Dangerous Times, Afghans Completed

 

Before

And After.  30 squares in this afghan, some knitted but most are crocheted.  In the before you can see how the sizes varied; but thankfully I had a rather large skein of the blue shown in the first picture to size the squares.  Only had a very small ball of yarn left...just made it...whew.  I titled this one Blue Eyes.  It's been laundered and is here drying/being blocked.  This is my 4th ghan made while we're wintering in SC.

Despite the bigoted jerk in The White House move of telling google etc to remove Black History Month, Pride Month, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jewish Heritage Month, Hispanic Heritage, and Indigenous People's Month from the calendars, This is Black History Month.  If you haven't yet done so, please add it to your calendars, post it to your various social media pages.  AND next add Jewish Heritage Month to your May calendars.

Given we've recently seen Musk, and Steve Bannon give The Nazi Salute in public to applause,  I want to ask everyone to read/listen to this book.  We are facing very serious and scary times.  I know some people say they can't read about WWII or Hitler because it's too close to what's happening right now....I say that's why you must read it.  We had German American Bund Groups here in the US at the height of Hitler coming to power.  I knew Henry Ford and Charles Lindberg were pro-Nazi and anti American Government; but had no idea we had active children's groups.  There were 40 local branches of Nazi Youth Groups here in the US.  There were Nazi Summer Camps, primarily in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania; but the groups spread to Illinois, Wisconsin and California as well.  This book gives you such background about how prevalent White Supremacists were,  and how Pro Nazi groups came to power.  PLEASE read this book and tell others to do so as well.

A  picture from one of the Nazi summer camps...uniforms and swastika's.  And look how young some of these children were as they were being brain washed.

This picture has been posted before, but I thought it worth a repeat.  This Neo Nazi group marched in a neighborhood not far from my home just a few months ago.  The KKK is still alive and well, as are many other groups (The Oath Keepers, 2 percenters,  The Proud Boys) etc.  

There may be some confusion over what the child did or didn't say to THE FELON, but there's no confusion over how hideous this was that someone not elected, not vetted, someone without security clearance is doing a presser from The Oval office, as he looms over the convicted criminal.  I don't often say alot about politics on this blog, but........I'm not able not to today.

While this book isn't about WWII, it's about The Vietnam War; I found it also very pertinent to our time.  As minority groups are losing protections, this books paints a very true story of how horribly women were treated by their friends, their families, their government, their Veterans Association; and the general public.  YES, there were woman in Vietnam, and they suffered.  Nurses were on the front lines and experienced horrific first hand atrocities.  They, like the soldiers had a hard time trying to adjust to post war life in the US.  I've read several of Kristin Hannah's books, this might be one of her best.

Knitted and crocheting and exercising helps me not totally focus on all the horrific things happening, not just here in the US; but globally as well.

More Projects and Books

 

Titled this one Down in the Valley.  These strips were donated with the intent they would be scarves, but they're all to small to be scarves.  I've mixed them up in way to make an afghan.  The strips are different lengths and widths.

Using yarn I had in my stash, I had enough blue to edge for size and join and make a wide border.  It measures 55 x 40 inches, so not a bad size in the end.  I ended up not using 3 of the strips because it would have been long and narrow.  I'll see if I can incorporate the 3 strips not used in another project.

A recent vase of flowers along with a nice cocktail (and in the background you can see Crayons when it was laid out to dry.  That's 2 afghans back.  

The Paper Plane Cocktail is very pretty and refreshing.  Generally you use equal parts of Bourbon, Aperol, Amaro Nonino, and Lemon Juice.  I like to use just half the amount of Lemon Juice, as I think it over powers the over flavors.  Garnish with a dehydrated slice of orange.  When I don't have dehydrated orange slices I use a fresh slice.

A true story from WWII.  The Americans were far outnumbered, the weather was against them, had been for 4 months with rain that slowed the march to Berlin.  In December of 1944 Patton summoned the Chaplain and asked for a prayer for the weather.  He got one, had it distributed to 250,000 men.  Then came the Battle of the Bulge, heavy fog as the enemy converged at Bastogne.  Will he get the miracle he and the troops prayed for in time?

Judy Blume, a woman ahead of her time knew how to relate to young teens with questions about their bodies, about growing up and more.  She talked about things that parents didn't want to talk to their children about.  She changed the way many of us grew up........until censorship of her honesty put her on the most banned booked list.  She pushed boundaries the far right didn't want pushed, she promoted equality for women.  A fascinating book.  I personally didn't realize the backlash she experienced for years.  And now with books being banned once again by the far right, as a means of controlling what people learn; this book seems quite timely.

The next 3 books in the Bess Crawford Series:

A Hanging at Dawn, full of suspense and mystery about Simon Brandon's past, why is he in jail?  Will help arrive before dawn downs?

An Irish Hostage, The war is over but; is it peaceful?  Many Irish still hate the Brits and mistrust those who fought with her.  Mystery, and hate erupt in a small village; are the Irish who fought with the Brits really their enemy?

The Cliffs Edge.  In the aftermath of WWI, people are trying to heal, trying to overcome food shortages that still exist.  People are angry, mistrust pits family against family.  Using her nursing skills, Bess aids a family friend until she's needed more urgently elsewhere.  Injury, death, fighting within pulls a town apart with her in the middle of it all.

In January I managed 266,463 steps for the month, an average of 8,595 per day with my best day being just over 14,000.  I did not get back into Yoga as I planned.  I did about 10 days of leg lifts twice a day (forgot to record some days, thus the estimate).  I was able to increase my planks from 30 seconds x 3 to 35 seconds x 3, and then 35 seconds x 4.  I did planks 16 days in January.  Will try to increase things during February.

Projects, Finishes and Work in Progress...and!

 

Bright Jewel was designed some time back and has been in a project bag waiting it's turn to be be worked on.

Here it is in the works.  These squares are more unform then many I work with, so sizing/edging these is going quickly; as you can see.  The white space is where the last square was being worked on.  Stay tuned.  I wasn't sure how large this would be with less edging then I sometimes use, but also wasn't sure how much lavender I had to do the edging, so kept it limited.  The plan was to finish them all in terms of sizing and limited edging, then see how much yarn I had to determine whether or not to edge more.

This was the original design of Crayon, but I needed 5 squares from this design to help complete an additional afghan.

Here it is sized and edged (same picture as previous post), and tied ready to stitch together.

Here it is completed.  It's been laundered and is drying.

And now, Bright Jewels is drying/being blocked.  I started this post a day or so ago, and in the meantime was able to complete this ghan.  Very happy with how it turned out.  Instead of adding more edging to each square, as I was anticipated doing,  I added multiple rows in the border and then a scalloped edge.  Click the picture to enlarge it to see the scalloped edge.  As always all the afghans will be donated to a family shelter.

Pastel Tulips has grown from 7 inches in the last picture to 10 inches here.  I work on this in-between the other afghan progjects.

Books 10, 11, and 12 in the series.  "A Casualty of War", the war is close to over; but the aid stations are still over run with badly injuried men.  One of Bess's patients thinks his cousin tried to kill him...Bess is put in harms way as she tries to unravel the mystery.  He says he's not crazy, but Bess maybe the only one who believes him.

"A Forgotten Place", The Armistice has been signed, but not the Peace Treaty; so injuries and death are still happening.  Bess tried to aid an Welsh amputee patient by going to a small Welsh mining town where mysterious murders are taking place; and she's smack dab in the middle of it.

"A Cruel Deception, people gather in Paris to try and hammer out the Peace Treaty, but Bess is sent on a secret and highly personal mission that puts her in harms way with a dangerous murderer/drug addict.

• Exercising is coming along, not great but better than last month so that's a plus.
• Can't believe we had snow here in South Carolina, geesh we left Ohio for the winter to escape the cold and snow.  Things were closed down for several days, and it took a whole week for the golf courses to open again.
• We've enjoyed meeting up with a good number of people from other years, have had social gatherings, and gone out to dinner.  So, having a good time despite the colder than normal weather that everyone seems to be experiencing.

Gearing up with Projects Galore, 2025 Has Arrived

 

The color on this ghan is a bit off.  I brightened the picture as it was a dark gloomy day and there just wasn't enough light to get a good picture.  The squares are sized, edged and tied together.  I just need to crochet it all together.  Should get it finished in a day or two.  Calling this one Crayons.  The teal looking squares in the picture are actually Kelly Green

This ghan is knitted, the yarn is called Pastel Tulips, so I guess I'll use that name for it.  It's hard to see the colors in this yarn, believe the colors will show up better as the afghan grows.  It's currently 7 inches in depth and I've used 5 or 6 of these little skeins.  Doing the math, I hope I have enough to make this a square afghan.  It's super bulky yarn so it quite solid in it's feel.  I'm using a size 10 needle, probably could have gone with a size or two higher; but went with what I had on hand, as I was beginning to pack for our winter away.  Started this in the car so I would have a small project that suited car travel.  I plan to work on it in between working on assembling the afghans (pieces parts) I brought for the duration.  Both ghans will be donated to Homeless Families Shelter.

This is book #6 in The Bess Crawford Series.  Home on leave, Bess is asked to accompany a solider to Buckingham Palace to assist in his care in the wheelchair.  Is he faking his injury?  Has he simply vanished, or was he kidnapped.

Book #7 isn't available as an audio book, and it's quite small.  I didn't see it listed until I was several books beyond this point.  The Maharanr's Pearls.  In retrospect, it didn't seem like I missed anything, as there are references enough in each of her books to things that happened before in the series.

This is book #8.  Visiting a family friend Bess is met with open hostility, but why?  100 men were killed in a mill explosion years before, but why now are people being blamed?  Pitting neighbors against each other, a man is arrested......but is it the right man?

Book #9 A  badly wounded solider is found wearing such a tattered uniform no one can tell if he's English, French, or German.  He doesn't speak, but one night making her rounds, he screams out in a dream.  Bess thinks it sounds like he's speaking German.  But, how will they find out who this solider is?

If you're my age, you well remember this horrific day in Ohio.  And depending on your political views at the time there are several views about what happened that fateful day.  AND remember news wasn't 24 x 7 back then; nor were there as many options for getting your news.  To this day, I still get cold chills and will NEVER be able to forgive Governor Rhodes for sending armed guards to the University.  I've often wondered if the person who fired the first shot ever admitted to himself that he did it.  Did those around him know who fired the first shot and never came clean?  Did they band together to cover it up, like so often happens today with good cops covering for bad cops?  May 4, 1970, I was just out of high school, now as a 70+ adult, I found this an important read.  I had friends, and classmates that attended Kent State.  

• I hope everyone had a good holiday season.  Our daughter was able to come home for both Thanksgiving and Christmas, so we had good visits.  There were large family gatherings for both occasions.  Including a visit from family living in Paris.
• I was so saddened with President Jimmy Carter's passing.  What a true servant of the people he was.  I believe history will remember him for a long time to come as a good, kind and decent man who accomplished a lot.
• I'm dreading beyond words to express, how I loath the fact that it's almost time for a convicted criminal to take the oath of office.  How far we've come from Jimmy Carter to the orange nightmare.  I will NOT be watching the Inaugural.  I believe this will be remembered as a very dark day in the history of our nation.

Go Buckeyes beat Notre Dame!  This was our set up for one of the cold tailgates awhile back.  Inside our partial enclosure is a propane heater.  The last couple of games in the playoffs have been fun to watch, as well as bit nerve racking.  National Championship Playoffs...one game to go.

• I've restarted doing planks, wow really starting over after too long.  I started with 30 seconds x 3 repeats with 6 seconds between, and have in recent days been able to up it to 30 seconds x 4 repeats, but I did increase the rest period between to 12 seconds.
• I'm back to doing my leg lifts 50 x 2, and hope to raise that to 3 repeats in a few more days.
• I have planned to get back into walking, but frankly the weather has been an issue.  Even though we left Ohio for the winter, this cold snap across the country has hit SC.  Hoping that passes soon

KKK, Neo Nazi, Tweedy Afghan is Finished, Bess Crawford Series

 

Tweedy is done, finally.  This was one of the more difficult ghans to put together.  The squares and rectangles were so different in size, and I had to take apart and remake 3 or 4 squares because they just wouldn't fit.  I thought I had enough of the tweedy (see tan ish edge) to size and join; but didn't.  I had 3 skeins and by the time I had worked on 7 of the 25 squares I was out of skein one and knew the remaining 2 wouldn't be enough, as I had smaller squares left which would take more yarn to properly size.  Soooooooo, I found more black and and added some of mint green to help size the squares, then joined in black.  I think it ended up far more colorful then before introducing other colors.

Here's a reminder before sizing and adding black and mint green.

In my previous post, I posted a picture of Neo-Nazi parading through a neighborhood 15 ish minutes from my home.  It was sickening.  This book read by the author in the audio version must be moved to the top of everyone's to read list.  This is not pretend or make believe; but very very real and beyond scary.  This is a warning of what The KKK, The 3 Percenters, The Proud Boys, and the Oath Keepers and their ilk want to turn our country into.  This has long been the plan, and they were able to escalate under the first trumpie dump administration.  To say he has given them a green light would be a HUGE understatement.  In this up coming scary 2nd administration the guard rails in place with some real Republicans are gone.  What is planned with only his MAGA cult loyalist around him is beyond disturbing.  PLEASE read this book and tell all you know about it.  Joe Moore infiltrated the KKK not once, but twice.  This whole book is first hand knowledge and experiences.

Book #4 in the Bess Crawford series.  She's a Nursing Sister In WWI.  She saves lives and solves mysteries.  The audio version is read by a lady with a marvelous British Accent, the books truly come alive.

Book #5, The War is technical over, but maybe not for many of the soldiers trying to adjust to the aftermath of the War.  Bess deals withtheir injuries; and the people wanting to kill them.

A Canadian friend sent me this, thought I'd share it.  Our allies are indeed concerned for us.

In light of the election and the dread many of us see coming, it's important to share beauty, thus the pretty roses Dear Hubby got me.  I LOVE the color.

It's About Time for Another Finish! Exercise, Birthday, Afghans. OH NO Neo-Nazi's

 

Pink Petals is finally completed!  I say finally, because it took longer than normal.  I had it edged and tied together before we left for Sicily.  Then on return it was several weeks before I could begin working on it again.  Fall clean up in the yard needed my full attention.  It's here drying/blocking after it was laundered.  The light pink did tone down the super bright pink, and it's edged with one single row of light gray.

Here's the before.

Next up is Tweedy?  Anyone have other thoughts on a name for this one?

The variegated squares and rectangles made me think of tweedy.  And the beige yarn I'll be sizing them with looks sorta tweedy to me..  To liven it up a bit, I'm planning on crocheting it together with black.  I think the contrast will be helpful..  I might try to do a single crochet edge around them in black for a wider black border before joining....if I have enough black yarn.  We'll see how that goes.

Hubby bought these happy yellow roses for me for my BD which was just 2 days ago.  They're just starting to open up.  I love yellow and think they're beautiful.

One of my blog friends indicated she had reached her yearly goal mileage wise and was pretty excited by it.  She got me wondering what my yearly miles had been.  I've always looked at daily and monthly steps and miles; but never looked at yearly stats.  I started walking for fitness, and to relieve the swelling in my knees caused by arthritis back in 2014, when I bought my first of many Fitbits.  So in these 11 years my lowest miles is 1.106.07 for the current year (2024), averaging 3.46 miles per day.  My highest was back in 2016 with 2,050.8 miles for an average of 5.6. miles.  My total mileage for these 11 years is 16,178.86 which averages out to 1,470.86.  So, it looks like I'm fairly consistent; but am behind yet for this year on a average.  With bad weather upon us, and holidays closing in I'm not sure I'll be able to get up to my average; but hopefully I can get closer.

Set in WWII, but not Europe  A Malayan housewife becomes a spy, hides her daughter to keep her from being forced into service during the Japanese occupation at the "comfort stations".  She knows it's  her fault that her family is now in danger, but can she fix things?  A part of the war less known to most of us.  Japanese were terribly brutal, it wasn't just the Nazi that were horrible.

A while back I started another series.  Book #1 I already blogged about, "A Duty to the Dead".  Charles Todd has written The Bess Crawford Series.  She's a nurse in WWI.  Sometimes in France, sometimes in England; and sometimes at the front at a forward station.  Book 2 takes place in England, involving The Scotland Yard, a soldier burned beyond recognition.----but what's his wife up to?  I sorta liken Bess Crawford to an adult Nancy Drew; but she's so much more, given she does her sleuthing during a terrible war.

#3 A Bitter Truth is full of intrigue.  Bess trying to help a troubled woman and ends up accused of murder herself!

I'm enjoying this series immensely and highly recommend them.  They're both entertaining and educational with regards to learning about the conditions in WWI, and how difficult the nurses training was.  Nurses are referred to as Nursing Sisters and are highly regarded..

A Canadian friend of mine sent me this meme a few days before the election to try and bolster my spirits.  The day after the election, she texted me with sincere condolences.  I'm trying hard not to let it consume me; but I fear it's going to be a very ugly time in the history of our nation.

These Masked Neo Nazi's carrying Swastika's marched through a neighborhood about 15-20 minutes from my home just 2 days ago.  This has been happening quite a bit leading up to the election; and now with a green light of White Supremacy, from trump and his MAGA cult, I fear we will be witnesses an increase in this type of behavior.  They insulted all people they passed of color, yelled profanities about Jewish people and scared all who were unfortunate to witness this disgusting behavior.  There were no arrest made.  It seems to me, questions as to whether or not they had a permit to assemble should be answered, and it appears they did not have a permit.  IMHO I think they should be arrested, if their marching without the permit.  Sadly they achieved their goal to frighten people, to bully and intimate people.  And them with their faces covered...--so brave.