Knitting, Eating, Reading Continue

 

Blue Ripple, I think is what I'll call this afghan.  I've made good progress since the last picture.  The variegated blue yarn section is a large section, as I have a lot of that yarn...though I don't like working with it, as it's course and hard on the hands.  I hope it softens up when laundered.  The section after the variegated is navy blue, which has not yet been used.  I started with the variegated, then used light blue, then a medium blue, and then the large variegated section, followed by the navy.  Then I think probably back to the variegated...we'll see how the amounts of the yarn work out.

We had another dinner party for 6.  We had pesto butschetta topped with diced tomatoes to go with our cocktails, broccoli, and heirloom potatoes seasoned with garlic and olive oil.

And Chicken Marsala.  

Cocktails were Classic Manhattans.

The Book of Lost Names.........Nominated as Best Historical Fiction in 2020.  I LOVED this book.  Nazi's tried hard to destroy many cultures, art, books, and libraries.  They really wanted nothing none German to survive World War II.  A  secret code, and the hard work of forgers giving people new identies as they escaped The Nazi's makes for book hard to put down.

While we all know about Helen Keller's blindness, and how she overcame the difficulties, I did not know how many other things she excelled in.  This autobiography was quite an eye opener for me.

tuesdays with Morrie, is at times uplifting and at times hard to read/listen to.  This memoir written by Mitch Albom deals with life and death and unusual friendship between Mitch and his Sociology Professor.  It also shows how impactful teaching can be.  Highly recommend this book.

Exercise will be down this month, as I had a nasty gastrointestinal bug for too many days, and we had more rain and more wind thus far this month.  We'll just have to see how the month's stats shake out.  Thank you all for your encouragement, it's always appreciated.  I really wanted this month to be gang busters, but it will not be.

Yarn and More. You Can't Knit While Walking, or Biking or Planking

 Square Garden is complete.  It's laying out to dry/block.  I named this one square garden because with all the brown, and beige it reminded me of the ground this time of the year, with patches of green grass around it.  There's a name for this type of pattern where the squares are diagonal, but I don't remember what it is.  And since the squares aren't really the same, but similar it might not qualify to be called that, even if I could remember what it is, lol.

Here it is before edging and joining.  Very bland here I think.  I think the green brighten it up and made the colors pop.  Though some the difference you see colorwise is no doubt due to different lighting when the pictures were taken.

I'm done with the pieces parts afghans for now, as I only brought the 3 projects with me while we winter away.  This knitted ripple afghan is a long term project.  I can't work on this at night due to the darker colors, and it's not one I can knit while watching tv else my counting would be off...so this project bag has been put away for some time and I thought it would be good to bring with me to work on some before tucking it away again.  It's also yarn that's rather hard on my hands, so I don't work on this for long periods of time.  Who knows how long it will take to complete this one.

More beautiful roses.  These have been fun to watch day to day. They looked almost white with a slight green edge when they were buds, then as they started opening up you could see they were light pink.

Cocktail napkins (you know I have a thing about them), lined up for a dinner party of 6.  Everyone enjoys seeing what napkins I'll have when they come for cocktails before dinner.

The menu that night was beautiful asparagus, lightly oiled and seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper.  They're ready to pop in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Salad was spring mix, bacon bits, onions, strawberries, and shaved almonds with a light vingerette dressing.

One of my specialities is mac n cheese.  Though this is not mac n cheese to most people.  They call is my special cheese casserole.  I use 4 or 5 types of cheese (depending on what I have), and imported Italian pasta cooked aldente.  Layered, add milk and butter.  Cheeses this night were: Parmesean, sharp cheedar, romano, cottage cheese.  Mac n Cheese isn't perhaps a normal dish prepared for company, but it's often requested, as it was for this dinner.

Stuffed mushrooms served during cocktails.  Mushrooms are stuffed with parm. cheese, tomatoes, baconbits, and chopped spinach.

February stats:  Biking up from 4 rides in January to 6 rides in February, planks down from 11 in January to 9 in February, walks up from 8 in January to 12 in February.  Mileage down from 116.89 miles in January to 109.33 in February.  All in all not bad, given February is a shorter month than January, I'm feeling encouraged.  AND towards the end of the month on Feb 27th I upped the time on my planks from 45 seconds x 4 with a 13 second rest to 50 seconds x 4 and a 14 second rest.

A short read/listen , but cute letter from President Obama to his girls.  Light hearted and sweet.

Present Day in Oxford where secrets of the past during WWII come to light.  American Kendra interviews Isabel and the past unfolds.  The lives of two sisters separated in War grow up and experience two very different lives.

Starts and Finishes With Knitting and The New Year

 

Another completed knitted project.  My Outlander scarf/shawl is done!  It's been soaked, and blocked and worn twice!  It's so soft, I love it.  Wonderful yarn to work with and to wear.  I love how the colors blended.  This yarn, as you might remember was a gift from my Darling Daughter.  She Rocks, by the way.

Pieces parts!  When I had my grassroots charity,. Bridge and Beyond (for 14 years), people would send me squares, rectangles and things they had left over.  As you can see these pieces are not the same size.  Sometimes when other charities folded they would send me things they had left.  Some are knitted, some are crocheted.  I would design, label, and bag.  I've always named the would be afghans and called this one Little Boy Blue.  I would use my stash to find yarn that would blend with these pieces parts and begin edging them to get them to flatten out better and to start getting them to be the same size so they could be joined.

While I closed the charity a year ago, I still have things to work on to donate.  Here's the start.

They're coming closer to being the same size, but.........I edge with 2 rows each, then see how much of the dark blue I have in my stash to determine if I have enough to continue using the dark blue to bring to size, or if I'll need to switch to the light blue you see in the upper left corner.  It's a process, a bit like putting a puzzle together.  But, it's coming along

Belated Happy New Year to you all.  I hope everyone had a safe and fun New Years and that 2023 brings us all closer to being done with Covid, and that the poor folks in Ukraine can improve their situation.

A very powerful book about the power of Harvey Weinstein and sexual misconduct.  How the Me Too Movement got started, and how long this sad situation insued.

Just a few of the women involved.  It was of course in the news, so many people know about it, but  reading/listening to the book tells you so much more than we knew.  Well worth the read or listen.  Incrediable journalism.

Another non WWII book I've listened to and highly recommend, The Story of Helen Keller.  She was far more accomplished than I knew.  Put it on your list, if you've not already read or listened to it.

I've not tabulated my numbers for December on my exercising.  Forgot to do that before we left for the winter, so will have to see if I still have my notes when I return home.  But, I'm getting a good start I think to the New Year.  I've rented a bike for the duration and know that will help me be more active.  Plus, the weather is nicer so getting out to take some walks will be easier as well.  We'll see how I fair here in January.

All ready for our dinner party.  We managed to fit 14 in for dinner last night.  We catch up with other folks who come for the winter or a big chunk of it.  It's fun to see the same folks each year.  We call ourselves the January Gang.

One of my friends brought me these beautiful yellow roses (yellow is a favorite for me), she said yellow means friendship.  Everyone enjoyed seeing the pretty flowers.

I prepared 4 pork tenderloins with a sauce that everyone always loves.  Syrup, garlic, rosemary, and ground mustand.

2 Large casserole dishes of red skins, and brussel sprouts.  I had to cook the sprouts a bit before I could add the butternut squash, as the squash was cut in smaller pieces than it typically is, also added cranraisins (I like cranberries, but couldn't get any).  Forgot to take a picture of the salad which was a mix of greens and caprese style tomatoes and fresh mozzarella in a small log almost to sit on top of the greens.  Drizzeled with balsamic glaze makes for a pretty and colorful salad.  Whew, slept in this am, we were a bit tired.

Need to get out and visit you all (everyone on my blog list), to catch up.  Been since Christmas since I've posted and done any blog walking.  See you all soon.