Yarn-along, and Little Quilt Blocks

I have my first knitting finish of 2016 to report... a pair of socks I've been working on since about October, for myself:

Lime Green for Me  from Kertzer On Your Toes yarn I found at Tuesday Morning.

 They fit perfectly and I'll wear them tomorrow.  I finally started the button bands on my Mint Chocolate cardigan, and after that there are 2 other long-term hibernation knitting projects I need to whip into shape.  I'm sharing this to Ginny's Yarn-Along.  And I have been reading things too...most recently I finished the second of the historical mysteries by David Wishart, Germanicus (the first was Ovid, and I have checked out the third, Sejanus).  The detective, Marcus Corvinus, is a clever and witty guy with a complicated family life and unhealthy levels of curiosity; imagine Lord Peter Wimsey time-warped back to I, Claudius, with perhaps too strong a penchant for the Falernian and for ticking off the empress Livia. For historical authenticity the books are very believable, except for Corvinus' very un-Roman tendency to use 4-letter Anglo-Saxon invective. If I keep up with these I may just finally figure out the Julio-Claudian family tree.

 There hasn't been too much quilt progress in the last 2 weeks; I think I know what I need to do for the borders of Allietare, but haven't done it yet.  I have been dabbling with the 365 challenge and the above are the February blocks I've completed so far.  But I draw the line at 1/2" finished size triangles like the below block for Feb. 3 called for, so I upsized it to 6" instead of 3":

I like the lost ships much better if they don't make me insane, and as a bonus, this block could take up the space of 4 days' blocks that I might decide not to do.  I am reserving judgement on this challenge but I have always enjoyed making a variety of patchwork blocks.  I'm just not going to do miniatures right now.  You can see my design wall with the rainbow string stars.  I am still cogitating on how to set them with the big one in the center.  I need to make time to take my machine in for servicing, too.  Its timing is all off and the feed dogs are not in sync with the stitching action, or something.  I've been giving it a workout recently!