Another Ta Dah, Finished Project, Roses and Books Oh My

 

Falling Leaves is drying after being laundered.  This was the easiest project so far this year, as these were all crocheted squares (no knit squares), and while all are not granny style squares they were fairly close to the same size, so that required a bit less work on my part.  This ghan is a bit more narrow than I like, but working with the squares that I had this was the way to make the pattern of squares work.  It's unusual for me to have so many similar squares to work with.  My daughter and hubby like symmetrical things and so they liked this one..........me, I've gotten used to working with some of this and  that and sorta prefer the less symmetrical designs.  Either way, it will keep someone warm.  All the afghans I put together from pieces parts are donated to Homeless Shelters.

The before picture, though turned the other direction.  This ghan didn't change much as I worked on it.  Forgot to mention above picture it's edged with really dark green, though it may look black in the picture.

This one is the next project, though after looking at it awhile, I moved a few squares since this picture.  This will probably be the most tedious of the ghans so far this year, as the squares are really different sizes, some are squares, and some are rectangles and some are knitted.  I'm not sure I have enough of one color to do the edging and sizing for this, so may do a bit of a design/pattern with edging in order to use multiple colors....we'll see how it goes.  Current plan is to edge the middle row both horizontally and vertically in brown and do the 4 corners in the dark green, lighter green, and or blue left over from the previous ghans.  Trying hard to use my stash and not buy more, particularly after the work my daughter and I did over Christmas to sort and roll and donate 41.5 pounds of yarn.  Buying would add to the stash and that's not the goal.  Soooo, we'll see how this goes.

More gorgeous roses.  These white roses are tipped in pink and are so pretty.  Hubby brought this home yesterday.  I missed taking a picture of the last roses he brought home that were purplish.  

Post World War II, Paris and it's people are trying to rebuild.  Families are separated, missing and or dead and somehow life must go on.  The captivating story of two strong women from the same family generations apart finding a future with the commonality of a small neighborhood bakery.  A most enjoyable book.

Set in 1916, an intriguing story with a World War I nurse.  She finds herself in the middle of deadly secrets as she carries a personal message from a fallen solder to his family.  Lots of surprises in this book.  I'm not typically a mystery book lover, but found this book hard to put down.  I also didn't know befpre reading/listening to it , that it is  book #1 in a series, so now I need to find the listing of how many books are in the series and get them on my list.

I've read/listened to a good number of Kelly Rimmer's books and always enjoy them, and this was no different.   Though set in 1970/current day we're transported back to the cold war, double agents, injuries and danger.  Family loyalty vs patriotic duty with some very tuff decisions to make.  

Starts and Finsihes, Irish Afghan, Always Audiobooks, and The Bathroom Project

 

Quite some time ago I designed this afghan along with many others.  People used to send me pieces parts and I would design and join the pieces parts to make warm afghans.  I always named them, and called this one Wee Bit Irish.  As you can see the pieces parts vary is style and size, and color.  Most are crocheted, but a few are knitted.  I've made over 70 of these throughout the last 14 ish years.  Once I need new projects to work on, I get the bagged designs out and find appropriate color yarn to edge and join them.

 Founds some light green/mintish in my stash.  Though in this picture (apparently a brighter day) the pieces parts look less green.  I bagged it up to take on the road as one of my winter away projects.

Step 3, I've begun edging the pieces/squares.  I begin with the largest squares and edge, then know the other squares have to become the same size.  Thus far, I've edged about 9-10 of the 25 pieces.  I think it's looking less Irish and more minty...how about you?  Think I'm going to change the name to Minty Irish.  Any thoughts?  Once these afghans are completed I donate them to a local homeless shelter.

This knitted teal and gray scarf was a car project.  I started it in the car when hubby and I were going to Williamsburg this past summer and finished it in the car on our way to our winter quarters.  It might get donated also, as I don't think I'm in need of another scarf.

A fun, but perhaps a bit bizarre book about coming of age, dealing with grief, learning about responsibilities and what is real love?  I say a bit bizarre because a daughter on a summer vacation seems to meet her mother....time travel.  I don't know.  Not really a believable book, and not my normal type of reading; but I did truly enjoy the book, gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.  I also enjoyed it because I've traveled to Italy and would like to go back.

A weird/sad version of Ground HOg Day.  I can't say I enjoyed the book, only gave it one star; but I also couldn't stop reading it...as I kept thinking things would be made right and I wanted things to be resolved.  It got much higher marks on Goodreads from others, so you might enjoy it?  If you read it, let me know what you think....I'm curious.

More my normal type of book.  Takes place during World War II in London in 1938.  The coming together of people taking care of each other, learning to love and trust during difficult times.....even for a German refugee.  Highly recommend this one.

More of a fluff book than I often read/listen to; but I LOVED it.  A fire, a chambermaid, love lost, mystery, a ghost, money, love, lust, and......well, a bit of everything.  Put it on your list and have fun!

A bathroom project.  We have a small bathroom, very much in need of being redone.  Removing the old heavy tub and putting in a shower is only part of the work that needs doing.  The tiles you see here are from the front of the picture back the flooring, the tile in the shower, and the small design for accent.  It's a bit hard to see in the picture, but the tiles are mostly white with a bit of gray.  The walls will be gray, the new vanity and commode etc will be white.  A long awaited project.  It's hard to remodel your bathroom when you only have ONE!

Still blogging about my 14 day tour of The UK

Projects, Books, and Exercise

 

The picture doesn't show much of the blue section, but it's more than it looks.  However, it's slow going and I've not worked on it in a couple of weeks.  Needed a break from it.  Not sure when I'll get it out of the project bag to knit more.

You might remember I started this in the car on my way to Hilton Head and had about half the gray section completed.  The remaining gray and heather you see was completed in the car on the return trip.  Like the afghan above, this has been put aside.  It's odd, quite unusual, I've not knitted in a couple of weeks.  Just been occupied with other things.

Been awhile since I've been here blogging as well.  Life sometimes gets in the way.

Not good.  Never got around to blogging about March.  Walks sick a week so did nothing during that week.

Walked 8 times 99.13 miles (down from Feb), took 3 bike rides  (also down from Feb), Yoga 2 which was up over Feb, Planks 9 (which is the same as Feb...except I increased my time mid month from 4 x 45 to 4 x 50 seconds and 13 second rest to 14.

I hadn't added the stats on my exercise page (see tab above), as I forgot to take Dec stats with me, so today added Dec, Jan, Feb, March, and April to my page.

April had some travel which also decreased stats (sigh).  Planks were down to 7, but still doing the higher time of 4 x 50, I also did one day of side planks at 20 seconds x 2 with 5 second rest.  I added High steps which I did 6 times during the last week a count of 60.  I didn't manage any yoga during the month.  Walking was normal day to day stuff, plus mowed the yard 3 times for a total of 97.28 miles, sligtly down from March.  After my travels returned home to day after day of rain and cold weather.  Hoping May will be a better month....I keep trying.

Another book about WWII.  This is based on a  true story and absolutely fascinating.  The book was a NY best seller.  A woman who's a book worm, mother, worked in a library becomes known as "Lady Death".  She mets Eleanor Rosevelt.  Timely I think to read now, as it deals with Ukraine being invaded by Nazi's.

Another book by the same author, Kate Quinn focuses on the important role women played in England during The War.  Also a best seller.    I highly recommend both books.

Several of you leave comments and choise anonymous rather than name and url, and then type the name of your blog in your comment; but when you do that, it is not a live link.  So thought I would post this note to show you how to make a live link if for some reason you don't use name and url.  When you use name and url, you simply type your name, and cut and paste the url from your blog post.  When bloggers don't have that option available you can do as above in the text of your comment so people can click on it and go right to your blog.  Hope this helps.  When you use anonymous it takes me or others several additional steps to return the favor of a blog comment.

Will get busy and visit you all so I can catch up.

Knitting, Eating, Reading Continue

 

Blue Ripple, I think is what I'll call this afghan.  I've made good progress since the last picture.  The variegated blue yarn section is a large section, as I have a lot of that yarn...though I don't like working with it, as it's course and hard on the hands.  I hope it softens up when laundered.  The section after the variegated is navy blue, which has not yet been used.  I started with the variegated, then used light blue, then a medium blue, and then the large variegated section, followed by the navy.  Then I think probably back to the variegated...we'll see how the amounts of the yarn work out.

We had another dinner party for 6.  We had pesto butschetta topped with diced tomatoes to go with our cocktails, broccoli, and heirloom potatoes seasoned with garlic and olive oil.

And Chicken Marsala.  

Cocktails were Classic Manhattans.

The Book of Lost Names.........Nominated as Best Historical Fiction in 2020.  I LOVED this book.  Nazi's tried hard to destroy many cultures, art, books, and libraries.  They really wanted nothing none German to survive World War II.  A  secret code, and the hard work of forgers giving people new identies as they escaped The Nazi's makes for book hard to put down.

While we all know about Helen Keller's blindness, and how she overcame the difficulties, I did not know how many other things she excelled in.  This autobiography was quite an eye opener for me.

tuesdays with Morrie, is at times uplifting and at times hard to read/listen to.  This memoir written by Mitch Albom deals with life and death and unusual friendship between Mitch and his Sociology Professor.  It also shows how impactful teaching can be.  Highly recommend this book.

Exercise will be down this month, as I had a nasty gastrointestinal bug for too many days, and we had more rain and more wind thus far this month.  We'll just have to see how the month's stats shake out.  Thank you all for your encouragement, it's always appreciated.  I really wanted this month to be gang busters, but it will not be.

Yarn and More. You Can't Knit While Walking, or Biking or Planking

 Square Garden is complete.  It's laying out to dry/block.  I named this one square garden because with all the brown, and beige it reminded me of the ground this time of the year, with patches of green grass around it.  There's a name for this type of pattern where the squares are diagonal, but I don't remember what it is.  And since the squares aren't really the same, but similar it might not qualify to be called that, even if I could remember what it is, lol.

Here it is before edging and joining.  Very bland here I think.  I think the green brighten it up and made the colors pop.  Though some the difference you see colorwise is no doubt due to different lighting when the pictures were taken.

I'm done with the pieces parts afghans for now, as I only brought the 3 projects with me while we winter away.  This knitted ripple afghan is a long term project.  I can't work on this at night due to the darker colors, and it's not one I can knit while watching tv else my counting would be off...so this project bag has been put away for some time and I thought it would be good to bring with me to work on some before tucking it away again.  It's also yarn that's rather hard on my hands, so I don't work on this for long periods of time.  Who knows how long it will take to complete this one.

More beautiful roses.  These have been fun to watch day to day. They looked almost white with a slight green edge when they were buds, then as they started opening up you could see they were light pink.

Cocktail napkins (you know I have a thing about them), lined up for a dinner party of 6.  Everyone enjoys seeing what napkins I'll have when they come for cocktails before dinner.

The menu that night was beautiful asparagus, lightly oiled and seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper.  They're ready to pop in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Salad was spring mix, bacon bits, onions, strawberries, and shaved almonds with a light vingerette dressing.

One of my specialities is mac n cheese.  Though this is not mac n cheese to most people.  They call is my special cheese casserole.  I use 4 or 5 types of cheese (depending on what I have), and imported Italian pasta cooked aldente.  Layered, add milk and butter.  Cheeses this night were: Parmesean, sharp cheedar, romano, cottage cheese.  Mac n Cheese isn't perhaps a normal dish prepared for company, but it's often requested, as it was for this dinner.

Stuffed mushrooms served during cocktails.  Mushrooms are stuffed with parm. cheese, tomatoes, baconbits, and chopped spinach.

February stats:  Biking up from 4 rides in January to 6 rides in February, planks down from 11 in January to 9 in February, walks up from 8 in January to 12 in February.  Mileage down from 116.89 miles in January to 109.33 in February.  All in all not bad, given February is a shorter month than January, I'm feeling encouraged.  AND towards the end of the month on Feb 27th I upped the time on my planks from 45 seconds x 4 with a 13 second rest to 50 seconds x 4 and a 14 second rest.

A short read/listen , but cute letter from President Obama to his girls.  Light hearted and sweet.

Present Day in Oxford where secrets of the past during WWII come to light.  American Kendra interviews Isabel and the past unfolds.  The lives of two sisters separated in War grow up and experience two very different lives.

Coffee Latte Afghan, The Election

 

Coffee Latte has come out of the project bag again for awhile.  It was quite skinny when last I worked on it and showed you a photo.  It's about 3 x as deep now.  It still is going to take some time I think.

Close up so you can the color better, not solid brown.  Got a curling edge problem.  Should have done several rows of garter before starting the pattern.  So, picked up stitches  and knitting 3 rows but it's still curling.  Pulled out the picked up stitches and will probably crochet an edge when all done, that and blocking hopefully will take care of the problem.  Other thought, will it matter if I pick up stitches on the back side to start instead of the front side which is what I did and you can clearly see the fold?  Thoughts??

Ern and I when we voted early.  The line was pretty long, well beyond and behind the building and doubled up.  Took about an hour and 15 minutes, but the weather wasn't too bad, another advantage of voting early.

After voting we celebrated with a little bubbly in our back yard.

Our neighborhood had only Biden signs, which was nice.  I was happy I didn't have to see lots of the orange ones signs.  Though there were some as I did my daily walks.

Two recent books I've listened to as I walk.  LOVED Little Fires Everywhere, but hated how it ended.  Anyone read or listened to it?

This book along with Bolton's, and A Warning by Anonymous which later we learned was Miles Taylor all point to how completely dysfunctional this man is and how unfit he has been since day 1.  Counting the days til we can throw him out of our house.  So frustrated he won't permit the traditional transition.  It's dangerous on several levels, certainly the national security is at stake and no doubt more people will die from Covid without a smooth and coordinated effort between the outgoing administration and the incoming administration.  He obviously doesn't even care that he's putting even his own followers at risk.  Sadly, they don't seem to understand it either.