

Also, the sleeve cuff was a bit small for Jolena's left hand (they are different, right and left) for her long, graceful fingers to get through easily, so I would make the cuffs open and close with a snap at the seam. I can get her hand through the cuff, but it's more of a challenge than I like in my doll wardrobe. I didn't do any of the topstitching, preferring to sew the lining at the waist and cuffs by hand, but made two horizontal tucks in the skirt to add a little more pizzazz to an otherwise very plain dress and pinafore. I had planned for this ahead of time and added 1" to each skirt. I also didn't have a large enough piece of the pinafore fabric to have one long strip, so had to piece the pinafore skirt. To avoid having a seam right in the front, I cut the front in one piece and the back in two slightly larger pieces, to allow for the back opening hem. The dress skirt is still all one piece.
Jolena was very patient throughout. She's a doll, after all, and dolls know how to be patient.

Another issue was the fact that the dress fabric was a very obvious directional print. To refresh your memory, here are both fabrics, as posted last week:

They could be flower buds or perhaps artichokes, but they are all lined up and facing the same direction. I was very careful when cutting out the pattern that the artichokes lined up on the skirt and cuff, and all of them throughout the costume were right-side-up. I was glad I noticed the directional print before I cut!

Speaking of artichokes, we went back to our Meet-up friend Tom's place for another Italian dinner made by him. Artichokes were the first course.

The next course was a bean dish in sort of a bruschetta sauce on lightly steamed kale. (He usually uses arugula, but all the stores were out (snow storms have kept the delivery trucks at bay). This was delicious, too.

Next we had an ice cream dish. It was made from whipping cream, lemon juice and sugar, and it was very tasty. (I forgot to take a photo of it.)
Then we had a fish dish. It was cod, cooked in the Italian way. (I didn't get a photo of it, either, but it was pretty and tasty as well.)

Then came the big adventure of the evening. The pasta course came out of the kitchen...

...and slipped out of Tom's hands directly on top of my wine glass. Bits of glass and wine went everywhere. He had us all get up and move to the living room, while he and his sous chef cleaned everything up. We, regretfully, didn't eat the pasta, because we couldn't be sure there wasn't any glass in it. I will have to use some soda or white wine on my favorite yellow turtleneck, but we ended up laughing about it.

We were getting a bit full, anyway, and Tom still had dessert for us. We dug in before I could get a photo. (You'll notice the tablecloth is gone!)

Here's what it looked like on the outside. The crust is pound cake soaked in rum. Then there were various layers of whipped cream with toasted almonds and almond extract. It was yummy, and I'm glad we had room for it.

We ended the meal with a "dose" of Tom's homemade limoncello. Tom passed out dark chocolate to eat first, which really brings out the flavors of the limoncello.

We had to move out of our house for a few days, because we're having our cabinets painted. We moved in with my DBIL, Jim, who lives just three blocks away. We took him out Saturday night to Olive Garden for dinner to thank him for putting up with us. It was great. I have enjoyed restaurants in this chain before, but had forgotten that Olive Garden had such wonderful food and attentive wait staff.

I stopped by Sunday after church to check on my kitchen. It looks sort of like an alien species from a science fiction movie has taken up residence and spun its cocoons everywhere.

Here's another shot. They are also doing the bathrooms. When they are done, we have to put all our stuff back, and I'll take another set of photos.

We've had some snow, including Friday morning, when I had to walk over to the house to let the painters in at 7:00 AM. I took the dogs, so they could at least get a walk in if we couldn't go later in the day. We have managed to walk the dogs each day. They have stayed with their "Uncle Jim" before without us, and he visits often, so the pups were comfortable at his house and actually quite happy to have their "pack" all together for walks, especially when it's a sunny day.

The Wisconsin grands have been having snow, too, and much colder temps than we have had. Here's Miss Daphne with our DSIL.

Sunday the Annie Award nominees were announced. "Missing Link" received 8, tying with "Frozen Two," we were very excited, especially since our son Peter and his team were nominated again for FX (effects). Here's a screen shot with the nominees in that category,
"Best FX for Feature." You can see his name listed under "Missing Link." 

The awards are January 25 at 7:00 PM. I don't think they are televised, but you can watch live online...and we will!

You may remember that he already received an Annie for Christmas in 2014, a joke present from me. She stands on a shelf in the family room in their house even today. (The Annie Award doesn't really look anything like this.)

We're hoping his team wins this time.

Happy MLK Day, those of you in the US.

What's on my needles: The Maine Memories Cardigan, from Midcoast by Jennifer Steingass. It's a pullover, but I find cardigans more useful, so I've added a steek in the front middle. Ready to CO for the MKAL for the Rose City Yarn Crawl. First clue is due out today.

What's on my sewing machine: Another Victorian outfit, this time for Billy.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Another week with no progress.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Storytime. Finding themselves with time alone, the dolls get busy cleaning the house again.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Tower by Gregg Hurwitz. It was an interesting psychological action story, and worth a read/listen. Back to Blowout by Rachel Maddow.

What's in my wine glass: Casa Santos Lima's Red Blend Portugal 2017. Always nice.

What's my tip of the week: Out of dog treats? Cheerios (or any version of them) work just as well. The dogs love them, and they are inexpensive and low-cal (if you have a dog with a weight problem).

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.

High Fiber--Flipping Out!

I finished my first woven scarf:

If you look up close you can see very uneven selvedges and tension on the right end (where I started), but what you can see on the left side (where I finished) is my improvement as I went along. This scarf will be a great reminder of how far I've come! The second one is going better. My weaving is much neater and more even.

I also finished the lap blanket, which I wove before making the scarf. I used the warp that was already on my loom:

What I learned from finishing these projects: It's much easier to hemstitch your project while it's still on the loom. My temporary knots kinked up when I blocked the lap blanket, not so much with the scarf. I trimmed with a rotary cutter, but will have to re-trim after each is washed again. I snuggled up in the lap blanket Saturday night. It's warm!

Common Threads met on Thursday at Joanie's. Georgette came early to get set up and bring some upside-down cake for us to eat. Lynda brought some fruit.

This is the towel Joanie made using the warp she left on the loom for me. It was her last project from her loom (now my loom). She hasn't washed it yet, but otherwise, it's all finished. The warp is cotton and the weft is cotton chenille. It's reclining on her elevator chair. I think it looks great!

It looks very different from my lap blanket, even though it was made with the same warp. Just goes to show, when you make a project all in one color, the texture shows up better. When you use different colors, the pattern looks different.

 

While I was at Joanie's, I took a photo of the quilt she and I made together  in 2006. The colors are shades of brown, gold, forest green and gray. We had a lot of fun. Our friend Julie quilted it.

 Joanie commemorated the fun with a great label...with an insert with our names!

Now to the "flipping out" part. I almost didn't get this blog post out! On Sunday, I had what could have been a close call. I fell outside the grocery store on my way home from church. I think I got tangled in my long skirt and turned my ankle, which created the momentum that took me down. I thought I was OK when I got up, walked into the store, bought my three items, said hello to people I knew on the way out and drove home. I felt a little stiff when I got home. We Skyped with DD's family while I had an ice pack on the affected area. When I got up from that I was in serious pain. The urgent care clinics were all closed, so DH drove me to Emergency. I could hardly walk, it was so painful. After taking my history (total hip implant on the side I fell on), they took me into X-ray and took pictures of the hip. The diagnosis based on the X-rays was: possible dislocation of my artificial hip, although the doctor couldn't understand how I could even walk, let along not be screaming. More consultation with the orthopedists, more X-rays from a different angle (because metal on top of metal looks the same as metal inside metal), more waiting while I prayed it would work out. Finally, the doctor said the new X-rays showed that the implant was clearly OK. I have contusions, tissue damage, muscle spasms, but no dislocation and probably no fractures. The doctor said to "keep moving." I have some pain pills and later today I'll get a muscle relaxant. I'm taking a kitchen stool around with me, using it like a walker. It's good to live in an area where there are many more orthopedists per capita than average because of ski injuries.

DH is still the dislocation specialist (finger, shoulder), and no new joint replacement for me (to add to total hip and both thumbs' trapezium/LRTI).

 

Now for your baby fix: Zachary is 11 months old! Here he's doing pattycake (or maybe just applauding my fantastic moves in front of the grocery store). I need to give him some cards to hold up, all with a "10!"

I will be skipping Silver Sneakers today! However, Benjamin Levisay will be premiering his first podcast, starting with an interview with Debbie Macomber! Check it out!

What's on my needles: Christmas Waffle Cardigan, more progress made this week, and Dogwood Blossoms.

What's on my loom: My second scarf, about 24" long now.

What's on my Featherweight: Still the Delectable Pathways blocks, about 8 blocks to go. I'm not sure about the stairs, but maybe no entering my fiber studio downstairs for a while.

What's on my wheel: Still the Full Circle Roving in "Pigeon," almost finished.

What's on my iPad: Listening to the Weavecast podcast, and The Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jaimie Ford from Audible.com.

What's in my wine glass: Salmon Creek Merlot, 2011. The big bottle! It will last a few days. Or maybe not. It's my painkiller of choice. I'll do a makeup day after Easter on my Lenten fast.

Note: This blog post was produced entirely on the MacBook, using the iPad for photo processing. No other computer was used in any stage of composition or posting, and no Windows were opened, waited for or cleaned.