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