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.
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.
Since I'm still not very mobile (broken foot if you've not been reading my blog previously), I've spent a fair amount of time looking out the window, watching spring happen in the neighborhood. Took this photo out of my bedroom window. Two little girls, one from next door and one from across the street like to set up in our yard. It makes them feel more private I think. LOL Seriously, how cute is this! It took them a while to get all set up and inside their umbrella fort. Reminded me of when our daughter was young and we would travel. She would put up a towel between the two front seats of the car...that way her space there in the back seat was private...she was in her reading fort. She was an avid reader even when quite young and we traveled lots of miles out west to camp and she'd read a book a state basically...all in her private fort.
Having finished the previous afghan (Learning Logs..previous post), got something else on the needles. Picture looks a bit mauve, but the color really is more purple-violet. This is yet anothe afghan. Not using a pattern, so guesstimated and cast on 202 stitches.
After all the color work in the previous afghan, and counting for texture, and the constant binding off and picking up stitches, wanted something truly mindless. Doing basic stripes........probably all garter stitch to just let it flow. Started this ghan a few days ago and have already added the above two colors to it. Since it's all a guesstimate...I'm not yet sure if I'll need to add another color in order to have enough yarn. I have the one gray as above, and 2 of turquoise and 5 of violet. 8 skeins of washable wool. Violet skeins are 197 yards each, turquoise is 277 yards, and the gray is 277; for a total of 1816 yards. That seems a bit shy of enough to me. Thoughts??? When I can get to the basement to check my stash, I might have more yarn of the appropriate weight etc that could get added to the mix. For now, I'll play through.
Latest British Series is Upstairs Downstairs. A bit more rambunctious than Downton Abbey, perhaps with some similarities of personalities. A much shorter series, only 2 seasons. Focused more on the torment before The War in England with regard to Hitler...and how divided The English Government was about doing something about it.
Quite an ending! Fun to see Claire Foy (who played Queen Elizabeth in The Crown), be so very different in this roll. Would have enjoyed the series more I think if Edmund Stoppard as Sir Hallam had been played by a different actor. I've just never liked him, and don't find him at all attractive or sexy...so seeing him a roll where that's an issue was less enticing. But, with that said.......the series was indeed enticing and I do recommend it.
You really have to keep a sense of humor about life. In so doing, some have suggested this could be a new fashion trend, lol. The Ortho Boot, and the hiking boot are as close as I can come to the same height. It causes me to walk lopsided, but would be far worse if I wore a decent looking shoe.......so there you go. (was making my way to plug in my ipad when hubby snapped the shot).
99.9% of my walking is here in the house. Truly not very mobile and since I can't drive anywhere.......have continued to watch shows on my ipad from either Netflix or Amazon Prime. This was a very enjoyable show about strong women in England during World War II.
I watched this one on Amazon Prime. It first aired in May of 2015, and the last episode was May of the following year, 2016. LOVE the period clothing, and the history of how women did so much while men were off fighting. I think it's only been in recent years they've gotten more credit for all they did.
You probably recognize the actress on far right in the first picture and left in the 2nd pictures as Samantha Bond played Rosamund in Downton Abbey. I also read that she played Miss Moneypenny in James Bond during the Pierce Bronson years; though I didn't recognize that.
I'm continuing to work on this afghan, Learning Logs.
And am currently working on what I believe will be the last section. Already thinking about what to work on next. Perhaps I'll start putting this together?
It will take some work to get things to be the right size and fit together.
Though perhaps that's too much up and down as I'm enjoying this series that I started just yesterday.
Anyone watch Home Fires? If you did, were you left up in the air as much as I was at the end. Soooooooo disappointing it was cancelled after that.
Anyone watched The Grand? Takes place in the 1920's in Manchester with lots of lust, greed, and gossip..........AND cool period clothing.
Making headway with The Learning Logs Afghan. Have added about 10 sections since the last picture. This afghan has what I call 3 zones. The center...zone 1 where colorwork was done. Knitting with 2 or 3 colors at one time using the slip stitch method. I did this square as a class project.
Zone 2 has lots of texture with the solid colors represented in the color work in zone 1. Zone 3.......is strictly garter stitch to help the whole afghan lay flat, and I continue to use colors represented in zone 1 and 2. Closing in I think. Last I measured it, believe it was about 53-54 inch square. Have probably enough yarn left for 2 more sections. Imagine the finished ghan will be 56-57...maybe close to 60 inches after it's laundered and blocked. The colors are more vivid than the pictures shows. This seems a bit light to me, not sure why. But, if you scroll back to the previous post the colors look more natural to me.
Just finished watching Victoria, on Master Piece Theater. Season one is included with Amazon Prime Membership, but season two requires a membership to Master Piece Theater. I joined and got a 7 day free trial. I was able to watch season 3 of Poldark (see previous post for pictures and info), and then season 2 of Victoria with my 7 day trial. Need to see if there's anything else I want to watch before my free time ends.
This photo seems to show quite a resemblance between the real Queen Victoria and the actress. Was surprised to see this, as other pictures I've seen of Victoria didn't show her to be a very handsome woman. Quite a love story. She and Alfred were very passionate, and their marriage was't really an arranged marriage which is a bit unusual for Royalty.
Started physical therapy yesterday for my broken foot and will be going twice a week for maybe the next 8 weeks. Therapist informed me that the bone I broke is the slowest healing bone in your foot. So, apparently it's good I spent time today updating my watch list for both Amazon Prime and Netflix.
NETFLIX:
A Promise
Tulip Fever
The Dutchess
Serena
The Patadise
Anyone watch and recommend any of those?
Amazon Prime:
Elizabeth Virgin Queen
Home Fires
The Forsyte Sage
Jamestown
Last Hope
The Grand
Ekateriana
Cranford
Same question, anyone watched any of these or recommend them?
Spotted this picture a couple of weeks ago on Facebook and saved it to my computer as a reminder. The cute bright colored lady bugs are painted rocks. I thought it was a cleaver idea, but knew I would not remember it without a picture. I don't think I'll do this in a flower bed, as my flower beds are too large and far from the house so I wouldn't really see them. But, perhaps in flower pots on the deck where I could enjoy them?
Am continuing to work on this afghan, Learning Logs. This picture isn't absolutely up to date, as this was several sections ago; but you can see it's considerably larger than the last picture I took of it. I'm having a problem in that I may run out of the right colors. I actually think I have some down in the basement in my stash, but with my foot still in the boot and limited mobility; I can't go searching through my stash. I had put what I thought was enough in the project bag long ago when I started this in the class on Crafty's to learn how to do the drop stitch work for multiple colors. I was able to have hubby get me more of the yellow. I sorta remembered where in my stash it was, so he found it easily; but.......didn't have much luck when I asked him to see about the rose color. Soooooo, we'll see how this goes. I may have to put it aside until my foot is healed and I can go back down the stairs. I do have another project bag of yarn that I could start another project (but not sure there's enough in there either, as I planned to add to it when I got the original idea of putting specific colors together.
I've mentioned several times lately how much tv I'm watching while elevating my broken foot. This is Poldark. If you've not watched this series, I highly recommend it. Firstly, ladies...take a look at the main character. WOW! The scenery is captivating and reminds me of what I saw touring Ireland last fall.
There's lots of love stories, intrigue, suspense and good guys vs bad guys.
And did I mention, the main character is sexy!! I watched seasons one and two as part of my Amazon Prime Membership. I'm currently using a 7 day free trial of Master Piece Theater to watch the 3rd session. It's my understanding from a google search, that a date for season 4 will be announced sometime early summer of 2018. Not sure how or where that session will be available, so am keeping my eyes pealed.
What are you working on? How many work in progress do you have? Are you out doing gardening things yet? Spring has been fickle around the country. Have you watched Poldark? What did you think of it?
