Showing posts with label scrubby. Show all posts
Showing posts with label scrubby. Show all posts

Monday, July 17, 2023

Packing for...?

We've been getting ready to pick up our new trailer in Eugene. I made a couple of dishcloths and a nylon scrubby. Unfortunately, the pattern I have for the scrubby is no longer available, but I found this one, which looks to be almost the same. I used a much finer nylon net this time, and I found it easier to work with.

I'm adding this dish mat, which is the second one I made two years ago. How I made it is on the project page on Ravelry. I'm keeping the red one here at home.


You can see we're going with grey and turquoise as our main colors. I like these two colors, alone and separately, and we thought they would go well with the grey cabinets and the rag rugs I made last year for the trailer. Most of our bedding needed replacing anyway, so we got new sheets (only our third set in 23 years!) a new duvet cover (replacing the first one we got 23 years ago), which came with pillow shams. The mattress cover was also original and was starting to have holes in some places. We're keeping the original quilt for now, because it's a good cover on the bed to protect from muddy paws, but we're adding a fake fur throw, which Sandy loves. We can put the bedding into black plastic trash bags and hope they don't get mixed up with actual trash. 

We have inexpensive bath and hand towels, but I used those to pack our kitchen things, which includes our dishes. It mostly fits into five small boxes. This is greatly pared down from what we had in our old fifth wheel. It doesn't include our clothes, toiletries and personal items. We will only take enough clothes for a few days, because we have to fit everything into the truck. We'll tape up the boxes, put them in the bed of the truck and hope it doesn't rain.

It also doesn't include food, other than coffee, tea and a few other shelf-stable items, along with any leftovers from our fridge that might spoil if we left them. We'll use an insulated bag with cold packs from our freezer for cold stuff, and then we'll grocery shop for what we need when we get custody of the trailer and know how much will fit into the fridge, which is 6 cu. ft., which I think is smaller than what we had in the fifth wheel.

How about that old 5th wheel, which we sold on June 28th? It's still sitting on our RV pad. The gentleman who was supposed to pick it up had his tow vehicle break down. Sound familiar? He lives in Portland or Salem. It's taking some time to get it fixed. (Looking for parts, is my guess.) The registration and insurance on the fifth wheel runs out this month. We were going to give him the tow hitch, but he will have to get here and get it installed. We will need a place to put the new trailer. We're still trying to work things out. Right now, we don't know when we'll go to pick it up.

Health issues (mine) interfered with my activities this past week. I had an infected toe, which took me (limping) to urgent care. The day after I went to urgent care, I discovered that I had a UTI, which sent me to see my regular doctor (still limping). Now I'm on two antibiotics and no longer limping, but it took a lot of time getting it all sorted out. I did manage to get the blocks for Soren's quilt organized according to the arrangement I worked out last week. I have each block labeled with a pinned sticky indicating where it goes. 

Sandy continues to grow, tipping the scales at 17 lbs. as of Friday. He is now six months old. Minis grow faster and finish maturing sooner than standards, so we still have the expectation that he will be under 25 lbs. when he stops growing. He made us look good at training class on Sunday, in spite of the fact that I was unable to practice loose-leash walking with him during the week due to the toe, which continued to hurt when wearing any kind of shoe for most of the week. Dusty keeps Sandy exercised when we can't walk (or maybe it's the other way around).

Here's Sandy and his friend Snowball having a bedtime tussle in the upstairs hallway.

Sandy brings Snowball to bed with him at night. I think Snowball will have to go camping with us when we go.

Soren has been enjoying summer school. Here he is, off on the bus.

Johan, who turned nine this week, learned how to use a power drill, when the family put together a new shed for tools and things in the backyard. Useful life skills!


Useful in a different way, is Zachary's hiphop class. (He's the one in the white shirt.) I think he's very good!


I only got a couple of rows of the Kultainen käki sweater done, with the dish cloths and scrubby taking up my knitting time and all the other things, including another new story in The Doll's Storybook this week. (More info on that below). Here's how it's looking.



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 "Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook by Peggy Stuart" in Children's. 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 and Mariah, 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 Kultainen käki cardigan and the EmPower People Kerchief (hibernating), but also the dishcloth.

What's on my loom: Still the rag placemats, no progress.

What's on my sewing machine: Still ready to put the quilt blocks together.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Nico has a problem in "The Secret," this week's story in The Doll's Storybook. Pauly thinks Veronika can help.



What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Die Unendliche Geschichte by Michael Ende, not much progress there, either. 

What's in my wine glass: Another Madroña El Tinto, always a favorite.

What's my tip of the week: If you need to save on space and keep food for a trip cold in an ice chest, use frozen food you expect to use up in the first few days as "ice." (Be sure it's food that is safe to cook thawed.)

Where are my books: The stories in each book first appeared in the blog and they are reproduced with a few changes. 
Classic Tales Retold: Stories from The Doll's Storybook is available from BookBabyBookshop and other booksellers worldwide. The stories are Little Green GreatcoatThe 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 hereThe three stories in Emil are Best BudsGetting What You Want, and The Boys Cook Dinner.
The three stories in Mariah are Being LittleBesties, 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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Monday, August 12, 2019

Crochet!

I haven't had much experience with crochet, but some of it was this week.



I have used this pattern and this one. They are pretty similar. the design is pretty simple, although knitting with strips of nylon net isn't very smooth. The result is a great dish washing device, though. I have paired these with knitted dish cloths in the past for Christmas gifts.

While I was delving into crochet, I decided to try to make a doll bikini.



For the top, I used this pattern (not available as a PDF, so you either have to read it off of the computer screen or copy and paste to something you can print). The pattern gives you a top with a skirt and wide shoulder straps. I just ended the pattern at the point where I had the completed band around the chest. Then I attached chain ties to the top of the triangles and tied them behind the neck.




The bottom was a greater challenge. I had to keep poor Veronika in the altogether, so I could match what I was doing to her body. I did a lot of ripping before I got it the right shape, which turned out to be something like the silhouette of a champagne glass. I may try to make another one of these.

The Coastal Skies Shawl finally got blocked. It has an 82" wingspan. My niece, who is a Seahawks fan, says these are Seahawks' colors. I hadn't though about that, but they are. At any rate, I've been wearing it, and it's warm and soft. The pattern is Knockout Round.

Our kimchi was going fast, so I made some more, this time with the seasoning a friend recommended. It's Mother In Law's Gochugaru Korean chili pepper flakes. I'm thinking it is a little less spicy.



I ended up with six cups of kimchi this time. (Each jar holds 1 1/2 C.) One of the things I like about kimchi is that you don't have to can it. It's still raw, but pickled.



This week's story is "Money in a Jar." Billy and Veronika discuss how to save money to buy what you want, and the difference between "want" and "need."



I got the idea from a recent article by Warren Buffett, which has a few other ideas besides what I used in the story.

We missed two days of walks this week. I waited until late afternoon, so DH could walk, too, and then it rained. Both days. The rain comes in the late afternoon and early evening.  It would be better for me to walk in the morning and then again in the afternoon, if the weather is OK. We had been waiting because it was pretty warm (a high of 92ºF) in the middle of the day. DH doesn't get up until 9:30 AM or so.


What's on my needles: Still the Trickle Brick Socks and another dish cloth.

What's on my sewing machine: Not much this week

What's in my hoop: Still the Whole Cloth Quilt.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Money in a Jar.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Finished From This Moment by Elizabeth Camden. It was pretty good. Now listening to The Sleeping Beauty by Mercedes Lackey. This is one of a series "A Tale of the Five Hundred Kingdoms," but each novel is a stand alone, based on the same fantasy world, one in which "Tradition" tries to force likely candidates into the mold of well-known fairy tales, while the protagonists try to go their own way.

What's in my wine glass: Red Blend Portugal by Casa Santos Lima. Pretty nice!

What's my tip of the week: A rolled-up newspaper in your hand is a good way to get a dog to behave. You don't have to hit them with it (in fact, you shouldn't), but just holding it is like a kings scepter. They know you are boss. For serious misbehavior, hit it against your hand. It gets their attention.




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.