Excuses!

I didn't get much knitting done during the week again, but I'm very close to being ready to start the cuff on my Oregon Autumn Cardigan. I may have started the cuff by the time you read this.

I'm continuing to clean the house in preparation for the arrival of the kids who live within driving distance. They're planning to come for Thanksgiving. I got my workroom done except for vacuuming the floor. Once I make the beds and vacuum, I'll only need to clean the guest bath, and the upstairs will be done. Then to start on the downstairs.

I've had some jobs to do related to the latest book, as well. Amazon has the photo of the cover of the book now. It's available for presale, shipping December 5th. 

However, if you don't get free shipping from them, or you want it right away, Book Baby has it right now. You will have to pay for shipping, but half of the purchase price of the book goes to support pediatric cancer research and treatment, instead of the one-dollar-something Amazon pays them.

Autographed copies will go out to people who want those as I get checks. I can use Zelle, now, but a check is easier for my pea brain, at least until I learn how to use Zelle. I'm not using PayPal anymore after our cyberattack in May.

The new book has links to the free knitting and sewing patterns shown in the photos in the book. Of course, they aren't live links in a printed book, but if you don't want to key them in and risk making a mistake, you can take a photo of the link, highlight it on your computer, copy and paste in the URL slot on your search engine. 

I like to donate my new book to the library each year, and I leave my book in the free Little Libraries in our neighborhood. Wednesday I dropped off the book at the main library. Thursday I took the car and drove to the locations that were too far to walk to. We went out on Saturday in light snow to leave books in the nearby Little Libraries and walk the dogs at the same time.

I use social media to let people know about the book, and I used to use Twitter/X, but it has become totally toxic, so I deleted my account after removing my personal information.

I decided a few months ago to add BlueSky to the social media I use. I had left the Twitter/X account open, but I read that my personal information might not be safe if abandoned, so I decided to remove my personal information and then close it. Right after I did so, everyone and his uncle decided to leave Twitter/X and come to BlueSky. I discovered that there are a lot of knitters, crocheters, spinners and weavers on BlueSky, with more coming every day, so I added that to my bio. I can't keep up with the follows! (I always try to follow back unless the account gives me reason not to.) Apparently there are apps and programs you can use to import your followers from X to BlueSky. I had a lot of followers, so I suspect some of my new followers used them. I'm finding some I recognize, at least if they left their name and profile photo/avatar the same.

I sometimes get unwanted attention on social media. This one was in my Direct Messages on Spoutible. A friend on Spoutible got the same, almost word-for-word, direct message from the same account. I've obscured his/their/its photo and name, because I'm sure this person (if it's a live person) is very embarrassed at being discovered.

My friend played with him a bit, telling him she was shocked to find out that she wasn't not his one-and-only, and that it was going to interfere with their relationship. I got a kick out of that. It was creative, but I wonder if anyone falls for this stuff. I get a lot of those on Facebook, and it's very annoying. Of course, on Facebook these heartbreakers have to plant an entire profile page. They're always widowed, retired from the military or airline pilot, usually living overseas somewhere. Life used to be so simple!

We have ripe bananas right now, so I made smoothies on Thursday and waffles on Saturday (using my banana-oat waffle recipe). While I stood over the waffle iron, waiting for the light to go out indicating that the waffles were done, I went through my follows on BlueSky, following back. I guess I can multitask after all! Who knew!

I have a lot of vegetables in the fridge that need to be used up to make room for food for Thanksgiving and our visitors. I decided to make stir-fry to go with rice. 

I used Quorn ChiQen Pieces with the vegetables. Whole Foods used to have them, but now they only carry the breaded items from Quorn, if they even have those. I don't want to pay for breading, because we don't need it with the rice, but I've found Quorn products at Natural Grocers. I picked up another Turkey-style Roast for Thanksgiving. We'll be having a turkey, but not for me. Natural Grocers has a nice selection of Quorn products, a good supply and they were on sale!

You may remember that I recently replaced my old laptop, originally manufactured in 2017 but purchased refurbished in 2019. You also might remember that I had the keyboard replaced twice, and that I feared it was going to go out again, so I traded it in on a new one.

Well, the new one is up and running, although not without some challenges to overcome. It looks almost the same. There are some slight differences, though. It's much faster. It's easier to pick up with one hand, because of the shape, I think. The edges aren't as rounded. The keyboard is easy to type on, and the battery is good for a whole day of being on.

I had to transfer everything from my old computer to the new one and then delete everything from the old one. I did that last week. On Wednesday the package for mailing my old laptop back to Apple arrived. (I'm trading it in.) It was all ready to go, so all I had to do was put the laptop into the box, close it up and peel off the label on the front of the shipping box, revealing Apple's address, then drop it off at the UPS store. I had some struggles getting the new iOS software to download, because I didn't have much memory. This happened before when I had to send my old laptop in to be repaired. Apparently, if I understand it correctly, when you upload new software, you might need more memory than just what the software needs when it's already on your computer. Then after the new iOS was up and running, the Photos app search function wouldn't work. While talking to another tech-support person at Apple, I mentioned that I thought it started with the new update, Sequoia 15.1. She had me hold while she checked out information on the new update. It turned out to be a bug they were aware of. I'll be getting a new update soon (I hope) taking care of the problem.

So, as you can see, I had good reasons for not finishing my cardigan yet!

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: Still working on the Oregon Cardigan.

What's on my loom: Still in its corner under the windows, but thoroughly dusted.

What's on my sewing machine: Still its dust cover, after being dusted.

What's in The Doll's Storybook: This week's story from #TheDollsStorybook is Rules for Success. Mariah and Charlotte ponder why changing the rules for hopscotch so you could step on the lines made the game less fun.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: Still listening to Dean Koontz's new book, The Forest of Lost Souls, about halfway through. Also reading the physical book, In the Shelter of Each Other by Milree Latimer. Not very far into that yet.

What's in my wine glass: Only Fans Malbec 2018 from Washington. It's nice.

What's my tip of the week: If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, this is the time of year to start using winter vegetables: root vegetables and vegetables that can be stored for a long time, like winter squash. You can get the same nutrients as you would get from summer vegetables like zucchini, but you will pay less, because they don't have to be shipped as far.

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

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 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, because the publisher gets a cut. 

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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Cover Problems

I'm continuing to make progress on the whole-cloth quilt. I'm getting really close to the swag pattern on this side, as you might be able to see.

The Which Came First Shawl is still waiting to be blocked. Why didn't I get it done, you might ask? Well, I need to clean up the table where I put the blocking mats, for one thing, and that didn't happen because of more problems with my end of the book production. I had the cover to the book finished (I thought) and it came back with some problems. It all worked out in the end, and the sample copy of the book is in the works.

The problem was with the logo for St. Jude's. I had asked for permission to use the logo, and I thought I was told it was OK. However, the resolution wasn't good on the copy of the logo I was able to download, so I had to go back to St. Jude to ask for a better copy. That's when I found out that I couldn't use the logo after all. Either I misunderstood or the person I talked to told me the wrong thing. I can't mention St. Jude in the book at all. However, I can say that the proceeds from the book will to go an organization that provides research and treatment for pediatric cancer, and it will. I removed the logo and the description of what St. Jude does and replaced it with a summary of how The Doll's Storybook got started and a group photo of the dolls. It should still be ready before Christmas. It was a good thing the publisher held things up with the resolution problem.

I still have nearly two weeks to work on The Big Send. We (all the people nationally working on the project) blew through our goal of 10M letters by the end of the week, so the "powers that be" upped it to 15M. We now have another 5M letters to write in two weeks. This should be possible because more people have joined the team. I stamped most of the letters I had finished already and ordered more stamps on Saturday.

The letters still in the box (with rubber bands around them) still need stamps. I have 400 done and am going to try to do 100 more before time to mail them, October 17th.

I had to have something to knit while on calls with family and others when I couldn't be writing letters, so I made two more dishcloths. I've been using the yarn left over from the dish mat I made a few weeks ago. I had wound off half of the yarn so I could knit with two strands. Then I used single strands to knit the dishcloths. I ran out of the yarn from the cone when I was about three-fourths of the way through the last dishcloth, so I had to join the remainder of the yarn from the ball I had wound off. Since it's cotton yarn and the dishcloth is just for me, I decided to just tie a square knot. I think I might get a coaster out of the tiny amount that's left. In the photo, you can see where I added the leftover yarn.

We had to pick up Rocky's medication during the week, so we all went along for the ride. We stopped off at the park on the way back, and the pups had some play time.

When Dusty was suitably tired, someone came with a little dog and was waiting, so we left to let them have the little-dog park to themselves. It's nice to be able to get out again, now that the smoke is gone. We've started walking in the neighborhood, again, too.

Daphne and Zachary had another dance performance outdoors. The videos were fun to watch. They are both getting to be very good dancers.

They have become used to doing their classes online with minimal supervision from parents. That's good, because the parents have their hands full with college students, some of whom contracted the virus early in the semester and have gotten behind in their work. They're mostly in an age group not always willing to be responsible.

We've been eating some of the last of the vegetables from the garden. This stir-fry was a mixture of our zucchini and chard, and purchased vegetables with Quorn "Meatless Pieces," which is made from mushrooms.

We've also still had grape tomatoes and some yellow pear tomatoes. It's getting colder now, so I expect the garden will be done soon. Before that happens, though, we will enjoy what we can get from it.

Another virtual choir performance has come and gone. This year's annual "Blessing of the Animals" had to be virtual, so we sang "O God, Your Creatures Fill the Earth" while photos of people with their pets and other animals showed on the screen. Our photo with the pups was in my blog last week, so I won't show it again.

The new doll is expected this week, and she will be introduced next week in person, assuming she arrives safely in time. As I write this, she has already gone through Customs and Immigration (!) in Los Angeles, so the rest is just catching the right flights. That will give me something to look forward to.

What's on my needles: The Which Came First Shawl is still waiting for blocking. Still working on dish cloths.

What's on my sewing machine: Still waiting for costumes. I hope to get on it this week.

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

What's in The Doll's Storybook: The Interview. Mariah interviews Jolena and asks some interesting questions. Some of the answers might surprise you.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: I've still just been listening to music.

What's in my wine glass: Radford Dale Syrah 2017. Nice, but not exciting.

What's my tip of the week: Halloween is coming up. Children should know that regular Halloween masks are not adequate protection. Our Oregon Health Authority has posted this recommendation, and I see that there are some masks that are suitable AND scary.

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.

Medieval Monks in the Monastery Had It Easier!

In spite of an incredibly busy week, I managed to bind off the "Which Came First Shawl."

I still have to weave in ends and block. In this photo, the shawl is folded and folded again, so it's four layers. When I block it, I'll try to get a photo of the length.

In the meantime, I managed to get a few hours of quilting in. (You're probably getting tired of looking at this project in various positions of the hoop, but it really is moving along, although slowly.)

Most of the fires in our part of the state are out, and the air is clearing. We started out the week with a fairly high AQI, but by Saturday it was down to 10. It still smells a little smoky in the house, so we're running the big air purifier in the kitchen/family room.

I participated in Swing Left's "House Party" on Monday, which I pretty much just use as background for writing letters, because I can ask questions of people who are doing this, too, if I need to. This event was on early this week, because of the Hamilton event. Here's my work station for writing letters.

There was another letter-writing party on Saturday. I'm finishing up on the last 20 letters which will bring my total to 340.

The Hamilton event was great, but I didn't get too many letters finished during the program, because I kept watching the show. They had some interviews with the actors and songs from the show.

I also received postcards in the mail to write. I drove to the post office on Sunday and dropped the finished postcards in the mail to go back to the people who sent them. They have to mail them from there.

The pups went to the groomer on Thursday. The church is having the blessing of the animals this Sunday, and it will be virtual. We had to send in a photo of ourselves with our pets. I don't have a long enough selfie stick to get the four of us in a photo, so I had to use the laptop Photo Booth app. It isn't a very sharp photo, but we were able to get all four of us smiling.

The new Little Kidz doll I will have coming to join the cast of The Doll's Storybook is turning up on Facebook by people in Europe, who are already receiving the dolls. Here's a photo taken by Gisela Eigner and posted on Facebook in one of the Götz doll groups. I like how she fixed her hair. (The cat isn't included, and Gisela changed her shirt.)

This photo was posted by Birgit Költringer on Facebook. It shows the relative size of the Little Kidz and the larger Happy Kidz.

Speaking of The Doll's Storybook, the cover has gone to the publisher and looks OK. I had to download Adobe InDesign to get the cover in the right format.  It took me most of a day to put it together. Learning new software is a challenge. However, I think I could do it again if I had to. I was able to get a free temporary version of the program. I have it for the rest of the week.

I needed Microsoft Word for the inside pages, although I think I could have done those using InDesign, too. We'll see if this works first, though. I had to pay to get Word for a month.

I ended up having to key it in again and then put the photos in place. Because of the retyping, I proofread again, made corrections and then printed off a copy for DH to proofread. As a result, I've had two PhDs proofread, since our son-in-law proofread the earlier copy.

I'm aiming for December first for the beginning of my fundraiser with St. Jude. I will need to have the books by then.

For this week's cuteness, I thought you would enjoy seeing how Johan decided to dress for school. Life is never boring with the grandkids.

Speaking of grandkids, our older granddaughter became ill during the week and had to be tested for Covid-19. She tested negative, so it's just the flu. That's both granddaughters now who have needed testing. I'm so grateful for the good result on both.

What's on my needles: The Which Came First Shawl is off the needles. Still working on dish cloths.

What's on my sewing machine: Still waiting for costumes, but I have two of them in my head.

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

What's in The Doll's Storybook: Fire! Don't worry, no one gets melted. However, it was a good opportunity for them to talk about fire safety.

What's on my iPad/iPhone: I've just been listening to music.

What's in my wine glass: Bruno 2018 Petite Sirah Clarksburg, a California wine. Very nice.

What's my tip of the week: If you only use half an avocado, leave the pit in the one you store. It will help it keep from turning brown. I usually put the cut avocado inside a sandwich bag to keep it from drying out or getting on other food. This also works with guacamole or avocado dip...up to a point.

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.