Crochet Break

You have seen the creations from the last 12 months. All caught up and won't start up for this next year for a couple of weeks. Actually I finished with all of my projects by the end of July. So have been on a break for the past month. I will start up again soon. Must keep my hands busy during football season for sure!

Once I start I will post when I get a blanket completed, that will be maybe every other Friday. Depends on how fast I crochet. Although I have noticed my hands getting stiff sometimes, so can't push myself as hard or as long. 

I am very prepared for future projects! I lucked out a few weeks ago at the library of all places. They were getting rid of excess craft stuff. Yes, that meant yarn. I picked up a bunch of solid neutrals to use. I didn't take it all either! I took a kitchen size trash bag with me to be able to carry stuff. I was tempted to take more, I got there as they opened so I would have best selection!

 

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

So far this year I have read over 110 books and checked out books from the library worth over $3100. Last year I had only read 92 books by this time. Guess I am chugging right along.  

The weather cooled off and humidity is gone for now too. Would be nice to be outside but the recent wet weather had increased the mosquito population to horrendous. Even with using repellent I had them around my head when I was trying to mow. Kept moving as fast as I could to get finished quickly. I lost count on the bites, I had at least six on my right elbow, some behind my ear and a few on my cheek. Not looking forward to mowing again this week. 

We had a great night at trivia on Monday. We ended up in second place out of six teams. We also had our best score ever of 69, out of 84 possible points. Winning team had 75 points. While we had our usual gaps in music and Hollywood stuff the other categories we did good! It also got us a $25 gift certificate to use the next time. Only problem was that there were two men who kept wanting to talk to us while we were listening to the question. I wasn't the closet to them, otherwise I probably would have told them to STFU. 

The Story of A Heart, true story of two families linked by illness and tragedy. Max is a nine year old with cardiomyopathy. Kiera is also a nine year old who suffers catastrophic injuries in a car accident. Book covers the story of these two as well as pediatric transplant issues and the history of transplants in general. Very interesting and moving book. 

Cher: The Memoir, Part One another celebrity book in search of an editor! Books covers her early life, which was very chaotic, up through the late 1970s. Includes the time period up through marriage to Greg Allman. I don't remember that Sonny Bono was as controlling and manipulative as he was. 

Lovely One a memoir by current Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Her journey from Florida, to Harvard, Harvard law and various judicial positions until she was name to the Supreme Court. The title of the book comes from the translation of her African name, Kentanji Onyika.

 

 Happy Reading

2025 Scarf Creations

I donate my finished items to our local food pantry. They had the annual thank you picnic for volunteers this week. Spoke with the director and I can take over my finished items anytime! So I can set up a time with her and clean out my closet! Yay.  

Yarn for today's items was bought in the JoAnn's clearance, nice color mixes and I thought this would be good for hats. However as I tried to work with it, the yarn wasn't working up like my usual #4 weight yarn. In looking at this it was about the same diameter as #4 yarn, but it was actually an 8 ply yarn, not a 4 ply yarn. 

So instead I decided to knit scarves with this stuff. I had done a few scarves a couple of years ago, needed to remember needle size and number of stitches to cast on. I make these for kids rather than an adult. I can make more that way.  

 

I have a friend who does knit adult sizes, large enough to cover the head and wrap around the neck. I have passed on yarn to her and she has given me stuff she can't use. Stuff you think will be good and then not really. 

What was really cool about this yarn is the variability within the skein and even from skein to skein. Of the five scarves I made the two green, on the left, are the same color and lot. As are the blue / orange on the right hand size

 

Chatted with the food pantry director and she said I can drop off my already made blankets now. So I need to set up a time with her to drop them off. I can empty out my closet so I can start on next years stuff. 

 

 

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

Things have been quiet on the weather since the heavy rain on August 9-10. Water river levels are down, streets are back open. However, as I drive around I see piles of stuff sitting at the curb for trash pickup. Often carpeting and padding from finished basements that had water.  

Lots of watching baseball games lately. The Milwaukee Brewers have been playing great baseball. Best record in baseball as well. Had several winning streaks in the past weeks of 11, 12 and 14 games. Is this their year to win it all? Especially for the late Bob Uecker? I hope so.  

The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore, starts with Ben Franklin and ends up in the twenty-first century. Covers the ups and downs of book sellers, the big stores, chains, little shops on the corner as well as independent specialty stores for Blacks, gays, various religions and political movements.

A Cookbook Conspiracy Bibliophile Mystery, Brooklyn's sister Savannah is in town to do a celebrity chef dinner with a former classmate Baxter. She wants Brooklyn to freshen up an 18th century cookbook to gift to Baxter. After the dinner Brooklyn and Derek take off planning to pick up Savannah later. When they come back they find Savannah holding a bloody knife and standing over Baxter's bloody body. The rare cookbook is also missing. Who done it and who has the cookbook? Introduces Derek's brother Dalton who is a MI-6 cryptographer. 

Amazon Unbound is the author's second book on Amazon. This covers more of the history over the period of roughly 2005-2020. Details the hits and misses of the company in terms of how it is run, product introductions such as the Echo (Alexa). Also delves into management style of the business and personal life including his extra marital affair and divorce of Jeff Bezos. 

 Happy Reading.  

2025 Hats - Hats for Kids Bag#2

Things have quieted down on the weather issues. I had no problems although many others did. I haven't heard of any fatalities from all of this either, which is amazing. 

Continuing response to high water levels by officials until things are back to normal, but overall not bad. Some roads are closed because of water or damage but none of them are places I would normally drive. 

The rain is making the grass grow like crazy, so out mowing! 

Bag #2 26 Hats 

So with last week that makes 65 hats for kids. So a good number of kids who will be able to stay warm this winter. 

Even switched it up and bought some dark brown to do something different. Another color I got during the going out of business sale at JoAnns. 

Grand total of hats to be donated 107.  

Although I usually use only two different size crochet hooks. I have a collection of all sizes, so if I need a different size, I have it on hand. 

 

I'm not this bad! I use my dishwasher as a dishwasher. 

Happy Weekend.  

 

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

It has been a crazy last few days. The weather has gone nuts. Saturday into Sunday the area had 7-14 inches of rain. Massive flooding, roads washed out, damage because of water all over the place. 

Thankfully I personally only had minor issues. Some flowers knocked over, slight water seepage in the basement. The primary sump pump and when needed the secondary pump were able to keep up. I didn't lose power but I do have a house backup power system. You can see it in the lower left of the picture. 

I only have to go to very local places the next few days. Otherwise I will stay home and let things settle down.  

The flowers, likely knocked over when the rain gutter on the house overflowed in the heavy rain. I have to work to get them upright, but it has been too wet.  

A still shot of the fancy waterfall in town. Video is below. 

One of our flooded streets and below the river which is just behind the trees on the right side. About a mile from my house, but I know people who live just a block from where the road is closed. 

Video of the falls and just down stream later that day they had to rescue two people.  More links to TV news ABC and NBC and FOX and CBS. 

  On to the books! Staying home means lots of reading time. 

The Lost Bookshop three strangers and a magical bookshop on Ha'penny Lane in Dublin. 

There's Nothing Wrong with Her a fictional account of chronic, undiagnosed illness, struggling with life and relationships. Didn't get into this one and didn't finish. 

The Life Impossible, Grace is a 72 year old widow, retired match teacher in the UK. She is willed a small cabin on the island of Ibiza from a former colleague. Her friend may have died under suspicious circumstances and Grace is determined to find out how her friend died. 

 

 Happy Reading.  

2025 Hats - Hats for Kids Bag#1

Our brief cooler and less humid weather is gone. We also had a break from poor air quality because of Canadian wildfires. I got the back yard mowed on Thursday, the grass back there seems to be growing so much faster than the other areas of my yard. Back to warm and humid for the next week or so. 

Continuing with acupuncture to help out my hip. I also took a few days and slept in my recliner. Then I am not laying on either hip so no pressure. My last weekly appointment, then I go to every other week.  

Bag #1 contains 39 hats (yes there is a bag #2)

A combination of hats that are all one color, plus more with a colored stripe. A great way to use up all of my odds and ends of yarn.  

 

The only reason I forget I have something is that my closet is too full right now. Too warm to crochet and start using it up! Cooler weather needs to get here!

My issues are not this bad. I don't need an additional dwelling to store my yarn. The fact that it is confined to one closet in my house, and then just half of the closet. 

This is me! 

 

Happy Weekend! 

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

My area has been under air quality alerts for the past week. Trying to stay inside as much as possible. Cooled off so if the air was nice it would be great to be outside. Outside enough to get the lawn mowed doing a section a day for three days. Then I am only out for 30 minutes or so, not so much to be too much of a health hazard. 

Ducky is doing OK. At times his snotty nose makes his breathing sound horrible. He sounds good most of the time. Vet visit due in a couple of months.  

Peril in Paperback, sixth installment of the Bibliophile mysteries. Brooklyn has been invited to a house party in Lake Tahoe. Attending with her friends Vinnie and Suzie and to do some work for their host. Grand but strange house. Moveable walls and trap doors. During a seance another guest is poisoned but it was likely meant for their host. Can Brooklyn figure this one out on her own? Derek is in Europe providing security for a young heiress who is being threatened. Or is she trying to seduce Derek?

Prisoner a memoir of the author recounting his life, especially the 18 months he was detained by Iranian officials for supposedly being a spy. He was working for the Washington Post at the time. He is of Iranian descent and he had married an Iranian citizen as well. 

A Devil Went Down to Georgia details the nearly 20 year odyssey to bring the murderer of Lita Sullivan to justice. Through it it also highlights the differences in the justice system to if you have financial resources to post bail and higher high power attorneys and how race is a factor.

 

Far too many to pick just one. Characters, both male and female that I wouldn't mind being for just a little while!

Thankfully Ducky does not read and does not keep the light on. Many years ago my then sister-in-law gave me a read in bed light. Being single I this wasn't something I needed and my mom got all weird thinking I was hiding a live in boyfriend!

Real life for me is reading. No commutes, hours spent working. Although I got an email from a recruiter through LinkedIn. She didn't read my "Retired and Loving It" job title!

Happy Reading 

2025 Hats - Hats for Adults

The heat and humidity have gone for now. The weather guessers were off again on Wednesday. I had hoped to get part of my lawn mowed in the AM, since they said the rain would come in the afternoon. Nope, it was raining by 9 AM! I will have the mowing caught up by Saturday, I break it down into three sections. 

I have some other yard stuff to do like pruning, but that also means hauling the stuff off. That takes some extra work, so it will be done in small increments. At least if you drop off on Saturday you don't have to get out of your car to check in. They have drive up check in which I really like. 

 

Adult hats get made from one color of yarn. While they may be multi-colored, that is the way the yarn is. In total 30 hats.  

  Yes, my  yarn is organized. Well at least 90% of it is organized. LOL, I have finished using up all of my odds and ends of yarn, so actually don't have any crochet or knitting in progress at this time. Giving my hands a break. 

Yarn, wine and a cat! That works for me.