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.