Learning curve

 Do you like to learn new things? I always loved learning in school…..well, except science. It never interested me like math, history and literature do. A couple of years ago, before our European river cruise I decided that I wanted to learn another language and brush up on my French. I had seven years of French in school, but I am not at all fluent. I can read it pretty well, but I can’t think it to speak it. I hope that makes sense. I am always impressed with people who are fluent in more than one language. I’ve have been using the Duolingo app on my phone and was happy to be able to read both French and German on our trip. I continued with both languages for a while, but have now switched to Spanish. Yes, there is another trip in our future. I am really enjoying this learning experience. 

You may remember that I said I wanted to start another yarn craft. Now, I am learning some new knitting techniques also. When I purchased the yarn for my granddaughter's sweater, I also bought a skein of sock yarn. I want to make a pair of socks for my daughter. The pattern uses a German Twisted cast-on that I had never heard of before. So I headed to YouTube and found this wonderful video of the method by The Unapologetic Knitter. I like that the method is taught without any superfluous talking and very, very clear instructions. The pattern also uses the Magic Loop method. Not only did I want to try this method, but I wanted to knit both socks at once. Well, The Unapologetic Knitter has an excellent video for that too! It took two tries to cast on and get the first row started, but I have now completed 5 rows of the rib and I am happy with how theses socks are looking. 

I am hoping that I separated the yarn correctly so that the stripes are the same, but if not I will live with it.

The Merry Chrismas snow globe is starting to get its base.

 The outline of the base requires very precise counting. Wish me luck in getting the outline to meet in the correct spot. 

I added the seventh log to 16 of the 64 blocks.

 It is the blue log on the left. I have been trying to work on either 8 or 16 blocks each time. There is no deadline for this quilt so I don't work on it as often as other crafts.

I finished reading Midnight Bayou by Nora Roberts. This is a wonderful book. So easy and interesting to read. Now I am trying to catch up with some of my old magazines. I have a backlog of them that I would like to whittle down. I only subscribe to Country Home now, but I have old Better Homes and Gardens and Good Housekeeping.  

Last week I donated a whole trunkful of items to my local Savers (a thrift store chain). You get a 20% off coupon when you donate. I decided to browse and found these 5 books.

You get 5 for the price of 4 and then I got the discount so all 5 cost me just over $12. Woohoo! I have been wanting to read the Book of Lost Names for quite some time so that will be the first that I read. 

Hubby and I finally took a walk in the local preserve again. Some of the trees along the trail are starting to change color near the very top, but most of our walk looked like this. 

The water in the lake was very low. I was sad to see a goose that was all alone. (zoom the photo). There wasn't a flock of geese in sight, just ducks.

There were a few trees starting to get their autumn colors along the edge of the lake. 

Another project I have in the works in an attempt to get rid of some of our basement clutter is having my mom's 4 reels of slides made into photos. I had done one complete reel while she was still living and realized that some of them had already been made into photos so I was more discerning this time. In total, I had a local camera store turn 126 of the slides into photos. 

These were all from the 1970s and included photos from my Sweet Sixteen and also of Hubby and me when we were just dating. I love this photo of the two of us taken so many years ago. 

I hope I haven't bored you will all of this. It is quite a long post.

I will be joining Frederique at the Quilting Patch on Saturday and Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching. Take some time to relax with a cup of tea or coffee and pop on over to their sites to see what other bloggers are stitching.

 Thanks for stopping by!