Knitting, Voting, Audio Books and Exercise

 

Picked up the blue and white corner to corner blanket again.   You can see  HERE,  how much it's grown.  The blue section has been completed and the 2nd white section, and now onto another blue section.  The decrease has also been started, so am now over half way with this.  

Oh Ohio!   What hot mess.  I know it's been discussed in some detail around the country.  Ridiculous amount of Republicans running for one spot, all but one trying hard to get the endorsement of "the orange one" , which tells you how pathetic the race was.  All we can hope for now is the author of Hillbilly Elegy doesn't win in the election.  Sad to me that he won the primary for that party, given how dysfunction he is.  Several of the debates almost came to fist fights between the Republicans.  Anyway, did my part yesterday and voted against them all.

Haven't done anymore work on the pretty asymmetrical scarf pictured in the last post.  Nor anymore work on the brown afghan.

My yoga mat on top of my Life Board.  I did much better in April with Yoga.  March was only 2 x, April was 8 x and in March the sessions were 30-35 minutes, in April 30-45 minutes with a total of 367 minutes or 6.11 hours.

PLANKS...I did them 9 x in April, which is the same as in March.  No going backward which is good, plus the last couple of days in March I increased the time from 4 x 40 seconds with 11 seconds of rest to 4 x 45 seconds with 13 seconds of rest.  So, that brings up to 3 minutes of planks.  I did side planks a few times which is the same as March.

WALKING...I jumped from 9 walks in March to 12 in April (which includes a couple of times mowing the yard). Fitbit says 128.34 miles which is up from March at 104.61.  I had 2 days of 8 miles.  April's mileage is the best of 2022 so far.

Elie Wiesel's "Night", is a memoir of his life in 1944 and 1945 in Auschwitz and Buchenwald.  Parts of heart breaking, parts are inspiring as so many of these stories from Nazi's horrific treatment of the Jews and others they didn't side with Hitler.  While many of these books from WWII aren't pleasant or fun or light reading; they are important.  We must NEVER forget what happened so that we may keep it from happening again.  History must be our teacher and our moral compass.

Can anyone identify these yellow flowers?  I spotted them on a recent walk through the neighborhood.  I know they're a perineal from a brief conversation with the homeowner who happened to be out in his yard.  He told me what they were, but I didn't remember by the time I got home, darn it!  He said I could come and get a start if I wanted.  I might take him up on his kind offer.  Now to remember which corner I was on.  I rarely walk the same route, and when walking get engrossed in listening to my book...so it may take me some work to locate this corner again.

TA DAH, Another Finished Project

 

Corner to Corner colorful blanket done.  I  laid it out and debated about an edge.  To edge or not.  Changed my mind several times, but ended up deciding to add an edge.

Decided on the bright blue and did 3 rows of single crochet.  Here it is after being laundered, as it's laid out to dry/blocked.  I think adding the edge gives it a bit more of a finished look, as does laundering it.  This will be gifted to my great niece, as she's recently had a baby.  A boy, I think the bold stripes will work well for that vs traditional light blue.

This is Pam Jenoff, author of many award winning books, and best sellers.  She's had eleven best sellers.  As I was adding my most recent finished book, "The Lost Girls of Paris" to my Goodreads Bookshelf, I noticed how many of her books I had read/listened to.  I knew I had read a couple but was surprised to see how many.  Which prompted me to look her up.  She writes Historical Fiction and Love Stories.  I've not read any of her Love Stories.  I found her background interesting.  She has a degree in International Affairs from George Washington Unv. and a History degree from Cambridge, and her JD from UPenn.  She worked as a diplomat for the state department handling Holocaust issues in Poland.  She currently teaches law at Rutgers.  All the books of hers I've read to date are about WWII and the struggles of families in the ghetto's, as well as those arrested and sent to camps and more.  It certainly makes since given her background.  And, now that I've read about her, it gives her books more credibility.  

I highly recommend yet another WWII book.  This one has a bit of a twist to it.  A mystery unfolds as you connect the war years and what follows.  Questions arise about how governments use people.  Another story about how much Women gave to the War effort and how little their stories were known until recent years.  It's past time for Women to be given the credit and notoriety they deserve.

Me hiking in Colorado a few years ago.  I've added my March exercise stats to the exercise tab.  Sadly my mileage for the month is down a bit to 104.61 miles.  But, I'm happy to say I did better with my planks and my yoga. in terms of how many days I did them.  My best day mileage wise  was 5 miles and I averaged 3.37 per day in March.  Hopefully I'll do better with planks, yoga, and miles in April.  Though the end of the month is fast approaching and while I was out of town on a Girls Trip, I didn't do as well as I should have, so we'll see how the stats turn out.

WIP (work in progress), the light blue corner to corner blanket, the yummy asymmetrical scarf pictured in the last post, and a brown afghan that's been tucked away for a LONG time.

Seriously, I last worked on this brown afghan in February of 2021.  I tucked it aside to work on projects that were date sensitive and totally forgot about it.  I'm very close to finishing it.  So, trying to push myself to work on it.  I rarely make something in one color, but this does have some texture to it for interest.

Knitting A Baby Blanket and Scarf, World War II Audio Books, and Horses!

 

The Blue corner to corner baby blanket is growing.  The white section is now done, and blended into light blue which has blended into the darker blue currently.  It now measurers 30 inches a side and 48 inches in diameter while on the needles (that often changes a bit), and has 154 stitches on the needle.  We're not yet at the decreasing point...not sure how large I want to make it...it's an eyeball thing for me.  Most people that make baby blankets go for about 30-36 inches.  Mine are always larger, more a crib size or afghan size vs "baby size".  Only time will tell.  I'm happy to see the shading changes.

The Buckeye Scarf (bottom in the picture), has been waiting in the wings for a while.  I started it just around Thanksgiving, then put it aside when I was started working on The Blanket of Many Colors.  Decided it was time to bring it out again, and I like to have projects to switch back and forth between.  As I mentioned above size to me is an eyeball thing.  This Buckeye Scarf will be a gift for a friend who's an avid Buckeye Fan.  I knew it wasn't currently large enough but wanted to compare to a scarf I made myself awhile back with the same pattern.  I like these asymmetrical scarves.  More fun to make than a regular scarf; and perhaps a bit dressier when worn.  The wing measurement is currently 37 inches (the previous one I made is 56 inches), it's 8 inches at it's widest part, while the completed one measures 10 inches.  The width of The Buckeye Scarf will probably be a bit wider on completion, as the yarn is a bit heavier.

Still in WWII mode....this book, "Unbroken" by Laura Hillenbrand is hard to put down.  The book was a best seller and has in fact been turned into a movie, though I've not seen the movie.  This is a true story of Louis Zamperini, his participation in The Berlin Olympics, joining The ARmy Air Force and being a downed pilot.  The courage, hope, and endurance of men against severe conditions and horrible brutality is a testament to the human soul.  I highly recommend this book.

 One of many scenes I've enjoyed these past couple of months as I walk and or ride my bike.  The loop is just over 3 miles through beautiful Sea Pines Plantation in Hilton Head.  Hubby and I have really enjoyed our time away from The Ohio Winter.  I've not made a counting yet for my planks, bike rides, walks, or yoga for the current month of February to compare to January, but my gut feeling is it's less.  We've had some super windy days with cool temps which have lessen my exercising.  I need to pick up the pace with just a week left here before heading back to cold Ohio.

 

Blanket of Many Colors, TaDah!! American Spy in World War II

 

AND.......it's done!  The blanket of many colors has been laundered and is almost dry in this picture.  I debated about adding a 4th row, in fact had the colors selected to do so, then decided since the diamonds are squares...I would stick to keeping the blanket a square vs making it rectangle which adding a 4th row would have done.  It's about 43 inches square so works well as a lapghan, or a childs blanket.  I've not totally decided if this will be a baby gift or donated.

I've pulled out the Blue corner to corner project (intended for said baby blanket).....I've added about 12 rows since the last picture.  It now measures 34 in diameter and you can see quite a good bit of the white.  Not sure how much will be white, though you can see some still on the large ball of yarn.  I will continue to work on this and then make a decision about which to gift....but probably this one.  It's lighter weight and maybe looks more babyish?  More traditional?  What do you all think?

Obviously, this is not a recent picture.  But, one day after I returned from my walk back in the fall, I found 2 squirrels very busy eating my little pumpkins.  Each hanging onto the pots where I put the pumpkins.  These pumpkins grew in my flower bed on their own accord.  I didn't plant them, volunteers they were.  I had about 20 or so 4 or 5 inch pumpkins.  It's my understanding that's the type of pumpkin they were.  The lasted about a month with the squirrels having quite a feast day after day.  I enjoyed watching them eat.  Problem is...wonder how many places they spread the seeds they didn't eat.  Will I have pumpkins growing in odd places next year?  

Continuing to try and walk, or ride a bike, do planks, and yoga most days.  Fitbit tells me I walked 290,387 steps in January, 119.9 miles and burned 53,851 calories.  February hasn't started out very well, I think.  We've had some rain days, and some days with LOTS of wind keeping me inside knitting...so we'll see how the exercising progresses.  But, we must keep trying.

If you read no other WWII book, you MUST read this.  If you've been told woman are the weaker sex, read this!!  "A Woman of No Importance" by Sonia Purnell deemed the best book of the year by NPR and so many more.  The list of credible agencies calling it the best of the year is LONG!  The story of an American Baltimore Socialite, Virginia Hall.  1942, The Gestapo sent out an urgent transmission, "She is the most dangerous of ALL spies.  We must find and destroy her."

Blanket of Many Colors, WWII, Spies, Gnomes

 

Making good headway with the blanket of many colors.  In the previous post, I only had 1 square done in the 3rd row, and now all 4 squares are completed and joined to form the gray diamond block, plus 3 squares of rose colored diamond above it.  Plan to wait until I finish all 3 diamonds on this 3rd row before joining; as I might rearrange again.  Originally had the gray block on the bottom right, but after the rose diamond there will be a purple diamond and thought perhaps it was better to have the gray between the rose and the purple; but will decide once they are complete and I can play a bit with them.  That's both the fun and the challenge of not planning out the color arrangement before starting on the project....but, that's not my style.  I'm more of a seat of pants let's see how it flows persons, lol.

Another good WWII read for you all.  And who doesn't like Ken Follett?  While this is not exactly a true story, it is based on lots of real facts of the time and the events.  Reading some of the reviews it seems most people couldn't  put the book down.  Some watched the movie and then read the book, but most read the book first which is recommended....even by some reviewers who saw the movie first.  Do add this to your list.  The spy the object of the most desperate manhunt in history it says.

Continuing ta walk, or bike ride and working on planks most days.  Plan to make a file/tab here to note monthly totals with the hope that recording it will aid me in trying to do more.  This was taken awhile ago on a walk through my neighborhood.  Isn't the little Gnome village cute!  In addition am trying to add in some yoga a few days a week; but have really gone downhill with that.  Am so much more stiff than I was when I was doing it regularly.  Hard trying to get back into it, but trying.

Chocolate Latte and Assisted Living Centers Oh My

Startitis hit me.  No, I'm not done with Blue Ocean, but felt the need to start another afghan.  Partially because I needed something I didn't have to count as I was toting it back and forth to my Dad's skilled nursing facility and then from there to Assisted Living Center.  This is good old garter stitch, no counting necessary.  As you can see I've knitted a brown variegated section and have switched to dark brown for the second section.  I've included a tan for the 3rd color in my project bag.  This one measures 2.5 inches right by 57 inches.  I cast on 200 stitches, which is just 1 stitch more than Blue Ocean, but since this one doesn't have decreases and increased will measure a bit wider.  

And now for a name.....I've thought of Milk Chocolate, Cocoa, Chocolate Latte, or Coffee.  I'm leaning towards Chocolate Latte I think.

Here's a glimpse of Dad's Assisted Living Room.  It's a small studio type.  The cabinet provides some storage space for him.  My cross stitch friends will note the pillow on the blue chair is cross stitched.  My Mother made it.  Haven't hung any pictures yet.

You can see the little kitchenette area beside his bed.  A second cross stitch pillow Mom made.

The brown recliner in the corner is a new chair we got for him that's electric.  Less strenuous to operate, but will take some getting used to by him.  This has been quite a process and we're still working on trying to get him VA benefits to help with the medical costs.  We met with an elder attorney the other day....more paper work and costs involved with that.  Getting old sure isn't easy!!

Horrified to learn this, lol!  My steps have been up and down of late with all the Dad related stuff vs my ability to actually walk and or exercise.  You'll note my Walking 4 Fun Badge in the right sidebar

Happy Thanksgiving, Eat Today, Exercise Tomorrow

Happy Thanksgiving one and all.  Hope you all have a special day planned with friends and loved ones, and if you're traveling for the day, b safe.  

Tomorrow, we'll get back to our exercising off the food we eat today.  LOL  I purchased this recently after trying it out in Hilton Head.  My friend, Jane brought her's with her and I thought it seemed like a good item.  It's quite reasonably priced from 10.00 to 35.00 depending where you buy it.  I got mine on Amazon for 9.99.  She had purchased her's through a Groupon.  It's light weight and very portable so easy to take with you when you travel.  There are 3 bands to increase the resistance as you progress.  You can start with the lightest band which is 15 pounds resistence, and move to 25 and then 35.  You can also put two bands on...not that I ever think I'll get that strong.  This is called Wonder Arms.

Here's a little humor for you.  This made me smile when I saw it.  Do you make lists of things to do?  I do and love marking them off the list, however sometimes.........I decide something on the list doesn't need to be done.

Where has the time Gone?

Well it maybe a bit late for this New Years Follow up (see my last post), but I had this cute graphic and still wanted to share with you all.  How perfect is this yarn, knitting needles, crochet hooks and a Martini Glass!  In my last post I talked about getting back on the wagon with walking more, recording my food again, and being a virtual walking buddy to anyone wanting or needing friendship and encouragement.  I have walked more (being out of town 2 different times in warmer weather helps), I only managed to record my food for a couple of days and fell back off the wagon, and no one contacted me here to connect on facebook and or fitbit.  I've added lots of new friends through friend requests on fitbit and will be following up with Karen and Barbara who left comments on my previous post.

This is most recently completed work in progress.  I love the color green and enjoyed working with this yarn, Uptown DK, but did have some issues with getting this finished, thanks to the hungry vacuum, posted story HERE   The shawl was for a friend of my Daughter's who's going through chemo.

Recently started this shawl/scarf.  I say either or, as it might not be large enough for a shawl?  We'll see when completed.  The pattern calls it a shawl.  I started this long ago and frogged it.  The handspun just wasn't showing up very well in the original pattern, and it's better here .......though still not great.  Plus the color is off a bit, it's really more gold then the picture shows.  Strange how that happens sometimes.

Started this knitted stripped ghan for Bridge and Beyond, but had to frog about half of what you see here in the picture.  Kept having issues........pathetic since it's just garter stitch, but somehow my fingers and brain weren't playing nice together....typically in the evening after a Martini....hum...So, haven't taken an updated photo, but it's currently about twice this large with the colors stripes slightly different.  I do like the color combination.

 Another case of colors not being right.  This ghan is called Pink Persuasion.  It's not this pink, nor is it as muted as the picture belong.  The real color is somewhere in between.  These pictures were taken 2 different times, no doubt lighting different, and I actually think it was 2 different cameras.  The picture below is when I first designed it from donated squares, named it and added it to my collection to work on later.  The current picture shows 2 rows edged and assembled, how much the edging and joining is increasing the size and is actually the back side of the ghan.  Apparently when viewing the picture to know the color design on my ipad...the picture got flipped several times, so now to get things correctly laid down and connected, I'm looking at the back side, lol

Both ghans, and the shawl/scarf were projects I took on the road during January and February when hubby and I traveled to Hilton Head, SC.  Love going there in the winter.  No worries about a sunburn, but you also don't have to shovel snow.

 This is a perpetual calendar, a gift from my Darling Daughter at Christmas.  I've set up the first quarter of the year with dates and cards and dividers.

I began using it on January 1.  The idea is to use it to record a short sentence or two each day, about what you doing, feeling, what you're grateful for, anything really.  A calendar with more of a diary twist.  Each card is a day and once you complete the year, you start over using the same cards.  I was really enjoying using this...this was going to be my 2nd post of the year, the day after my New Years Post.....well, as you can see that didn't happen.  I've been gone 3 wks and had intended to actually make notes while away to fill in on my return.........that didn't happen either, so now my debate is pick up anew, or try to go back and fill in?  It's hard to know what thoughts you were actually having on any given day, so think I'll record where I was to remember 2 or 3 years from now why I didn't have anything, and start anew.

That brings me sorta up to date.  While away I did yoga for the very first time and enjoyed it.  A beginners class at the resort where we stayed.  I don't remember it all, and wonder if doing just a few things still is good...or if doing things in a particular order is part of the benefit?  Anyone know?  I also used exercise equipment for the very first time.  A couple of days were  too windy and wet to walk outside so I did some walking on the treadmill, road the stationary bike, and used an elliptical.  I also enjoyed that and wished I had a reasonable or predictable schedule enough to perhaps get a gym membership..........or maybe buy some equipment for here at the house.

Hoping to get back into blogging more in 2015, and hope you all are doing well.  Tell me what you've been doing.