Reading list #4

1. The Harp and the Rose by Jean Grainger book 3 of the Queenstown series
2. Roaring Liberty by Jean Grainger book 4 of the Queenstown series
3. The Cruellest Month by Louise Penny for book club murder mystery 
4. Book of Ages  The Life and Opinions of Jane Franklin  by Jill Lepore biography and letters written by Jane Franklin to her brother Benjamin Franklin. Some letters were just cheery letters from home, others were her viewpoints on the revolutionary war and society or social issues of the time. The author made a point of how boring history can be to read depending on the viewpoint of the writer, she also went on to say that historical fiction can give the reader more insight into how people actually lived in a particular place and time a more realistic history.
5. Lies My Teacher Told Me by James W. Loewen a more appropriate title might be the Lies I Read in History Books.  The author tells how publishers have sanitized, sugar coated and whitewashed American history so as not to offend anyone and age appropriateness for the students.  It was a tough book to read because it did tell how Columbus actually treated the natives and how the new comers brought disease which wiped out whole tribes, and that all presidents before Lincoln had been slave owners. The book also went on to say how similar history textbooks are from one publisher to another and how history is rewritten from one decade to the next because of how attitudes of the public have changed.
6. The Queens of Animation by Nathalia Holt nonfiction about the women who worked for Walt Disney in the early years of animation to present day. I want to watch Snow White, Fantasia, Pinocchio, Bambi, and Dumbo again. And all the others too. The women didn’t get the recognition they deserved. The technology of the feature length animations was groundbreaking at the time. Fantasia was the first surround sound movie. 
7. A Time for Mercy  by John Grisham for book club lots of details about lawyers preparing their defense and tricks to dsitract the prosecutor.  Very interesting but also long I needed a break from it after every few chapters. 
8. The Secret, Book & Scone Society by Ellery Adams just for fun I needed a cozy mystery after four very serious books.
9. Lizzy and Jane by Katherine Reay contemporary story about two sisters one a chef and the other dealing with cancer with lots of references to Jane Austen books because she was their mother’s favorite author. 
10. The Mitford Affair by Marie Benedict story takes place in England in 1930’s. Characters were real people, six sisters, a couple were fascinated by fascism and communism. A new perspective for me about what was happening in Europe leading up to WW2. 
11. The Evolution of Annabel Craig by Lisa Grunwald fiction but based on real people and events of 1925 when teaching evolution and creation as learned in the Bible went to court in Dayton, Tennessee. Annabel Craig is 23 years old, married to a lawyer and a self taught photographer who sits in on the trial taking photos. Very good. 
12. Desolation Mountain by William Kent Krueger #17 of the series another thriller. 
13. The Devil’s Bed by William Kent Krueger one of his earlier books, a political thriller.
14. The Austen Escape by Katherine Reay for book club we read this a couple years ago and everyone had forgotten the characters and plot.  The only thing I remembered was the head of staff at the Braithwaite House in Bath, England grew up in the house.  None of us at book club were fans of Jane Austen and hadn't read any of her books since high school.
15. Pride and Predjudice by Jane Austen I tried reading it but only got 1/3 through it.  I don't understand the infatuation with her books.  There just isn't any action in the plot especially after reading William Kent Krueger books.

My no time to sew summer has turned into a no sew fall but these lovely summer like days I have spent on the deck reading or walking instead of downstairs in the sewing room. Time in the sewing room will come when fall turns to winter.  We haven't had rain here since August the weatherman was predicting a drab autumn because it is dry but mother nature had other ideas. This is the prettiest autumn ever and the leaves are still hanging tight. Some maples are a brilliant red others are red, orange, copper, yellow, gold and green all at once.  The colors are in layers with green closest to the trunk. Everyday they are a little more orange and red and someday soon the wind will blow from the north and bring a hard hard frost and all the trees will disrobe until spring and then I will cozy up with a book and a quilt or go to my sewing room. --Ann--

Small screen

 

Last week I posted about missing the big stuff because I’m looking at the small screen. Sometimes you need to look at the small screen to see the big sky with the northern lights. It looked like an ordinary dark night on the prairie but DD sent a couple pics from Aberdeen, SD ninety miles away of the northern lights so I went out to look too, all I saw was whites streaks in the northern sky, shimmer it’s called but with the camera in my phone I shot some color. The white foreground is from the neighbors exterior lights which they never turn off!—Ann—

Posing together

That’s as good as it gets for them posing together.  Now we just need October weather to arrive so they can wear their new sweaters. Miss M was really not unhappy here it was just the picture that wasn’t a blur, she can change expressions so fast.  Miss O was also captured in a brief pause in the fading evening light.  Cooler days are coming and I knit hugs into every stitch.  —Ann—

 

Just life

A perfect morning coffee on the deck, a cozy sweater, a sunny clear morning and almost no wind and knitting on my lap. Pheasants were crowing. Robins were gathered to discuss their departure date and flight plan.  Then my coffee was gone and I was sad so I went for a walk. Walking releases endorphins which makes you happy. Later I went outside again to read. I watched a flock of pelicans fly over in a perfect V formation where was my phone to take a picture?!? They turned and came back I grabbed my phone from inside quick to get a picture. I couldn’t find them in the frame. The pelicans were changing position in a very organized manner. How much do we miss because we are looking at the little screen instead of the big one?? —Ann—
 

Sweaters

 

I’m working on sweaters for the little girls. The yarn did not come from Ireland, I love knitting wool but this Berroco Remix Light is more practical for little girls.  It’s machine wash and dry!! Madeline is always a card in front of the camera. Olivia was not interested that day.  The pattern is Harvester by Elyssa Samatha Taylor, super easy front and back are the same no shoulder shaping so they won’t ever put it on backwards. And I just knit stockinette instead of garter stitch in the sleeves. Ann

Do overs

This post is old news.........I have been working on this sweater off and on all summer. I finished the first sleeve a few days ago then on to the second……everything was going smoothly I was on a roll a veritable knitting machine until I laid the second sleeve on top of the first, it was a few rows short. Do I knit a few extra rows to even them up, no, I tried it on, the second sleeve was tighter than the first.  Thinking back I could feel the caffeine in my fingers the day I knit 12 of the 4 row decrease repeats. So I ripped back and started over, I was knitting noticeably looser like I drank 2 glasses of wine but I didn’t then I noticed a mistake so I needed to rip a few rows. I laid sleeve 2 on top of sleeve one again to compare, without the needles in the sleeve the comparison was more accurate. Sleeve two was over an inch wider then sleeve one! Rip again and put my big girl panties on and do it right this time.  Knit firm but not tight. Well I ripped two more times—those do overs only involved a few knitted rows but still picking up 98 stitches but for someone who is numerically challenged…….I think I’ve got it now.  The yarn is a fingering Wool Addicts by Lang called Footprints it is 45% cotton, 42% wool and 13% nylon. It says superwash but my swatch shrank some. The pattern is Autumn Square by Hinterm Stein.  It has a little design detail, a square knit into the center of the garter stitch section in the upper bodice but each time I have gotten carried away with the simplicity of just knitting back and forth and missed the cue for starting the stockinette stitch for the square.  I like it without the square on my chest. Can't wait for cooler days to wear it. I did wear this sweater several days in Ireland.  --Ann--

Aran sweaters and yarn

 

We were on a tour so we went to lots of souvenier shops and just about all of  them were selling Aran sweaters many were machine knit I don't know if the machines in the top two pictures are knitting machines or what but what caught my eye was all the colors of yarn. Years ago Aran sweaters were either the natural cream or brown or dark gray now they area available in all colors.  I wish I had taken a picture of the many colored sweaters.  The kids sweaters were so much fun but all too small for my little granddaughters and I want the fun of knitting for them.  The sweater on the stand was hand knit as were all the sweaters behind the shoulder in that picture.  The shop at Blarney sold packages of yarn and I'm so glad I bought a package there because all the other shops sold odd balls and skeins, all of it Aran weight and seldom enough of one color to knit a sweater.  I will have 3 or 4 extra skeins. This is the same yarn that I knit last (click) winter but with a different label they even had the exact same color.  A pullover or a cardigan??  --Ann--