Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving count your blessings--Ann--

afternoon walk

Latest book list:

1. Quiet by Susan Cain non-fiction this book is about how some people and I am one of them who function better in quiet.
2. Starting Now by Debbie Macomber latest in Blossom Street series.
   
3. Summer Island by Kristin Hannah mother daughter relationships, family secrets and mending fences.
4. A Life in  Hand by Hannah Hinchman about sketching and journaling
   
5. The Devil's Puzzle by Clare O'Donohue quilt mystery
6. Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks I will definitely be looking for more of her books, about a small village in England that quarantines itself because of the plague. Book club.
7. Lost and Found in Cedar Cove by Debbie Macomber
8. Dying for Chocolate by Diane Mott Davidson a murder mystery with recipes
9. A Lost Lady by Willa Cather
10. May the Road Rise up to Meet You by Peter Troy about an Irish immigrant coming to America in the mid 1800's, the Civil war and slavery.
11. The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce about Harold Fry who is walking the length of England to see an old co worker who is dying, its about his recollections on his life and marriage. Book Club
    
12. Thanksgiving by Ellen Cooney follows a Massachusetts family from 1600 to present day, a fun read for this time of year.

 For me a measure of a good book is how long I think about the characters after I read the book. Harold Fry is a character I am still thinking about weeks after book club. It was cold here over the weekend 17F and I had son's dog so I bundled up to take her for a walk thinking we would just go to the end of the lane and back and she would do the necessary. I had on my flannel lined jeans and hand knit wool socks and comfortable shoes. I had a scarf around my neck, my coat was zipped, a stocking cap on my head and my grey wool mittens on my hands, the sun was shinning and there was almost no wind (always note worthy in South Dakota) almost no wind. So we walked up the road then past the grain bins and I thought about Harold Fry going to the next post box to mail his letter. We walked up the dirt lane to the fence line then to the next fence line, and I thought about Harold Fry going to the next post box, I walked to the cedar trees, another fence line and almost to the big dip in the lane where the snow melt washed out the road years ago. And unlike Harold Fry I turned around to walk home. --Ann--

on the needles

 These socks have knit fast, just can't wait to get to the next color. My stripes matched for a while then the stripe changes on top sock about at the beginning of the gusset the second red stripe followed by green should be the blue and white not the solid blue and there wasn't even a knot. Then I came to a knot in the medium blue between the two navy stripes and now the repeat is reversed to the bottom sock.

 So far the stripes are matching with the red and brown socks, a Blossom Street yarn and oh so soft, daughter started them and decided she wasn't ready for socks. I couldn't keep my hands off the yarn, it is so soft. I also started the blue self striping yarn pulling from the inside of the skein and the stripes are reversed. Wouldn't you expect that the skeins would be wound the same!!??!! But no!!

I knit some reading mitts aka texting mitts with left over yarn from my first sweater I bought way too much yarn for the sweater, one ball makes a pair some special people might be getting mitts for Christmas. I also got darling daughter started on these, and its going much better than the socks. Check out the knitting at Judy's On the Needles  It is getting cold here single digits burrr but great weather for wearing hand knits and knitting, the reading mitts are wonderful for driving. --Ann--

out of the cupboard

 I found this quilt at my Dad's, it was in an old hat box or maybe it was a cheese box,  which might be the topic of another post.  I look at it and sometimes I see red T's with yellow squares in the middle, other times I see delectable mountains or a variation of the bear paw with a red square in the middle and sometimes when I blink I see yellow geese on a wild goose chase. 

And then I saw the stitching in one block, the quilt was made for my mother by her great-grandmother which would make her my Grandpa's grandma or third great grandmother to my children, six generations back. She was 80 years old when she made it and I have no idea what her name was.

The blocks were hand pieced but it was machine quilted in a large grid.  There is no batting in it and the backing is a heavy purple fabric, I wonder if it was a skirt or drapes in an earlier life. 80 years back from 1929...she was born in 1849 so it could have been a skirt from the civil war era up until the ladies shortened their skirts in the 1920's. and it looks like the quilt top was trimmed to fit the backing there must not have been any quilt police back then. Wondering about my ancestors.........--Ann--

Design Wall Monday

The Winding Ways parts are all sewn together. The quilt has made a quarter turn clockwise from the initial arrangement of block parts. Next to add a 6 inch border of the scallop fabric then to machine quilt it. Daughter thinks I should quilt with the concentric tear drops that I do so frequently, I think it needs a double ring of stitching in each circle and all the circles will overlap. I want to accentuate the circles because arranging the parts was like having a flash go off in my face. I was seeing spots like an Afterimage which is what I am calling this quilt. I will need an arc for a 15 inch circle for that and I will be machine quilting while sitting at the machine I know there will be lots of challenges or I can send it to someone to machine quilt it that way. Decisions, decisions. --Ann-- Check out Judy's Design Wall Monday and be inspired. Linking to Nina's off the wall Friday to see more of the design process click Winding Ways in the labels section.

Off the needles

Big finish last night!!!socks for son with the big calves are done!!! I have to crow about him for just a minute here. Tuesday I drove to Brookings for the dedication of the Veterans Resource Center at SDSU, he was instrumental in it becoming a reality when he was a student. He was asked to speak and surprise he got to cut the ribbon. When he was
 President of the Veterans club he

and attended a conference and came to the conclusion that a Veterans Resource Center was needed at SDSU and all state supported institutions of higher education in the state.  So he wrote legislation based on neighboring states, found some supporters in the legislature, presented it to the education committee where it passed, then to the house where it passed, then to the senate where it failed because every department  was asked to cut their budget by 10% and no new money was available, the wording was also changed from "shall to may" opening it up for the institution to find funding for the center. Then my son graduated. With the guidance of the faculty adviser the project continued and they now have a room.

 It is a wonderful room with leather chairs and sofas and tables for veterans to gather and study together. The big goal is for more veterans to graduate from college. Currently a very small percentage graduates because college is not the military, it is not high school and these young men and women do not fit in the dorms with the traditional incoming freshmen. It is a tough adjustment and hard to make friends and find a support group in the mass lectures of freshman and sophomore level classes.  A little more about him here  and I did crow for the whole post  I am so proud of him.  --Ann--    linking to Judy's on the needles

Half way there.....

Hump Day half of my After Image Winding Ways quilt is sewn together. It is amazing what I can get done if I stay home and put the knitting needles down. --Ann--

On the Needles

It worked!! to insert a "life"line into these socks and unravel, I counted rows of ten with buttons in case I got distracted.

I have knit about an inch with an increase every 3rd row but I think I will wait until he can try them on again so I don't have to re rip. What a difference a flash makes in the color of the yarn, top photo is without a flash and color is more true to life.

My sweater was still damp from blocking in last weeks photo, I'll model it for you this week.  Set the camera on the fireplace mantle, set the self timer and the burst mode and play to the camera...........

Happy Knitting--Ann-- and stop by Judy's On The Needles to see what everyone else is knitting.

Design wall Monday

I have made some progress on my winding ways the top 6 rows are sewn together in to rows of 3 blocks, I will sew the next quarter when I have the next 4 rows of blocks sewn together, the goal is to do 6 a day this week. I have also been sorting through boxes from my parents house and they all seem to land in my sewing room.
Here is a pillow my grandmother made in the 1960's in sorting through stuff I found a clipping from the newspaper with a photo of her and all the things she was showing at the county fair that year
 so I know for a fact that she did stitch the pillow and now I have written on the back for future generations.  --Ann--
Linking to Judy's Design Wall Monday

On and off the needles

 Yippee Skippee I finished the blue green socks!!! the rib pattern is p1, k1, slip 1, k1, p1 and repeat then knit a row, easy pattern but on a solid it became tedious. But I'm done!!! as a reward........

 I started new socks with self striping yarn. Self striping yarn is so much fun with its own the built in incentive to knit to the next color. I'm knitting a basket weave pattern k3, p3, repeat 3 rows then knit a row and reverse p3,k3 etc.

Then there are the wretched camouflage socks for son with his large calves. I'm inserting a life line using the size 0 kneedles from blue green socks, I placed markers where I knit  increases, I will insert the needle all the way around then begin to slowly unravel and rewind and count the rows and hopefully I inserted the needles into the same row in both socks then I can begin knitting again with the size 2 needles. As I was thinking through this plan I finished my sweater. Knitting is so meditative I sort through a lot of things in my head while I am knitting and not just knitting problems.

I love the way it fits, I knit the garter row edging tight around the neck and bound off tight so I hope it holds its shape.  The neck down cardigan I knit last winter from a different pattern feels like it is falling off my shoulders. This on is just called Neckdown Cardigan for women from Knitting Pure and Simple  with more of a crew neck.The yarn is a grey Donegal tweed that darling son (with the large calves so I have to finish his socks next)  brought home from Ireland last summer and a variegated Mushishi tweed yarn. It will be like wearing a hug from him.
 Linking to Judy's On the Needles and be inspired. ~~Ann~~