Knitting Tips

Thank heavens there are lots of smart people in the world, especially smart knitters, because their clever discoveries are what help me survive the struggles of learning to knit.

I'm pretty much a self-taught knitter, in that I've learned mainly from knitting books, knitting blogs, on-line videos, and such.

My first knitting project, three years ago, was a baby afghan. I figured it would be best to start with an afghan because it had four straight sides, so I wouldn't have to worry about creating a curve or anything fancy like that.  I chose a design with a three-row repeat. I figured that would be manageable, too.

Little did I realize that within the 3 rows would be 7-stitch repeats. Oh, mercy. I'd start a row with the best intentions in the world, but by the time I neared the end of it, I'd realize I'd screwed up the stitch repeats somewhere along the way. I'd ravel. I'd try again. 

Then someone told me to put markers after every 7 stitches along a given row. Voila! The pattern was now manageable. I just had to see to it that I did the correct stitches within the 7-stitch section. A new world opened to me. There was meaning in life again.

The latest voila! moment came last week. I read online that when knitting a design, it's wise to weave a different colored thread (crochet thread, dental floss, whatever) through the stitches every few rows. I'm working on a sweater with a 4-row repeat, so on the 4th row, which is a purl row, I go back and weave a length of crochet thread through it. That way, should I need to ravel back a few rows, I know that if I ravel back to the white thread, I'll be at the 4th row of the repeat and that I'll then commence with row #1 again. Does this make sense?

If you look carefully at the photo here, you'll perhaps see the white crochet thread woven through two of the rows.

To me it's a little bit of insurance, sanity insurance. It takes just a few minutes to weave that white thread in, and it's worth the time and effort.  

Dance Class

Yesterday I had the distinct honor of attending Miss V's dance class. Miss V., shown in these photos in black leotard and a black crocheted covering (a snood, in other words) on her hair bun, was totally focused and involved. 

That's more than I can say for some of the other aspiring young ballerinas/tap dancers: there was the one who suffered a total meltdown the minute she walked into the studio and never did recover enough to participate; the one who was every where, doing whatever, and even spent time in the time-out chair, and the ones who seemed to be marching to the beat of a different drummer, as they say.
But Miss V was nothing if not determined to nail these steps and movements, come you-know-what or high water. 

This was the third lesson the students had attended. The dance instructor, ever the optimist, assured me I'd see tremendous change...for the better...in them come recital time in the spring. They do have a way to go until then!

I was impressed with Miss M., the dance instructor. She knows how to keep the children engaged, if they're at all engage-able, and how to have fun with them. She apparently has eyes all around her head, because she could spot a shoe lace that needed tying, a ne'er-do-well who needed time-out-chair sitting, or a shy dancer who simply needed a hug of encouragement.

I can't wait to go back to the studio in a few weeks to see how far the children have come. I suspect I'll be amazed. They're only two and three years old, after all.

After Apple-Picking

...with apologies to Robert Frost.

We went apple-picking at a nearby orchard today and came home with a large bag of McIntoshes. The Red Delicious will be ready in a couple of weeks, so we'll go back for those, since they're actually our favorite eating apple.

The apple trees are loaded with apples; it's a banner year for apples in much of Maine, although some orchards suffered damage during our summer of heavy downpours and high winds.

As you can see from these photos, the plums and pumpkins are also in abundance. 

...and so are the pumpkin climbers.

There's nothing like a fresh apple, straight from the tree, to enjoy in the car on the ride home.

Thinking of Stephanie Nielson

On The Today Show earlier this week, I heard the story of Stephanie Nielson, a 27-year-old mother who, with her husband Christian, was badly burned in a plane crash in mid-August. Stephanie suffered burns over 83% of her body; her husband suffered burns over 30% of his body; the pilot was killed in the crash. Stephanie has been given a 60-70% chance of survival; Christian is expected to survive.

In addition to the fact that Stephanie has an incredibly long struggle ahead of her, she is an unusually beautiful person, judging from her writings in her blog. I'm not talking superficial, external beauty (although she has plenty of that), but beauty of the soul.

Stephanie and her husband have four young children, ages two to six. Her blog, which I have just begun reading since hearing of her plight on The Today Show, reveals her joy in life and joy in raising her four children. Apparently she had a following of blog readers all over the world, and those bloggers are now joining forces to aid Stephanie in any way they can.

Meanwhile, Stephanie's family is taking care of the couple's four children, and they are also re-publishing her earlier blog writings. The announcement of the crash can be found here.

If you would like to help Stephanie and Christian Nielson, you can make a donation here. Just click on "Donate to NieNie." (The cJaneRun blog is written by Stephanie's sister Jane, who is caring for three of the four Nielson children.) Jane mentions in her blog that Stephanie underwent her first major surgery this week, a skin graft, and so far the surgery seems to have gone well. She is still in an induced coma. 

Let's keep Stephanie, Christian, and their children in our thoughts and prayers.

Hot off the Needles

I finished the February Lady Sweater just a few minutes ago. In fact, I got up at 5:00 this morning because I couldn't wait to put the finishing touches on this project. 

I'm pleased with the results. It was enjoyable to knit except when I made a mistake in the pattern repeats and spent several hours, consuming one late afternoon and the next morning, trying to figure out which row I'd knit incorrectly, thus throwing off the entire pattern on one sleeve. 

I thought I'd found the error and corrected it no less than four times, but each time I was wrong. So I raveled, knit, raveled, knit, raveled...and finally got it right.

When I first showed you this project on September 12, I mentioned that there were 1804 knitters on Ravelry working on this same pattern. I checked Ravelry a few minutes ago, and there are now 1881 knitters who are making or have finished the February Lady Sweater.

 1881 plus one.

Passionflower floozy?

I get such a charge out of the blossoms on my passionflower. They're a tad over the top, don't you think? Like a woman who doesn't know when she has applied a sufficient amount of make-up and jewelry.

I was surprised to read that the passionflower has medicinal uses, so perhaps we can forgive her over-the-top appearance.

February Lady's Sweater

My newest knitting project is the February Lady Sweater. This is one of the hottest knitting patterns in the knitting world, apparently. On Ravelry.com there are currently 1,804 February Sweaters either on the needles or completed!

I'm enjoying this pattern a lot. I found it on the 'net: here and have been waiting for the inspiration and yarn to start it. 

The inspiration arrived last week; the yarn, I discovered, had been here waiting for me all along. I'd knit myself a "t-shirt" style sweater earlier this summer and hated the darned thing. In fact, I'd never bothered to sew the front, back, and sleeves together because I hated it so much. It just seemed baggy and heavy, and I knew I'd never wear it. Every time I looked into my knitting basket and saw the unfinished sweater lying there, I felt guilty that I'd wasted so much time and money on a failed project.

It's a failed project no more! The yarn is now happily being used for the February Lady Sweater,  an adaptation of one of Elizabeth Zimmermann's patterns, the February Baby Sweater. I've knit one other pattern by Zimmermann, and it, too, was enjoyable to knit: the Baby Surprise Jacket. You can see one of my Baby Surprise Jackets here, if you scroll down.

Here's a close-up of the design in the February Sweater. The front and back are knit as one piece. I'll go back and add the sleeves before long.

So far, so good. I don't think I'll want to ravel this one.

Meanwhile, I received a birth announcement from a former neighbor today. Tawyna was a little girl when she lived next door to us. I think she was about one-year-old when her parents moved to our neighborhood, and she was about ten when the family moved out of state. Gosh, we hated to see Tawnya and her little sister move away! I spent the day of their move hibernating in my home because I was doing a lot of crying.

Tawnya's a married woman now. We received a letter from her today; tucked inside was a photo of her little girl, Simaya, born August 13. I see a February Baby Sweater on my knitting needles very soon.

Sourdough Starter/Sourdough Bread

I don't know how many times over the years I've planned to make sourdough bread, but I've always bogged down at the first step: making the sourdough starter.

Yesterday I decided to give it another try,...and I had success! 

I love the taste and texture of sourdough bread.  

The starter:

Place 1 cup milk (may be skim, may even be made from powdered skim) in a glass jar or crock (not metal). Allow to sit at room temperature for 24 hours. Stir in 1 cup room temperature all-purpose flour. Leave uncovered in a warm place (80 degrees) for 2-5 days, depending on how long it takes to bubble and sour. If it gets too warm, the fermentation will stop, so be careful of this. If it starts to dry out, stir in enough tepid water to bring it back to its original consistency. Once it has a good sour aroma and is full of bubbles, it's ready to use.

The starter is best if you use it at least once a week. If you don't use it for 2-3 weeks, spoon out and discard about half of the starter and replace it as described above. Given good care, a starter becomes more flavorful with age. If you don't plan to use the starter for several weeks, freeze it. Before using it again, leave it at room temperature for 24 hours.

Four days ago I'd prepared the starter; now to find a good sourdough bread recipe.

Not only did I find one, it is a bread machine recipe! I found this at Allrecipes.com.

Sourdough Bread

1 T. active dry yeast

3 T. wheat germ

3 T. sugar

1 T. salt

4 c. bread flour

1 1/2 c. sourdough starter

3 T. margarine, softened (I used canola oil; olive oil would be fine, too.)

1 c. milk

1 T. cornmeal

Mix all ingredients in bread machine, using the dough cycle. With my bread machine, this process takes 90 minutes.

Turn dough out onto lightly floured surface (I found it needed a rather heavily floured surface; the dough was very soft) Form dough into a single round loaf. Place loaf on a baking stone or baking sheet which has been lightly oiled and sprinkled with cornmeal. Cover loaf and let rise in warm place until nearly doubled in size, about 40 minutes.

Preheat oven to 425°.

Bake in preheated oven for 20-30 minutes, until golden brown and loaf sounds hollow when tapped. Let cool on wire rack.

I used almost all of the starter for this recipe. I was afraid I might not have enough starter left in the glass bowl to replenish and get the bubbling going again. Not to worry! Apparently it takes very little of the original starter to repeat the souring process, because about an hour after I'd added the 1 c. water and 1 c. flour, the mixture was bubbling and rising in the bowl like crazy.

Chicago: Final Chapter

I'm eager to move on to telling you either about the sweater I'm knitting or the sourdough bread I'm making, so I'll finish up the Chicago tale in one fell swoop.

As I mentioned in the last post, my sister and I missed our flight from Chicago to Washington because we attended TWO Oprah tapings instead of the originally scheduled one. Even attending one taping was going to make it a tight squeeze to get to the airport on time, but we felt we could do it. We knew we couldn't make it after two tapings.

We arrived at ORD an hour or so after our flight had taken off, so that flight was now a moot point. Plan B was to try to fly stand-by. Imagine our joy, however, when the check-in clerk scheduled us for a 3:00 flight out of Chicago! We had assigned seats, we weren't flying stand-by, we were feeling pretty darned smug. In fact, I think I seem to remember we high-fived each other, or something close to it,  and bragged how easy the rescheduling had gone.

One should know better than to ever feel smug at an airport. 

Our flight left Chicago late, we got into Reagan Airport late, and we had only minutes to get from United Airlines to US Air. We screamed our way through security, with many good people stepping aside to let us pass, and raced to our gate. All the while we could hear ourselves being paged over the speaker system, advising us the boarding gate was about to close. We raced down the escalator, ran to the gate,...and the attendant directed us to the gate on the left. We raced to the left, where the attendant directed us back to the original gate. Just as we got back there, the gate closed.

We were doomed. Three and a half hours later we finally boarded our flight, the last flight of the day, for Maine.

So that was that. Another story with a happy ending.

Oprah!

Let's get right to the heart of the matter in this first post about our Chicago adventure. I was all set to try to tell it all in one post, but I can milk this trip for all it's worth and get several posts out of it, I suspect.

Luckily we went to Harpo Studios and The Oprah Store the day before the actual show tapings. If we hadn't done that, we wouldn't have gotten any photos and, even worse, we wouldn't have done any shopping.

The Oprah Store is full of goodies: clothing with Oprah's logo, African crafts, even baby clothes and some of the clothes Oprah has worn on her show. Each of us found several must-haves and I, personally, can say I got a little carried away with my purchasing. I like the things I bought, though, and know I made good choices.

Now for the taping. As it turned out, we got to sit in on TWO tapings, so we saw Lisa Ling AND Dr. Oz!

We arrived at the studio at 6:00 a.m. sharp, went inside to a waiting area, stood there about one hour, then were moved upstairs to the official audience waiting room. On the way up we walked through a security screening arch, our handbags were checked, and we were handed a breakfast of a muffin, juice, and an apple. We were numbers 22, 23, 24, and 25 as we entered, so I assumed we'd be sitting practically in Oprah's lap during the tapings, but such was not the case. Once we were escorted to the studio, we were assigned seats rather willy-nilly. I think the four of us got good seats, though. We sat in the center section, perhaps 10 rows up, and on the right hand side of that section.
We watched the film crew set up the stage for the first taping, which was about forgiveness. The crew arranged the chairs, checked for sound, etc., then a member of Oprah's staff came out to psych up the audience. We were already pretty well psyched, but when she announced that we'd be seeing both Lisa Ling and Dr. Oz, the audience went wild. I do believe I even heard yours truly, who is usually quite sedate, whoop and holler when Dr. Oz was mentioned. He's one of my favorites on the Oprah show.

Finally it was time for the first taping, so Oprah appeared, dressed in a rather simple gray dress with a wide belt. She stood and graciously accepted our applause and hoots and hollers, then Lisa Ling (who interviewed various people connected to the case to be presented) and the featured guest came out. The guest was a man from Sugarland Texas who has forgiven his older son for being the force behind the murders of his (the son's) own mother and his younger brother, and for attempting to murder his father as well. It was a powerful show which made me realize that if this man can forgive his son (who's on death row) for what he has done, then maybe I can forgive the next jerk who cuts me off while I'm driving.

The show's taping appeared to be divided into eight segments. At the breaks I noticed Oprah would ask "Which one are we doing?" and she'd be told "fifth" or "seventh" or whatever.

Oprah appeared very down-to-earth and personable, I thought. I was expecting her to be quite aloof, given her fame and fortune, but she showed her usual sense of humor and chatted comfortably with audience members near her during the breaks. She confided before the first taping that she was extremely tired (the day before she'd been at Centennial Park for the taping of the Olympic athletes) and she'd fallen asleep in the make-up chair just before coming down to the studio.

It takes about one hour to tape one show; it'll be interesting to see what the shows we watched look like when they appear on t.v., with editing and commercials.

After a longer break for Oprah to go up to her dressing room to change, the taping of the second show began. This time Oprah wore blue pants and a blue sweater with a scarf attachment. Both times she wore Mt. Everest heels, which never ceases to amaze me. Dr. Oz came out in his scrubs, and the audience again went wild, this time for both of them.

The special guest was a lady who'd had a 140 lb. tumor removed from her abdomen. I remember reading about this earlier this year. Dr. Oz explained how it's possible for a tumor of that size to go undetected for many years, and he stressed the importance of getting a second opinion. He said patients sometimes feel they're betraying their regular doctor (This lady had had the same doctor for 20 years, and he'd never suspected the tumor existed. It was discovered only when she went in to emergency surgery for appendicitis. They opened her abdomen to remove the appendix but couldn't close it back up because the tumor immediately began "escaping." Too much information?? Sorry.... but that we're actually doing our doctor a favor by soliciting a second opinion by keeping doctors on their toes and giving them opportunities to learn more about their field of medicine. He mentioned twice that if a doctor can't discover a 140-lb. tumor, then imagine how hard it must be to detect a tiny tumor.

After the special guest left, Dr. Oz answered various medical questions. One that particularly interested me concerned cell phones and their possible hazards. Dr. Oz said he never uses his cell phone exclusively on one ear, but keeps switching back and forth as he's talking so that one ear doesn't get too much exposure to the cell phone frequencies. He said children should not be allowed to use cell phones at all, because their skulls are thinner and cannot block out the frequencies as well as adult skulls can. 

During one of the breaks for this taping, a young couple and their little boy, about five, were brought in and seated in front of the stage. When the next segment was taped, we learned that a You Tube video of a Dr. Oz Wannabee and his assistant, Oprah had been brought to Oprah's attention, so she invited the youngster to the show. We watched the You Tube video, then Dr. Oz took the boy onto his lap to chat with him. I thought this segment showed the kindness and warmth of both Oprah and Dr. Oz, because they were both reacting so sensitively to the boy. 

We left the Oprah tapings around noon, I think. By this time we'd missed our flight home, but that was of no concern to us because we'd been enjoying our Oprah experience to the hilt. And besides, finally getting ourselves back to Maine is fodder for another blog.

One final comment here, although I'll think of many others I wish I'd made after I publish this post: Oprah's staff, from the doorman who let us in to the coat check ladies to all of the many, many other staff members, were all extremely friendly and welcoming. I was impressed by everything about Harpo Studios.