More dolls, and a pattern

 I realized I could post the pattern for the Izzy doll, so here goes

If you (can) read the bottom para you'll understand the construction.

You can Google on Izzy doll to see its poignant history. Please note, Izzy's mother made her pattern universally free and available for dolls to give to children in crisis, not just cute toys. And always to be given, not sold nor bartered. 

And here's where I am with this group 

Aiming for half a dozen to get in the mail next week.  The person who will distribute them is eagerly waiting now.

And friend C. is coming through with more small quantities of various colored yarns, just right. Possibly also for stripey socks for the Sock 'n Glove Ministry, we'll see. And for the use of beginners at the two libraries I go to for knitting groups. 

Lunch today is a bowl of lentil carrot soup with fresh spinach wilted in, followed by chocolate cherries. All food groups in attendance.

In the course of looking for audio to accompany knitting, I came across an old favorite, QI.

 I also  found another advantage to hearing aids: I can get all their jokes now, not just some. Highly recommend.

Happy day everyone, my power company tells me I'm one of the most economical customers in my house size and (house) age. Yay me. 

Embarkation portrait and other thoughts

 So before I leave for the post office, here's the group of Izzies I'm sending to their new little owners at the Pine Ridge reservation.

For the moment, the doll related materials can be stored and I'll see what's next. 

Meanwhile back in the life of Boud, I've set up an appointment next week to prepay my cremation and set it up. I'll invite Handsome Son if he's free, to make sure he's completely informed. That sounds so businesslike and matter of fact. In fact, I slept all afternoon, from the emotional impact of doing it, filling out online forms, all that. And all night. It's not easy.

To be clear, I'm perfectly well, not under any medical deadline, but my impending birthday reminded me to do this. I'll be 85, so it's not premature to be planning.

Tomorrow Handsome Son is visiting so I'll get into that then. I also have other ideas about changes that will simplify his post-Mom life. I'll see how he feels about that, too. 

Meanwhile I will send off the parcel of dolls and bake a batch of cranberry walnut muffins, ready to give HS a little something with his tea tomorrow.

Happy day, everyone, do hard things. You got this.

No ice is good news and food happens

 An older person's view of the weather forecast

No ice! This is big.

Lately I've been cooking good meals but not photogenic ones. Ground turkey with cannellini beans, that kind of good stuff, and my food designer never turned up, again, so you didn't get the benefit.

Yesterday I did make something to show you, very simple, not up to anything elaborate at the moment, a tired time of year.

Broccoli/tomato sauce with penne and a lot of Serrano peppers diced in, big grind of long red pepper.  Enough for three meals, always a plus, that I can heat and eat.

This probably has an Italian name, penne primavera or something. 

Yesterday saw a bit of free cycling, lights which I've had around for ages, wrong size for outside, my original intent, wouldn't charge adequately indoors, my backup plan, too late for a return for refund, my backup backup plan. 

So they went to the first of a horde of requesters, within a couple of hours of posting. Even without pictures, sometimes the site won't, though when that happens I offer to email them.

And, the Izzy dolls moving right along, I did send for a different shade of possible face-colored yarn, and this arrived

Looking like clay or something, and at first I didn't realize what it was, since the package was so shrunken you couldn't read the words. I did find "yarn" and all became clear. Vacuum packed! After I managed to find a way in without cutting the yarn, it sprang to life

 

Made in Turkey, like a lot of yarns. It seems to be a  thriving Turkish industry.

Happy day, everyone, whatever mysterious packages it holds for you. Like the surprise big Izzy, the result of picking up the wrong, too big, needles, but what's a manufacturing glitch between friends?

Katheryn Howard, Izzies and cake!

 Yesterday brought a gift from a lovely lady, so welcome. Fruitcake! I love fruitcake, and anyone who doesn't perhaps hasn't had  good fruitcake.

At its best eaten Yorkshire-style, with good cheese, here cheddar. And since it's full of nutritious fruit and nuts, it's also breakfast food. Around here, anyway. Thank you!

It's keeping up my strength to knit Izzies, see the first finished of this group, with more to come.

One of the things I like about this is that after you stuff the doll,  you sculpt the shape with needle and thread, and transform it into a little person, hands in pockets. The intended recipients, Friends of Pine Ridge Reservation, have seen this picture and are happy with the proposed dolls.

When I'm not knitting along to Click and Clack, I'm reading another Weir, another doomed Queen

I like the settings Weir describes, how they got around, on horseback or in a litter, so slow, what they wore, the food, and  the whole period ambience, especially the fear, of the King's power and illness against which they had few protections. And they were all so young, marrying in their early teens, grandparents by their thirties  sometimes. It's a gripping world to enter.

Happy day,  everyone, misfits arrives later today with ordinary food, no fruitcake, but I'm already supplied.

Jennie, and the little cactus that could

You know how I knit socks and gloves for the special project, and send my work off to a community of sisters, to be added in to their work? Here's where it goes! This is Jennie, the convent resident dog, in chapel with one of the sisters. I met her, well, both of them, when I stayed there with a guild group learning gold work embroidery.

She turned up this week in her own right on Twitter, on one of the few accounts I still check in there, a weekly roundup of video of dogs and their stories. And here's one I've met!

left to right, presenter inset, Jennie, Sister.  There's also a black and white cat, and for many years,  a pony, Pony, a real mischief maker, quite a character. There's a book about him now.

And the Thanksgiving cactus is really coming through

I notice that even when a plant is small, it produces full-size flowers. This one's doing well, more buds there. I'm always surprised when the pink buds become bright coral flowers.

I made a freecycle request for yarn, and got a couple of offers, too far away to be practical for pickup, but kind anyway. Meanwhile I can knit partial dolls then add on the faces and hats when I get face-colored yarn.

Father Dowling continues to entertain me, with those huge cars, skidding round corners. I learned to drive long ago in a V8, and have never really got used to smaller cars since. I still  expect half a mile of metal in front of me! My current car could sit on the hood of a V8. 

Happy day, everyone, if your knitting supplies, real or metaphorical, are incomplete in any sense, it's the human condition!

More hostages released in Gaza, and Israel's minister acknowledged it's a Biden truce, not a Netanyahu truce. Take that, people who think he's a weak Presidential candidate!  He's one of the best presidents we ever had. And you know why people whine that he's too old? It's because she's black.

The old is new again, and upcoming events prep

Last evening I finally got around to watching some Father Dowling, the brand-new-in-shrinkwrap DVDs I found at the library sale.

And found they're really fun. Steve, the nunly sidekick, is a great tearaway character. It's old fashioned, people don't move and talk that way now, but still good. I never even heard of this series before, not being a TV watcher.

Yesterday saw the last of the Thanksgiving veggies plus spinach, turned into an omelet, with plenty of long red pepper ground in.

After the spinach cooked down to practically nothing, as it does, I added the eggs with peas and corn, and that worked fine. And I turned off the burner.

I ordered a book of year long daily poems for my upcoming birthday, and will start the reading on the appropriate day. Accompanied by favorite treats.

The Australian offering looks like a relative of sponge candy which I love and rarely find in affordable amounts. I couldn't remember the term sponge, and spent quite a while online searching foam (!) and finding many references to styrofoam, none edible, before the right word showed up.

At this point I'm grandly planning on one piece per daily poem. We'll see.

Meanwhile, back in the knitting arena, I found the unfinished doll

On a stitch holder and thought ah, next it needs a face, I'll just check for right colored yarn. Then I found out why it's on the stitch holder. No face colored yarn in the house. Oh.  I'll get some bits of yarn from the stash at the library on Friday then, and continue. 

These Izzy comfort dolls are what I'm planning to make for children living on  a native American reservation out west. poor pictures from a while back, but you get the idea, and the size.

The Izzy doll has a moving history, which you can check. I've made dozens of these for AIDS orphans in Africa, used as packing for the medical lab glass shipped to AIDS clinics in Africa by ICROSS Canada. Then the postage got prohibitive and I switched to the more local Sock Ministry, but I'm taking a side trip into dolls just now. Once I get my yarn sorted, that is.

Happy day, everyone, whatever day it is, don't ask me, I'n still confused by the US holiday.