One Second After - Preparedness

I love preserving food and am always looking for interesting ways to put up our bounty or new ways to cut out processed/packaged foods from the grocery store. I am always watching something on YouTube or combing through the groups I'm a part of on Facebook. One of the things that I've been hearing about throughout these communities is a book called "One Second After" by William R. Forstchen. 

I was curious, so I borrowed it from the library. Talk about a captivating read!! The premise of the book is what happens after an electromatic pulse (EMP) has gone off. There is a foward by Newt Gingrich and an afterword by Captain Bill Sanders of the U.S. Navy, both stating this scenario could truly happen. The story was fast paced and well written. It was very thought provoking and made me think of what could happen and how we would or would not handle the situation. 

I'm not a prepper, but one who puts away a little food because I don't care for the taste of most processed/prepackaged items that I've tried at the grocery store. I do a small batch of soups, etc. and my pantry looks like everyone else's except that my food is in jars instead of cans. Not a lot, and certainly not enough to get me through something like this disaster. 

This book should be added to everyone's reading list. If nothing else, it's an entertaining and informative read.  "One Second After" is my first finish of 2020.

Another first for 2020 - actually for the first time ever... we didn't have pork and sauerkraut for New Year's Day, yesterday. Pork was quite high at the store, so I purchased a ham instead. I figured I could use some of the left over ham for ham and bean soup. Well, that certainly didn't turn out well. I sliced open the packaging around the ham and my knife came out with a long string of slime hanging from it! It was horribly gross. I pulled the plastic back some from the ham and it was covered in a thick slimy mucous that was certainly not appealing nor should it be there. It appears we had purchased a spoiled ham! That goes back to Walmart today. We ended up having hamburger soup instead. I guess we'll find out if eating pork and sauerkraut on New Year's truly brings luck and good fortune!

Last Finishes of the Year

Bluprint had a nice sale last week where they had all knit and crochet scarf and cowl kits at 50% off, plus I had a 25% off coupon that I could use on top of the discount as well. I purchased 4 kits - 1 crochet and 3 knit - each costing less than what the cost of the yarn would have been for them!

My first finish was the Start Up Library Crochet Cowl Kit by Salena Baca and it really was a surprise to me. When I purchased the kit, I had originally gotten it to try out the yarn included in the kit: Sprightly Yarns Spectrum in Worsted Weight #4. I found a lovely color, Cresting Waves that would go with a few things in my wardrobe. Well, when it arrived, I thought I'd just work a few rounds of the cowl and see how it behaved and find another pattern. That cowl had such a lovely drape, that I decided to finish it. It's such a simple pattern - chains and double crochets, however, when put on, it looks so nice. Who would have imagined that I'd have fallen in love with it!?! Even more strange, is that I'm considering making another one from some yarn I have stashed. I think I'll make it a bit longer next time.

My next almost finish was the Fisherman's Wife cowl by Kalurah Hudson of whiletheyplaydesigns.com. I can not find the link to the kit, so I'm assuming it has been sold out since it was on clearance. The pattern is very well written and even has a link to a tutorial for making the picot edging. I'm really quite impressed and if her patterns are anything like this one, they are definitely worth the money! Now, back to the kit... This pattern uses Sprightly Acrylic Wool Super Bulky #6. I chose the color "suede" for my scarf. I so enjoy doing cables, however have never done any cabled projects in super bulky weight before. I'm still on the fence when it comes to bulky yarn, but it does look quite neat when finished, plus, it was a quick knit. I still have to block it and put on the buttons. Unfortunately, when laying my scarf out to take the photo, I found, not one, but two mistakes! (can you find them?) I haven't decided if I'm going to fix them or just say, hey - it's for me and just leave them as is. That's what I end up with when I'm counting and talking to hubby at the same time! I really should have checked my work before binding off. I have 2 more skeins of the super bulky in a Blue Heather colorway, so I could just make another one (or 2). I still haven't decided what I'm going to use it for.

This appears to be my last finishes of the year. I've had hats and other finishes I never recorded and will just have to do better next year. I made many gifts this year as well as some hats, scarves and mittens to donate. Hopefully, next year will be even more productive than this one was!

Market Bag Finished

The Market Bag is finished and although it's nice, it's not exactly what I wanted. The bag is smaller than I thought, however it does hold quite a bit. I put in a decent size head of cabbage, 2 grapefruit and 8 clementines and still had room to spare.

The only thing I didn't like about it was the bottom design. Although it is solid and won't allow things to slip through, it has corners that look like weird "ears" when you put something in it that doesn't completely fill the bottom. My cabbage was the heaviest and looked VERY odd in the bottom. I know that aesthetics won't affect usefulness, but I guess I'm just a snob when things don't look right. I will continue on my bag search, but will still use this one for smaller things like peppers, etc.