A Finish Ta Dah! More Starts, Audio Books, and TV Series

 

Initial Design of Wee Bit Irish (the before pictures)

Step 2, The edging begins, and it already look less Irish to me, thought maybe Irish Mint would be a good name.

Ta Dah, finished, been laundered and is now being blocked/drying.  I've renamed this afghan to Mint Julip.  Irish just doesn't fit anymore.  I'm happy with the finished project and a bit surprised how much it changed.  That happens sometimes, sometimes it doesn't.

Meet Green Acres, the next project.  Same number of squares 25.  Again you can see the varying sizes of the squares.  A few more in this design are knitted then Mint Julip, but still the bulk of the squares are crocheted.

Step 2,, edging with sage green has begun.  7 of the 25 squares are edged, as I work to get squares sized the same.

Connie Britton, as Rayna Jaymes in the TV series Nashville that hubby and I have been enjoying.  Lots of good music in it, especially if you like country.  We're in season 3, never watched this back when it came out in 2012.  Love, sex, and rocknroll as they say.

 What's better than a love story, beachy book to take your mind of the cold ugly winter!  This fun book has romance, friendship, and adjustments to daily life...sometimes up and sometimes down.  

Women making their hard road in the CIA during the Cold War for starters.  Family Affairs and secrets, and an assignation.  Very intriquing.

War changes people.  Secrets and murder in a small town.  Mystery and Prejudice.  Everyone knows your business, or do they?

The month isn't over, so I have some time to add to my mileage.  I've walked 85.11 miles thus far in January.  Hoping to catch up or at least get close to 109.15 which was December.  I've done 15 sets of planks so far this month, just 1 shy of the 16 I did in December, so feeling encouraged there.  Stay tuned.

Starts and Finsihes, Irish Afghan, Always Audiobooks, and The Bathroom Project

 

Quite some time ago I designed this afghan along with many others.  People used to send me pieces parts and I would design and join the pieces parts to make warm afghans.  I always named them, and called this one Wee Bit Irish.  As you can see the pieces parts vary is style and size, and color.  Most are crocheted, but a few are knitted.  I've made over 70 of these throughout the last 14 ish years.  Once I need new projects to work on, I get the bagged designs out and find appropriate color yarn to edge and join them.

 Founds some light green/mintish in my stash.  Though in this picture (apparently a brighter day) the pieces parts look less green.  I bagged it up to take on the road as one of my winter away projects.

Step 3, I've begun edging the pieces/squares.  I begin with the largest squares and edge, then know the other squares have to become the same size.  Thus far, I've edged about 9-10 of the 25 pieces.  I think it's looking less Irish and more minty...how about you?  Think I'm going to change the name to Minty Irish.  Any thoughts?  Once these afghans are completed I donate them to a local homeless shelter.

This knitted teal and gray scarf was a car project.  I started it in the car when hubby and I were going to Williamsburg this past summer and finished it in the car on our way to our winter quarters.  It might get donated also, as I don't think I'm in need of another scarf.

A fun, but perhaps a bit bizarre book about coming of age, dealing with grief, learning about responsibilities and what is real love?  I say a bit bizarre because a daughter on a summer vacation seems to meet her mother....time travel.  I don't know.  Not really a believable book, and not my normal type of reading; but I did truly enjoy the book, gave it 4 stars on Goodreads.  I also enjoyed it because I've traveled to Italy and would like to go back.

A weird/sad version of Ground HOg Day.  I can't say I enjoyed the book, only gave it one star; but I also couldn't stop reading it...as I kept thinking things would be made right and I wanted things to be resolved.  It got much higher marks on Goodreads from others, so you might enjoy it?  If you read it, let me know what you think....I'm curious.

More my normal type of book.  Takes place during World War II in London in 1938.  The coming together of people taking care of each other, learning to love and trust during difficult times.....even for a German refugee.  Highly recommend this one.

More of a fluff book than I often read/listen to; but I LOVED it.  A fire, a chambermaid, love lost, mystery, a ghost, money, love, lust, and......well, a bit of everything.  Put it on your list and have fun!

A bathroom project.  We have a small bathroom, very much in need of being redone.  Removing the old heavy tub and putting in a shower is only part of the work that needs doing.  The tiles you see here are from the front of the picture back the flooring, the tile in the shower, and the small design for accent.  It's a bit hard to see in the picture, but the tiles are mostly white with a bit of gray.  The walls will be gray, the new vanity and commode etc will be white.  A long awaited project.  It's hard to remodel your bathroom when you only have ONE!

Still blogging about my 14 day tour of The UK

Starts and Finishes on the Road

 This scarf shawl........finally finished.  You might remember seeing it when I started it, then again after I ripped it out and started over........and finally it's finished.  It's unbelievable soft, probably more soft than anything I've made to date.  The yarn comes from 3 different yarn shops.  First purchased the lightest variegated (here in Columbus), then the darker version (Park City, Utah), then the yellow here in town, but a 2nd yarn shop, lol.  It's wide enough to be a shawl and covers shoulders nicely, but here I'm wearing it sorta more like a scarf.  I think in spring it will be worn more as a shawl/wrap/stoll and will be light, airy but helpful against air conditioning.  I used drop stitches with 2 yarn overs/wraps.  It's fingering weight yarn, size 5 needle.

 A few posts ago, I told you I had start-itis and really wanted to do something with some new yarn I had purchased.  After finishing the above yellow, I started this scarf.  It too is fingering weight yarn, but with this I'm using only a size 4 needle.  Simple 2 row repeat pattern which will produce a asymmetrical scarf.  LOVE LOVE these jewel tones.  The pattern was written for ww yarn and has you cast on 5, so I thought casting on doubling that (10) would make it wide enough to compensate for the difference is yarn weight.  I started this on the same trip but, believe it will take a while to finish.  Thinking if I were to do this again with this weight yarn I would cast on 15...so we'll see how it turns out.  I think the 10 would be perfect for maybe sport weight yarn.  But, I have enough yarn to make it long enough to wrap around at least twice so hoping it will be ok.

 This Afghan, Coffee Latte was started about a year ago and put away in the summer when I didn't want a heavy ghan on my lap.  Decided I needed to bring it along to see if I could get it finished.  I'm close.  The section at the bottom, closest to you is what's on the needles.  Need to finish that solid brown section, and then just have one more section of the variegated and it will be done.  Once finished it will donated through my charity, Bridge and Beyond.

 Worked on this scarf in the car on the way to Hilton Head and finished it the first week, so was able to wear it while there.  Love the bold color sections.  This is the same pattern that I'm using on the above jewel toned scarf.  This was very nice yarn to work with and went pretty fast since it's WW weight.  25% wool and 75% acrylic but didn't have the harsh feel that some acrylics do on your hands.  It's Plymouth Yarn Hot Cakes 404 yards and one skein made a nice size scarf.

Here you get a little better feel for the shape and size.  This is a king size bed.
**you see the yarn for jewel tone scarf and burgundy/black/gray scarf in the start-itis post.

What are you working on?  Do you like to knit or crochet when you travel?