Dolls Have Taken Over My Life!

I did get away from the dolls for a little while this week, but not before Vroni unplugged my computer.

Or maybe she was trying to keep the plug from falling into the dog dish, on the floor to her right.

Common Treads met at Karan's. She and Margareth were working on blocks from "Moose's Misadventures," a class from Davidene's. 

Georgette had just started a needlepoint project. I'll try to get a photo when she has more done.

My better half has been trying to take advantage of the few remaining days of autumn to get the outdoor repairs done, primarily painting and staining the decks, so he isn't able to go for walks or hikes with the dogs, so I have been taking them alone. Saturday was a beautiful day, and fairly warm (60-ish), so we went to Toll Canyon. 

We only went as far as the watering hole, because I was afraid to venture further into the forest alone with the dogs, because of the likelihood of encountering moose or other wild animals. It's difficult to grab two off-leash dogs quickly when you're alone, and Rocky doesn't hear as well as he used to, so I didn't want to take a chance. It's a nice hike, though, even staying on the road. You might encounter a bicycle or two, but no cars, so it's safe for the dogs to run. Dusty needs a lot of exercise at his age, so it's good for him to be able to run free.

I finished the iPhone pouch for my niece.

You can't tell from the photo of the finished pouch, but it's lined with batik. I gave her the choice of three fabrics for lining. She chose the one in the middle.

I'm making progress on the Tyrolean coat for Vroni, using the Kitty Cat 3 pattern, which is a hooded cape in two lengths, as a jumping-off place for the coat. The coat pattern is Jacknits Town and Country Coat but without the collar. I plan to make the hat from the pattern, as well, because I think it can be made to look like a Tyrolean hat. Just the sleeves to go. Here's how it looked yesterday.

The dolls did manage to rope me into doing some sewing for them. Now that I have a pajama pattern that fits the Götz Happy Kidz/Classic Kidz dolls, I've made one for Mandy.

The first pair of PJs fit Dolly, so now they can all be cozy.

A couple of weeks ago, I cut out Capri-length leggings for Dolly and some full-length leggings for Vroni. I finally was able to get them sewn up. I'm trying to get done with the stretch fabric, so I can put my Kenmore zig-zag machine away, although I'm finding it useful for finishing off the seams items made from woven fabrics, too. I still had the batiks out for my niece to choose for lining, and picked one of the ones left over to make a top for Dolly.

The pattern is the slender version of the Tennis Dress from Joan Hinds' Best Doll Clothes Book, but with the short sleeves from Simplicity 1484. 

Then I used the same pattern, but altered the chest measurement and armholes to come up with this top for Vroni, with my puffed sleeve pattern for the sleeves.

Finally, I made a longer version for Mandy, for a dress to go with the hot pink leggings I made awhile back. This one has long sleeves.

I was ready for a nice pot of tea, when I found them plotting what they would convince me to make for them next.

I wonder if I need to open a college fund for each of them.

What's on my needles: Still Vroni's Tyrolean Coat.

What's on my Featherweight: Um…guess.

What's on my loom: Still waiting.

What's on my wheel: Stanzi is still awaiting her next task. 

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Kill Me Again, by Rachel Abbott. I’m about halfway through Amy Corwin’s novel All She Loves on the Kindle app.

What's in my wine glass: Gato Negro Malbec, very nice.

What's my tip of the week: I have a neat little acrylic board with sandpaper next to an open area. The sandpaper section is great for drawing on fabric, for appliqué, etc. 

The open area and the back are great for applying glue to buttons, Velcro or fabric. The glue will wash out, and you can sew through it when you're using your machine. If the needle gets gunked up with glue after a while, you can either remove it to wash it off with water or clean it in place with a little rubbing alcohol. The acrylic board can be cleaned the same way, but I try not to get the sandpaper wet.

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 were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Life in the Mountains

Common Threads met at Janet's on Thursday.

Margareth has been quilting up a storm. Here's another quilt she made for her new cabin in the woods. The local quilt shop had the pattern, but she changed the tree from the original.

Lynda has been making these neck-warmer hats for Christmas gifts. The pattern is from 
Knitted Gifts: Irresistible Projects to Make & Give by Ann Budd. She says they are very quick to knit.

Georgette has finished this hat for a relative's baby.

I was working on the tutu for Hannah, and so Janet brought out some of her daughter's dolls to show us. She had a Samantha and several other American Girl dolls, but we found these two fun. First the girl...

...and then the boy.

They are weighted so they feel like real babies, and they can wear real baby clothes.

While we were sitting there, needles at work, we heard a strange sound. Janet said it sounded like a hot-air balloon, but it sounded so close. We went out to her back deck, and this is what we saw:

They managed to land without bashing in the fence, and in a few minutes they were lifting off again.

I finished Hannah's tutu on Friday.

The pattern cleverly incorporates lace knitted in along with each stitch in two or three rounds of the body, sort of the way those ruffled scarves are knitted. You have to stick the knitting needle through the lace as you make the stitch, and repeat every 3/4" of the lace per stitch. With the lace I had it worked out better to knit every 1" because of how the top of the lace was configured. That took more lace per stitch, and after one round I could see I wouldn't have enough to do another round, but I think it looks fine this way.

It's designed for American Girl and similar dolls, which are a bit plumper than Hannah, so I had to sort of get creative to get it to fit. After tying the shoulders with ribbon, I ran shirring elastic through the neck. I also used ribbon ties to gather in the body a bit, with one in the back middle.

The tutu can be slipped on and off without the need for buttons or other fasteners.

The pointe shoes are from The Doll Clothes Store. (They show pink ones, but those are sold out. They do have the white, lavender and blue colors available as of the time I'm writing this.)

Saturday evening Therapy Animals of Utah had its annual Volunteer Appreciation Dinner. This was my first since we lost our own therapy dog, Sunny. I was nice to connect again with people I have worked with and to meet some of the new Park City members. (I knew they existed, but I hadn't met them yet.)

I don't know whether Dusty will be a therapy dog. He's still pretty nuts. He turned six months old on Tuesday and has reached the upper height limit for miniature poodles. I think he's going to outgrow the size, as our other minis have, but that's OK. I can still pick Rocky up if I have to. Dusty is still under 18 lbs., but he should fill out some, even if he doesn't grow much taller. He looks like a perfect little standard poodle, so it's easy to forget that he's still a puppy. The pups go to the groomer today, and it will be fun to see how much more silver shows up in Dusty's coat.

Election day it tomorrow. Be sure to vote, if you haven't already early-voted. I checked to make sure my mail-in ballot was received, and it was. Remember: If you don't vote, you have no right to complain, so consider it a Complaining Permit.

What's on my needles: The “So-not-my-palette Cardigan” second sleeve is back on the needles and in the works. Nothing much to show yet, though, and it looks pretty much like the first sleeve. 

What's on my Featherweight: Done for now, but I may sew some jammies or a nightgown for Hannah, as she has nothing to wear to bed yet.

What's on my wheel: Still put away for now.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to music for Park City Singers. Davenport House by Marie Silk is in my Kindle app on my iPad. I haven't read enough of it yet to know how good it is.

What's in my wine glass: Black Mountain Vineyard Cramer Ridge 2009 Zinfandel. Part of our Trader Joe's haul, bought in Las Vegas when we went to pick up Dusty.

What's my tip of the week: The holidays are coming up, and that means big family dinners at our house, because the kids are coming here. Lining a casserole pan with foil before cooking makes it possible to freeze the contents, dump out the frozen casserole to store in the freezer and reuse the pan. I start out by molding the foil over the outside of the dish, then placing the "foil liner" inside and adjusting it to fit. Be careful not to tear it or poke a hole in it with your fingernails. You can freeze casseroles uncooked or cooked. Be sure to label the outside where you can read what's inside.
When you use the casserole, just place the frozen contents, foil and all, back in the pan and cook. If the pan is glass, it's good to let it thaw a bit first or start it in a cold oven, so the pan doesn't break. You can also do this with your slow cooker insert.

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 were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Colds, Cones and Cardis

First the cardi:

If you're interested, you can read about how I adapted a great Argyle pattern to Fair Isle here. That's the Ravelry page for the project. It has links to the pattern for the cardigan and the skirt, and to the yarn used. Hannah seems to enjoy wearing the new cardigan, so I think she's happy with it.

Here's a view of the back.

Here's a better look at the skirt, which I finished earlier in the week, when the weather was nice.

Now to the cone. In family life, Dusty had his "reconstructive surgery" on Monday. (The one that made certain he wouldn't chase the girls.) Unfortunately, the little rascal showed too much interest in his incision, so he came home with "The Cone of Shame." By Friday, he had figured out how to reach his incision in spite of the cone, doing an imitation of a pill bug, but whenever we took the cone off for him to eat or go for a walk, he left it alone, so we left it off after that. No more problems.

Finally, the cold: At the same time as I was dealing with Dusty's recuperation, DH came down with a raging cold. He had been at the Farmers' Market running the voter registration booth, when a sleet storm hit. A couple of days later, he got his flu shot. By the time he got home from getting his shot, he realized he was getting sick. He spent several nights coughing, so I didn't get much sleep, either. He's better now, though. I just hope I don't get it.

I wish I could have gotten a photo of Dusty's face when he saw this neighborhood visitor on Wednesday. She had a youngster with her, but the young one was camera shy.

We got more snow this morning. Dusty thought "ho-hum." He's used to it now.

I missed Vintage Stitchers this week because I was looking after family members and was exhausted anyway. I'll try to go next time.

Sunday afternoon we went to see Carmen at Utah Opera. As expected, Carmen met with a well deserved death. As always, it was a great production, and it was fun to see two of the young people who sing with us at church on special occasions performing in the chorus.

What's on my needles: The “So-not-my-palette Cardigan” second sleeve is still on hold, but I'm ready to start a sweater vest for Buddy. 

What's on my Featherweight: Shirts for Buddy and Dude.

What's on my wheel: Still put away for now.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to music for Park City Singers. On my Kindle app, I'm still reading Corinna: A Sweet & Clean Historical Romance by Lauren Royal.

What's in my wine glass: Bota Box Old Vine Zinfandel. Not bad. The nice thing about the box is that if you don't finish the whole thing in a day or two, it still tastes good until the end.

What's my tip of the week: When counting rows of ribbing, I find it easiest to count the purl bumps than the K stitches. In this case, I have five rows of ribbing, and there are five purl bumps. The first row of green was straight knit, so the bottom stitch isn't actually ribbing, even though it looks like it. Normally when you count rows, you count the stitch on the needle, too, so that would give you six. I find that confusing. This works better for me.

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 were harmed during the production of this blog post.

Spring at Last

Last week found me quilting again.

All the cutting is done and I've finished 11 of the 24 pieced blocks for BS2's baby quilt. It will have one appliqué block depicting a little horse, to represent the baby' shorthand year, "Year of the Horse." The blocks are from the quilt "Twin Stars" from Jelly Roll Quilts by Pam and Nicky Lintott. I'm not using a jelly roll, though. All the fabrics except the background came from my rather sizable stash. The background fabric came from Davidene's Quilt Shop in Park City, Utah.

The first sleeve of the Mary Tudor cardigan is moving along. All the Increases are finished and just one more pattern repeat to go before the cap shaping. (I'm using Palette fingering weight yarn.)

We had a fifth Thursday, so there was no Vintage Stitchers or Common Threads. Joanie decided to host a special "Fifth Thursday" group for a few knitting friends. Here Kay is showing us the scarves she has been working on.

We had an interesting week other than my fiber fun. Monday we had a visit from of young (maybe two years old) bull moose.

He pruned our wild roses for us. No charge! (Note: Moose are large, dangerous animals. They can kick and stomp, causing injury or death. Do not approach a moose unless there is a barrier between you and the moose, as was the case in this photo.)

We also hiked Toll Canyon, which is close to our home. It has nice hiking trails and a year-round stream that provides water for the pups.

We hiked to the "Living Room" on Friday. This trail provides a great view of Salt Lake City. It got its name because flat rocks have been arranged like couches and chairs overlooking the view. Someone even made a "remote" out of another flat rock, only small, with the buttons marked with felt marker. Sunset is a good time to come here. It's a serious uphill climb, although there's no rock scrambling involved.

There were some beautiful wild flowers along the trail, like this penstemon:

and this wild rose:

What's on my needles: Mary Tudor cardigan, working on the sleeves.

What's on my Featherweight: BS2's baby quilt, 11 blocks done. Also Delectable Pathways, still waiting to finish hand appliqué.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished Morning Gift by Eva Ibbotsen from Audible. I'm so glad I discovered this author. Now I'm listening to A Kiss before Dying (not dyeing, which sounds like more fun) the first novel written by Ira Levin, who wrote Rosemary's Baby and The Stepford Wives (also the play "Death Trap," which we saw recently at Pioneer Theater). I got this audiobook from Audible as one of its Daily Deal offerings, which has introduced me to some new authors. I've finished reading Debbie Macomber's Friends and Then Some in iBooks from Book Bub and am deciding on a new book to read.

What's my app of the week: iRadio. This feature (similar to Pandora) is great when I'm working on a project that requires more concentration, making an audiobook impractical.

What's in my wine glass: Fisheye Shiraz 2013. The big bottle, as always, nice value.

What's my tip of the week:  I learned this from someone on the Knitting Community and plan to use it on my next colorwork project. If you turn your project inside-out, you can knit on the right side and keep the stranding on the outside. This keeps the floats from pulling in and making the knitting puckered.

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 were harmed during the production of this blog post.

From Moose to Horses

Joanie finished the scarf and James Bond sweater for a friend expecting a baby. She dressed a moose in them and sent them off.

The pattern is the '50s Lounge Jacket from this book.

Common Threads met on Thursday. Julie brought some quilts for show-and-tell. 

This quilt "sports" a quilting designed for the 2002 Winter Olympics, showcasing all the winter sports that are part of the Winter Olympics. It's a pantograph. 

Here' a closeup of the quilting. 

She and some other people made this quilt for another friend. It has Minky on the back. 

Joanie and Margareth were knitting. 

Friday afternoon  Julie and I went to Joanie's to knit with her. We talked mostly about which books we were reading or listening to. Julie had just finished this cross stitch. It's Jardin Privé "Spirale"

Now she's working on a matching piece that's square. Joanie is knitting a vest, and I'm making good progress on my Mary Tudor cardigan. This photo shows the armhole shaping and the center front steek. There are steeks at the armholes, too, but it's hard to get them in the photo.

I have been looking at images for the appliqué for the new baby's welcoming quilt. I'm thinking of this one, but I'll have to redraw it to eliminate all the "noise" in the picture (things that can't be duplicated easily with appliqué). I may keep the eyelashes and do them either with a permanent archival pen or embroider them.

Hiking season has begun again, and we braved the muddy, sometimes snowy trails to see views like this:

We lost a neighbor last year in an avalanche. He was employed by the Utah Department of Transportation working to assess the danger of avalanche in a canyon above Salt Lake City, when he was hit by the very danger he was assessing. Friends and family erected this bench, a ski lift seat, at a spot where hikers and snowshoers could admire the view.

It was sad to think if how his family must be missing him, but the view made me smile.

On a brighter note, The doll beds made it to Wisconsin in time for Daphne's birthday. We Skyped on Tuesday afternoon, and she showed us how carefully she put her babies to bed and covered them with the blankets and quilts. They don't have to sleep in her bed anymore unless they wake up with a bad dream.

The last Utah Opera performance of the year was yesterday. It was Mozart's "Abduction From the Seraglio," great performances of beautiful music, and especially fun because I just finished listening to a book about a young woman who was writing of a novel full of abductions. She gets abducted herself and learns that it isn't all that much fun, so her novel goes into the fire. The opera was hilarious. Well done, Utah Opera! My knitting attracted attention during intermission. A lady came over and wanted to know how hard it was to knit with "all those colors." I explained that there were only two colors in a row/round, and showed her the chart I was using, explained the steeking process and showed her the original from Tudor Roses. I wonder if she'll give it a try.

And oh, yes! Franklin Habit "Liked" my Mary Tudor on Facebook! He's a national knitting teacher and author of It Itches, and he's very funny besides. His blog is a real kick, and his Craftsy class on lace edgings is fun and useful.

What's on my needles: Mary Tudor cardigan.

What's on my Featherweight: Delectable Pathways, still waiting to finish hand appliqué.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished listening to La Danse de la Folie by Sherwood Smith from Audible. A fun and clean Regency story reminiscent of Jane Austen, artfully written and with a wonderful twist at the end. Now listening to The Wizard of London by Mercedes Lackey, another one of the Elemental Masters series. On the Kindle app, I've finished reading Hilda Hopkins, Murder, She Knit by Vivienne Fagan. Quirky and funny, if somewhat macabre. Ready to start something new.

What's my app of the week: Librivox. Audiobooks read by volunteers, books in the public domain, such as Jane Austen's novels, the Scarlet Pimpernel series and Anne of Green Gables series, available for free. Now they have an app for that!

What's in my wine glass: Fisheye Shiraz 2013. The big bottle. (I seem to say "big bottle" a lot, don't I?)

What's my tip of the week: According to my veterinarian, baby shampoo makes great dog shampoo. I've always used it on their heads and faces, but I didn't know you could use it all over. (It's also good for washing your knitting, although it has to be rinsed out, and there are some nice washes now for wool that don't need rinsing.)

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 were harmed during the production of this blog post.