Fiber – Holly Doyne

Quilts and a side of As

Posted on 2018-08-12 by Holly Doyne2018-08-13

Ok, you have managed to avoid having to listen to me discussing baseball for, oh let us say at least a day. So first I will mention that the As are doing fine – in spite of a couple of the relief pitchers. Essentially they rock. A goodly number of my fellow Right Field Die Hards are in Anaheim this weekend expressly for the purpose of watching the As walk all over the Angels. Well? 2 out of 3 ain’t bad as the old country song goes.

Otherwise, I have put a bit of time into quilts that different daughters were making for friends babies.

To be clear – my daughters are not having children, but have several friends that are doing same.

The Eldest finished all but the machine quilting and just wasn’t up to it at the moment so

top

and I took it over to her today.

Meanwhile, the quilt and bibs that Daughter #2 sent off in the mail have arrived –

the model, quilt, bib towel

and just to make sure

: pup with patience

: and the pup in the center of the quilt

One game, three loads of laundry

Posted on 2018-08-05 by Holly Doyne2018-08-05

Not sure which is of the higher positivity – managing to arrive at the stadium and slide into our seats less than five minutes before the opening pitch – or doing three loads of laundry after we got home.

The As won.

Now that is out of the way… no wait. We had a rep from Foxx News-Detroit in the stands with us for about four innings. Apparently some Tigers fan got upset yesterday and Tweeted (!) about the drum noise. Unlike some of those who use social media without checking their facts, this particular individual, suit and all, decided to stop in. End result? He seemed to have a good time and asked questions about the group origin, rationale behind the various beats and the general upbeat nature of the group. Decided that one reply on the previous day “they can’t be controlled but can be contained” was probably correct.

Then there was laundry.

But the most fun (ack) of the day was finishing the machine quilting for a project of the Eldest.

: nine squares total

: heading toward the finish

: top

: the back

at least I don’t have to do the binding….

Cleaning

Posted on 2018-07-29 by Holly Doyne2018-08-04

Which is absolutely not my favorite thing in the whole world. But then, I have a daughter due back from Germany today, a couple of cats to get back to their own cozy home and no in town baseball game to provide me an excuse.

You see, I have this upstairs room that is variously called my craft room, my studio or that junk room. You get the idea. It had gotten to the point where I wasn’t willing to even step inside the room which leads to serious secondary and tertiary affects. Projects don’t get completed, I contemplate buying more supplies since I can’t locate what I know is in the room and my kids look at me with the “lead by example much?” quizzical look that I can’t refute. So I broke down starting yesterday and started to put the room in order.

To understand the magnitude of the task just think sewing, machine embroidery, knitting, spinning, quilting, cross stitch and you will get the idea. Each of those mentioned above has supplies: patterns, books, fabric, threads, yarn, needles, notions, machines, a spinning wheel or two, fiber, coffee mugs, tea cups and a sheep skin (doesn’t everyone need a sheep skin?) to just start the list. And then there are the various audiobooks in physical copy that I have accumulated from both Graphic Audio and Audiobookstand (going out of business….) that I haven’t yet heard.

plus the able helper

I did mention the cats? Onyx seemed to think it was his job to assist in all things. The third time I pulled him out of behind boxes or that he tumbled boxes and books off the shelves along the slanted wall he was evicted. Not pleased, as it is the given right of cats to walk wherever they want. Ten minutes later, I was forgiven as the custodian of the bag of treats.

Any way, we picked up the daughter safely, transferred her and the cats to her house and it still left me enough time to make a serious dent in the disaster.

I can actually find the floor…..

Lou update

Posted on 2018-06-25 by Holly Doyne2018-06-28

I didn’t take any complicated handcraft to Madagascar. I wasn’t sure that cross-stitch or knitting a bus was an objective possibility. Then there is the issue of dust, stains and sudden stops which could involve a colored food or beverage item. It just seemed safe to focus on something with an extremely limited number of colors.

All of which explains why I hadn’t made a lot of progress on Lou in the last month. I pulled it back out after we returned home then couldn’t find the floss which I had carefully stored. A trip to JoAnn’s solved that problem which meant, of course, that a day later I was organizing in the bedroom and “noticed” the box sitting square in the middle of the dresser. The obvious box into which I had carefully placed floss, needles, scissors and chart. Go figure, right? But I can always use extra thread.

Any way, as of this evening, between stints of stitching and audiobook – I have come this far.

25 June 2018

Who knew?

Posted on 2018-05-16 by Holly Doyne2018-05-17

And before you think I am totally and completely out of it, please remember that I spent most of the years between 1981-2015 living outside the US. Outside of occasional brief stints, I have had no contact with US based primary/secondary school eduction with my children. In fact, other than my own experience as a student aged 17 and under, DoDDs schools provide my only window into US based schools. I have no experience with Parent/Teacher Associations or whatever the current nomenclature for what I remember as the PTA. Certainly I know nothing about them or their fundraising outside of what I have read in fiction.

For those reading this and living outside the US (Australia, New Zealand, Canada, UK for English speaking plus the salting of French and German speakers) I effectively am as naive about such organizations as you.

How was I to know that PTAs have added “evenings out at a family restaurant” to their fundraising repertoire? Carmen knew about such things and explained it to me, but I hadn’t a clue. It did explain why our chosen location for dinner – The Silver Diner was packed with children and their families. Kindergarten through Second as it seemed to be. According to our poor waitress, the group had made a reservation for “about 25” which turned out to be a gross underestimation.

How does this work? The group makes an arrangement for a time when the restaurant normally is not that busy and in return gets an amount per head or % of sales from the group. It obviously made the kids happy, there were cheerful youngsters everywhere excited about seeing their friends. Kids coloring, parents and grandparents looking poleaxed and the waitstaff dodging the waist high crew as they attempted to take orders and deliver meals.

The young lady in line behind us as we entered explained that she could see kids from her class and was ever so excited. When one of the kids informed her that her teacher was having diner, I thought she would wiggle out of her skin. With rare exception, the kids were actually well behaved. As a group, it was almost as diverse as the Bay Area without the breakdown along ethnic lines that is all too often seen in San Francisco.

The menu was great, featuring burgers and other US people friendly food in varieties from buffalo through salmon to vegetarian (I didn’t want to ask if they had a separate grill) with a pick list for adding additional condiments. Veggies were offered in lieu of fries. The water was cold and served with lemon. In other words, nice comfort food, it the place wasn’t so filled with cheer, kids and noise that you couldn’t carry on a normal conversation.

The location faintly reminded me of the 5 & Diner that Noah and I ate at once in Scottsdale. With a major exception – the Silver Diner chain does as much as they can to be part of the “farm to table” movement and locally source their comestibles whenever possible.

Lou is progressing – and other than that – it is raining. Again.

16 May 2018

The first page done

Posted on 2018-05-11 by Holly Doyne2018-05-16

I think it is turning out all right…

Lou

Posted on 2018-05-10 by Holly Doyne2018-05-10 3

I have been working on a new project for the last several days and finally inserted a page for it under the project Menu.

This was Lou

Lou was a good dog.

If you know dogs, there are some that are loved by their owners, but no one else would ever say that they were good.

Not so with Lou. He was a good dog. Sociable, traveled well, polite, friendly but not overwhelmingly so and lived for his job. His job being working all day with David. It is a hard job for a dog, keeping a contractor under proper supervision. The whole day may be traveling around in the truck and visiting job sites (we will not mention the occasional treat) and keeping one’s person properly supervised.

This was Lou’s role in life and he filled it admirably. But in April, not so young a dog anymore, he became ill. Multiple vet visits and treatments, it was obvious he wasn’t ever going to get better and was absolutely miserable.

Since there is snowballs chance in hell of David ever reading this, I feel safe in posting that I am making decent progress on a present for him. I don’t know that he wants a picture of Lou on his wall, but I think he just might need one.

Side order of cross-stitch

Posted on 2018-04-09 by Holly Doyne2018-04-19

I am more than capable of entertaining myself. In fact, I am probably old and cranky enough that I prefer my own company to that of strangers who don’t know when to stop talking.

And some of them talk, and talk and talk….

I neither arranged any needlework group or went to find if there was one. I have found that sitting quietly in the Concierge Lounge in the morning gives me access to as many Lattes as I am stupid enough to drink, a seat with decent light near one of the windows and the added benefit of having a 220v power point directly accessible.

Today I had the pleasure of a lovely and extremely funny Irish-Canadian lady. Patty lives near Toronto. Her journey from Ireland to attend Uni in Canada turned out to be pretty much a one way trip. (Not counting visits to relatives in Belfast on a regular basis). The kids are now grown, there are grandchildren and she has been dragging around a cross stitch of a Celtic Cross for a while needing only part of a border and a lot of backstitching.

We have agreed to encourage each other for the next few sea days and see what happens. I don’t mind that she is a tea drinker (kind of like my daughters) and she will ignore my coffee…….

Over the plate

Posted on 2018-03-12 by Holly Doyne2018-03-12

and not at the batter. The As batter hit by a pitch hopefully won’t have a serious hand injury. The Giants batter was hit in the butt. He was fine and later scored what turned out to be the winning run.

End score: 6:5 in favor of the SF Giants.

Otherwise, ran a few errands. Finished another small cross-stitch

And headed back to the East Bay tomortow

Tiling in the New Year

Posted on 2018-01-02 by Holly Doyne2018-01-02

The break is over. Today we have workman on the foundation downstairs.

getting ready to pour again

Yes the foundation is complete, but they are adding the steps/skirting at the entrances. We looked at ramps, and they can still be added in the future but at this point would take up so much ground space as to eliminate all the green outside the kids front door.

with dump truck out on the main road

At the same time, the large pile of slippery clay is being removed and tile is being laid in the downstairs. I think I mentioned that we put in radiant heat? The subfloor is finished and the gentlemen who did the tiling upstairs in the 2014 renovations are doing the downstairs. Their tile work is amazing.

Back to the floor. We are being simple, attractive and extremely easy to clean. The tiles when laid give you the appearance of a wooded plank floor without the upkeep or scratching that is going to occur with two rather good size dogs living in the place. Not quite drain in the floor – hose it down, but easy to sweep, mop or vacuum.

looking like aged wooden planks

meanwhile, today has been busy – Dani to work at 0500 and bailed out at 1230 – Alex dropped off at 1300, run to the lighting store for a fixture for the front entry and cabinet hardware. Dani had asked a reasonable question this morning – how am I going to get the drawers open. Answer? We need to by handles. Only took two stops – those at the first were lovely but extremely overpriced so we went to the main hardware store used by our contractor, found something just as nice and 1/2 the price (before builder’s discount.)

otherwise, I am cranking away on my version of Illumine knit from two alternating balls of Katia Infinity

up to row 78

Tenerife

Posted on 2017-12-11 by Holly Doyne2017-12-11 1

Another one of those places where I have been several times. It is a frequent stop on Trans-Atlantic Cruises of which I have been on several (well, more than several to tell you the truth). Depending on the cruise line and the ship – this route to south Florida is usually known as the Southern Route (as apposed to heading across from the Baltics and going via Iceland). Stops are normally in either the Canaries (as this ship) or the Azores – usually Ponte Del Gado.

Anyway. The last couple of times I have been here I just did the wander around or take the tram over to the other side of the island and away from most of the tourists. Unlike some of the other ports, right now we are the only ship docked. That makes the numbers of tourists not such a big impact on the town (unlike an Aida & Fred Olson ships also in port). I don’t think it is going to make any difference on the ships ability to get people back on board which has been drastically lacking in the last couple of ports.

(BTW – Stu reports that 17 in Roman Numerals can be anagrammed into something, which in Latin, comes out to be the equivalent of “my life is done/over/I am dead” etc. I think it means that someone, somewhere had way too much time on their hands and was into superstition rather than working for a living. So if you are Italian, you don’t want room 17, Deck 17 or probably train 17 or Flight 17. Me? I need to go and see if there is some number in Kabbalah which holds the same place in insanity)

My major stop today was El Corte Inglais where I bought a tape measure for Carmen and a seam ripper for me. It is not that I don’t have several at home. But they are at home, I am on ship and have a few stitches to un-pick in the current cross stitch. This is 22 count canvas and I really don’t want to either damage it with scissors.

Palma

Posted on 2017-12-05 by Holly Doyne2017-12-06 2

No, I didn’t bother to take the tour today. I figured it out. Instead I went for a short walk.

Well, not so short.

a lovely day for a walk

Instead of heading directly into town I went left to the old Navy port and where the Tui (Mein Schiff whatever) was docked. Turns out the old weapons are inside the current naval base, so no tour of those…). Then back to Port Pi (shopping center) and down Joan Miro all the way into town.

Would you believe that I found a yarn store? (duh you are probably thinking)

Katia yarn

You have to understand, I have drifted through Palma half a dozen times over the last six years and haven’t struck gold. This place was packed with yarn floor to ceiling. Also Anchor crochet cotton and a full range of embroidery floss. The lovely owner didn’t speak any English, my Spanish is close to non-existant. But I received help from a lovely English woman who has lived there for close to 50 years. She is originally from Camberley but moved to Palma when her mother remarried. She has extended family now in the area (sisters, stepsisters, daughter, granddaughter…) which is good since she has just started her second bout with chemo therapy, the last being a couple of years ago. She mentioned not having a lot of energy, obviously no hair and misses her eyelashes the most. Ruling out experimental therapy (and trips to Barcelona) she has decided that knitting would be better than crochet for now and is embarking on a sweater for the granddaughter.

We talked for a while, then each went our separate way. Me thinking that I have had it easy compared to her: chemo made me crabby and tired but not all that sick. I, hopefully have bought a few years before I have to make any more decisions. She is facing those decisions now: but more than two years with pancreatic cancer is quite amazing. Life is precious, but not at any cost.

From there I went on a hunt for hand lotion. No the ship doesn’t provide it. And a bit through the old city.

On the way back I walked through the start of a holiday market before braving what seems like the endless pier to get back to the ship…

MSC Seaside

all told I probably put in about 30k worth of steps (according to a fellow passenger who recorded over 15k walking just one way….

Three sheets to the

Posted on 2017-08-20 by Holly Doyne2017-08-29

canvas. See! You were looking for the word “wind” even tho you know with absolute certainty that I don’t drink alcohol. I was going to say “drink” but that would be a stupid declaration since everyone drinks something – whether it is coffee, tea, soda, milk, water or one of the thousands of other choices found across this globe.

Rather, I was referring to the 12 pages of cross stitch (hey, I might yet do a filk off the traditional “12 Days of Christmas” if those Christians among you could avoid being insulted… If you do have a sense of humor – I would advise going to BandCamp and looking up PDX Broadsides who have authored and recorded an alternate and thought provoking Christmas Carol annually for the last several. “Santa has a Tardis” is just plain fun while “Sorry, Wrong Star” is quite pointed.

Where was I? On finishing up a third sheet of cross stitch. This particular project has, as I mentioned above – 12 total pages. Of those sheets – 3 cover a full page and the other 9 are partial pages, some much fuller than others. This is occurring because this particular design has an irregular edge rather than the normal squared off corners. A full page is 5 x 7.5 squares, each square is 10×10 stitches. The odd pages range from the smallest of 2×3 to the largest of 5×4. The overall design is four pages wide and three tall. The cross stitch itself is going to be a present which is why you haven’t seen any photos of it (which I will post after the relevant birthday.

Did I mention that I forgot two of the critical floss colors resulting in one of the pages appearing as if it has a bad case of the measles given all the empty spaces?

We are at sea today in case you hadn’t guessed.

Akureyri

Posted on 2017-08-19 by Holly Doyne2017-08-19

Somewhere between our cabin and the gangway I managed to misplace George. Thinking he was right behind me, I had grabbed my bag and camera. I even remembered to take my room key. Once on the pier, I realized that he was nowhere to be seen. Since his phone went straight to voice mail….. amazing how dependent all of us have become on our electronics.

Ah, well. I didnt think he was all that thrilled about my planned hunt for knitting needles.

My first choice – Flora – was closed for the week. Fold-Anna didn’t have hours posted and was closed at 1030. So I did what any self-respecting local would do. I went to the main shopping center. Located less than a km from the pedestrian zone it was easy to find. Just take the sidewalk past the Rathuis, continue past the soccer fields then make a left into a good size parking lot.

Nice normal shops and not a souvenirr or other cheesy thing in sight. Nettó was a treasure trove of goodies. Not just snack foods, but good food and produce, school supplies and a whole wall of yarn as well as knitting needles. The priced turned out to be lower than those at the shop in town with great choices.

I obviously spent time wandering around town. There are a lot of galleries; there are murals and bits of whimsy tucked here and there. Again, photos will be addef when I am not trying to post from my phone.

In front of the Art Museum

SeaDay 2

Posted on 2017-08-17 by Holly Doyne2017-08-18

And now there are only 8 hours of time zone change since we are headed to Iceland (GMT-1) today and another hour of fall back tomorrow.

I have now recovered, maybe, enough to discuss the flight, followed by a flight, another flight, a hotel overnight, a tram, a taxi and a five hour wait to board the ship.

On second thought, not. It could have been much worse like that experienced by friends returning to the US through CDG. Shall we leave it at – late plane, immigration, running through the airport, getting to the gate only to be refused boarding because their seats had been given away? And, just to increase the pain, since most of the delays were due to CDG and not the plane’s lateness, they were refused compensation.

Any who – I am hanging out in the lounge and relaxing. George is hitting the gym and going to lectures. I am thinking about taking a nap and watching my hair grow…

Thread

Posted on 2017-07-18 by Holly Doyne2017-07-23 2

Isacord – 40w poly. 423 colors

Let me take you back in history: a long, long time ago when I lived in Germany I bought a Pffaf sewing machine and brought it back with me the first time I lived in the DC area circa 1984. Carmen and her husband picked us up at the airport (me, Shana, a ton of luggage which included the sewing machine) and dropped us off at our new but empty house in Kensington. There was a small embroidery attachment and I had great dreams about “doing stuff.”

Over the years I added machines which included increased machine embroidery capability but never quite got the hang of it. I did accumulate a bit of thread (Sulky, Isacord, Maderia, plus a couple of other brands) which meant that I never quite had the colors or combinations that I needed and continued to add thread one spool at a time.

This past Dec I had to change sewing machine manufactures. Pfaff is no longer made in Germany but China and all the attachments weren’t going to fit anymore. I bought a Viking (which is European made) and went for the relatively high end. It can do all sorts of things including embroider. I had a variety of stabilizers, I had the software. What I didn’t have was a thread set. When I did this for Alex

On the back of a jacket

I had to pull from five different thread lines to come up with the colors. It is not that it wasn’t appreciated –

the kids, the dog, the jacket

But I really wanted to avoid the hunt and color substitution agony that was involved.

Poly is not quite as shiny as rayon, but it is very washable and color fast which is why I bought what I did. I sorted through and found I already had about 20 colors. Even so, buying the set saved a chunk over individual spools, especially since the storage boxes were included.

FYI – Casilla managed to lose a winning game in the 9th by giving up two runs to Tampa Bay

It isn’t so much that

Posted on 2017-07-01 by Holly Doyne2017-07-01

the As keep trying to lose. It is more a matter of fouling up a good thing. For example, an error by the shortstop in the first inning turned a routine out into a two base grab. Said runner later scored. And then there were the 2-3 innings including one with bases loaded that the As at bat managed to strike out, pop out or land themselves in a a double play instead of scoring a go ahead run.

Go figure – I can’t.

Meanwhile I am still playing with machine embroidery, working on a cross stitch and just finished Graphic Audio’s Mike Oberon – Hallow Point.

No crash today

Posted on 2017-06-11 by Holly Doyne2017-06-12

And the house is almost ringing with silence. I say almost because the dogs seemed to be honorbound to make up the difference in decibels with their barking.

I stood it for a while, then gave up. End result is that I took my audio book upstairs and hid out for most of the day.

Progress was made on the fractal