It was another great year of reading. Is there ever a really bad year of reading? As long as there are books I'll be happy. Looking back over 2021, my spreadsheet says that I read 148 books in 2021. That's compares well to 2020 when I read 146 books. Since I started tracking in 1995, I've read 1757 books. Most are Audiobooks but I do pick up a paper book from times to time. I'm surprised I read so many this year since I've also developed a Podcast habit.

According to my spreadsheet, these are these were my favorite books of the year:
All The Lonely People by Mike Gayle
Ship of Gold by Gary Kinder
The Girl Behind the Gates by Brenda Davies
Chronic by Stephen Phillips
The Indigo Girl by Natasha Boyd
Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey
Feast of Sorrows by Crystal King
This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
The Fossil Hunter by Shelley Emling

We may not agree on what makes a good book and what makes a bad book so I'd be very interested to know your favorite books of 2021.

Here's my report for December. I didn't read as many books as usual but, aside from the 2 DNF books, they were all winners!

DNF Books:
15 Seconds by Andrew Gross - The protagonist is supposed to be an intelligent professional but makes 3 really stupid decisions right at the start. I just couldn't follow a stupid character like that for a whole book.
In Search of a Kingdom - By Laurence Bergreen - It might be interesting but the narrator has made it into a sleep aid

Podcasts I enjoyed this month:
This is Actually Happening - Each episode tells a remarkable story of a survivor. The only speaker is the person who had the experience so you know that they survived whatever they went through. Recent episodes tell the stories of a woman who found out that her father wasn't her biological father, a man who survived living in public housing and doing drugs who became a prominent member of the community and a young woman why was abducted and raped. It's actually a quite uplifting podcast.

Myths and Legends by Jason and Carissa Weiser. Jason retells myths from all sorts of cultures but with a modern method of telling. He makes mythology relatable. I think kids might enjoy this one.

The Good Son
By Michael Gruber, Read By Neil Shah

Sonia Laghari is a religious woman (practicing Muslim and Catholic) and a Jungian psychologist.  She and several other professionals are on at a peace symposium in Afghanistan when they are abducted by terrorists who may have stolen nuclear materials.
Sonia's son, Theo, grew up in Pakistan but is now an American and ex-Delta Force soldier. He is trying to use his wealthy Laghari family members and military connections to rescue his mother before it's too late. The terrorists are beheading one captive each time American kill Afghan

That summary makes this sound like a straight forward spy/mystery/thriller but it's a lot more than that. It (possibly) provides insight into Arab culture and the book reflects on philosophy, religion, psychology, anthropology, and political theory. Gruber does a masterful job of discussing issues from all sides. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The Long and Faraway Gone
By Lou Berney, Read By BRian Hutchison and Amy McFadden

I read Berney's November Road back in September and  liked it so I decided to give this one a try. This book explores how victims of violent crime affects the survivors. The crimes were two events in Oklahoma City in 1986. In one, a young woman was abducted from the state fair leaving her younger sister abandoned. In the second, a mass shooting/robbery at a small movie theater leaves 1 person alive. Neither crime was solved.

Twenty five years later, Wyatt, the theater survivor is a private investigator in Las Vegas but is sent to Oklahoma City on a case and it reopens old wounds and questions. Juilanna finds out that one of the original suspects has resurfaced and is determined to get answers from him.

I mostly liked this book but found the intersection of the two storylines to feel kind of forced and only for the purpose to make two short stories into one novel. It kind of jumped all over the place with 2 time periods and 2 storylines in each. 

Andy Warhol was a Hoarder
By Claudia Kalb, Read By Lisa Larsen
​
The cover is deceiving. This book is NOT humorous. It's an exploration of various mental illnesses as told through the stories of celebrities through history. Many of the celebrities (Einstein, Lincoln, Howard Hughes, etc.) were not every officially diagnosed with any of these mental illnesses. 

In the end, it was actually very interesting and at the end of each chapter it explores the pros and cons of treating some of these "illnesses". For example, when we treat an entire generation of children with ADHD medicine do we lose some important creative geniuses?

​It was a good book but it's serious and not light-hearted.

The Breaker
By Nick Petrie, Read By Stephen Mendel

This is the 6th book in the Peter Ash series and, in my opinion, they get better each time. This series is best reading order because Peter Ash's history and development through the books is important. 

In this book Peter, his girlfriend, June, and their friend Lewis are in the wrong place at the right time and are able to interrupt a crime that put a lot of school children at risk. Unfortunately, Peter needs to be low profile and this doesn't help.

They find themselves involved in a big tech theft and arms development problem. The book starts fast and keeps up the pace. Book 7 comes out in January and I can't wait.

The Woman in Red
By Diana Giovnazzo, Read By Edita Brychta

I don't know who recommended this book but I'm glad it was brought to my attention. This is a historical fiction account of Anita Garibaldi. She was the wife and partner of the famous hero of the Brazilian Resistance, Guiseppe Garibaldi. There are/were statues to her in Brazil and Italy honoring her heroics in fighting alongside her husband. (I said "were" because who knows what statues still stand anywhere after the last 2 years.)

The book was a fun read but does have a bit of a romance novel storyline going through it. I didn't mind that because she is such a fascinating character.

Sacred
By Dennis Lehane, Read By Jonathan Davis

This is the 3rd book in the Kenzie and Gennaro series. I have not read the first 2 and only got this one because it was on a Chrip deal one day. I will mention that the Chirp description of the plot of this book is all wrong! It's the description for Book 4. But, no worries, it's still a good read.

Trevor Stone is a billionaire who is dying and his only heir, his daughter, is missing. He's hired Kenzie and Gennaro to find her.

The trail starts in Boston, travels to Florida and back as they investigate a corrupt grief therapy organization and search for the missing daughter. Along the way it's hard to figure out the good guys for the bad. If was fast paced and fun. 

​I haven't read a Lehane book since 2006 but I think I'll get more in this series.

Find Your First
By Linwood Barclay, Read By George Newbern

Barclay's books, in my opinion are hit or miss. I hated Broken Promise but loved No Time For Goodbye. Fortunately, Find Your First was a winner for me.

Miles Cookson is a tech millionaire but once in his life he was financially strapped and donated sperm to make a few extra dollars. It's now 20+ years later and he's just found out that he has Huntington's Disease and he wants his "children" to know and to take care of them. He finds out that there are 9 and his wealth gets him access to the names. He's told his brother, and only heir, that he will be cared for but that the majority of his wealth will go to these 9 people. The brother's wife is not happy about that.

As Miles is searching, one of his children, Chloe, is searching for her biological father and finds someone who is a half brother. She and Miles eventually connect but a lot of things start going bad very quickly.

It was a fun ride with lots of twists and turns and a very spectacular ending involving a Winnebago.

I've had these ready for a week or so but wanted to wait to share them until I gifted them and could get model photos. Ella was THRILLED with both outfits and I'm thrilled that they fit so well.

Ella's favorite color is pink so I knew this one would be popular. The pink silk fabric came from one friend and the glitter fabric from another. It's the ReadCreations Reversible Dress. It's a good pattern but the fabric raveled like crazy so it was a little difficult to work with. The little sash on the solid pink side is a piece of ribbon from my stash that I turned into a sash by adding a snap closure. Her eyes nearly popped out of her head when she opened the box and saw all that pink.

I actually made this little hippie outfit months ago but needed the accessories. The shirt is the California Baja pattern and it was very easy to make. If you take a close look below you can see how the stripes in the fabric match up across the pocket. That was a complete happy accident! I also made a second pair of pants in dark orange denim.

My SIL made the bracelet. The purse and boots are from this Pamela Barton pattern and the headband is from this YouTube video. Apparently this particular doll has a guitar so this outfit was perfect. She also had a leather skirt and denim jacket for quick changes.

The dolls really creep me out but making the outfits is fun. Ella's joy is a bonus.

I hope you all had a great holiday weekend. Ours was lovely and quiet. The weather was really warm so we were able to take a hike Christmas morning and the rest of the weekend I was able to make some things! One thing turned into another and the next thing you know I had a lot done.

First I got 2 veterans quilts quilted. I think most of you know by now that we quilt them in pairs. So I loaded one back and quilted both at the same time. When I make my veterans quilts I generally make them 2 at a time just for this reason. These are from that big stash of patriotic batiks that I bought last year. I've almost made my way through all of that fabric. 

I quilted it with the star/ribbon pantograph with red thread. My current favorite "workhorse" thread is Innovatech. I still like So Fine a lot but the Innovatech is a just little beefier so it shows up more.

I only had 2 more quilt tops in the closet so loaded and quilted them. One is this one that I made with strips of leftover hand dyed backing fabric from other veterans quilts and leftover strips of waste fabric from the Big Green quilt. I adore this quilt! I will make more of these this year. I think it sparkles.

I love to quilt diagonal blocks like this. It's really fast and makes a great pattern on the back.

The other quilt in that pair is this one make by one of our club members. The quilting wasn't going to show so I did a quick stipple. I don't have to bind this one.

Then I had more time one afternoon and decided to tackle all of these batting scraps. I don't think I had let the batting scrap bags get out of control this much before.

It made 8 pet beds for my friend to deliver to Richmond Animal League!

Finally, last night I remembered this scrap blanket that I started last year. I decided to add the rest of the scrap balls that I had and finish it off to be another pet blanket for donation. I have a few old blankets (not quilts) in my closet that I'm going to cut down and serge and make into more blankets for them. I like finding new homes for things I don't need anymore.

​Now I'm busy planning my next crochet project and I've started doing just a little cleaning and reorganizing in the sewing room. How are you spending the last week of 2021?

I had no expectations to finish this blanket before February. When I started it seemed like such a big and overwhelming project. Instead it was fast and easy and only took about 5 weeks!

You can see it all spread out here and it's huge! It measures 58" x 76". He can wrap one end around his feet and snuggle the other end under his chin. It's so soft and squishy too!

I love how the yarn transitions colors. It actually made making it more fun make. I didn't get bored because I enjoyed watching how the colors change.

Here are all the details because I will make this one again:

Cascade Cartwheel Yarn, 9 balls, color 09 - San Diego, about 2900 yards
Pattern from BagODay Crochet, pattern repeat is 8 stitches plus 3
​I used a K hook and chained 171 stitches, after 7, 8 and 9 balls I'd hold it up and ask Chris if it was long enough. It was long enough after 9 balls and I have 2 left over. I finished with a row of single crochet.

Yesterday we took Mom to my brother's house and I got to see my ornaments in their new home!

I can honestly say, that they never looked this good on my rotating trees! They belong on a white tree and Carol loves having them. I'm sure my brother doesn't care one way or the other and I'm cool with tha.

You can click on any of these photos to see close ups of some of the ornaments. I think she has around 110 of them and they really fill the tree nicely. 

The best news is that more people have seen them in the last 2 weeks than in the past 5 years combined and that makes me the happiest. I made them to be seen and enjoyed and now they are.

Carol also made some really cute jewelry for Ella's doll outfits that I'll share tomorrow or Monday.

I worked on the pink doll dress yesterday and proceeded to sew the wrong skirt to the wrong bodice (it's a reversible dress). these things are hard to make so I wasn't about to take it apart. Instead I walked away for the evening. I've figured out a solution and it will be just as pretty (if you like fluorescent pink). I'll get it finished this afternoon, I think.
Meanwhile, the tie dyeing that I did last week for the boys is done! It took almost 3 days of soaking to process these blue dyes. Each of the 3 boys gets a spider shirt because they all love Spiderman. The oldest boy loves blue so his second shirt is a blue spiral and it's probably the best spiral I've ever made.

The two younger boys each get shirts like these. They both love red and blue.

Ella's brother is Eli. I see a lot more of these 2 so I did 2 more shirts for him. These were done with Dye Magnet and stamps and stencils.

This is all that I have left to do on Chris' blanket! It might get done during the Eagles game tonight, especially of the Eagles don't play well. When it's done it will have almost 3000 yards of yarn in it!

My normal daily routine is to get up (not early), pack orders and exercise. This morning I was laying in bed deciding what type of exercise I wanted to do today and decided on the recumbent bike while watching some Netflix. But I just couldn't bear sitting on the bike and having to see the dead bugs and cobwebs in the basement corner. The next thing I know, I've traded off exercise and vacuumed the entire basement which was a lot more work than riding the bike, watching Netflix and ignoring the bugs. But the basement looks great, well, great for a basement.

Then I had the great idea to wash the Finally! quilt again to soften it up some more. I just love sleeping under this quilt. It's so heavy and warm, just like I want. But I was reminded why I never buy Kona cotton fabric anymore. This stuff, especially the dark colors, must have some sort of lint magnet. There wasn't any lint on the color squares, just on the Kona black. Nothing 5 sheets of sticky roller couldn't solve but annoying nonetheless. 
​Then I had breakfast!

This weekend was reasonably productive too. I admit that I'm mostly focused on Chris' crochet blanket. It will be done in a couple of day! But when I needed to take breaks I also got 2 Rail Fence veterans quilts quilted. After I finish the project below I'll get these trimmed and bound. Then I have 2 more ready to quilt.

There were also a couple of breaks to make some accessories for this outfit that I made for Ella's doll earlier this year. I don't know what I was saving it for but I decided that it will be part of her Christmas gift. This doll will be a proper little hippie.

The main part of her Christmas gift is getting made this afternoon. It's PINK!
​I'll get through it.....

Do you find that when you finish a big project (like 80 Christmas postcards) that you are a little lost? That's the phase I'm in right now. In my sewing room I'm trying to clean up and get surfaces open so I can get out a couple of new projects. But yesterday I didn't do much of anything. Last night was our quilt club meeting and annual pot luck. Because of my allergies, I don't get to participate but I do bring my vegan and gluten free cookies. I have two friends who take all of the leftovers home to family members who are dairy-free. My holiday cooking is done!

Yesterday afternoon we went to a friend's house to pick up some wood. They had to cut down 3 HUGE trees earlier this year. Two were 150+ year old oaks. We got a lot of it in the Spring but decided to get another load. We are all set for winter fires.

In the evenings Chris' blanket is really coming along. I'm on the 7th ball of 11. It's 53" wide and 55" long at this point. It's my lap blanket while I'm working on it. I want it to be about 80" long so I expect that I will only need 9.5 - 10 balls total. This project will actually be done soon! 

The big view photo is really washed out so I took this one with a grayscale card and these colors are much closer to true. I absolutely love it. It's Cascade Cartwheel in the color San Diego. This might be done by Christmas!

My next sewing project will be a doll dress for Ella. I'm hoping to find a pattern that can use these 2 fabrics. The pink is a silk that Kim gave me and the silver is from Anne and is the same type of fabric that I used in the stocking postcard. These fabrics make my teeth hurt. I wasn't that kind of little girl but Ella will love it.

Today's inspiration comes to us courtesy of Julie Griffiths. She was inspired by the view of fire from across the lake. She sued the Marrakesh Gradient with a little bit of batik in her piece. Even the dark borders are from the gradient.

For sharing, Julie received a 20% coupon for the shop that's good for 3 months! If you have made anything with my hand dyed fabric I hope you will consider sharing it in the Customer Gallery.  The only rule is that projects have to be complete. It doesn't have to be made totally from hand dyed fabric, just include a recognizable amount. 

You might remember that several weeks ago I mentioned that I was going to do some testing of durability of acrylic value yarns. I just went through my stash and picked the yarns that I had on hand but I did also purchase some Mainstay and Red Heart since they are such popular value yarn choices. I could have added lots of others but I felt this sampling would give me a good idea of the durability of these yarns in general. I don't consider Vanna's Choice a value yarn, but I had just bought some on deep clearance and thought this test would give me a good idea of what to do with it.

Here's how the test worked:
I made swatches with 4 rows of double crochet using a 5.5mm (I) hook. 
I had a control set of swatches and a set that went through washing cold and flat drying, a set that was washed cold and machine dried and a set that was washed warm and machine dried.
I went through the cycles 5 times and the initial results showed that the washing temperature doesn't seem to matter, it's the dryer that affects the yarn. If you dry flat the yarn will continue to look and feel exactly the same as it did off the skein.
After the 5 cycles I decided to focus on dryer tests and to send the swatches through washing and drying 5 more times for a total of 10 dryer cycles. My dryer is set to hot.

Observations:

1. All of these yarns are really quite durable and held up well through 10 wash/dry cycles.
2. The softest yarns are Big Twist (Joann) and Pound of Love (Lion Brand). They are also the most likely to pill, especially Big Twist.
3. Most of then shrank a bit so I will always use a larger hook size to make sure that the resulting blankets/projects stay soft and cuddly. I tend to crochet tight anyway so I will use J or K hooks for my projects.
4. My decision about purchasing yarn, especially for donation purposes, will be price because I think all of these yarns performed well. I'll address cost at the end of this post. 

Here's a review if each individual yarn. The unwashed swatch is always on the top.

When I say a yarn is a favorite or least favorite you have to take that with a grain of salt. There's really not a ton of difference between most of them. That said, Big Twist is my least favorite. It's, hands down, the softest of the yarns I tested but it's also the most likely to pill. I wouldn't necessarily avoid using this yarn but I'd recommend not drying it in the dryer.​ You can see the pilling starting to form in the sample.

You can't tell from this photo, but I Love This Yarn (Hobby Lobby) shrank the least. The top swatch was the first that I made and I decided that I didn't want to make my swatches that big. I like this yarn a lot because it's soft off the skein and it stays soft through the wash. It didn't pill but I see evidence that it might after another 10 or so washes....maybe.  It's also one of the most expensive when not bought on the regular 30% sale.

Pound of Love (Lion Brand) is almost as soft as Big Twist. You can see that the stitches are denser after washing and it will eventually pill a little bit but not as much as Big Twist. Given the choice I'd probably choose Pound of Love over Big twist. In fact, I have yarn to make a gingham blanket from this yarn. I will use a larger hook size to accommodate for the shrinkage.

I have never used Premier Basix so I bought some to try a while back and haven't used it yet. It did shrink in both length and width. This yarn is going to make very durable projects. My washed sample actually feels a little stiffer than the original but that might be because of the shrinkage. My opinion is very neutral on this one. If the price is right, I'd buy.

So now I know why people love Red Heart. This stuff is super durable. I know that in the photo it looks like there was some shrinkage, but that's not the actual result. This didn't shrink at all. It didn't soften a lot after 10 washes but it didn't pill either.

Mainstay is Walmart's house brand that comes in a very limited number of colors. It did shrink a tiny bit but I think it's a little softer than Red Heart but just as durable. It's the best value of all of them and I'd be fine using Mainstay white, black and gray mixed with yarns from other companies. They only have about about 6 or 8 colors in total.

The surprise of all surprises are the Dollar Tree yarns. They are both by Premier. I think that Just Yarn is simply a lighter weight of Premier Basix and I like it much better than Basix. It's softer and more drapey but just as durable. The Just Active has some polyester blended in. It's soft like Big Twist but it looks just as good after 10 washes as it did off the skein. The downside of these yarns is going to be cost (based on the new $1.25 price point) and the small size of the skeins. But, yes, I'd buy them. It will be interesting to see if the skeins are made a little bigger with the new $1.25 price point.

Like I said earlier, I put in some Vanna's Choice (Lion Brand) because I had some. This yarn is more expensive than the others and the swatches show that it's a higher quality. It's a thick #4 (worsted) and you could use a J or K or maybe an L hook with it to make a nice drapey blanket. It would probably make a nice winter cardigan too. 

So, with all of that said and given that I make mostly donation items, I'm comfortable using any of these yarns except Red Heart. The only reason that I won't use Red Heart is because I had an allergic reaction to it once. Otherwise, it's a great yarn. I'd probably also avoid Big Twist because I think it's the least durable.
​

That means that price will likely be the determining factor when I buy yarn.  This chart compare the cost per yard for each of these yarns based on the full retail price on the day I prepared this chart. They are sorted on cost order. Mainstay is the least expensive. I Love This Yarn is the most expensive of the value yarns and I'm not convinced that most people would categorize it as a value yarn.

But I think it's a more realistic comparison to look at what the normal sale price is. I Love This Yarn is 30% off every other week. Does anyone buy this yarn at full price? I know I never do. Big Twist and Pound of Love are on sale at Joann on a very regular basis. Looking at the sale price, Big Twist and Pound of Love are the bargains and I Love This Yarn is also a bargain.

Check out the cost of the Dollar Tree yarns. They aren't expensive but they aren't bargains either! But if I did amigurumi, I'd buy the small skeins of this yarn all day long. It's a great way to get lots of variety of colors in small skeins.  

For me, I learned a couple of important things:
1. All yarns are of good quality and I can be confident using them for gifts or donations. I expect that I Love This Yarn (on sale) will become my go-to value yarn. It's great quality and soft to work with and Hobby Lobby is close to me. My Michael's is kind of a dump and Joann is a bit of a drive.
2. I now have a price point for comparing sale prices of nicer yarns. If there's a sale and the better quality yarn is in the .01 - .015/yard range, I'm stocking up! I did some of that during the sales at Lion Brand and JoAnn. For example, I absolutely love Lion Brand Anti-Pilling yarn and I bought a ton of it from Joann on Cyber Monday for .0107/yard, that was something like 65% off and in the range of Premier Basix and Pound of Love. I didn't mention Premier much. I love their yarns too but they haven't bee pushing sales as much as Lion Brand lately.

Some other yarns that I like and that I would consider mildly stockpiling if at least 40% off are:
Mandala Ombre - .0157/yard if 40% off
Vanna's Choice - .0176
Ice Cream Blend - .0082 - I picked up some of this on clearance at a deeper discount
At less than 40% off, I'm not interested unless I have a specific project in mind. This one lesson is going to save me from a lot of not-so-great sales in the coming months and years. I have put this chart on my phone so that I can have it as a reference if I'm out shopping and trying to figure out if a yarn is a bargain.

What do you think? What value yarns do you like best of you knit or crochet and what kinds of projects do you like to do with them?