Reading list #4

1. Catriona’s  War by Jean Grainger WW2 England and France
2. The Little Spark by Carrie Bloomston lots of ideas for boosting creativity making time and making a dedicated space
3. 1969: The Year Everything Changed by Rob Kirkpatrick About everything in 1969, Nixon, Vietnam, football, baseball, music, movies, theater, Woodstock and a whole lot more. I was 12/13 then I remember some of the events but not in detail except the moon landing and Zip to Zap, North Dakota where college students tried to drink the very small town dry.
4. Rainy Day Kisses by Debbie Macomber romantic fluff
5. Finding Billie Romano by Jean Grainger more in the life of Conor and Ana O’Shea and  Castle Dysert, explains a lot of Irish history and attitudes.
6. The Diary by Eileen  Goudge about two sisters reading their mother’s diary and a love story.
7. The Dressmaker’s Gift by Fiona Valpy WW2 France resistance and fashion.
8. Kitchens of the Great Midwest by J Ryan Stradal for book club enjoyed it as much the second time
9. A Thousand Acres by Jane Smiley farm family in Iowa for book club
10. The Story of Arthur Truluv by Elizabeth Berg great story just for fun.
11. Trials and Tribulations by Jean Grainger a Robinswood novel #3
12. Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb love story told through letters during WWI.
13. The Great Christmas Knit-Off by Alexandra Brown 30 something year old woman and her pity party, fiancé failed to show up for the wedding. Change of scenery, old friends and new friends help her get her life back together.
14. The Paris Secret by Lily Graham Paris WW2 
15. Pompeii: a Novel by Robert Harris about the eruption of Mt. Vesuveus in AD 79. I read this after son and DIL returned from their honeymoon cruise to New Zealand, their ship passed the volcano that erupted the night before it blew.  So glad they are home safe.
16. Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
17. Stranger from the Sea by Winston Graham book 8 of the Poldark saga.  There is a 10 year span between book 7 and 8.  Season 4 of the PBS series ended with book 7, season 5 was entirely the creation of series writers.   Book 8 starts roughly where season 5 ended with Ross going to abroad to deliver a message from Parliment to the English General Wellington during Napoleon's revolution. (I really don't know English/French history very well because Ross went to Portugal in book 8)  I read this a couple years go, needless to say I was a bit confused during season 5 when none of the plot was familiar.
18. The Miller's Dance by Winston Graham book 9 life continues in Cornwall as the Poldark children become young adults.

72 books in 2019

Happy New Year!  Happy reading, happy quilting, happy knitting, happy coffee, happy wine.
Happy 2020!  --Ann--

things I miss

Little things I miss:

•  Phones with cords  too many private conversations in public places
• Shopping in department stores  Shopping in big department stores was the best, they had fabulous window displays, merchandise was sensibly arranged by size and type of clothing. Outerwear was together, dressy was together, casual was together with all brands. Now the manufacturers have their section and all of their label is together so I can’t go to the sock section and see all the brands of socks in one spot I have to look all over the store.  No wonder online shopping is taking over.
• Ovens with dials  I have to push the temperature button 15 times to go from 350 to 425 for a sheet pan dinner.  Why doesn’t it change in 25 degree increments instead of 5. Have you ever baked anything at 335?  I haven't.
• Sliders on the controls in the car   It’s the same in the car, push push push it’s distracting me from driving.
• zip codes in phone books  I was looking up addresses in the phone book to send Christmas cards and no zip codes not even a page of zips for the state however on further inspection of a couple other phone books put out by other companies they did have the zip codes but not the one I needed.
• 8-12 ounce water glasses in eating establishments.  Do I really need to drink anything from a quart size vessel?

And a rant to end the year.  --Ann--

It was just a whisper

It was just a whisper at first, from the day it came in the mail, "knit me."  I can't start it until............ decorations are hung, presents are wrapped, cookies are baked, etc. etc. It called to me every time I went down stairs, "wind me, knit me."  I would pet it then walk away to finish some other task. Then it called a little louder so I wound it into balls.  Soon, very soon I would start knitting.  The anticipation.... I felt like a little kid waiting for Christmas.  Over the weekend the calling got louder, I could hear it hollering from downstairs  so I knit the swatch.  It kept prodding me to cast on and enchanted my needles...... The pattern is Fall River by Jennifer Wood.
--Ann--

in a stable

BELIEVE
Merry Christmas
--Ann--

believe

believe
--Ann--

the stockings were hung

   
  The stockings were hung, new sock made for DIL, I hope she likes it.   And stockings are knitted.  I can put my feet up and read this weekend.  Ha! I'll find some Christmas preparation I have forgotten to do.  --Ann--

Away in a manger

My pudgy little people that my Mother made, she wove the strips and sewed them together.
Remember the reason for the season.
--Ann--

Design wall

The blocks are arranged and sewn together.  Next to find a neutral fabric for the sashing and figure out how much I need.  Quantity may be the determining factor or a couple that work together.  Did you notice I matched the light side of the half square triangles in the blocks to make butterflies?         --Ann--

sweater finish

Another sweater finish this one on size 9 needles, it knit fast with an aran worsted weight yarn.  The cold snap that stayed has been an incentive to get it done.  Hope you are staying warm --A--

more little trees

 More little trees I've learned a lot knitting these little trees, I need a firm gauge so the trees stand up. The tall green and red yarn is sock weight  which was a pair of socks but it is 100% merino so I wore through the heel. The yarn was too expensive to toss and the beauty of yarn is you can rip and reknit, no one knows but you.  For socks use a blend with 10-25% nylon for strength and washability.  I knit the tree on 2.5 needles a smaller needle the tree might have stood up without a paper cone inside.  The short tree of the same yarn was knit on 1.0 needles.  The yellow green tree was single ply sock yarn, if I make another tree from that yarn I will use 2 strands.  The grey with blue and green in the yarn is a single stand in a mock cable.  Sometimes the color changes do not enhance the stitch pattern but you don't know until you try it.  I like the knit purl band tree because I can quit when the tree is tall enough or I run out of yarn. The ugly trees will find a spot behind the Christmas stuff.  Just a few more inches on the last pair of socks for Christmas.  Did I miss any k's?  Sometimes when writing about knitting I type kneedles and kneed, sometimes spellcheck corrects it and sometimes it doesn't.  --Ann--

bigger trees

 A few years ago I knit some bigger trees to fill the space above my kitchen cabinets. They were shapeless floppy cones that looked like really bad stocking caps.  I found this pattern for tall skinny trees with knit rows and purl rows.  I picked the yarn end and ripped and knit as I ripped some more.

  The grey tree is knit on size 6 needles with a double strand of sock yarn, I pulled the yarn out and matched to color sections to  mostly grey or green and blue.  The last 2 pattern repeats the colors started pooling.  Wish the whole tree was like that with swirls of green and grey.   I will knit some smaller trees with a single strand of that yarn and see what happens.  The solid blue green yarn is a worsted weight but a single ply and works best with simple stitches.  There will soon be 2 more trees of this yarn and pattern (for knit / purl trees).  The house is looking like Christmas.  --Ann--

A forest of trees

I’ve been knitting these little fir trees the last few months. I knit a couple rounds between arranging the quilt blocks.  They are fiddley to get started on DPNs  (casting on DPNs is the most clumsy thing in the world and on skinny short needles it’s even worse) but then my hands get a feel for it and in no time my tree is done. Some have cables, some right and left cables making antlers or wishbones, some have extra cables because I wanted a taller tree then I got brave and tried  a mock cable which is the tallest in the top pic, it was so floppy I inserted a paper cone to hold it up, its not a stocking cap.  I even knit one with no cables.  Top row of trees are knit with a silky bamboo yarn that had long stretches of white.  The trees in the middle pic are made with leftover sock yarn. These little cuties (link to pattern) fit on a wine cork.  --Ann--

more scraps

A little work in the sewing room last week.  The weather got chilly again so....... to my sewing room. Pretty random placement of 4 patches and half square triangles.  Lots to do and this is not high on the priority list at the moment anyway hope you are staying warm and cozy and not getting crazy with Christmas preparations. --Ann--

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving  --Ann--

mini birds

I have a collection of miniature figures for all seasons but I don't change them as often as I used to.  I'd rather do ther things than decorate my house for every occasion.  Funny how that changes when your kids get big.  Here are some of my favorites for fall and Thanksgiving.  We have had some gloriously warm days for November ( no wind and temps in the 40's) so I have gone for long walks instead of  the usual creative stuff.  Sometimes I just need to feel the sun on my face.                  --Ann--

finished and blocked

I finished my sweater then promptly gave it a good soak then into the washer on spin cycle in a mesh bag, then blocked on the boards.  The sleeves grew by about 5 inches.  I liked that length in the torso but the sleeves............argh.
I could rip the sleeves and make them shorter. argh don't really want to do that.  Its knit with super wash wool, I remember reading an atricle on super wash wool a few years ago. Spend a couple hours on the internet looking for that article or something similar, find a couple patterns to knit next and some yarn.  Back to the problem at hand.......  Stretching is a charcteristic of superwashwool but drying in the dryer is also a characteristic of super wash.  The little scales on the fibers have been removed so the yarn doesn't felt it stretches instead. Another trip to the spa for the sweater, soak,  and into the mesh bag for a quick spin, then the dryer on extra low. Check the sweater every 5 minutes or so, restart the dryer, check again turn the dryer up to low, check again try sweater on, a cool damp sweater does not feel good.  Back in the dryer and turn the heat up to medium another 5 - 10 minutes and its perfect.  A warm wool sweater fresh from the dryer now that's cozy! That was a whole lot easier than ripping the sleeves.  

Thank you to the designer Jennifer Wood of Woodhouse Knits for answering all my questions about Ellington.  I will be knitting more of her patterns.
Its a good day to wear wool here on the plains. --Ann--

P.S.  I used 6 ball of Berroco Ultra Wool 219 yards per ball and I have 4 yards of yarn left!!  I'm glad I didn't make a larger swatch.

knitting progress

Its cold here as it is from the plains to the coast.  There is just enough snow on the ground to make it look and feel colder, the wind doesn't help either.  I remembered a paragagraph in a James Herriot book I used to read to my kids it was titled Moses the Kitten the story was wonderful and the pictures were even better "the Dales looked their coldest not when they were covered with snow, but as now, when the first sprinkling streaked the bare flanks of the fells in bars of black and white like the ribs of a crouching beast" The snow is caught in every rut and divot, leaves are still falling from trees, the wind cuts to the bone, its cold here.  Wool does help, wool socks, wool sweaters, wool scarves, wool hats, wool mittens and gloves.  A couple more evenings not watching tv and I should be done. Its only November I'm going to need a lot more sweaters.  Happy knitting --Ann--

knitting cables

Hubby went hunting for the weekend plus a couple days so it was a long weekend of knitting for me.  First I listened to the sound track of Hamilton again.  What did I miss was going through my head while trying to figure out the instruction for  Ellington  by Jennifer Wood, the raglan sleeve is constructed different than other raglan sleeves I have knit,  but after a couple emails to the designer which were promptly answered I was on the right on track. Then it was no one else was in the room where it happened. How about the row where it happened place a new marker, increase here increase there.....  It is progressing marvelously. There are lots of markers for the stitch patterns and the sleeve and body increases, I added the chain marker for the rows between the cable twists and a double marker for the beginning of the row, and how many times did I check that half way around??? if the red is on the needle its an increase row and if the brass is on the needle its a knit in pattern row, no increases.  It didn't take long to memorize the pattern just like the designer said and it is knitting fast. Then my brain would switch to auto knit as I was watching yet another Christmas movie and the next time around I would notice that I missed a knit through the back loop because I did a p1, k1, p1 instead then it was time to switch to knitting socks where I really was knitting ribbing.

Second pair of Christmas socks for the Christmas socks are done and continuing on the pair that I have been working on all summer in the sunroom which seems like a very long time ago. Plain old stockinette stitch for the next time my brain goes into auto knit.

The ribbing pattern seemed rather random until I got to the stitch patterns and I saw how the ribbing flows into the pattern and is absolutely brilliant.  Don't know what happened to the color of the last pic, the yarn is a burgandy red.  If I keep this pace up I'll be wearing it for Thanksgiving, the plan was for Christmas.  Grey days, chilly temps and wind and a few snowflakes, its a good day to knit some more.  --Ann--

quilt top

Quilt top finished and all the fabrics were in my stash.  --Ann--

Design Wall

 I would have a hard time arranging a quilt without a design wall.  A couple decades ago I used to lay the blocks on the floor and that worked but I could only be as far away from the quilt to my eyes while standing beside it, the perspective was different.  To look at the quilt square on from across the room does make choosing fabrics easier and it is more obvious when like fabrics are close together or far apart.
Setting triangle choices and border fabrics, top right fabric looks washed out by comparison.  Either of the other two fabrics will work, I have more of the dark chocolate with poppies and it is about equal in value to the darked fabrics in the blocks.  Maybe I'll finish the top today.  The temps have dropped and the winter coats have moved to front and center of the closet so I don't whine as long when its wiser to choose a warmer coat then a light jacket.  Walking has moved from after supper to mid afternoon to catch the warmth of the sun.  Preparing to hunker down for winter.  --Ann--

knitting

 A week ago I rolled my ankle and it didn't hurt when it happened but half a day later it was throbbing.  I hobbled downstairs to get the bag with the yarn and pattern for the mouse, fiddley work and best done when I have to stay put with my foot up and on ice. What really hurt was it was sunny and warm and not windy so I couldn't go for a walk I did sit on the deck with my foot up and on ice and knit.  It really wasn't difficult just follow the directions line by line  Claire Garland writes wonderful patterns.  Last night I finished the jacket and ears.  He is so darn cute!  The rabbit is next.

A good start on another pair of socks for son for Christmas.  --Ann--

auditioning

 The carmel colored brown is yuck

the rust pink... ick the print is too small looks busy

the chocolate brown hmmm not enough contrast with blocks

 the dark chocolate is okay

the red is best don't you think?

However I do not have enough of the red for the outside setting triangles that will either be the milk chocolate brown or the dark chocolate print.  More decisions makes me hungry for chocolate.
--Ann--