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.

It's About Time for Another Finish! Exercise, Birthday, Afghans. OH NO Neo-Nazi's

 

Pink Petals is finally completed!  I say finally, because it took longer than normal.  I had it edged and tied together before we left for Sicily.  Then on return it was several weeks before I could begin working on it again.  Fall clean up in the yard needed my full attention.  It's here drying/blocking after it was laundered.  The light pink did tone down the super bright pink, and it's edged with one single row of light gray.

Here's the before.

Next up is Tweedy?  Anyone have other thoughts on a name for this one?

The variegated squares and rectangles made me think of tweedy.  And the beige yarn I'll be sizing them with looks sorta tweedy to me..  To liven it up a bit, I'm planning on crocheting it together with black.  I think the contrast will be helpful..  I might try to do a single crochet edge around them in black for a wider black border before joining....if I have enough black yarn.  We'll see how that goes.

Hubby bought these happy yellow roses for me for my BD which was just 2 days ago.  They're just starting to open up.  I love yellow and think they're beautiful.

One of my blog friends indicated she had reached her yearly goal mileage wise and was pretty excited by it.  She got me wondering what my yearly miles had been.  I've always looked at daily and monthly steps and miles; but never looked at yearly stats.  I started walking for fitness, and to relieve the swelling in my knees caused by arthritis back in 2014, when I bought my first of many Fitbits.  So in these 11 years my lowest miles is 1.106.07 for the current year (2024), averaging 3.46 miles per day.  My highest was back in 2016 with 2,050.8 miles for an average of 5.6. miles.  My total mileage for these 11 years is 16,178.86 which averages out to 1,470.86.  So, it looks like I'm fairly consistent; but am behind yet for this year on a average.  With bad weather upon us, and holidays closing in I'm not sure I'll be able to get up to my average; but hopefully I can get closer.

Set in WWII, but not Europe  A Malayan housewife becomes a spy, hides her daughter to keep her from being forced into service during the Japanese occupation at the "comfort stations".  She knows it's  her fault that her family is now in danger, but can she fix things?  A part of the war less known to most of us.  Japanese were terribly brutal, it wasn't just the Nazi that were horrible.

A while back I started another series.  Book #1 I already blogged about, "A Duty to the Dead".  Charles Todd has written The Bess Crawford Series.  She's a nurse in WWI.  Sometimes in France, sometimes in England; and sometimes at the front at a forward station.  Book 2 takes place in England, involving The Scotland Yard, a soldier burned beyond recognition.----but what's his wife up to?  I sorta liken Bess Crawford to an adult Nancy Drew; but she's so much more, given she does her sleuthing during a terrible war.

#3 A Bitter Truth is full of intrigue.  Bess trying to help a troubled woman and ends up accused of murder herself!

I'm enjoying this series immensely and highly recommend them.  They're both entertaining and educational with regards to learning about the conditions in WWI, and how difficult the nurses training was.  Nurses are referred to as Nursing Sisters and are highly regarded..

A Canadian friend of mine sent me this meme a few days before the election to try and bolster my spirits.  The day after the election, she texted me with sincere condolences.  I'm trying hard not to let it consume me; but I fear it's going to be a very ugly time in the history of our nation.

These Masked Neo Nazi's carrying Swastika's marched through a neighborhood about 15-20 minutes from my home just 2 days ago.  This has been happening quite a bit leading up to the election; and now with a green light of White Supremacy, from trump and his MAGA cult, I fear we will be witnesses an increase in this type of behavior.  They insulted all people they passed of color, yelled profanities about Jewish people and scared all who were unfortunate to witness this disgusting behavior.  There were no arrest made.  It seems to me, questions as to whether or not they had a permit to assemble should be answered, and it appears they did not have a permit.  IMHO I think they should be arrested, if their marching without the permit.  Sadly they achieved their goal to frighten people, to bully and intimate people.  And them with their faces covered...--so brave.