Snowblind

Books

Author: Ragnar Jónasson

I follow a lot of quilting blogs and the author of one of those blogs is also a Goodreads member. I saw some of the books that she had read so I made a friend request to her and I’ve been following her for almost a year. We’ve read a few books in common but this is the first one I’ve picked up solely on her recommendation.

Ari Thór Arason is a young man in his twenties who has recently completed his training as a police officer. The first job he is offered is in a small fishing village in northern Iceland but he has to leave his girlfriend in Reykjavik as she is finishing up her medical training.

Ari is told that nothing ever happens in the quiet town but that isn’t the case after Ari arrives. An accident (maybe murder) and an assault all take place within a couple of months. The weather is as much a character in the book as the various village people that Ari comes in contact with.

Goodreads Rating: * * *

Cutting and cutting

Journal, Knit & Crochet

Friday, January 8, 2021

It is a good thing I managed to get something accomplished last night because I certainly have little to show for today’s time.

approx. 45″ x 45″

This is the first of what I hope will be many afghans for donation this year. It took a bit of time to figure out the crochet stitch and then the limited amount of yarn I had didn’t go as far as I expected. It is a nice lap size though or perhaps for a baby. I have started another one with the same pattern so there will be no rest for my sore wrists.

I certainly noticed the stiffness in my wrists today as I spent most of the day cutting. For a couple of projects I’ll be working on next week I needed several background squares cut – 300 in one size, 150 in another, and 72 in another. Before I’m ready to start working on the projects though I still have to mark sewing lines on 150 of those squares.

I’ve set out another scrappy pinwheel quilt on the floor across the hall; I sent a photo to Stacia and Deloise to get their opinion before I start sewing the blocks together. I’m expecting Pat will be using my computer over the weekend so he can weigh in on my placement too.

I needed a change

Journal

Thursday, January 7, 2021

I have a schedule that helps to keep me on track and not too bored with my projects. Wednesday is usually a day for making cards; even if I don’t have any cards that are due I try to keep ahead by making card tops. I also work towards my UFO Challenge project once a week.

This is a bit of an odd month for that schedule. I made cards on Wednesday as per my Wednesday schedule. I worked on cards again today as my UFO Challenge for the month are my Splendid Sampler blocks which are the blocks I use for cards.

I redid the blackwork stitch-along project this morning. Since it was so near the start of the process I thought I should try to get it right. I think it looks better but that might be because this is the fourth time I’ve stitched it. I’m not sure why it is called blackwork because by following the pattern I have a small container of several different colours of thread.

This afternoon I really couldn’t face another card so I dug out That Fairy Tale Quilt. At the moment I’m working on a castle – so essential for every fairy tale.

Spring is coming

Journal

Wednesday, January 6, 2021

Although we had some rain this morning the latest storm seems to have blown itself out. There was even a bit of sunshine in the early afternoon.

I had a peek out at the deck during that period of sunshine and was very surprised to see my crocus bulbs are starting to come up. The bulbs were a birthday gift and when I planted them it was with a prayer that I was doing it right (I’m not all that good with plants). I looked a couple of weeks ago when I saw green but it was just some weeds popping up out of the soil.

But today, in the small container, there were definitely two crocus sprouts coming through the soil. I looked at the larger container and it is full of crocus sprouts.

I received the instructions today for one of my cross stitch-along projects. When I did the first few stitches I realized that the floss was too similar to the fabric so those stitches came out and I started over with a different colour of floss. I did the stitches the way I thought they should be done but I didn’t like the way they looked so I took them out again. I started again, doing the stitches in a way I thought looked smoother. When I put the question out to the group on Facebook though I was told that I should have done the stitches as I did in my second attempt. The stitching took a little less than an hour so I may take it out and do it over one more time.