A Finish, Fall Color, and Child Trafficker, Georgia Tann

 

Done, but not very happy with it.  Snail Hollow Shawl.  This was a kit with yarn and pattern sold by Crafty's.  It's listed on Ravelery as well.  I do not recommend this kit, or the pattern.  The pattern is not well written.  I've not used any other patterns by Erika Flory; but 3 different people I've spoken to have interpeted the pattern 3 different ways and none ended up being happy with the end result.  I am in their camp as well.  It's much much smaller than it should be and can barely be a scarf and certainly not a shawl.  The yarn, Cloudborn is also not one I would recommend.  The yarn separately badly while knitting which caused some issues.

I like the color combination, rich colors but very hard on the eyes.  If I were to ever do this pattern again, I would choose more contrasting colors, a different yarn...a heavier yarn.  It will look better after it get's it's soak and get's blocked, and hopefully it will be a tad larger afterwards as well..

I've continued to work on the fall colored asymetrical scarf; but while I've worked on it a good number of additional hours, it doesn't look much different, so I've not taken anothe picture.

Sharing a particularly pretty tree from a walk through the park a few days ago.  Yes, fall has arrived.  And yes, I'm able to get some walking in so my monthly numbers should be better; but perhaps not by a lot.  I am over Covid and trying to get back into doing planks etc.  So, we'll see how things shape up.

Since it's fall, I added fall table settings to the dining room table.  That's the extint of my Fall/Halloween decorating; though I have shared some of the outside decorations I've been seeing around the neighborhood.  A good fall meal, chicken enchildas and black beans.  Had to take a picture because this one presented better than they sometimes do.  Sometimes getting them neatly out of the casserole dish is tricky and they don't look as pretty.  I was happy with how these came out nicely.

Decided I needed a wee break from all my WWII books, so started this one in print on the plane coming back from my ill fated France tour, and then finished it with the audio version.  I'm glad I switched to the audio, as the voices added to the story.  "Before We Were Yours", by Lisa Wingate is a novel, but based on lots of facts about The Tennessee Children's Home Society Orphanage scandal whose director was Georegia Tann.  This starts in 1939 in Memphis where children were kidnapped, stolen, separated from their siblings, and sold.  This horrific situation lasted for years.  About 25 years.  

Georgia Tann made lots of monthly stealing and selling these children.  Though initially she was credited with the idea of adoption, what she did was illegal start to finish with very few exceptions.  It's estmated that about 500 children died in her "care", or lack there of.  She was successful with the help of the police force.  Truly a horrific scandal involving about 5,000 babies/children.

More than a million copies of this book were sold.  Lisa Wingate has organized a reunion where many adoptives have become acquainted and shared their stories.  Some have been reunited with their siblings and other family members; but even with good research many have not been and won't be; as she changed their names when she falsified the adoption records.  

Sadly, this woman, Georgia Tann never paid for her crimes, as she died a few days before the daming report came to light.

The paper back is 356 pages, the audio book is 14 hours.  I finished it in just a few days.  I couldn't put the book down, and highly recommend it.  It's important to know about things in our history so the horrific events don't get repeated.

I'll be adding "Before and After", another book of Lisa Wingate about the lives of those adoptive children to my reading list.

October Finished Projects, and Good By Covid

 

Well some headway has been made.  The scarf on the left is completed.  You might remember previous post where I was wondering about how to end it color wise.  I ended with a wide last strip of the purple as that's what most of your comments suggested.  The scarf to it it's right is still in the works and much smaller; as it's much thinner yarn.  I've worked on the 2nd scarf longer and have far more stitches on the needles but it's not yet done.  It's such nice fall colors I want to finish it soon, so I can wear it.  The top right infinity scarf is the brown green shaded scarf you've seen most recently, and it too is now complete.  I ended up sewing it together to form a ring (infinity style scarf), as it wasn't quite long enough by the time I finished up with the yarn.  It's large enough though that I can wrap it around twice, so it will be nice and warm.

Here's a close up so you can see the colors, the shading.  I like infinity style scarves because they stay put,.  It's nice to have a variety of styles.  The asymmetrical scarves look perhaps a bit more dressy when drapped around with a scarf pin attached.

I'm happy to report I'm finally feeling like myself again, though it did take longer than I would have thought.  Many thanks for all your kind comments about hubby and I getting Covid when we were suppose to be touring France.  I've been able to get out walking again, so maybe my exercise numbers will be improving this month.

While out walking through the neighborhood making my way to and from the city parks, I've seen some fun Halloween decorations and thought I'd share them with you.  I do wonder though if the large skelton (it really is taller than the house), might scare the little ones?

February 1945, the transistion to a post war World.  The Yalta summit with Russia, England, and The US.  Churchills daughter, Sarah an actress turned RAF officer, Anna Roosevelt (the President's daughter), and Kathleen Harriman a champiion skier and war correspondant and the daughter of Averell Harriman, The Ambassador to The Soviet Union attend the summit with their fathers and played very important roles helping their fathers.  Given The Crimean Peninsula is again controlled by Russia this book seemed timely to me.  This was the last trip President Roosevelt made prior to his death, and the fact that he wasn't well on this important trip but no one was to know, was Anna's primary duty.  I really enjoyed the book and suggest if you've not read it to put it on your list folks.

I posted a few more pictures of my ill fated visit to France HERE.

Oh My September Was a Bust

 

Well, I had hoped to be done with this scarf by now, but other things got in the way.  I have however made lots of headway.  You can see I have very little yarn left, so it will be done when the yarn runs out.  It's currently 47 inches long.  A bit shorter than I like for scarves, so I will have to see how long it ends up, and it may yet be joined to form a circle and be an infinity type scarf.  I really like the blend of colors with the greens and browns.

Decided I needed a change from all the WWII books I've read/listened to of late.  I really enjoyed this book, despite how sad Frank McCourt's childhood was.  I highly recommend the audio of this book, as the author himself reads it and that adds so much to the story in my opinion.

I enjoyed the first book so much I followed up with Frank McCourt's 2nd book and again enjoyed it.  His character is addicting, I think...perhpas not if you're his wife though.

And, yes I moved right onto his 3rd book.  I'm happy to report that after such a sad and brutal childhood, a less than desireable marriage, that if you google you will find he had a successful and happy 2nd marriage to Ellen, the one responsible for his writing his memoirs.  And if you google you'll be able to see a good number of photo's of his life.

Geesh, no real exercise to note for the month of September.  As you may have noted from my previous post, I got Covid.  Still not feeling 100%, but am negative now on testing.  Was in France and spent isolation in the hotel room.  Real bummer, we never got to go on our tour.  Between being sick, isolating, and lots of flights there and back...only exercise I've done is a little bit of walking which is where this Halloween yard decoration comes from.  I did mow a few times, and got some steps from that.  But, all in all...September was a real Bust. 83.6 miles for the month, down from 90.15 in August.

I blogged about France, The Tour That Wasn't Here.  

Or at least the wee bit we got to see before Covid enterted.