Heddles Up!

You may remember from last week's blog post that we moved the loom down to the living room. With the removal of the loom from the workroom, I'm ready to redecorate the space.

I made some simple curtains, so I can block the sun and still find my way around in there. With the room-darkening shades down, as is the case on hot day, it's almost totally dark. This is going to be cozier, too. We expect to have a houseful over the Christmas holidays, so I thought it might be good to get a daybed for this space. The quilt is the one I helped my friend Joanie make for her bed. She left that and the quilt on the wall to me when she passed away. Under it is the wicker hamper that houses almost all my spinning fiber. It should fit nicely in front of the day bed, except when the trundle gets pulled out. It weighs almost nothing, so is easy to move. Now that it's out from under the long folding table in the room, I can get a shorter table, which, I hope, will be the right thickness to attach my ball winder and swift.

We are off camping again! Expect a full report next week.

In the meantime, I've made some progress with the Kivät sweater. I'm finished with Color B. The rest is just texture.

If I get bored with the sweater, I can continue with the Brioche Shawl Feathers shawl. I have the yarn all caked up and ready to go.

I will also take the dish mat, which is still on the needles, because it takes no concentration, so I can work on it while talking to people.

Some of the choir rehearsed in person again Wednesday evening, masked and distanced, accompanied by the rest of the singers online via Zoom. We rehearsed Rutter's "For the Beauty of the Earth" and after the Zoom session ended, the in-person choir recorded it. That will be used to make guide tracks for the other singers to learn and submit their virtual recordings, which of us who participated in-person will also do. We were singing with masks on, so I don't know how clear it will be. I didn't manage to get a photo of the rehearsal, but we came out to this:

The rainbow went all the way over the church and came down on the other side, but I couldn't get it all in the photo. We were all enchanted, though. "For the Beauty of the Earth," indeed!

The loom looks cozy in her new spot.

After we get home from camping, I'm planning to warp the loom and start some rag rugs for the house and then for the trailer using the instructions I found in my eBook copy of Handwoven's Master Weaver Collection Favorite Projects and Lessons from Tom Knisely.

Here's a screenshot of part of a page in the rag rug instructions to give you an idea, only he dyed sheets to use, and I plan to play with my stash, so mine won't be anywhere near this organized. I'm planning to have fringe on each end, too. I plan to aim for 30 X 50" for all three house rugs, so a little bigger than the rugs in these instructions.

It has been a long time since I warped my loom, so I'm going to run through the process by watching that part of the Craftsy class, Floor Loom Weaving. I've been reviewing the process, and will watch each part again as I do it.

We had three days where we had to use our new AC, which was lovely. Wednesday the high was in the 90s! It was so nice not to have to get up at 5:00 AM to open the windows and bring in the cool air to try to get through the day. Friday a low pressure front brought in cooler air. It was the cause of an attack of osteoarthritis pain which continued all day and all night. The only nonnarcotic medication that works for me for this kind of pain is aspirin, which I don't like to take, so I didn't. The heating pad helped some, but by 5:00 AM, I relented and took some aspirin. In 15 minutes the pain let up, and when the medication wore off, it was tolerable and letting up. I was fine the rest of the weekend.

For some cuteness, here's a photo of the pups after they returned from the groomer on Monday.

Where's my blog: As you may know, the entity that notifies people when a blog they follow here posts will discontinue notifications in July. That motivated me to link my blog to Bloglovin', as I did some time ago with The Doll's Storybook. If you are following my blog and want to continue following after July, I recommend you go here and sign up to follow.

What's on my needles: Three projects: Kivät sweater, Brioche Shawl Feathers shawl and the lowly dish mat.

What's on my sewing machine: Just finished simple curtains. Nothing new yet.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. No progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: A Conversation with Emil. Pippa has learned that Emil can communicate with animals and wants to know more about it, including whether her bear can talk to him.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to The Black Moth by Georgette Heyer, about 1/3 finished.

What's in my wine glass: Terra D'Oro Barbera from Amador County. Pretty good!

What's my tip of the week: Easy homemade TV dinners make camping easier. I still have a couple of the lasagne dinners from the last time I made lasagne, and I decided to put together this easy dinner for the next night. It's Quorn faux chicken cutlet on top of a Trader Joe's frozen hash brown potatoes and covered with mushroom sauce. Everything except the sauce was already frozen when I assembled it. I cover with foil, then the piece of cardboard that came with the trays, on which I write what the dinner contains. When we're ready to eat, I cook it in the oven at 300ºF for 40-50 minutes (the longer time for higher elevations). Easy cleanup.

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.

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Unfinished Business

You have watched me work on the Brioche Shawl Feathers shawl from this pattern by Anna Kyllenen ever since March 24th. This week I lost my game of yarn chicken.

I have 1g left of each color. It takes 2g to go across one row with one color. I have 3 rows to go of the dark color and 2 rows to go of the light. Then there's the bind off. You don't have to use a calculator to do the math required to realize that I don't have enough yarn. I'm trying to get more, but it will probably take several weeks to get it, as it comes from an indie dyer. I'm not worried about dye lots, because there's enough variation in the color across the shawl that it shouldn't be jarring. I think the cost of the shawl just doubled, however, unless they will sell me smaller amounts. Still, I can probably do something with the leftover yarn, such as make a hat to match. Or some socks.

I had to have something on the needles to work on during meetings and church, so I cast on a dress for Pippa. (Shhhhhh! It helps me pay attention better.) The Goetz Doll Lovers group on Ravelry is having a Formal Garden Party KAL (knit along) for any size doll. Actually, it's a "Join Along," because sewn or crocheted outfits are permitted. I'm using the Top Down Trio pattern by Jacqueline Gibb. I've used this pattern once before. It's designed for DK yarn and 3.25mm and 3.75mm needles for a larger doll, but I'm using fingering/4-ply yarn and 1.25mm and 1.5mm needles, so it will be proportioned the same but will be much smaller to fit Pippa.

I started out with one size larger needles, but after a few rows, I realized it was going to be too big, so I frogged it and went down a needle size. The fit is better now.

I don't usually get presents for Mothers' Day, but DH gave me this trio of socks with images of delightful animals and a small bag, which would be a great project bag for small projects or useful for packing small items (like socks) for travel. They are all from the World Wildlife Fund.

Our older son texted me Sunday morning to say I have something coming from him. It was supposed to come Saturday, but got delayed. I have no idea what it is, but I'm touched. I had greetings from all three of my children for Mothers' Day!

Rocky's stroller came on Tuesday. We put it together and tried it out the next day. DH wanted to see if it would go over rocks, so we had to off-road it. Rocky was a good sport. We used to have a car seat for him, and I think this was similar enough that he wasn't anxious. It went over the rocks OK, but I think Rocky enjoyed the ride more on the graded trail or going around the block on the sidewalk.

We take Rocky out of the stroller a couple of times each trip, so he can walk on his own for a bit knowing he isn't going to have to walk the whole way. I don't take him out if we're just going around the block without DH. Rocky seems to enjoy it the most when we're moving along quickly. He looks around and seems to be smiling.

We went to the dog park before the stroller came to make up for missing the activity on Dusty's birthday when it rained. Rocky enjoys walking around and checking out the other people and dogs, but when he's had enough, he goes to the gate. I'm hoping he'll feel comfortable enough in the stroller that he will lie down in it and relax when he's had enough activity.

The AeroGarden lettuce has turned into a tree. It's the variety. I pick a few leaves for each salad and add it to the lettuce from the store. It's great in sandwiches, too.

When DH said he had a lettuce tree, I thought he was producing another kind of "lettuce."

We will be having visitors! Our son and DIL who live a few hours away will be coming over Memorial Day weekend, as long as no one is sick. Both parents are fully vaccinated now, and the boys, who are too young to be vaccinated yet, have been back in school with protocols in place for some time with no illnesses. We haven't seen them for more than a year.

The end of August, our daughter will fly here for a visit. Our son-in-law is going to visit his parents in June, and she will stay home with the kids, who also aren't old enough to be vaccinated. He'll babysit the kids when she comes here. 

We may get both families for Christmas. I'm hoping so.

What's on my needles: The Brioche Shawl Feathers Shawl is in hibernation until I get more yarn. Pippa's dress from the Top Down Trio pattern is coming along.

What's on my sewing machine: Costumes for an upcoming photo shoot.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. I didn't get anything done on it this week..

What's in The Doll's Storybook: This week's story in The Doll's Storybook was Fasting and feeding. Pippa learns why Mariah hasn't been eating lunch with the other dolls and helps her put together a packet of food for someone in need.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Hope for the Best by Jodi Taylor. Laugh-out-loud funny in places.

What's in my wine glass: Montevina Cabernet Sauvignon 2017. One of our favorites.

What's my tip of the week: When we were training Rocky, we used a hand command as well as a voice command and always used them together. After he learned the command, we would use one or both, depending on what was easier, but he always knew what they meant. He started to lose his hearing before his vision as he got older, so it was especially useful. He still hears out of one ear, and I don't know how much he sees, but we don't really have to give him commands anymore. He can't see the ball if it's very far away and the light is bad, but he still likes to go after it. We're glad he's had a good life and hope we'll still have more time with him. If we get another puppy, we will do the same thing.

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.

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Hooray for Lifelines!

Oops!

If you look where the stitch marker is, you will see where I added a quadruple increase where it shouldn't be. I guess this pattern hasn't yet become mindless. The white line below that is the lifeline. I discovered the mistake a little late, but was happy the lifeline was in place. It's faster to re-knit the rows I had to frog than to try to pick up the stitches across the row where the mistake is. Why not just drop down and repair, you ask? Every stitch that didn't belong means extra yarn where it doesn't belong. The only way to get rid of all the extra yarn would be to cut it and weave it in. That's a lot of work, too, and then it might not look as good. But that's what lifelines are for, right? I have reknit the frogged rows without the mistake, moved my lifeline to right above where the mistake had been (using thread this time because I found the cotton yarn a bit too thick), and moved on. The marker now indicates only the center stitch.

After cleaning up my workroom, I sewed some buttons onto Pippa's overalls. The little knots were cute, but very time-consuming to untie and retie with costume changes.

I did a little more "repair" work that had piled up and then got busy making the rest of the clothes for Lotta, Daphne's birthday doll, so I can send her off in style. Pajamas were a necessity, now that she has a nice coat, so I made those next. (The bear will be going with Lotta, too. Pippa still has the tan bear, her special friend.)

I decided Pippa needed some leggings. These are made from some very stretchy exercise-attire fabric I bought the same time as the flannel for the PJs. Once I had the leggings done, I made her a blouse out of some quilting fabric I had. It's the same fabric as Pippa's blouse, but a different colorway. Lotta will get the shoes, too, because they go so well with the leggings.

Pippa had two knitted turtlenecks, because I had to make a second one to test my pattern. I decided to send one with Lotta. I had some denim-look leggings fabric left from a previous project, so I made another pair of leggings for Lotta, this time ankle-length. Pippa will keep her pink trainers. Lotta's shoes are identical, but white.

The blouse looks cute with a pleated skirt, so I made Lotta one like Pippa's, this one in some quilter's cotton fabric in a pattern that looks like fine burlap. I thought the color was perfect to go with the blouse.

It's great to have such a wonderful fabric stash.

My sourdough starter needs to be fed weekly, and I refuse to throw out edible food, so I decided to use some to make pizza dough. One loaf's worth of dough is enough for two pizzas. This one went into the freezer after baking.

This is the one we're eating. (That's chopped fresh basil in the background.)

The AeroGarden is coming along nicely. We've been using the salad greens, but the tomatoes aren't ready yet, as you can see.

Here's another view. I think we will have a lot of little tomatoes, once they start ripening.

We went to the dog park twice this week, including a visit on Friday right before the pups went to the groomer. They slept pretty much all day Saturday, and here they are Sunday afternoon, still tired. 

We had sleet for about an hour during the afternoon.

There was some accumulation. It looks as if someone opened up a giant beanie baby.

This week's story was the 150th story in The Doll's Storybook. I'm trying to figure out what to put into the next physical book.

What's on my needles: The Brioche Shawl Feathers Shawl, continuing progress.

What's on my sewing machine: Sleep mask for Lotta.

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

What's in The Doll's Storybook: You and Me. Jolena gets Mariah's help with a homework assignment that's supposed to prepare her for an English test.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Cornwalls Are Gone by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois. Now listening to Hope for the Best by Jodi Taylor.

What's in my wine glass: Sangiovese Negroamaro.

What's my tip of the week: Yukon Gold or Finnish potatoes can be used for any recipe that calls for russet potatoes, but for most purposes, you can get away with not peeling them before cooking. They usually require little or no scrubbing. Great time-saver!

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.

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A Stitch in Time

First of all, there's the progress on the Brioche Shawl Feathers shawl. 

The Brioche stitch is getting easy, although I sometimes need to review how to do some of the decreases. They only occur every few rows, so it isn't as if I can remember. At least I don't have to rerun the YouTube video each time anymore, however. Details of my project are here.

Here's Pippa, modeling the coat for Daphne's Lotta, who isn't allowed out of her box, but they are identical in size, so Pippa will do fine. Lotta has a blue dress that will go with this.  

I used thinner yarn and smaller needles with a gauge of 41 sts/ 4" or 10cm over k2, p1 rib with the smaller needles (2.5mm), not stretched. Details on the project are here. Our daffodils are coming up, and Pippa discovered one in the back yard while we did the photo shoot.

Rocky's light blue fleece jacket is in the laundry, so I made him a new one, this time in red.

Just in time for it to warm up here.

I spent some time tidying up my workroom. I still have more to do, and I want to get the loom put together. When everything is off the floor, I'll bring Beatrice (my Eufy robot vacuum) in here and turn her loose. I should have taken a "before" photo.

DH has been meeting with a group of Madroña Vineyards fans. I was able to join him on Thursday. Everyone received the same wines (see below) and we had a virtual wine-tasting. (The wine was real, but the meeting was via Zoom.) We tried the 2002 and the 2017 Nebbiolo. The 2002 was fantastic. We should perhaps get some more of the 2017 and store it in the wine fridge, although it's risky (a power outage or fridge failure could damage the result)...and there's no room in the wine fridge.

We discovered Madroña Vineyards when we lived in Utah and were active in the Park City Mountain Sports Club. Friends talked of it, so we stopped there when we were in California. 

My kit for the Kevät sweater arrived in the mailbox Thursday, but it was very late when the mail was delivered, so I picked it up on Friday.

DDIL and I will be doing these as a KAL. I have the cropped version and she is making the full-length one. The pattern is here.

I found out this past week that I will be getting monthly reports from Book Baby on sales of the book. Each month's report will be for the month three months before, so the first report I received was for December. The report in May will be for January, etc.

I hope to get a bit more quilting done this week, but I need to finish outfitting Lotta, so I can mail her off the beginning of May.

What's on my needles:  Finished the winter coat for Lotta. Still working on the Brioche Shawl Feathers Shawl. I replaced two buttons on my Dogwood Blossoms Cardigan.

What's on my sewing machine: PJs for Lotta, all ready to cut out, and then some leggings for her. Rocky's indoor fleece jacket, done, and some buttons sewn on Pippa's overalls.

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. I got to move the hoop again.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: "A Science Experiment, Part 2." 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Unexpected Mrs. Pollifax by Dorothy Gilman, and now listening to The Other Emily, Dean Koontz' new novel.

What's in my wine glass: Madroña Vinyard's Nebbiola 2002. Delicious. It changes character with each food, and always delightful. A new favorite.

What's my tip of the week: You know those cans where you have a pull tab instead of using a can opener? They leave a rim around the top that makes it difficult to get all of the contents out. I have just discovered that you can actually use the can opener to remove that rim cleanly if you want. I don't know if this works on all cans, but it worked great on a coffee can and then some canned pumpkin.

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.