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.