Showing posts with label colorwork. Show all posts
Showing posts with label colorwork. Show all posts

Monday, January 12, 2026

Fixing Things

The Andean Chullo Hat is done. I have enough yarn left over to make several more, but maybe I'll do something else with it. Maybe a vest. (I can't believe those nine balls of Palette have been all around Oregon and out to the Midwest and back twice!)


I knew it was going to be big, even with having the correct gauge, because I have a small head, so I left off one of the motif rounds above the row of llamas and more the decreases.


I worked the applied I-cord from the inside, rather than from the outside, having seen that recommendation in a YouTube video on applied I-cord. The presenter thought it looked better from the outside that way, and I agree.


With that done, I decided it was a good time to lengthen the sleeves of my Oregon Autumn Cardigan. I didn't want to reknit the sleeve border, so I planned to remove the solid-colored round right above the border (stitches all knit with the same yarn being easier to remove). I picked up the stitches at the top of the border with some thin cotton yarn and a yarn needle. Then I did the same with the round above the solid-color round. Once those stitches were stabilized, I removed the yarn from the solid round. I then had this:


After finding my place in the pattern graph, I picked up the live stitches from the upper section and transferred them, one by one, from the cotton yarn to two circular needles the size I used to knit the sweater, checking the pattern as I went and putting stitch markers between the pattern repeats. I found I was missing one stitch in one of the sections. The pattern helped me find where it was missing. I had to get under my Ott Lite to see the dropped stitch, but it was easily fixed. Then I knit more rounds. Here's where I am now. The green stitch marker is fastened in the round where I had started the border. When I'm happy with the length, I'll graft the two sections back together.



I need to get it done. I have a busy week ahead, with my first cataract surgery and the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery Knit Along.

We finished off the sourdough bread. Daughter-in-law Alexa gave us several jars of jam when we were visiting. I had some of the fig jam on some sourdough toast with a soft-boiled egg. Yum!


We walked every day this week, mostly along the Larkspur Trail, sometimes giving the pups a little off-leash time in the wooded area adjacent to the trail. The snow is gone now, but early in the week, it still coated the ground. It was icy in some places, so we had to be careful.


Sunday was Sandy's third birthday. I had decided to bake him a carob brownie cake, because carob is OK for dogs and tastes like chocolate. We made a little party of it. Dusty doesn't look thrilled, but then, it wasn't his birthday, was it?


In light of the killings of people by ICE agents in California and Minnesota, another protest was planned for Saturday. It was icy cold and breezy, but more than 1,000 people showed up at Peace Corner and lined the street in both directions.


The local churches had organized a vigil Sunday evening at the pavilion at Drake Park. I went without the dogs. (Charlie was watching a football game.) I didn't have a candle that would be appropriate to take, so I pulled up the candle app on my phone (see under "Tip of the Week," below). We sang, we prayed. It was worthwhile. I was surprised to see so many people show up in the cold and dark. There must have been hundreds.



My 50 Miles for ALS effort is coming along. As of Sunday night, I had racked up nearly 24 miles, getting close to half of what I need, with still much of the month left. However, I will probably be unable to walk as much after I have my cataract surgery on Thursday, so I'm trying to get a little ahead.

The ophthalmologist is planning to make my left eye able to read close up and the right eye suitable for distance. He called that "monovision." To see if I really was going to be able to adapt to that, he gave me a soft contact lens for distance to wear in the right eye for a couple of days. It was different, but I didn't have any trouble with it and was already starting to get used to it. I learned that I had been using my right eye for reading as well as my left, but with the contact lens, I had to rely only on my left eye. I had to move reading material closer, and then it was easier to read. I have astigmatism in that eye besides the cataracts, so the surgery should make it much easier to read, and I won't need to hold something so close to my face. That's the plan, anyway. I should have something to report next week.

A new challenge hit me on Saturday. My left hearing aid wouldn't start. It had done this before, while still under warranty, and they replaced it free of charge. I'm reluctant to replace it again, because I will have to pay for it, and my old hearing aids seem to work better. I'm exploring my options now.


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: The Oregon Autumn Cardigan fix.

What's on my iPhone: Still listening to Nobody's Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre on the AudiobooksNow app. A little progress this week. Now I'm stymied because I can't get my old hearing aids to stream from my phone.

What's on my sewing machine: Put away.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Emil is just finishing writing a letter to his friend Holly, when Pippa arrives, interested in what he's doing. He reads her his letter, which is full of events from his life, and that leads to a discussion about diversity and how we're all different. Here's Pen Pals.


What's my tip of the week: I picked up the RealCandle app for free before attending the Bend Action Coalition's Candlelight Service of Lament and Hope. I discovered that the candle would turn off and my phone would revert to my home screen if I wasn't touching it. Since I was wearing my fingerless gloves, I just held my phone with one finger on the screen. That did the trick, and my candle stayed visible the rest of the event.



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, December 15, 2025

And Repeat

The Free Range socks are done, so I can wear them. 



The pattern is Front Range Socks by Lynn Zimmerman. I found a couple of minor mistakes in the pattern, but this pattern has been in my Ravelry library for some time, and the mistakes may have been corrected by now. The designer also has a different way of making a 2-stitch cable. I used the method I'm used to, knitting the second stitch on the left needle, then the first stitch on the same needle and taking them both off at the same time.

I needed something to work on in the evening when we watch TV, so I immediately dug out my Andean Chullo Hat, which I've been carrying around with me on various camping trips in case I finished what I was currently working on. I started it on circular needles, but then switched to my small double-pointed needles, because it was rather unwieldy with just a few stitches on such a big needle. Here you can just see the beginning of the design of the first ear flap.


I switched back to the circular needle when I had enough stitches to hold onto. The first ear flap is now finished and there's a good start on the second one.


We're heading back to Wisconsin for Christmas, driving first to Portland, either December 23rd or 24th, depending on the weather. We'll stay with Peter, Alexa and the boys and get a shuttle to take us all to the airport in Portland on the 25th. We'll rent a van in Minneapolis to drive to Onalaska. Charlie and I will stay in the basement guest room, and the kids will stay in a hotel or a short-term rental for the week. We got on the phone to set up the arrangements. We actually have seat assignments this time, and they're all together, all six of us.

I want to have the ear flaps for the Chullo Hat done and combined with the beginning of the body of the hat by the time we leave Portland, to make the project easier to handle while traveling, but I'll need to take all this in my "personal item," which will probably be my big knitting bag. (It will also have to hold my purse, my medications and my iPad!) I thought about putting the yarn into a zipper bag and sitting on it to squish all its soft loveliness down flat, but if I need to end one color and change to a new one mid-flight....


Charlie's brother, Jim, is coming to visit on the 19th, because we won't be able to be together for Christmas. I made some Pulla––two loaves, one to have for Jim's visit and one to take to Wisconsin. One more thing to fit into my personal item/knitting bag. They're both in the freezer right now.


The new book, Billy: Stories from The Doll's Storybook, was officially released on Friday. Amazon and Barnes & Noble have it listed, but as "on order." If you want to read it sooner than a couple of weeks after Christmas, ask your library to get it for you or get it from BookBaby. If you go to the big booksellers' websites and visit the page for the book, they are more likely to stock more copies. That would help sales.



Here's a look at the back cover.


I have copies I can sign and send to you if you're interested. All of the royalties on the books purchased from book sellers go to to support pediatric cancer research and treatment, currently St. Jude.

Remember my killer cold? I came down with it four weeks ago and had it when we went to Portland over Thanksgiving. Well, I'm still a little hoarse, but I'm mostly not coughing anymore, and I'm sleeping all night. I went to choir rehearsal Wednesday night and was comfortable singing, although not quite back to normal. Each day gets better, and I expect to be able to sing well enough for the Messiah Singalong on the 20th and Lessons and Carols service on the 21st. It's important to me this year because I'll miss singing for the Christmas Eve services. I sang with the choir on Sunday, and that went all right, although my low-treble notes are not very strong.

On Tuesday I had my annual eye exam. During this visit, I was told that my cataracts could be removed any time now, so I said, "Let's do it!" I'll have my left eye corrected to be nearsighted and the right to be farsighted, and then I will get driving glasses to correct the left eye for distance. Years ago, an older friend had his contact lenses made so one eye was nearsighted and the other was farsighted. I never thought I would want that, but when the cataracts changed my eyes to that very arrangement naturally over time, I found I got used to it and could see well. My vision isn't really bad right now, but I need really bright light to read fine print or do any close work, especially knitting a pattern with darker or multicolored yarn, and street signs are unreadable at night from a distance.

I've started cleaning the house for Jim's visit. I really should do some cooking, too, but the cleaning comes first.

Today is our older son's birthday. I can't believe he's already 58! Happy birthday, Timo!


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 the Front Range Socks. Getting close to finishing the second sock.

What's on my iPhone: Still listening to Nobody's Girl by Virginia Roberts Giuffre on the AudiobooksNow app. Not much progress this week.

What's on my sewing machine: Put away.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Because Hanukkah began last night, I thought it would be good to rerun Emil's experience leading the lighting of the menorah. Here's Happy Hanukkah from The Doll's Storybook. Chag sameach!



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, December 23, 2024

Food Fight

It's been a week of strange diets. We started out the week with Charlie's low-fiber diet as a prelude to a procedure I don't need to mention but you can guess. I found a recipe for waffles that called for one mushy, overripe banana and put the ancient waffle iron to work. (The blueberries were for my serving. I need my fiber.)



I've been trying to correct a reflux problem with dietary restrictions that include tomatoes, so I found a recipe for Alfredo sauce to use on our pasta. Not bad. We had it for our Madroña pop-up meeting/party on Tuesday.



I'm really enjoying the new convection/microwave, though. I roasted carrots and kale, adding the kale when I turned the pan of carrots halfway through. Charlie ate just the carrots, and I enjoyed the combination.



Meanwhile, the pups came for breakfast and were willing to "stay" for treats. Dusty is limited to a fish diet, so they both eat kibble that only has fish as the protein source. He's thought to be allergic to something in his food, and this is where we stopped trying new foods. (They look scruffy, but they get groomed today, so I'll try to get a good photo of both of them when they come home.



We had a lot of rain this past week, but spread out so that it was mostly just a drizzle all the time. We shortened our walks, but still got them in most days.



Well, here's some fiber, not not consumable unless you're a moth. (Shudder!) My olive wood buttons came, and I thought I might get my Oregon Autumn cardigan finished, but I had two medical appointments besides Charlie's procedure, music for Lessons and Carols to practice, presents to wrap and grocery shopping.



I did manage to prepare the guest room for my brother-in-law's visit coming up and straighten out the workroom, which is now being used for wrapping the few presents we have that need wrapping, which is not much, because it will just be the three of us this year. 



The doll for Elsie that disappeared from shipping was finally sent and arrived ahead of the new scheduled arrival time. Louis felt the need to protect Elsie's present. Alexa will wrap Max for her niece, who is our honorary granddaughter. She only has one surviving grandmother, so we have adopted her and her brother.



Alexa sent a photo of Max, looking around at his surroundings before his view is blocked by Christmas wrap.



I have had a BlueSky account for several months and am now back to more than the number of followers I had on Twitter/X before I deleted my account, as people flee the old site and arrive on BlueSky. I was a bit excited to discover that Mark Hamill was following me. He's a pretty big account, so he may have helped people find me there. Food for thought.



We're using the little tree this year, since it's just the three of us, and we got it up and decorated. There are now a few (very few) presents under it now. I'll try to get another photo when there are a few more.



We have Apple TV, and I get regular notices of what they have available. I wanted a holiday movie to watch, and received a notice of their movie, "Spirited" and thought it looked interesting, so we watched it Saturday night. The story is set in current times with the spirits from Dickens' A Christmas Carol working as part of a big enterprise working to redeem characters who are mean and cruel because of a sad past. It stars Will Ferrell and Ryan Reynolds, along with a huge cast of great singers and dancers, including some cameo appearances. We both enjoyed it.



This Sunday at Trinity was the "Lessons and Carols" event, a worship service that tells the Christmas story in scripture and music. It was a lot of music to learn and sing. Christmas Eve will be easier.



Getting back to food, I finally got up the nerve to try baking bread in my new convection/microwave oven. I made whole-wheat sourdough bread. It turned out great!




My next blog post will be after Christmas and into Hanukkah, so it's time to say Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah, and go out with this photo from Pauly's First Christmas Eve.




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 or Spoutible if you need information.


If you have a few minutes and are willing, please go to Amazon and B&N and search for More Classic Tales Retold or Our Favorite Verses: Poems 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 or Classic Tales Retold, 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 need to finish the raw edges of the Oregon Cardigan. No progress on the Aran sweater that was supposed to be for Max, a doll for our honorary granddaughter, Elsie. Pauly donated some of his clothes to Max, so the sweater will be for him. Hope to make some progress on it this week.

What's on my loom: Still in its corner under the windows.

What's on my sewing machine: Still its dust cover.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: This week's story from #TheDollsStorybook is 
To Dolls a Goodnight. Of course Santa can talk to dolls, and of course they can hear him. It was Christmas Eve 2019, and the dolls were anticipating a visit from Santa...as well as other holidays.


What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to These High Green Hills by Jan Karon. I didn't get any further in In the Shelter of Each Other by Milree Latimer.

What's in my wine glass: Empty, but we had a nice Riesling on Tuesday, when we during the Madroña Pop-up meeting (party). Wine/alcohol is one of the things I'm skipping because of the reflux.

What's my tip of the week: If you have a book to wrap but no box to keep it from revealing its identity through the wrapping paper, you can put it into a cookie tin, if you have one to fit it. Then wrap the cookie tin. It will baffle the most ardent snooper. 

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


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 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, because the publisher gets a cut. 

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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