Scrappy Shawl, Tempestries and "Queenie"

      I'm trying to sort out my knitting so I have only 3 projects going.  I'm incorrigible when it comes to starting projects!  But I've got it down to the Scrappy Shawl, the Boiled Fingerless Gloves I'm still working on for my son, and an Owl.  Sometimes I'm a slow poke and I don't get things done as fast as I'd like but in a few weeks, I'll be getting a very special project National Parks Tempestry Kit for two years.  I want to finish some of my projects to clear the way to work on this.

The Tempestry Project Photos

A Tempestry shows the temperature day by day for a particular year.

When set side by side yearly temperature differences can be seen. If you do several decades to a hundred years apart you are going to see Climate Change!

 The Tempestry Project Photos

The National Parks Tempestry Project is having volunteers pick a National Park and do 2 Tempestries.  One is 2016, the centennial of the National Parks and an earlier date (which should be the founding of your park but mine was started in 2016, so we're using weather data from the nearest town in 1916).

 "Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument"

Katahdin Rock Lauren Danilek

Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Northern Maine

UnofficialNet

     I choose Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument, a vast expanse of land of 87,563 acres, that my son while in college canoed and camped in the area.  The land was donated for a National Park, fought against by some locals and the Maine Governor.  Then Obama created a monument to preserve the land.  It was on the list to be shrunk down last year but survived that assault.  For the Big park that could, I'll knit and hopefully get there one day to see it.  I can still see the mama Moose and calf my son described, a wild area preserved is such a gift.  And for locals concerned about losing trees for industry an NPR report says that for every dollar spent on a National Monuments $4 are reaped in the local towns from tourism. (A NOTE: If interested in a National Tempestry Kit you can see if a local group that supports your National Park will fund the project, but then they will keep the Tempestry, mine is to be gifted to my son.)

For more info. on Tempestries:

  check out - The Tempestry Project (FB link)

and

The Tempestry Project (A FB Group, more info.)

and

The National Parks Tempestry Project

and

Ravelry Resistance Knitters a group on Craftivist Projects

     I'm still reading on the American Revolution and listening to several books.  I try to keep up to the same battle in each book, switching around to keep them all going on a similar topic.  This way I get diverse viewpoints and I get the details down into my head more.  I'm up to the Battle of Saratoga, October 1777 and I've covered The Battles of Trenton and Princeton about 4 times and each time is a bit different with different details.  I grew up in Princeton, NJ and for college went to Saratoga, NY, and settled where old Saratoga was after college.  I was living at the foot of a hill with the Saratoga Battle Monument on it.  It was my daily walk up the high hill to it and Benedict Arnold's empty niche faces away from you as you walk up to it, the other three spaces on each side are filled with a statue of a general who helped win the Saratoga Battle.

"11 Books We Can’t Wait To Read In The First Half Of 2019"

     I started reading "Queenie" a book I got through Book of the Month club which gets books ahead of publication (it comes out March 19th and it's supposed to be a big hit for this year).  A new writer's voice and unique writing, I'm looking forward to this (I found I miss disappearing into a book, the history of the Revolutionary war to me is riveting, but not exactly a calm let's-disappear-into-a-book experience).  Reading the front page excerpt that was given to us by BOTM I had to know what in the world was happening?  I also liked the writing style.  To me the prose is everything.  At this point all I know it's about a 25 yr. old British Jamaican woman straddling two worlds as a journalist and young black woman.  But I think I'm going to like it.  Goodreads: "Queenie"

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