Knitting, Eating, Reading Continue

 

Blue Ripple, I think is what I'll call this afghan.  I've made good progress since the last picture.  The variegated blue yarn section is a large section, as I have a lot of that yarn...though I don't like working with it, as it's course and hard on the hands.  I hope it softens up when laundered.  The section after the variegated is navy blue, which has not yet been used.  I started with the variegated, then used light blue, then a medium blue, and then the large variegated section, followed by the navy.  Then I think probably back to the variegated...we'll see how the amounts of the yarn work out.

We had another dinner party for 6.  We had pesto butschetta topped with diced tomatoes to go with our cocktails, broccoli, and heirloom potatoes seasoned with garlic and olive oil.

And Chicken Marsala.  

Cocktails were Classic Manhattans.

The Book of Lost Names.........Nominated as Best Historical Fiction in 2020.  I LOVED this book.  Nazi's tried hard to destroy many cultures, art, books, and libraries.  They really wanted nothing none German to survive World War II.  A  secret code, and the hard work of forgers giving people new identies as they escaped The Nazi's makes for book hard to put down.

While we all know about Helen Keller's blindness, and how she overcame the difficulties, I did not know how many other things she excelled in.  This autobiography was quite an eye opener for me.

tuesdays with Morrie, is at times uplifting and at times hard to read/listen to.  This memoir written by Mitch Albom deals with life and death and unusual friendship between Mitch and his Sociology Professor.  It also shows how impactful teaching can be.  Highly recommend this book.

Exercise will be down this month, as I had a nasty gastrointestinal bug for too many days, and we had more rain and more wind thus far this month.  We'll just have to see how the month's stats shake out.  Thank you all for your encouragement, it's always appreciated.  I really wanted this month to be gang busters, but it will not be.

Yarn and More. You Can't Knit While Walking, or Biking or Planking

 Square Garden is complete.  It's laying out to dry/block.  I named this one square garden because with all the brown, and beige it reminded me of the ground this time of the year, with patches of green grass around it.  There's a name for this type of pattern where the squares are diagonal, but I don't remember what it is.  And since the squares aren't really the same, but similar it might not qualify to be called that, even if I could remember what it is, lol.

Here it is before edging and joining.  Very bland here I think.  I think the green brighten it up and made the colors pop.  Though some the difference you see colorwise is no doubt due to different lighting when the pictures were taken.

I'm done with the pieces parts afghans for now, as I only brought the 3 projects with me while we winter away.  This knitted ripple afghan is a long term project.  I can't work on this at night due to the darker colors, and it's not one I can knit while watching tv else my counting would be off...so this project bag has been put away for some time and I thought it would be good to bring with me to work on some before tucking it away again.  It's also yarn that's rather hard on my hands, so I don't work on this for long periods of time.  Who knows how long it will take to complete this one.

More beautiful roses.  These have been fun to watch day to day. They looked almost white with a slight green edge when they were buds, then as they started opening up you could see they were light pink.

Cocktail napkins (you know I have a thing about them), lined up for a dinner party of 6.  Everyone enjoys seeing what napkins I'll have when they come for cocktails before dinner.

The menu that night was beautiful asparagus, lightly oiled and seasoned with garlic, salt and pepper.  They're ready to pop in the oven at 400 degrees for about 20 minutes.

Salad was spring mix, bacon bits, onions, strawberries, and shaved almonds with a light vingerette dressing.

One of my specialities is mac n cheese.  Though this is not mac n cheese to most people.  They call is my special cheese casserole.  I use 4 or 5 types of cheese (depending on what I have), and imported Italian pasta cooked aldente.  Layered, add milk and butter.  Cheeses this night were: Parmesean, sharp cheedar, romano, cottage cheese.  Mac n Cheese isn't perhaps a normal dish prepared for company, but it's often requested, as it was for this dinner.

Stuffed mushrooms served during cocktails.  Mushrooms are stuffed with parm. cheese, tomatoes, baconbits, and chopped spinach.

February stats:  Biking up from 4 rides in January to 6 rides in February, planks down from 11 in January to 9 in February, walks up from 8 in January to 12 in February.  Mileage down from 116.89 miles in January to 109.33 in February.  All in all not bad, given February is a shorter month than January, I'm feeling encouraged.  AND towards the end of the month on Feb 27th I upped the time on my planks from 45 seconds x 4 with a 13 second rest to 50 seconds x 4 and a 14 second rest.

A short read/listen , but cute letter from President Obama to his girls.  Light hearted and sweet.

Present Day in Oxford where secrets of the past during WWII come to light.  American Kendra interviews Isabel and the past unfolds.  The lives of two sisters separated in War grow up and experience two very different lives.

Crocheting, World War II Books, Sunsets and More

 

Pastel Petals.  Pinks and purples, various sized squares and rectangles, but believe these pieces parts are closer in size than the previous afghan I made from donated squares.  

Ta Dah!  It's finished and laying here to dry/blocked.  I had enough of the light lilac color yarn in my stash that I didn't need to use multiple colors to edge and join, as I did with the previous "Little Boy Blue" afghan.

I don't typically do more than a basic straight edge for these afghans assembled from pieces parts, as most are colors that work for either a male or female; but this one is decitely female, and so I made a scalloped edge to finish it off.  You can see it in the picture with the whole afghan, but here's a close up.

We've had another dinner party, but not as large.  6 instead of 14 at our last one where I served chicken enchildas.  Which is not what is pictured here.  This is Chicken Marsala that I fixed for just hubby and I a few nights ago.

We enjoyed this Spanish wine so much we ended up ordering a few more bottles.  If you've not tried it, add it to your list.

We had a gorgeous sunset a few nights ago as I looked out the walk way making my way to take out the trash.  Was almos to late to get the picture.  Probably 5 minutes earlier was the best time.

Another beautiful bunch of flowers.  We've kept this, rather, hubby has kept this vase filled for me.  We've both enjoyed having flowers daily in the condo.  He brought these home to me ono Valentines Day.  I much prefer yellow roses over red, in case you're wondering.

This is the 3rd book of Louise Fein's I've read/listened to.  This is an historical fiction, but inspired by the authors fa,mily history with lots of addtional research done.  The book is extremely reviting, hard to put down.  There's what she knew as the daughter of a high ranking Nazi official vs what she begins to learn through her Jewish Friend, Walter.  Courage, love, danger and picking ones path are choices she makes during this difficult time.  I highly recommend this book folks.

Helmet for my Pillow is a personal narrative or Marine Corp Veteran, Robert Leckie.  You travel with him from basic training on Paris Island, South Caroline to the raging war in The Pacific Theater.  This book was published back in 1957.  He was inspired to write this book after seeing South Pacific on Broadway.  He thought it was important to let the public know, the war and all it's horror were NOT like a musical.  I thought I might not enjoy the book, since it seemed like it might be too masculine for me to enjoy; but I was totally enthralled with the book and highly recommend it.

Little Boy Blue, Yarn, Walk, Bike, Yoga and More!

 

Another project started.  I call this one, Car Scarf.  Not very creative a name.  I don't usually name my scarves, just the afghans; but I needed an easy on the eyes, no counting stitches for a car project.  Thus, Car Scarf.  LOVE these contrasting colors together, teal and gray.  This is my favorite go to yarn (Encore, Plymouth worsted weight).  Each skein is 200 yards, it's 75% acrylic and 25% wool, therefore washable; is in my opinion the softest everyday yarn.  I also have a teal tweed skein with me here in Hilton Head that would blend; but not sure how much yardage I will need since I'm not using a pattern...just knitting.  Stay tuned.

This was step 1 (see previous post)

Step 2, where everything had been edge with the dark blue for 2 rows.  Once you edge you can really begin to see the variety of sizes.

This is step 3, 4, and 5.  TaDah!  Light blue was then used on each square/rectangle.  Some squares (the larger ones), have 1 row of light blue, others 2 or 3 rows, but several had 4, and I think one had 5 (can't remember).  Then it was edge with 3 rows of the dark blue, tossed in washer (this is washable acrylic), then layed out and stretched a bit (blocked).  It's drying as we speak.  Typ;cally things soften up in the wash; but this didn't as much as others I've worked on.  Some pretty course yarn used here and there.  Once it's dried, I'll decide whether or not to wash a 2nd time to soften more.  

"Little Boy Blue"  

For those of you perhaps younger than me and unfamiliar with this childrens nursery rhyme.  This is what came to mind when I named this afghan.  It will be donated to The Homeless Families Foundation on my return to Ohio.

Chicken Enchilda's before plating it up

Awesome coffee with great froth

Stuffed mushrooms, parsley pasta, chicken parmesan with sliced tomatoes

Almost an omlet with fresh strawberries, sliced avocado, banana nut bread with cream cheese.  With a breakfast (brunch) like this you don't need much the rest of the day.  We've been eating well on this trip.

We're keeping fresh flowers in the condo.  Two sides of the same vase so you can see the whole thing.

WOW!!  Back to my love of WWll books.  This is a fusion of biography, letters, note, and diaries smuggled out of a prison in Berlin.  American, Mildred Harnack at the age of 26 travels to Berlin to enter a PhD program when the rise of The Nazi party took hold.  She orgnaized secret meetings in her apartment and was the ONLY American to head the German Resistenance to Hitler with acts of sabatage and more.  A truly remarkable young lady during a difficult time.  Mildred Harnack's Great-Great Niece is Rebecca Donner, the aurhor of this book.  PLEASE put this on you list and let me know what you think folks.  Highly recommended.

Can't compare January 2023 to December 2022, as I forgot to get a tall;y from my calendar before we left town; but I'm sure Janaury is better.

Bike:...have gone for 4 bike rides 3 miles each.  I don't ride at home, no decent trails, plus I really don't have a bike, so indeed better.

Planks 11 planks of 4 repeats of 45 second planks with 13 seconds of rest between.  I know I didn't do that many in December, just don't know how many I did.

Walks.  Went for 8 walks of varying distances.  Total steps for the month 281,528 for a total of 116.89 miles.

Yoga twice for the month, though I think I did a few more and forgot to record them.  

All in all, not a bad start to the New Year.  Now if I can only build on this.

Starts and Finishes With Knitting and The New Year

 

Another completed knitted project.  My Outlander scarf/shawl is done!  It's been soaked, and blocked and worn twice!  It's so soft, I love it.  Wonderful yarn to work with and to wear.  I love how the colors blended.  This yarn, as you might remember was a gift from my Darling Daughter.  She Rocks, by the way.

Pieces parts!  When I had my grassroots charity,. Bridge and Beyond (for 14 years), people would send me squares, rectangles and things they had left over.  As you can see these pieces are not the same size.  Sometimes when other charities folded they would send me things they had left.  Some are knitted, some are crocheted.  I would design, label, and bag.  I've always named the would be afghans and called this one Little Boy Blue.  I would use my stash to find yarn that would blend with these pieces parts and begin edging them to get them to flatten out better and to start getting them to be the same size so they could be joined.

While I closed the charity a year ago, I still have things to work on to donate.  Here's the start.

They're coming closer to being the same size, but.........I edge with 2 rows each, then see how much of the dark blue I have in my stash to determine if I have enough to continue using the dark blue to bring to size, or if I'll need to switch to the light blue you see in the upper left corner.  It's a process, a bit like putting a puzzle together.  But, it's coming along

Belated Happy New Year to you all.  I hope everyone had a safe and fun New Years and that 2023 brings us all closer to being done with Covid, and that the poor folks in Ukraine can improve their situation.

A very powerful book about the power of Harvey Weinstein and sexual misconduct.  How the Me Too Movement got started, and how long this sad situation insued.

Just a few of the women involved.  It was of course in the news, so many people know about it, but  reading/listening to the book tells you so much more than we knew.  Well worth the read or listen.  Incrediable journalism.

Another non WWII book I've listened to and highly recommend, The Story of Helen Keller.  She was far more accomplished than I knew.  Put it on your list, if you've not already read or listened to it.

I've not tabulated my numbers for December on my exercising.  Forgot to do that before we left for the winter, so will have to see if I still have my notes when I return home.  But, I'm getting a good start I think to the New Year.  I've rented a bike for the duration and know that will help me be more active.  Plus, the weather is nicer so getting out to take some walks will be easier as well.  We'll see how I fair here in January.

All ready for our dinner party.  We managed to fit 14 in for dinner last night.  We catch up with other folks who come for the winter or a big chunk of it.  It's fun to see the same folks each year.  We call ourselves the January Gang.

One of my friends brought me these beautiful yellow roses (yellow is a favorite for me), she said yellow means friendship.  Everyone enjoyed seeing the pretty flowers.

I prepared 4 pork tenderloins with a sauce that everyone always loves.  Syrup, garlic, rosemary, and ground mustand.

2 Large casserole dishes of red skins, and brussel sprouts.  I had to cook the sprouts a bit before I could add the butternut squash, as the squash was cut in smaller pieces than it typically is, also added cranraisins (I like cranberries, but couldn't get any).  Forgot to take a picture of the salad which was a mix of greens and caprese style tomatoes and fresh mozzarella in a small log almost to sit on top of the greens.  Drizzeled with balsamic glaze makes for a pretty and colorful salad.  Whew, slept in this am, we were a bit tired.

Need to get out and visit you all (everyone on my blog list), to catch up.  Been since Christmas since I've posted and done any blog walking.  See you all soon.

Merry Christmas, Outlander, Henrietta Lacks

 Merry Christmas from my house to yours!  If you traveled for the holidays, I hope you were able to travel safely and reach your destination.  I know the storms across the country made life difficult for many.

Good headway is being made on my latest scarf/shawl (Outlander).  Took this picture a few days ago, but since then have finished the last section you see plus started the next section.  Hope to have it finished fairly soon.  But, things have been busy with the holidays and darling daughter's visit...........sooooooooo, we shall see.

Finsihed this book awhile back, a change from my typical World War II books.  The story is fascinating, entertaining, and sad all rolled together.  It'a s true story, and sheds light on why  many Black Americans lack trust in medical science.  I encourage you to read or listen to this if you haven't already.  I loved listening, due to the language variences used.  I recently read an article indicating a statue of her will be placed in Roanaokes Henrietta Lack Plaza, to replace a Robert E. Lee monument which seems very appropriate to me.  Bruce Cobbs designed the statue.