Crochet Time

It is a snowy and cold day. Glad I don't have anywhere I need to be today. I can stay inside, snuggle with Ducky, read, crochet, maybe even have a nap. I even went to the library last night to gets more books. 

With the football games both college and pro, that means lots of crochet time. Although I have to watch how much time since my hand gets crampy at times. When I did my monthly massage this week I had her work on my shoulder, arm and hand. They all felt much better after she was done.  

One of the more recent creations was made with Red Heart yarn, color is White Speckle. I have been starting to keep track of where yarn is made. Growing up Red Heart was one of the main brands and probably the best "average" yarn. Now I find this brand to have yarn that is thicker, coarser and stiff. All of the yarn from Red Heart has been made in India. Other brands that I have checked have been made in Turkey. 

  

Now I did a special project for a friend. She has arthritis and her fingers from her hands go off at an angle instead of straight. Gloves don't work because of the angle of her fingers off of her hands and commercial mittens weren't working either. I had seen things for hand warmers so decided to make some for her. Made them long enough that they totally cover her hands and sent yarn along if she wants to stitch the ends shut. Yes, the thumb sticks out, but you can bring your thumb in if you want. Here is the pattern. 

She called me on Thursday afternoon, so I know she finally got them. Post Office sent them on the grand tour to get to the final destination. So I can post about them.  

 

Happy Weekend. 

 

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

We have had some nice days with much warmer than average. Lots of sun too. That is changing today with much colder temperatures.  

Trivia was an adventure this week. We get there, get settled, ordered our beverages and hadn't decided on what food to order. Trivia actually started and three questions in, the fire alarm goes off. We had to evacuate the business. No super rush as we had time to get our stuff and get our coats on. I wanted to get out quickly as I was parked in the business parking lot and was afraid I would get trapped in the lot. 

I counted three fire engines and two ambulances and I made a second loop to check all the equipment out. Some people who had been inside were hanging around, maybe hoping they could get back in. I came home to watch the football game since no more trivia. 

I also know the fire department will do a thorough job checking things out and that takes time. I know from personal experience when I had a smoke detector go off. They were here for 30-45 minutes, I am sure it was more than an hour at the restaurant. The restaurant posted about 2 hours later that the issue was because of a minor issue with the HVAC and they would be closed for the rest of the day. They would reopen the next day. 

Now the fun thing of this is that the restaurant is located in a building that served the village as a fire station for many years. Originally it served as a fire station, village hall and the library too! It was sold to the private business about 10 years ago for a conversion into the restaurant which opened in late 2019.   

The Reflecting Pool Marko Zorn is a DC homicide detective with tastes of the finer life. Sometime taking on private jobs to help pay for his high end tastes. Then there is the regular job, finding the who and why a Secret Service agent was killed. 

Superbloom is a look at how new communication technologies, which are designed to connect us, are in fact tearing us apart. Interesting book. 

Accidentally on Purpose is a memoir of Kristen Kish the current host of Top Chef. A trained chef and also a winner of Top Chef back in 2013. Book outlines her life from being an adoptee raised in Michigan, culinary school and her growth as a chef. 

The Amalfi Curse - Haven is set to lead a dive off the Italian coast near Positano. Possibly finding gems her father couldn't get to on an earlier dive due to health issues. As she is set to begin her dives strange happenings begin to occur and she must figure out the history and past of the sea witches. I liked her previous books better but still a good story. 

 Happy Reading.

Work in Progress

It might be after Christmas but that doesn't mean the tree gets put away quickly. I like having the bright colors in my living room. It will be doing back into storage soon in the dungeon as Ducky likes to call it.  

I was in error last week. I have made a yarn purchase since last May, but it was for me to make me hats! I even mentioned it in a post on December 19th.  I haven't purchased anything for blankets since May. 

Yes, I kinda like to get the storage space mostly empty. Then go nuts buying yarn. I found this chart somewhere as to how much yarn to buy.  

I did go to Michael's last weekend to look around. They have been advertising their Knit & Sew Shop and I wanted to see if anything was different in terms of the yarn available. I didn't see that they had any more display yarn out where they had in the past. There were some large displays of the really bulky yarn but I don't use that weight of yarn. 

 

 Happy Weekend.  

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

First post of the year and I have already read two books this year and started the third. I also added two items to the spreadsheet I keep for the list of books that I have read. First column is the approximate time frame the book takes place, second is the location. I saw items that had reading challenges, one for reading books of certain time frame, another for locations. Sounded like something interesting, so adding it to see where I go this coming year. 

Weather has decided to warm up again, snow is melting, not that we had much snow on the ground anyway. It will soon be back to just the snow in the piles where the plows put it. 

Still have my fiber optic trees out and lit up, just a little extra brightness inside the house for a few more days. Do want to get them tucked away before my cleaning people show up next Monday. Still have the outside lights on as well. They are just multi-colored lights and again, something bright. 

Ducky photo bombing the book picture. He is doing OK for being 17.5 years old. He had a few days last week where he wasn't eating much but now seems to be eating his usual amount. Some days I worry about him and know that we are closer to the day when I will need to say goodbye to him. Just hope it isn't too soon.  

Gingerbread Danger - it's Christmas time in Ohio Amish Country. Bailey is working her candy making miracles for the Candy Land themed pageant. She didn't want an over sized game piece on her roof and asked an employee Zeph to get it down with help. Only Zeph falls, or was he pushed. Speaking of pushing, Bailey's parents are in town and her mom is pushing a wedding planner at her. 

Scandalous Women - mid 1960s, Nancy moves to New York City to get a job in publishing. Given more clerical work but she is assigned to help out when author Jacqueline Susann takes a shine to her while her new book, Valley of the Dolls, is being edited. As Nancy's career progresses she also works with author Jackie Collins. Over time with her experiences with women authors, Nancy sets up her own publishing house. 

A Messy Murder is an installment of the Decluttering Mysteries. Ellen is asked to help downsize the house of a well know journalist. She starts her job the day after the 80th birthday party of the man. When she gets to the study she finds a dead body. Looks like suicide but some think its murder. 

The Grim Reader time for the first book festival in Dharma and Brooklyn's mother, Becky, is the chair of the committee. A few problems arise at the last minute, the festival money being gone, someone trying to run Becky down, and a couple of murders. Never a dull moment. 

 

If just the first letter of my name, either first or last, the total isn't anywhere close to my typical amount. Now if I add up all the letters in my first name I get to 126 (five letters), middle name 211 (eight letters) and last name 135 (four letters). If I average those I come out to 157, which is a pretty decent total for me for a year. 

Happy Reading.  

State of the Stash

Happy New Year!

 The yarn stash is pretty good. I haven't purchased any more yarn since my last clearance purchases at JoAnn's in May. I get a printed catalog from one of my sources every month, so keeping track of what is available. However, I do have enough yarn to keep me occupied for the rest of the blanket making season. I think!

I haven't been into my local Michael's since they opened their "Knit & Sew Shop". So I don't know if they have expanded, I should wander in and see how things look now. 

Left hand shelves is yarn that I have already made one blanket already this season, or have a duplicate on the right side. Some of the left hand side yarn is also for hats. I sometimes pass my excess yarn to a friend who knits scarves for the needy, or it goes to her church group who makes prayer shawls. The brown cakes on the second shelf on the left might end up with her. I already did a blanket and had way more yarn than I needed. 

Right side is the to be worked on and there are 13 different colors there. So if I get all of these done, what has been done and the one in progress, that would make 27 blankets for the season. Wow.   

Then there is the leftovers, the odds and ends that remain after I finish a blanket. This is what I make my hats with in the summer. I didn't go through these but it seems like I have more than I usually do. Maybe some of this will get passed along too. 

 Since I made my donation at the end of August I have completed 13 blankets with one in progress. 

 

Happy Weekend.  

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

Happy New Year's Eve! I know I will be celebrating from home, being safe and probably asleep at midnight. I know, I live such an exciting life. HA! 

A bit of book keeping. At this point I have read 171 books this year, not a record high, that was 200 back in 2022 which I also attribute to being home more at the end of the pandemic. Looking back over the past few years I would say this is about average for number of books.   

Winter has come back as well. Nearly all of the snow was gone, except for the piles that the plow made by the street. We got an inch of snow on Monday and it has gotten much colder again. Time to be all bundled up or stay in the house for warmth. 

While we are past the shortest daylight hours of the year, we have just reached the latest sun rise time here 7:24 AM where it will stay for another week. Sunset we have gained 10 minutes back on that time already, which sets at 4:27 PM today. 

No Paw to Stand On Minnie and Rafe's wedding is fast approaching. All is well until they need a new officiant. Plus her matron of honor's restaurant has been closed because of a poisoning and another local chef murdered. Can Minnie figure it all out?

Eggsecutive Orders it is the week before Easter and the White House kitchen is hopping! Meals to prepare plus the annual Easter Egg Roll eggs to do. Then a White House meal guest dies and the kitchen staff is banished until they figure out if the reason had to do with the kitchen. 

An Excellent Thing in a Woman Iris and Gwen are moving on with their lives and business. Iris is mourning the loss of her lover, Gwen is celebrating her freedom to live on her own with her son. A French client wants to get married NOW to an Englishman, but she ends up dead. Why?

Summit's Edge - part of the FBI K-9 series. Just two weeks before her wedding Meg with Hawk are on a case tracking a hijacker of a private plane through the Colorado Rockies. The hijacker has a vendetta and is determined not to be caught. Can Meg, Hawk and the rest of the team take him down?

My last checkout slip of 2025, I borrowed $4777 worth of books and other materials this calendar year.  This is more than I paid in property taxes this year too. I do make good use of my library! 

 At least put the book on hold through your library!

While I didn't read all of her books I would vote for Sue Grafton. She had a series of books that started with the alphabet. She got to Y, then died. So she could come back and do Z. 

Happy Reading.  

Crochet Time

Hope everyone had a pleasant holiday. Mine was quiet but did spend some time at my friends house on Christmas afternoon. Chatting with people and eating!

Weather continues to be quiet, good for those traveling. I have no place to travel to other than local trips, so no issues for me at all. I am not one who likes to travel during the holiday period. Too many crowds, delays and such. I want to relax when I travel. 

Lots of time to read and crochet as well. That relaxes me, just taking it easy at home.   

Latest finished product. Yarn is from Michael's Loops & Threads, Skinny Chennile, color Beetle Multi. Lavender color with bits of darker purples and occasional yellow spots too.

Very soft to the touch yarn but because it is a bit fuzzy it sort of tangles on itself. I would use the yarn again, especially for a baby blanket. I think I might also use a smaller hook. That would give a tighter stitch which might make it look better.  

 

 

I'm not that bad, I have about an 8-9 month supply of yarn, so unless I go within the next year, I can't be a member! I have been looking at the catalogs I get for yarn, but haven't purchased anything since last spring. I should do a new post on the state of the stash. Take a picture this next week at year end to see where I am at.

 

 Happy Weekend.  

Wonderful Wordy Wednesday

Happy Christmas Eve! 

The weather looks to be quiet, no storms and warmish temperatures. Almost all of the snow that has fallen is gone. Only the snow plow piles and some ice is left. 

More than usual sunshine too. We have gained four minutes back on our earliest sunsets, but still losing time on the sunrise. Our latest sunrise doesn't occur until the first few days of January. So we are at the shortest time between sunrise and sunset right now. 

Last trivia night of the year on Monday. We met early to do dinner as well for the holiday. We had a typical trivia night, not doing well on boy band and movie stuff. We had what I consider to be a typical score for us, but we ended up in fifth place this week. Oh well, we have fun.  

Hail to the Chef the second installment of the White House Chef Mysteries. Holiday time is upon the White House. Thanksgiving dinner, receptions, family conflicts, possible matchmaking and showing off the holiday decorations for the press. But things get a little extra buzz and a gingerbread replica of the White House has some issues. 

Beautiful Ugly a wonderful twisty thriller. Grady is an author who has just gotten his first New York Times listed best seller. Then his wife disappears. He goes into a writing funk so his agent sends him to a remote Scottish island to write. No distractions, no contact with the outside world and no way to leave. There he swears he keeps seeing his wife, but the residents, who are all women, say can't be. But is it? 

Deep Cuts story of the relationship between Percy and Joe. Both into music and she has a knack for over analyzing songs. Can they make music together? Both literally and figuratively? Books set in the early 2000s and refers to music from that era, so hard for me to relate. 

The Stolen Queen - Charlotte is part of a crew on an Egyptian dig in 1936 and helps find a fabulous necklace. A tragedy occurs and the necklace disappears. Fast forward to 1978, Charlotte is working at the Metropolitan Museum of Art when the necklace appears as part of the display for the Met Gala. During the gala there is a disruption to help cover a theft, which sends Charlotte back to Egypt to track the stolen item back. 

 

 

I say yes to this. You might see something interesting, new author, then you can ask host about book. Also, when they are interviewing people on TV and they have books in the back, I try to read the titles. Another way to find more books to read.  

Happy Reading.  Have an enjoyable and safe Merry Christmas. 

Work in Progress

Made it to Friday, just one appointment today in the morning, then I can chill out. All of the peanut brittle I made has been given away. No more goodies tempting me to come and snack!  

The weather warmed up, most of the snow has melted except for the plow piles. Roof is clear of snow as well. Not likely to have a white Christmas, or what I call a barely white Christmas.  

I had an interesting visitor on Wednesday afternoon. Rocky Raccoon showed up to snack under the bird feeders. 

 

Ducky snuggling under a blanket in progress. It was cold last weekend and we both needed the extra warmth. Thankfully it has gotten milder this week and is supposed to stay mild.  

Yarn that I bought at a fancy yarn shop to make hats to go with my new jacket. The jacket is the background for the picture so you can see the color. I was wearing the jacket when I went yarn shopping so I could check how things looked. 

I got one hat done this past week and I edited the yarn sequence which I normally don't do. But I wanted more of the green and purple in the hat, not the browns. I think it turned out pretty good.  

 

 Happy Weekend.