New and Old

Vilai sock #1 is coming along. I just passed the heel turn and the gusset, and now it's just straight down the foot for a bit.

As usual, there was a lot of the usual cooking during the week, including another batch of granola. This loaf of bread was cut into before I got a photo. It was tasty. I used my Dutch Oven bread recipe cut in half and baked it as an oblong loaf. (It's gone now!)

We have an assignment for this week's Madroña pop-up party meeting. We're supposed to make pesto and then do something with it. I'm thinking of using the pesto as a base for pizzas on pita bread or naan. Our basil has been doing well, but I didn't think we had enough leaves on all the plants to be able to make even a small recipe of pesto, so Charlie picked up a new plant at Trader Joe's. It's probably looking around at its new home and wondering if it was going to like it here. I'm going to use walnuts in place of pine nuts, because we have some we have to use (a Costco package!) and they make a good substitute. 

We cleaned the front porch. I swept the floor and the corners of the ceiling. Charlie got out the pressure washer and washed it all down. It looks better. A few spiders got evicted, but carefully, so they can make new homes, preferably a little further away from our house.

We've been planning to tear up the "grass" in the front, because grass doesn't do well here unless you're willing to dump chemicals on it, and it takes a lot of water...not good in a desert climate like ours. This week we finalized the plans for what to put where and Charlie put out flags to indicate the borders of features.

He drew up plans for the entire front, so we could get quotes. We plan to put our park bench on some kind of rock/stone clearing, put in natural walkways to the bench and across the landscaped area to the trailer driveway, move some of the big rocks out from under the huge fir tree, have a couple of mounds for plantings and some sort of edging where needed. Instead of grass, we plan to have bark/cedar.

While we were out in the front yard, talking about what to do, I spotted a butterfly on one of the flowers. Jolena and Mariah would definitely identify it as a butterfly and not a moth, because they have learned the difference from their discussion with Mandy, a story from The Doll's Storybook.

I worked on my workroom closet some more. I the papers I found this poem, written for Charlie back in 1991

With it was also one I wrote for Karen. She would have just turned 18.

Then I came across this photo of Jim and Charlie. I'm guessing it was taken about 1943. I remember rescuing it from my in-laws' home when we went through all their things in preparation for selling the house. 

It still needs some work, but at least it's possible to walk around in there.

We walked almost every day, because we're having a cooler spell and the wind is blowing the smoke in a different direction.

Johan seems to be over his jet lag. He's taking an online class in cartoon drawing. He seems to have some talent for art, and he likes drawing things like dragons.

Also this week, Miss Daphne passed her driving test at the DMV, so now she's a licensed driver. That should make things a little easier for Karen, because she can get herself places, run errands and take Zachary to places he needs to go.

David's sister Debbie is visiting Karen and David to help David go through papers and boxes of things, as he's no longer able to do that. She brought her little dog Teddie, shown here, getting acquainted with Katie.

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 working on the Vilai socks.

What's on my iPhone: Still listening to Wildwood by Colin Meloy. 

What's on my sewing machine: Still put away until the next project.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Billy has a bad dream and comes to Veronika to get reassurance. She explains what dreams are all about and investigates what might have caused the nightmare in "What Dreams May Come."

What's my tip of the week: Basil does well on a windowsill where it gets bright light for part of the day. They like to have their roots kept damp and need to be harvested regularly. (Just don't take all the leaves at one time.) If you want to "make" some fresh plants, as I have, just cut a stem from one of the plants, remove the bottom few leaves to use and stick it into a small glass of filtered water. When it has roots, you can plant it. I use yoghurt containers filled with potting soil. I fertilize occasionally with Schultz Instant.

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

Book #7 is in the works.

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.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>   

Payoffs

The workroom cleaning is coming along slowly. I've just been working on it a little while each day. What's taking so long is the closet. I should have gotten a before photo. It was like Dagwood Bumstead's closet. (For those of you too young to remember Dagwood from the comic strip "Blondie," which originated in 1930 and was originally drawn by cartoonist Chic Young. Dagwood had a closet packed so full that everything fell out whenever he opened it.)

A lot of the stuff in my workroom closet have been there ever since we moved. Some of it I realize I don't need anymore, and some of it I had forgotten about entirely. One such item was an afghan I had been knitting at some point and then put away as something else caught my fancy. I bought the yarn in New Zealand when we were there in 1996. The pattern booklet was printed in 1981, but I bought it when I started the afghan (whenever that was, I think about 1999). Well, there it was, in a drawstring bag, one right-side row halfway finished, and the attached skein about three-fourths used up. The design was meant to be much bigger, but I didn't know if I still had more of the yarn (probably not), and I wasn't inclined to knit another two feet of this pattern, so I decided to finish the row and bind off. It was supposed to have long fringe. (I should mention that the pattern booklet was put out by a yarn manufacturer, so, of course, each project takes tons of yarn. I decided to cut some 6" yarn strands, count how many I had, and then figure out how to make a short but even fringe. I did the math, and it worked out to exactly one strand every other stitch on the cast-on and bound-off edges. It took a while, because the afghan was 220 stitches across, and I had two of those to do.

I was happy with how it turned out. It makes a nice, warm lap blanket for cold winter days.

The original design directed the knitter to knit the seven panels separately and then sew them together, but I had chosen to knit it all in one piece, because I hate sewing up. It's easy enough to just switch back and forth between the two panel designs as I worked across the row. 

It's good to get it out of the closet. It had been taking up a lot of room. The payoff is, I have a nice new lap blanket, and I can check off "finish a UFO (unfinished object)" from my New Year's Resolution List. Now that it was done, I could go back to my Vilai socks. It's just a few rows of pattern before it will be time for the heel turn.

We've been reading and hearing in the news about the cyclospora outbreak. It isn't a serious problem in Oregon yet, and we have bought lettuce with no problems since this hit the news, but I thought why not grow some more sprouts to supplement our lettuce, especially in sandwiches. We've had the seeds for several years, but they sprouted nicely. This is what it looked like on Tuesday. By Wednesday, the jar was packed full, so I changed the lid and put it in the fridge. We've been enjoying them.

Whenever I make a big casserole, I've been dividing it up between two 8" square pans. We eat one and freeze the other for camping. This week I made lasagne. The recipe calls for regular lasagne noodles, not the no-boil kind. The noodles cook in the pan with just the sauce and some boiling water added to the pan before it goes into the oven. I had some mushrooms that had to be used soon. The mushrooms and some fresh baby spinach layered with a cheese mixture (eggs, cottage cheese, silken tofu, and seasonings) and pasta sauce, makes a tasty main dish.

Tuesday night we attended the Madroña Vineyards pop-up party meeting. We had Vegetable Tikka Masala with brown rice. Our wine was Doris & Leopold Grüner Veltliner 2023, a white wine, nicely chilled. We had a pleasant visit with everyone. They commiserated with us about our annual fire season, which is in full swing. The West Coast wine regions have been having an unusually hot summer. That has an affect on the grapes.

We've been trying to sneak in some quick walks with the dogs whenever the air quality index (AQI) is low enough. Paul Bush, the owner of the Madroña Vineyards, recommended the app "PurpleAir." I picked it up, and I'm finding it more convenient than looking up my location in my browser. This screen shot will give you an idea of what it's been like.

We've been trying to spend as little time as possible outdoors. Sometimes the dogs and I just go around the block, if Charlie has something he has to do outdoors and can't join us. 

Saturday, however, the AQI was down in the "Good" range, and the high temperature for the day was only going to be 82ºF, so the four of us went on a longer walk, the full length of the Larkspur Trail and then to the woods, which we call our off-leash area, because that's where people let their dogs run.

The fires are mostly just to the north of us. Friends who live in or near Sisters, Oregon, have been told to get their "Go Bag" ready, just in case they have to evacuate. It would be a real mess if Bend ever has to evacuate! I've decided that our "Go Bag" will have to be our R•Pod, so maybe we should stock it up with some stuff that can just stay there: a change of clothes, toiletries, shelf-stable food, etc. Then if we do have to evacuate, we can just grab our jugs of drinking water and anything we think we can't live without. (I hate to think about all my quilts burning up!) It would be too bad if our house burned down just after I finished tidying and cleaning my workroom! Maybe I should leave it until the fire season is over, about October....

Alexa and Johan are back from Paris. Soren was happy to have his jet-lagged brother back home again.

Summer Choir is coming along. We worked on the most difficult pieces Monday night. I think we're getting a handle on them and they will only need polishing. Tonight we'll undoubtedly work on some different ones. 

I've been getting the next book ready. Book #7 only needs proofreading, but while I remember how to use MS Word, I'm preparing the next one. I don't know how much longer I'm going to be able to put them together, so I would like to have several more ready to proofread, just in case.

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: Took some time off from the Vilai socks to finish the afghan I started and nearly finished years ago.

What's on my iPhone: Still listening to Wildwood by Colin Meloy. The movie will be out October 23rd. I can't wait! Here's the trailer:

https://youtu.be/ObRck-pQW8w?si=KlDnIlV70OsOYTLe

What's on my sewing machine: Still put away until the next project.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Jolena has come back from another trip with the US Doll Ski Team, this time to New Zealand. Of course, she has photos. Here's Skiing with Kiwis.

What's my tip of the week: Iced coffee tastes pretty good during hot weather. I fill a glass bottle with what's left in the pot and as much cream as I need after I have my mug of coffee with breakfast. Then it goes into the fridge when it has cooled down enough. 

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

Book #7 is in the works.

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.

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>   

What Next?

The Summer Sorrel top is finished. It dried quickly with the warmer weather we've been having. I didn't use any pins or blocking wires, just smoothed it out and let it dry.

I like how it fits. I wore it to church yesterday.

I've been moderating the Goetz Doll Lovers group on Ravelry pretty much on my own, as the other two moderators have had things come up and needed some time off. It has been a struggle to keep the group going and keep KALs (Knit-Alongs) and other activities going. I think some of the participants have had children or grandchildren grow up and lose interest in dolls, which is more or less my situation, too, so they aren't as motivated to knit, crochet or sew for their dolls. Fortunately (for this month) the designer of Sugar Grove South has a birthday in July and agreed to sponsor a special event for this month to celebrate, a July2026 KAL. She has four new designs. Participants buy one or two of the patterns and can get one or two of them for free if they complete the project(s), post a photo and include a project page for each in their projects. A free project can't be used for the second project. I decided I should participate, and Olivia needed some clothes. I picked out a pattern, pulled out some choices of appropriate yarn and let Olivia pick. 😅

I've had a busy week, but doll clothes don't take too long. I'm happy with the result, and so is Olivia, I think. The pattern is Sunshine Season. 

Here's the back. It took 20g of yarn left over from my Space Doodle cowl from the Rose City Yarn Crawl Master KAL in 2025. Doll projects are great for using up scraps of yarn.

I have been trying to get to cleaning up my workroom for some time. It's an absolute mess. I had to dig through things to find yarn for Olivia's summer top. Once I was done with the knitting, though, I had no more excuses. My cutting mat counter has been obscured by nylon netting left over from making a couple of scrubbies for the R•Pod. I had planned to make a couple more for the house, but the netting just sat there, uncut. After I had my work table mostly cleared, I went to the cutting mat and cut the rest of the strips for scrubbies. Then I needed to sit down for a while, so grabbed my crochet hook and made this.

By the end of the week I was ready to cast on a new project. I picked the Vilai sock pattern from Cookie A's Sock Innovation book, which I've had for years. I've made three other pairs of socks from patterns in this book and enjoyed all of them. It has been a long time, though, and it took me a long time to find the book. I bought it as an E-book for the Kindle app. I couldn't remember the exact name of the book, and then I couldn't find it among the several book-reading apps I have. Finally, on Sunday, I located the name and then found the book in the Kindle app.

The dogs went to the groomer on Monday. Monday night was the first practice for the Summer Choir. Here's a list of the songs we'll be singing:

Both Sides Now

Hark I Hear the Harps Eternal

Homeward Bound

Let the River Run

Lovely Day

Sing Gently - Whitacre 

The Parting Glass

Together We Rise.

(Some of the pieces are pretty challenging. It will be a busy summer.)

Tuesday evening we had another Madroña Vineyards pop-up party meeting. This time we were given a recipe. Le Sequin, to make if we wanted to, along with some wine-paring suggestions to choose from. Charlie considered the recommendations (Riesling or Cabernet Franc) and chose a Madroña 2024 Zinfandel, which was good. 

The recipe was for four servings, but it was recommended to serve it immediately, so I didn't want leftovers. Therefore, I cut the recipe in half. Here's Le Sequin recipe.

Some of the people who made the recipe adapted it because they couldn't find an ingredient or didn't like something, like walnuts, for instance. Those who who served a Riesling with it highly recommended that pairing. Our Zin was good with it, but next time I make this, we'll try the Riesling. It was fun having a chat with everyone and toasting whenever someone mentioned Nebbiolo (a wine variety).

Summer weather has finally arrived to Bend. We took several walks this past week, including walking to the Ponderosa Park for a little off-leash time for the dogs before their grooming session. We walked home afterwards. The sidewalk goes into the construction zone close to us, and we accidentally walked in, thinking we could get out the other side. Then we found there was no way out, so we had to turn around and retrace our steps, adding about 1/2 mile to our walk. We ended up going home the way we had come instead of the planned alternate route. Here's a screenshot of the Walk for a Dog app for the walk. The out-and-back on the left was to take the dog to the groomer's and then back.

Other days we walked on the trail. The dogs had a little off-leash time in the woods next to the construction zone. Sandy really doesn't like the heat, and he goes from one shady spot to the next, the way Misty used to do. Dusty is panting in the photo, because he had been running around. Sandy is better at staying close to us, so he was mostly just hot. We take water along with us regularly now that it has warmed up.

My new book is back with Charlie for another read through. I'm hoping it will be ready to send to Alexa when she returns from Paris, where she's vacationing with Johan, her sister Alyssa and niece Elsie (the only one I make doll things for these days). Here's Johan, doing his version of Rodin's "The Thinker."

Peter's holding down the fort with the two cats (Olive and Mango) and the dog (Louis), while Soren visits with his other grandparents. Peter can work and leave the animals home alone when he has to be at the office. What are they doing? Olive took the stopper out of the sink, so she's helping Peter fix it.

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: Finished the Summer Sorrel top, Olivia's Sunshine Season and a new scrubbie (not technically on my needles, but on my crochet hook). Now working on the Vilai socks from Cookie A's Sock Innovation book.

What's on my iPhone: Still listening to Regime Change by Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan on the Audiobooksnow app. It's like listening to a novel, except that it's nonfiction and very well researched.

What's on my sewing machine: Still put away until the next project.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: This week's story finds Jolena trying to learn Spanish so she can carry on a conversation with the dolls who live in Chile or Argentina next time she visits with the Doll Ski Team. Here's ¿Por qué?

What's my tip of the week: Frozen vegetables or fruit in large bags tend to stick together in storage in a deep freeze. Then it becomes difficult to measure out the right amount for a small number of servings (in our case, two). When they come into the house from the store, I immediately measure them into smaller bags in two-serving amounts. Then I store all the smaller bags together in one place in the freezer. When I plan to use them, I just grab a bag. It's already remeasured. (OK, I just eyeball it, but I've done this for a while.)

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.

Book #7 is in the works.

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.

<a class="blsdk-follow" href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blogs/highfiber-7365001" target="_blank" data-blsdk-type="button" data-blsdk-counter="false">Follow</a><script>(function(d, s, id) {var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if (d.getElementById(id)) return;js = d.createElement(s);js.id = id;js.src = "https://www.bloglovin.com/widget/js/loader.js?v=1";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);}(document, "script", "bloglovin-sdk"))</script>

<a href="https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/7365001/?claim=kkvctsdtf4n">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>