From Soup to Nuts

During their last visit, the kids brought us a Kabocha squash (Japanese pumpkin) from their veggie share. 

Cutting it up was a challenge. I should have used my rotary cutter! However, I got it cut up, saved the seeds and roasted the squash. I have some put away in the freezer, but I made a nice soup out of two cups of it. I was happy with my recipe, which was improvised from several recipes I found online. I used the slow cooker. Here's the recipe:

Slow-cooked Curried Squash Soup

Ingredients
• 1/2 yellow onion, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 teaspoon curry powder
• 1/2 teaspoon cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper flakes
• 2 cups water
• 1 2-cup bouillon cube
• 2 cups roasted winter squash, diced
• 1 tablespoon low-sodium soy sauce
• 2 sliced zucchinis
• 1 (15 oz.) can coconut milk
• 1 Lime
• 1 bunch fresh cilantro
• Salt and pepper to taste.

Directions
Sauté onion and red bell pepper for 3-5 minutes or until onion begins to soften. Add the garlic and cook one more minute.Stir in the curry powder, cumin, coriander and pepper flakes. Sauté a few minutes more. Add to zucchini, winter squash, soy sauce, water and bouillon cube in slow cooker. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Add coconut milk for the last 30 minutes. Add salt (if needed)and pepper to taste. serve with lime quarters and sprigs of cilantro.

I also cleaned and roasted the seeds. You can eat the husks and all. They're nice sprinkled in the soup or over a salad.

I finally managed to get the fiber studio straightened out, although I still have some things to do to the loom before I can make the rag rugs for the house. It's nice having a comfortable chair for sewing and a chair mat, so I can roll the chair around. When I'm sewing, I like to keep a pressing mat on the table where you see the laptop in the photo.

I've had to move my Yelloware bowls to make more storage for large items needed as props for the stories. They now grace the upper cabinets in my kitchen.

The chair mat also makes it possible to close the sewing cabinet nicely, because the whole cabinet is resting on the mat instead of the carpet. I still need to get a wall lamp for over the cutting cabinet.

I used this Coca-Cola crate for storing little things in my old fiber studio, but I've discovered that it's perfect for storing little shoes by installing little floors in each of the upper three rows of compartments. I used heavy-duty interfacing left over from another project. The boots don't fit, so they are stored elsewhere. I still have more shoes coming, so it's going to take some thought to find a place for them.

Speaking of shoes, I managed to crochet this pair of shoes this past week. It was a challenge, because I'm not much of a crocheter, however, they are done and I may make another pair or two.

Tour de Fleece started on Saturday. By the end of the day, this is how much I had done. (If you read my blog post last week, you will perhaps remember that I started out with some on the spool already.)

I did some hand-quilting on my whole cloth quilt. I noticed an area where the pattern was fading, perhaps because of exposure to the light or humidity. I'm trying to finish that area before it disappears. You can see that instead of sewing in a straight line, I sew in a zig-zag line across the area. This provides some stretchability, which keeps the knots from popping through or the threads from breaking.

You can also see another trick of mine, leaving several threaded needles in my work where I left off quilting as I got close to the edge of the hoop.

Another surprise flower showed up in our front flower bed. These look like miniature carnations. (My card, normal business card size, is in the photo for scale.)

We had the soup on Saturday night at the beginning of a big meal that included salmon marinated and grilled on the BBQ we bought on sale at the beginning of winter, along with salad and sourdough bread. We didn't have dessert, and we couldn't exactly end the meal with nuts, as is customary, but Kabocha squash seeds are close.

After that big meal, I planned to walk the dogs during the afternoon on Sunday. The pups and I finally made it to 60 miles in 30 days, and here's the proof.

I feel a lot more fit than I did 30 days ago. I haven't missed a day of walks since June 7th. I'll keep it up as long as I can. Tuesday we're supposed to get rain. With luck, we can get out when it isn't raining.




What's on my needles: Still the Coastal Skies. A few more rows finished.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: The Philosophy of Sad Times. (Note: This story was not intended to be political. The stories are for children. Adults reading this one should not read anything political into it.)

What's on my sewing machine: Currently undercover. (Resting.)

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt. Finally making progress!

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Wicked Godmother by M. C. Beaton. Now reading The Flirt by M. C. Beaton.

What's in my wine glass: Kirkland (nothing but the best from Costco) Cabernet Sauvignon Vintage 2017. Surprisingly good.

What's my tip of the week: Don't throw out the liquid in that jar of pickled beets when all the beets are gone. It can be used to make a pretty and tasty egg treat. Just place a peeled boiled egg down in the liquid and leave it for a few days. The longer you leave it, the redder it gets––no food coloring needed. It's tasty as well as pretty. If you are using canned pickled beets, I recommend pouring the liquid into a glass or plastic container.

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.

Progress!

The loom still isn't put together, but I now have a table for my fiber studio.

We have a drafting table I had planned to use, but we haven't found all the parts yet, so this will have to do for now. I think the drafting table will allow for more storage underneath, as this folding table has leg hinges that limit the space underneath. At least I can sew again. I'm still missing some patterns, but I have electronic versions of them all in iBooks on my iPad. I'm just starting on a shirt and jeans for Billy.

He did get a knitted shirt this week. It's based on the Everyday Play doll dress. 

The neck is a little different, starting with a collar, then increasing to the number of stitches the Everyday Play dress has to start. The sleeves are 4 rows/rounds longer, the placket is in front and then the body is worked straight down before ending with the ribbing.

You may notice Billy's hair is a little different. He has had hair in his eyes, so I decided to try to see if bangs/fringe would work for him. The hair in the back stuck out, too. The problem is that the roots are angled straight out from the scalp. Before cutting anything more, I wet the front and the back, then put on his knitted cap, leaving it on until the hair was almost dry. Then I let it finish drying without the hat. This seemed to work, so I went to work with the scissors, first on the front and then, when that worked well, on the back. I trimmed the front to just above the eyes, then layered it a bit. 

Then I had a go with the back. I could probably cut off more in back, but I decided to leave it this way for now.

I think Billy looks more like a boy than ever now. I had already done the photo shoot for one more story with Billy before his latest haircut, but other than that, he will look like this from now on. Friday's story shows Billy already with his new haircut. I moved the stories around because I needed to spread out the more serious topics and cover something fun, like the physics of why balls bounce and eggs don't.

His photo was used for the Gotz dolls friends and boutique group's cover photo on Facebook on Friday. They change it every day, so they're always looking for nice pictures. The admin said she thought this face was better as a boy, and I agree, which was why I picked him to be my boy.

Now he needs more clothes, so I plan to work on that this week.

It snowed most of the day on Saturday. Eventually, we ended up with about 6" and a few more overnight, so I had to clear the snow off the car and scrape the windshield to go to church on Sunday. 

It was nothing like what I'm used to, though. It was funny to find out at church that a few people couldn't get there because of the snow. We were supposed to have a sermon by a guest preacher, but she couldn't get there. People were talking about events that were cancelled because of the snow. I found this funny, although I'm sure they know what they're doing. People in Bend are not used to even this much snow, so things almost grind to a halt. It was nice driving on roads that were almost empty.

Here's what my backyard looked like by early afternoon on Sunday.

It will melt pretty fast now.

I had three medical appointments this week, getting caught up on things put off because of the move. The only other big thing I worked on this week was the Rose City Yarn Crawl's Mystery Knit Along. We get Clue #4 today and the final clue next Monday. I'm not supposed to show photos of my progress on social media on the off chance someone who doesn't want to know what the final project will look like will see it. You will get to see it when it's allowed, however. 

What's on my needles: Finished the third clue in the Mystery Knit Along for The Rose City Yarn Crawl, which takes place in March. While waiting for the next clue (due today). Earlier in the week, I used the Everyday Play dress pattern as a jumping-off place for a shirt for Billy. The pattern, Everyday Play Shirt, is available for free from my Ravelry store. 

What's on my Sparrow 15: A shirt and jeans for Billy.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt, no progress again this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Bounce or Splat, Billy and Jolena have a short physics lesson.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still The Cuckoo's Calling by Robert Galbraith, aka J. K. Rowling. Nothing like Harry Potter, but a very entertaining read.

What's in my wine glass: Placer Andaluz Tempranillo-Syrah, no vintage.

What's my tip of the week: Shelf-stable silken tofu, like Mori-Nu, is a good replacement for cream in creamed soups. Blend with some of the soup to add protein and reduce the fat. 

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.

Fiber Studio and Preparations for Christmas

We're almost done with the fiber studio. Here's a look at the Billy Bookcases and the loom. (Still some work to do on the loom, but I need help unscrewing the nuts on the bolts.) The wicker hamper will go under the work table when it's available.

I picked up the base unit for the light table/cutting surface on Tuesday at Lowe's. All we had to do was bring it up the stairs and plop it into place, although we still need to put a hole in the back or side for the cord for the light table lights. It swallowed a lot of the extra fabrics I had in boxes. The thread rack was an Amazon order.

I am happy with the sewing table. I was able to get a lot of the sewing tools into the cubbyholes in the table.

Here's the closet corner. Inside is still a mess. I need some more shelves. The Coca-Cola crate that holds the little shoes for the dolls still needs to be mounted on the wall.

My "Peggy's Sistine Chapel" is ready to be hung on the wall, but we need a friend with a special ladder, because it has to go over the stairs. DH is going to cut off the excess length of the batten that will hold it up. (You can see the mark where he needs to cut.)

I've made a little progress on the Kisu Takki Cardigan. I'm knitting both sleeves together with steeks between them.

Now I've started cooking for Christmas. Here is the Lohipiirakka (salmon pie), a Finnish family tradition for Christmas Eve. Into the freezer (now up and running) it went.

Then I made the lanttulaatikko (rutabaga casserole), another family tradition.

Saturday, Mariah and Billy accompanied me to see Santa. This will be part of a future story. Santa was a good sport. He pretended that the two dolls were ordinary dolls, and they pretended to be what he pretended they were. They were able to make their wishes known, however, because Santa speaks doll. I have no doubt they will get what they asked Santa for.

What's on my needles: The Kisu Takki Cardigan for Jolena, now knitting the sleeves.

What's on my Sparrow 15: Sleeves for hanging quilts. Two down, two to go.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt, no progress again this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Happy Hanukkah, Charlotte!  Charlotte explains Hanukkah to the other dolls. This week's story will be about Caroling and an adventure with real children. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still The Ladies of Ivy Cottage by Julie Klassen and Rachel Maddow's Bag Man podcast. No chance to listen this week.

What's in my wine glass: Tuesday Night Red, 2018. Pretty nice. We're sampling some wines we've had no access to in Utah. We can even have wine shipped to our home here. (We could smoke pot, if we wanted, but I have no interest.)

What's my tip of the week: Fill an almost-empty freezer with loaves of bread, of if you need to, a pillow or two. Air in the freezer falls out when you open the door, requiring more energy to return the temperature inside to what is needed.

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.

Unboxing Week

This little lad (lassie?) must have a story to tell. This cherub was toppled on its side when we looked at the house and when we moved in.

At some point, the little person decided to sit upright. I don't know if one of the dogs ran past and bumped it, but perhaps the cherub is happy that we are here and fixing things.

Speaking of fixing things, remember last week I mentioned that we were replacing mismatched knobs with matching aged bronze handles? Well, the fact that they were mismatched was only part of the problem. Some of the doors didn't close properly because the latch plates were just slapped on over the door edge and the old hardware.

DH had to use a chisel to carve out the space needed for the new latch plates. All the inside doors and the front and back doors are done. The hardware on the door leading outside from the garage still needs replacing.

The big event of the week was the arrival in Redmond, Oregon, of our U-haul boxes on Saturday. Strangely enough, they first told us it would cost us nearly $1K to have our boxes delivered to Bend from Redmond. However, when we had decided to make four trips to Redmond to pick up the boxes on trailers (with our pickup), bring them back to unload and then take the empty boxes back, they suddenly had a way they could provide that service for half that. Our first two boxes arrived Saturday late morning.

The driver expertly backed them into the driveway, enough on one side that he could put the other two next to them when he came to pick up the first two (by then, empty). Which he did.

Oh, the treasures we found within! The most exciting discovery was our long-lost-and-lamented "parts box," where we had stashed all our screws, shelf supports, keys (!) to the padlocks on our "vaults" with United Van Lines and (most important to DH) all the remotes.

I was sure it was somewhere, and DH was sure the whole box had been thrown away or picked up by Jose and taken to the dump. It was packed away in another box labeled "to keep."

My Featherweight was in one of the first boxes out of the U-haul box, along with a couple of chairs. All those boxes where I had packed fat quarters on the bottom and yarn on top, so they wouldn't be too heavy (in hopes that someone would transport them to my new fiber studio), showed up. I removed the yarn to shopping bags I could lift easily, left the fabric in the boxes, and carried the stuff up the stairs piecemeal (by me).

Alister was released from his box on Saturday.

Dolly and Gabi turned up on Sunday afternoon, none the worse for wear.

The loom parts were in the last of the four U-haul boxes. All the pieces are in the fiber studio alcove except the castle (main body). It will be a bigger job to get that up the stairs. We may have to get help.

The second pair of empty boxes get picked up today. Our furniture is on its way. They now say about October 26th. That should give us time to try to clear the garage enough to make room for more stuff.

While we were waiting for word of the U-haul boxes, I decided to CO for the Cable Sweater Dress Set from Jacknitss for Mariah. You knit the sleeves first, then the body to the underarms, and then the whole thing goes together and is worked up to the neck. I had to "borrow" the needles I was using for the Coastal Skies Shawl, because this was before our boxes came, and I didn't have the right size needles available. (Now, of course, I have them all.)

It went quickly, but I ran out of the Knit Picks Telemark "Persimmon" while I was working on the hat. Fortunately, I had a remnant of the same yarn in "Curry," left over from Mandy's Cabbagetown Jacket. The color is close, and the shading is rather attractive, I think.

Mariah is holding all that's left of the "Persimmon" in her right hand and all that's left of the "Curry" in her left. If I had used another yarn, l would likely have had plenty. Telemark is a very dense yarn, and there aren't as many yards in a 50g ball. It's a good choice, though, because it has lovely stitch definition.

The Gotz group on Ravelry is having a KAL using this specific pattern. If you finish it and post it in the group with a link to your project page, you get another pattern from the same designer for free and get entered in a drawing for four patterns. The KAL runs through the end of November.

I still would like to add a "stem" to the top of the hat, so it would be sort of a pumpkin costume.

One of the Billy Cabinets has been put together and fastened to the wall. Here's what it looked like in an empty room.

I can work this week on putting the fabrics into this cabinet. When it's full, I should have enough space for us to work on putting together the second cabinet. I'm hoping all the fabric and most of the yarn will fit. If not, there will be "Plan B." I'm determined that my fiber fun will be contained in this one room, at least for supplies, the loom and my sewing machines. One or two of my "little people" will follow me around in the house and into the yard at times, depending on what I'm working on, and my spinning wheel will be in the family room or living room, most likely.

The struggle with the bits and pieces of the house continue to be an issue. I think Master Houdini Wannabe Jellyfingers must have eaten or removed and hidden most of the shelf-support pegs for the shelves in the kitchen and laundry room cabinets. Of course, they aren't the standard kind sold everywhere. I used my needle gauge to determine that they are 3mm, not the typical 5mm.

We finally found replacements on Amazon. You can see how badly they're needed. Here are our everyday dishes in their cabinet. The absent shelf would be handy, I think. (We have the shelf, just no way to keep it up.)

We have been using the Corelle dinnerware from the trailer (and sheets, towels and other stuff). I'm gathering up all the trailer stuff and will be putting it back as "house" replacements become available.

Wednesday night was choir practice, my first at Trinity Episcopal Church in Bend. They are meeting at 6:15 to practice for a special service at the beginning of Advent, finishing with practice for the regular upcoming Sunday service until 8:00 PM. Everyone was very welcoming, and I think the music at the service on Sunday went well. I think the church is a good fit. They have a stitching group that meets twice a month, where you can come and bring your project(s) to work on. There is a prayer-shawl ministry and people are asked to help provide lap quilts for people affected by natural disasters.
I love that children are encouraged to be present during the service, but at the same time have packets of coloring projects to keep them busy. How much I would have appreciated that when I was a child!

I think the house will be a good fit, too. It has presented some challenges, but that may only enhance its charm eventually.

And it's so nice not to have to wait for someone chop wood for the fireplace or put another log on!

What's on my needles: The Kisu Cardigan and the Coastal Skies Shawl are still in holding, but I finished the Cable Sweater Dress Set from Jacknitss. Just making a stem for the hat.

What's on my Sparrow 15: Still sitting in my future fiber studio. My Featherweight is now there, too.

What's in my hoop: Still the Spring Flowers quilt, no progress this week.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Here's Friday's story, "Stars." I'm scheduled through October 19th. I'm hoping for a Halloween theme for October 26th.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished The Innkeeper of Ivy Hill by Julie Klassen. Now listening to the sequel, The Ladies of Ivy Cottage.

What's in my wine glass:  LAGRANJA 360 Tempranillo. “A magic place in the South where the sun never sets, where it’s always summer, and exquisite aromas of ever-found fruits and flowers fill the shiny rooms of a magic farm.” How can a vegan-friendly wine have a pig on the label? We found it very nice, though. It's one I would like again.

What's my tip of the week: Be kind to people who are different from you. They may be just as anxious about you as you are about them.

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.