My science fair project

(In my header photo: A polar bear sporting a dress and sweater, for a soon-to-be-born baby girl. Also, an Aran cardigan which I have started for a friend. This is a big project; I've been knitting all week and the first section, the back, isn't finished yet. The pattern is from Yankee Knitter, and it's a wonderful pattern.)

Now to my post: Easter Sunday morning as I took our flatware out of the silverware box, I noticed some tarnishing. This wouldn't do for Easter brunch.

I was about to try to enlist Ken to do some silver polishing, when I suddenly remembered my twelfth-grade entry in my school's annual science fair.

So I set to work.

I placed a strip of aluminum foil in a large plastic bowl.
Then I added approximately 1/4-1/2 cup of washing soda and about 1 tablespoon of baking soda.

Next I placed the flatware on the powdered mixtures and poured over this enough boiling water to cover the flatware.

I stood back and watched Ken's job being done for him with no effort: The concoction bubbled and hissed; the smell of sulfur filled the air (but only slightly).

After just a few minutes, I emptied the water from the bowl, rinsed the flatware with cold water, and voila!

Tarnish gone; flatware bright and shiny.
The chemical reaction causes the sulfur tarnish (sulfide) to transfer from the knives and forks to the aluminum foil.

Yup, first place in not only my high school's science fair, but first place in the regional fair as well. I don't remember the chemical equation, since this was 55 years ago, but it's a fairly simple one. Sure beats getting out the jar of silver polish and spending a good minute on each utensil. Update: I just found the chemical reaction on this site:http://www.finishing.com/4600-4799/4785.shtml This site suggests you use baking soda only, but I remember distinctly that I used washing soda, too. Try it with just baking soda, though, if this is all you have on hand.


This was going to be my only handy tip in this post, but yesterday I attended a meeting, and the ladies at my table started sharing clever household cleaning tips.

I love cleaning products made from items we have on hand. I don't like to buy commercial cleaning products because of the harmful chemicals they contain.

This second tip I learned on the Today Show one morning a few years ago, and I've kept a bottle of vodka in my kitchen pantry ever since:

To clean microfiber sofas, chairs, etc., dip a white cleaning cloth into a small saucer of vodka. Rub the cloth on the soiled area of the microfiber. Voila, again! I regularly clean the arms of my sofa, especially the end of the sofa that our dog has claimed as hers (even though I keep her sleeping area of the sofa covered with towels) with vodka.

It dries quickly, doesn't leave a water stain, and removes soil.

I've read you shouldn't use a colored cloth to do this because the color from the cloth might transfer onto your furniture.

Also, I read recently that rubbing alcohol works as well as vodka.

So there you have it: two handy tips in one day.

Now it's time for me to go outdoors. It's a beautiful, sunny, warm day here in Maine (finally), and I don't want to miss a  minute of it.

And the party was a success!

Recently I shared photos of some Mason jars which I had chalk-painted to be used as vases for an upcoming baby shower.

The baby shower was a week ago, and it was a success1

My part in preparing for the shower was minimal compared with all that the grandmother-to-be, my friend Lynn, put into it. Also, Tiffany, the good friend of the mother-to-be added many, many creative ideas.

For instance, Tiffany made the beautiful shower cake. Isn't it stunning? It consists of several layers of cake, each a different flavor, with a variety of fillings between layers. She made the booties for the top and the flowers for the base of the cake, too.

It was Tiffany's idea to have a "Wishing Tree," with each guest writing a wish for the baby and her parents, and hanging that wish on the tree.

Lynn knit this beautiful afghan for her future grand daughter. It's gorgeous.

 One of my contributions, in addition to the chalk-painted vases, was the Mason jars tied with pink and white baker's twine, with a handmade salt dough heart attached to the twine. Guests used the Mason jars for their punch.

The only flop at the party was the ducks. They refused to swim in the punch bowl. Darn ducks. They, instead, flopped over onto their sides and made a spectacle of themselves.

Fresh flower arrangements were placed everywhere throughout Lynn's home. I liked this particular arrangement because it contrasted nicely with the white of the lingering snow outside.

It was Lynn's idea to provide little tin pails, each with vegetable dip and vegetable slices inside. They were a hit.

This little baby girl, due in mid-May, has certainly been given a wonderful welcome party, wouldn't you agree?

Blocking

I finished a Multnomah shawl a few days ago. This is a pattern I love. I think this was my fourth or fifth Multnomah.

I used a yarn of "questionable heritage," shall I say, which I bought while in China in 2005. If I remember correctly, I paid the equivalent of around $4.00 for six skeins of this yarn. Fiber content, yarn weight, care instructions are included on the label of each skein,...but I can't read Chinese.

It was a lovely, soft yarn to knit with, and I am certain, from the feel of the yarn, that it has a heavy wool content. Maybe it's even 100% wool.

I know there are ways to test the yarn to see if it's heavily wool or heavily acrylic. If it's acrylic, for instance, the yarn will melt when a match is touched to it.

Maybe I'll do that test yet with a piece of leftover yarn.

I knew another way to test the yarn for fiber content would be to block it after finishing the project.

So block it I did.

It blocked beautifully. Wool and other natural fibers relax when soaked and blocked; acrylics hardly move a muscle when blocked. Look at the difference between the first photo, with the shawl in the chair, and the final photo, with the blocked shawl back in the chair.

Quite a difference, isn't there?

 If that's not wool fiber, then it's another natural fiber, not a synthetic, that's a definite.

I'm not sure what I'll do with this Multnomah. Donate to someone, for sure. A program in Minnesota called "Wrapped in Care" gives hand knitted shawls to women who lose their babies at birth.

I sent one shawl to the program last fall and received a lovely thank-you note as a result. Perhaps a grieving mother would appreciate this shawl.

Regardless, the Multnomah is an enjoyable shawl to knit...and admire, once it's completed.

Chalk paint and Mason jars

Warm sunshine and melting snow sure do lift my spirits. Add to that the sound of snow sliding off the roof, and I'm practically hysterical.

But I must calm down and write this post, which isn't at all about snow or cold.

My friend Lynn is giving her daughter-in-law a baby shower on the 21st of March. I offered to help.

One thing I've been wanting to try is chalk painting Mason jars. I've seen many on Pinterest, and I think they make wonderful shabby chic decorations.

Lynn liked my suggestion, so I was off and running.

Except...I'd never done any chalk painting. The one thing in my favor was the shelves of Mason jars stored in the basement with my home canning supplies.

I priced chalk paint on Amazon and found it at $24 or so per small can. That seemed a bit ridiculous considering I'd need a minimum of four colors for eight measly jars. $96? No way.

So I googled "homemade chalk paint" and found several recipes.

The one I chose involved small tubes of Apple Barrel acrylic paints from Walmart, at 50¢ a pop, some cornstarch, which I have in my pantry, and a little H2O.

I bought lavender, yellow, aqua, and pink paints and also some white paint to lighten each color a bit. (I wish I'd lightened the yellow a tad more than I did, but oh, well.)

I mixed the cornstarch and water, added the paints, and voila!

Chalk paint at approximately, oh, maybe 10¢ maximum per painted jar.

I gave each jar three coats of paint. For some reason the aqua went on much less cooperatively than the other colors. I even had to totally remove the aqua paint from the jars at one point and start over.

Persistence paid off, though, as it usually does, and I now have eight pastel chalk-painted Mason jars to use as flower vases at the shower.

I've also made a gazillion salt dough hearts to tie to the mason jars. (As you might have guessed, the baby is a girl.)

Now I'm thinking I'd like to take several miscellaneous jars with interesting shapes and chalk-paint them. I think they'd make a pretty Easter display on my mantel.

But as I said earlier, the sun is shining, the snow is melting, and I'm about to go open several windows to bring some fresh air into this too-long-closed-up house.

March!

Mid-January to the end of February were rather tough, for sure. We averaged a sizeable snowfall every 2-3 days, and the temperatures refused to go above 8° most days.

Our furnace has been working over time, and our wood stove has been eating lots of wood.

Many day we felt housebound because driving conditions were poor.

And although we've been home much of the time, that doesn't mean we've had to freedom to wander around our property, because the snow is too deep for wandering.

Our great-niece Violet visited us for three days during her school's vacation,  and that visit from a nine-year-old was a godsend.

She loves sliding on our hills. While she did her sliding, I put on my snowshoes and did some serious hiking on the side and back lawns.

In fact, one day I logged over 20,000 steps on my Fitbit! My daily goal is 10,000 steps. Most days I meet that goal, sometimes getting 12,000-13,000 steps, but never before had I achieved 20,000 steps.

Ken's been getting his exercise by snowplowing and shoveling. He has also been chopping away at the ice on the back side of the roof.

Yesterday, finally, the temperature went a bit above 32° and we heard the joyful sound of water dripping off the eaves!

Here are Violet and I enjoying the snow. It truly has been a beautiful snow, but I've had enough of it for this year.

I keep thinking of my crocuses and daffodils still buried under three feet of snow. They must be wondering what's going on. I've had snowdrops in bloom by now in past years.

Of course I've been knitting. That's the best way to spend one's housebound days.

The hat is called "Emma" by Handknitsbyelena. She offered the pattern for $1.99 for a few days, so I grabbed it then and downloaded it. It's a great pattern, but learning the 1/1RSC stitch was a challenge at first because Elena's directions weren't clearly written. I think she has rewritten that step since a couple of us knitters contacted her.

Anyway, the hat is fun to knit and I've now finished three of that same pattern. They'll make good donations to a local charity.

The little pink and white hat is by Cascade yarns and is free at their website.

So that's the news from here: snow, more snow, cold temperatures, some snowshoeing, and much knitting.

I don't think he's having fun

Ken has just left for Home Depot to buy a new ladder. He needs a lighter-weight one to prop against a section of the roof where the heavy ladder won't cooperate.

I don't think Ken's enjoying this winter. If he's not snowplowing the latest snowfall, he's shoveling it or raking the roof or chopping ice off the roof.

These photos were taken at least a week ago, probably two weeks ago for the top one. We've had more heavy snow since then. One snowfall piles on top of the previous one because the temperatures insist on staying below freezing.

We've had some days when the thermometer couldn't make it above 8°. That's cold, especially if there's also a strong wind. It was a few degrees below zero when I got up this morning.

The forecast for this weekend? Another blizzard, with 1-2 feet of new snow in this area and gale-force winds.

I said I'd never let this happen

I've always been amazed by knitters who have more than two projects "on the needles," as we say, at one time. Amazed by them, but not envious of them.

I'm a finish-one-project-at-a-time kind of gal. I do make an exception with sock knitting: I often have a sock on the needles while I'm also knitting something else.

But I can justify this: The sock makes a good carry-along-with me project, because it's small. I can knit on it in the car while Ken's driving, I can take it to the Red Cross blood donation center and knock off a few rows while I'm awaiting my turn on the table. I can take it to a doctor's appointment.

Three or four or five projects underway at one time, though? Not for me. No, sir.

Until this past weekend, that is.

I was between projects, so of course I cast on for a pair of socks.

Then I remembered the Dream Baby DK, in soft aqua, waiting for me.( I need to get a baby sweater done by mid-March.) So I set aside the sock and cast on for the baby cardigan.

Then (and this isn't my fault, honest), someone on Knitting Paradise asked if anyone could direct her to a certain knitted animal pattern. Someone did, immediately, and before I knew it, I was checking out the pattern, too.

And before I knew it again, I was purchasing and downloading the pattern...and casting on for a white bear with pink pullover sweater. A bear with his hands in his pockets, a bear looking to be just the right toy to add to a baby shower gift.

So there you have it. I finished the bear this morning, and I'm down to two projects now, but I have a little bit of leftover pink and white yarn, and I'm thinking a cute little hat, size 6 months, might be just the ticket....