Knitting, Mother's Day Brunch and The Duchess

Here's the start of the next afghan.  Though this picture was taken a few days ago so it's grown since then and has one additional color, green.  I always name my afghans, but haven't thought of a name for this one yet.  This like 99% of all the afghans I made will be donated to Bridge and Beyond, my charity dedicated to helping the Homeless.  I think I'm sticking primarily with jewels colors so a name that would convey that is what I'm thinking about.  In the past I had one named Crown Jewels, and a 2nd named Jewels.  So, am thinking Striped Jewels, Jewel Palette, Lines of Jewels?  Lines being stripes?  Love some input, which of those 3 named do you like best.....and or do you have other thoughts?

Another Mother's Day picture.  This is the lovely brunch Dear Hubby fixed for me including Champagne.  Was nice enough (for a while) to sit outside and enjoy our brunch.

Still in my British TV kick while knitting and elevating my foot, or icing my foot.  The Duchess.  Quite an interesting tale of Georgiana Cavendish, The Countess of Devonshire and how backward women's lives were.  It's really good I didn't live in those times, despite loving the history....I fear I would not have done well.  The extremes between what was ok for a man and not at all for a women..wow!  Menaige a Trois.  Georgiana's husband's mistress lived with them a hugh part of their married life, took her meals with them.  I do recommend adding this one to your watch list.  Believe this was on Amazon Prime.

Mother's Day, Quick One Pan Meals, and The Crimson Field-WWI Field Hospital

The Crimson Field, the next series in my exploration of watching British TV.  LOVED this show.  It was an interesting glimpse into life in France (and England-Ireland) during World War I.  There was sadly only one season, as it was cancelled after that.  

It explored the importance of ladies who volunteered for service, and showed how difficult their lives were.  These 3 all had a story to tell and all joined the service for different reason.  They came from very different backgrounds.  At a time when it was scandalous for women to be in close company with me, nurses and volunteers had to learn how to bath wounded men...the difficulty of bridging their learned privacy rules from civilian life and that in service was huge.

Both men and women were drummed out, or executed for what was deemed to be unpatriotic service or cowardice.  Even though there is only one season, I do highly recommend it.  I was able to watch this series on Amazon Prime for no extra fee or membership.

This past weekend was Mother's Day.  My Darling Daughter sent lovely flowers on Friday so I was able to enjoy them for the whole of the wkend.  There were 3 bundles of flowers in the box, enough for me to make two large beautiful bouquets.  Thank you Darling Daughter.  This is a close up of one of the prettiest roses...look at the gradation of color on the outside of this rose as it begins to open.

I'm a huge fan of one pan, or one dish meals.  Makes prep and clean up so much easier.  That's even more important to me currently since I'm not super mobile with my broken foot.  In the beginning, I would do some prep, sit down...do a bit more, sit down again.  Was hard trying to move about the kitchen using a walker or crutches.  I would get things at the ready as much as possible (often it took a good while), so when hubby came home from work; he could actually do the cooking.  Generally, he put something in oven and with my chair-side direction........dinner would come together.  I am more mobile now with my ortho boot, but still trying to minimize how much I'm standing there in the kitchen.  It's just not that easy.  

Asparagus, potatoes, and chicken.  This required a minimum of work to prep.  The chicken breast's were cut in in medalions (smaller pieces cook quicker), plus the chicken breast were very large and thick.  They were dipped in an egg wash, and layered in the pan with thin lemon slices and topped with fresh basil.

Potatoes quartered, asparagus cut in half.  I put all in fridge, and when hubby called that he was on his way I sprinkled olive oil, dash, and Parmesan cheese on potatoes and asparagus and turned on the oven.  Cooked in pre-heated oven at 400-425 for about 20 minutes.  It cooked while hubby and I had our Martini's

Tasty, not time consuming with either prep or clean up.  The egg wash and lemon gave the chicken a nice flavor and helped keep it moist.  Was an experiment....one both hubby and I thought worth repeating.

Mother's Day and Fitbit

 Still trying to walk most days, though am not always successful.  The goal is hit 10,000 steps (5miles) a day.  Recently I switched from The One (fitbit) to The Flex (fitbit).  The One clips on a pocket (I often don't have a pocket so clipped it on my bra), but he clip broke.  The sleep band for it also was ripping and not staying sealed well at night, making it not very reliable to monitor my sleep and or to wake me up.  Rather than buy 2 new pieces for the old unit, I opted for the bracelet thing you see everyone wearing.....The Flex.  I had a plain black band but decided I needed to jazz it up a bit and order the pack of 3 above.  Stripes, polka dots, and checkered...all a bit dressier.

 I also ordered this fun pack of 10 solid colors.........will be nice to have things sorta go with my outfit, makes it look more like a bracelet?

 Happy Belated Mothers Day to all.  Took some time and looked through some pictures of my Mom the other day, since she's no longer with us, Mothers Day is a bit different.  Though I really enjoyed hearing from my DD.  We chatted about an up coming trip where we'll get to spend some quality time together.    Lots of balls of yarn.  I had a bit of a mess, partially used skeins, some twisted and tangled and decided I really needed to do something about it.  Sooooooooooo

thank you Hubby...purchased a ball winder.  Soooooooo much nicer then rolling balls all by hand.  AND with the cakes (believe that's the correct term), you have the option of an inside pull and or outside edge with each cake.  The ball winder also doesn't wind too tightly (which I tend to do), far nicer for good yarn.  So I untangled and wound and now have manageable sized cakes/balls to work with.  These are some of the colors I'm using with this project.

Calling this ghan, Learning Logs.  With using multiple pieces of yarn at a time, the tangling was really getting to be a problem.  Having the smaller, nicely wound cakes/balls should improve the process.

Mothers Day

Thank You Darling Daughter! This Mothers Day Edible Fruit Arrangement came early yesterday morning. Had some yummy fruit with my morning coffee. Likewise again this morning. Miss you and wish we weren't so far away; but am looking forward to our upcoming vacation in Park City so we can spend some time enjoying each others company. My Blue Lace is finished! Finished it last night, and it's almost cool enough to want to wear it today on my day, Mother's Day. This is my first true lace, in that it's not worsted weight yarn and it involved more then some of my attempts leading up to this. I had some trouble with the K2tog, until someone on Ravelry suggested pulling down a bit or up with the needle before inserting the needle. Nice tip! I changed needles a couple of times previously trying to make the K2tog's work easier. This was knit on size 8, using 1 skein of 215 yards of Berroco Ultra Alpaca (50% and 50% Laine Wool) from Peru. Fabulous yarn. It's 3 ply, hand washable. I usually don't bother with blocking a scarf, but perhaps I should to see the design a bit more? It's a Feather and Fan pattern, which I think would make a wonderful afghan.

This photo is my attempt at being a bit more artsy...didn't work too well, in that the blue looks a bit washed out to me. As I was finishing this up last night, was thinking about My Mother who's been gone now for 3 Mother's Day's. She's the one who taught me to know, back in the day. I made a little scarf, head scarf that she crocheted an edge and ties on. It was very rudimentary, but I was so proud of it. All these years later, the gift she gave me is still making me happy. It's an awesome gift and memory Mom, I Love and Miss you. (memories of MOM)

***This blue feather and fan is one more completed item on my year of projects list, badge and link in sidebar. For full list, please see YOP Tab