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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The Rainbow at the End of the Pot of Gold

The Rose City Yarn Crawl started Thursday. I left my last stop with enough different colors of yarn to make a cardigan I’ve been hoping/planning to make for at least seven years. I've had two of this designer's books about stranded colorwork, one of which I bought because I saw the photo of this cardigan in the book and thought the pattern was included. This is 35 little 25g center-pull balls of Jamieson's Spindrift. I spent hours picking out the colors.

It didn’t cost exactly a whole pot of gold, but it was still more than I usually spend at any one yarn shop. I picked up what I thought might give me a start and came home on our first day of crawling with four skeins that would work and three that didn’t. I selected the colors from pages of different colors of Jamieson's Spindrift yarn on For Yarn Sake's website. (That link goes to only half of the colors.)

I made my own swatch cards by making screen shots of the online colors, then matching them with the recommended colors for my pattern, which came from an old magazine. Alexa and I went back on Saturday, picked up the yarn I ordered and returned the three skeins that would not work.

On Thursday and Friday, we went from shop to shop, getting our passports stamped and signing in to be contacted if we won a prize. I looked in every shop for a break-resistant yarn bowl, because I had learned that Sandy likes to chase a ball of yarn if it runs away from me while I’m knitting. At our last stop, I found a nice one made of wood.

At that shop, we turned in our passports and were recognized as having completed the crawl to all of the yarn shops participating. We basked in the cheers and applause, and had our photo taken. 

It was nice for Sandy to get to spend some time with Louis, our granddog.

Louis and Dusty have always been best buds. They are only a couple of months apart in age and have know each other since they were half-grown.

We went on some pleasant walks with the dogs. The trail has been refurbished and extended in the other direction, so we braved a slight drizzle to explore the new section.

We had some delightful meals and enjoyed time with the boys. Charlie went with a group of family members to a hockey game Saturday night, which he enjoyed.

We feared we wouldn’t get to Yarn Crawl at all, because it kept snowing each day for the few days before our trip. The weather was why we didn’t go to the yarn crawl last year. We have to negotiate some high mountain passes, and sometimes they close the roads.

Fortunately, the weather cleared on Wednesday, and the highway workers had plowed and sanded the roads. We had some light rain and a tiny bit of snow at the higher elevations coming back, but made it back safely.

During the trip I managed to finish a knitted jacket for Zachary's doll, all but the buttons and blocking.

I didn't have the buttons with me, and I had no way to block it in the car, so I cast on the Chullo hat. (I’ve had the kit for years.)

Now I can't wait to cast on the new cardigan project!

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 "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: The Andean Chullo hat. 

What's on my loom: Still folded up.

What's on my sewing machine: Slacks for Zachary's doll Alex.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: In this reedited rerun from July 2019, Jolena finds the news sad in The Philosophy of Sad Times.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to Harry Potter und der Gefangene von Askaban. Now I'm listening to Attack from Within by Barbara McQuade. For my physical-book reading, I've finished Die Letzten Magier by Andreas D. Hesse, in German. Now reading Elfen Königin by Holly Black, translated from English.

What's in my wine glass: Spicerack Zinfandel 2019.

What's my tip of the week: if you want to see if yarn or fabric is dark, medium or light, take a photo and then convert it to black-and-white. The differences will really show up.

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

Our Favorite Verses: Poems from The Doll's Storybook is available from the BookBabyBookshop and other booksellers worldwide. 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.

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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Stitch by Stitch and Drop by Drop

Pippa's Fair Isle sweater is coming along. I will probably finish it today. Here's the front.

This is the back, although it could also be the front, if Pippa decided to wear it as a cardigan.

I put holes in the button band as well as the buttonhole band. This works as a guide for where to place the buttons. I still need to trim the excess steek fabric from the inside and finish the facings.

Here's the graph for the sleeves. It's superimposed on the body graph, but it's easy to figure out how the pattern goes through the blue and green sections.

I had to cancel my order for my new Roxanne's Thimble from the first place we ordered from They didn't actually have my size in stock. However, a new order was placed with Colonial Needle Company, and it arrived on Saturday. Apparently the middle sizes are pretty hard to find, probably because more people need those sizes. Perfect fit, and I am using it now to work on my whole-cloth quilt.

We were supposed to take Rocky back to the animal ophthalmologist on Thursday, but she was called out of town on a family emergency. We had just run out of Rocky's medication drops. He gets these two, one drop in his left eye four times a day, at least 5 minutes apart. Then he gets artificial tears in both eyes, one drop morning and night. I tried to get it from our vet, but they don't carry it. However, the small bottle is available for humans by prescription (which he wrote for us) and the other is an over-the-counter medication, which we were able to find at the pharmacy.

The pups went to the groomer this week, and they look tidy again.

My supply of books on hand is shrinking. I've been selling then one or two at a time.

A couple of weeks ago, someone bought two books and sent me a check for $100. She said to give the excess to St. Jude, so I had an opportunity to use my fundraising page. I hand to get some help from someone at the organization to be able to provide a receipt for tax purposes, but now I know how to do it, so it will be easy when I need to do it again. I'm going to check with the publisher to see if my royalties can just go straight into the fundraising page, so I don't have to explain the extra income to Uncle Sam. (If you want, you can donate directly to St. Jude through my fundraising page. Hint, hint!) The money is coming in about like Rocky's medications: drop by drop. My contact at St. Jude, however, says that every little bit helps, and the need is great.

We thought we were going to be able to make an appointment to get vaccinated a week from today, but the expected supply of vaccine turned out to be fiction, so we're now expecting it to be after February 8th.

We managed to find time to walk. Our usual route is smaller than it used to be, but the pups are grateful.

What's on my needles: Still Pippa's Fair Isle sweater, but soon to CO for the Rose City Yarn Crawl Mystery KAL.

What's on my sewing machine: Sitting idle for now.

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

What's in The Doll's Storybook: A Story About a Boy. Emil goes to Mariah for help writing a story. Billy plans to provide the illustrations using photography.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Elsewhere by Dean Koontz. Now listening to The Thief of Lanwyn Manor by Sarah E. Ladd from Chirp. This website works a little differently from Audible. You don't have any membership dues, no credits to collect or use, and the audiobooks are really cheap...if they have what you want as a special deal. The app works in a way similar to the Audible app. It's a good compliment to Audible if you listen to a lot of audiobooks.

What's in my wine glass: Château Agnel Minervois 2017. Unusual.

What's my tip of the week: Face mask brackets, similar to these, can be very useful if you have to wear a mask for a long period. It keeps the fabric from going into your nose when you inhale. I've found that if you can get used to wearing glasses, hearing aids or a bra, you can get used to wearing a mask, especially if you do a few things to make them more comfortable. We will be wearing masks for a while, I believe.

Where's my book: Mariah: Stories from the Doll's Storybook is available from Amazon worldwide. Also available from BookBaby and other booksellers. Royalties go to support pediatric cancer research and treatment.

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.

Boy Makeover Haircut With Rooted Hair

Here's how Billy got his second haircut:

I washed the hair, then, while it was still wet, I separated the bottom row of roots and hair from the rows above it. Then I trimmed the bottom row to about 1/2". It will stick out, but we will deal with that later.

Then I did the same thing with the sides.

The next rows were cut by combing small VERTICAL sections of  hair away from the head and trimming them:

Here you can see the back is done:

I continued around both sides and the front:

Here's how it looked in back:

Here it is in front:

Then I put a wide elastic band around the head while the hair was still wet:

I pulled the rubber band down under his nose, so it wouldn't mash his eyelashes.

Here he is with the hair dry.

Here's a view from the side....

....and the back:

I found it helps to use a glue stick around the edges of the back and sides. I did this when the hair was dry, then put the rubber band on again. This will need to be redone if the hair is washed again, because glue stick washes out.

If you aren't happy with it when it's done and you can't fix it, you can always shave it off and get a wig.