Lindy's Knits & Laces General Comments Half the Sky — A Must Read Book

Half the Sky — A Must Read Book

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I just finished reading Half the Sky by Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn. This is a must read book for anyone who is concerned about the lack of equality for women worldwide, as well as lack of decent health care and education for women and children throughout the developing countries of our world.

The book is very factual, yet filled with actual stories about real people and how they have been able to overcome extreme hardship with some small amount of help — in the form of microloans or sponsorships for education. There are stories that will make you weep and stories that will make you smile — but they all show a better way for those of us who have much more to help those who don’t.

The authors will challenge your thinking about large government funded aid programs and the role our government(s) should play in the developing countries of the world — especially Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. They make a very strong case for approaching problems on a more personal and direct way.

Check out the book and check out the website:
www.halftheskymovement.org — it’s worth a look.

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I’m a Grandma!I’m a Grandma!

There are very few things sweeter than the birth of your first grandchild. Yesterday was filled with anticipation and much waiting. Then finally, Evan Patrick was born at 7:03 PM. He weighed in at 7 pounds, 7 1/2 ounces and is 19 inches long. He has dark curly hair and a very strong cry. 🙂

New Mom and Dad are doing very well. It was a joy to watch them as new parents. I am simply bursting with pride at the way my son holds and handles his son. My DH and I both got a chance to hold the little guy last night and get acquainted.

I’m off to knit him a little hat to wear home.

My YouTube ChannelMy YouTube Channel

I am now a YouTuber. I have started making short videos on knitting techniques. My YouTube channel is Knitting with Linda. You can find it here: @knittingwithlinda_omaha

I recently started teaching classes for beginning knitters at my local yarn shop here in Omaha, Nebraska. So far, I have held two “Learn to Knit -Part 1: Getting Started” classes that covered the basics of casting on, the knit stitch, the purl stitch and the standard bind-off. To provide my learners with a visual set of references that they could access through YouTube, I created several video demonstrations of each of those basic techniques. I included videos on using the Continental Method and the English Method for knitting and purling. If you’d like to take a look at them, here’s a link to my “Learn to Knit” playlist: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-PJ63Dj62PHglVIBZZpZ7X1xW8-x0Jut

If you find these videos useful, please give them a “Like”.

In January, I will be offering new sessions of “Learn to Knit – Part 2: Next Steps” which will cover two types of increases, two types of decreases, how to fix a dropped stitch and how to weave in ends. I will be adding videos on each of these topics to accompany the in-person class and these will then be available to anyone on YouTube. If you subscribe to my channel, you can receive notifications when they are available.

I plan to continue adding videos on various knitting techniques throughout the year. If you have a suggestion for a technique you’d like to have demonstrated, please leave me a comment. Thank you.

OMG – I was hacked!OMG – I was hacked!

I haven’t posted for several weeks because I was busy transferring files from my old computer to my new one.  You know — it takes awhile whenever you switch computers.

So yesterday morning I was at a point where I thought I should post something new to my blog — and when I attempted to login and do so — I got a really nasty surprise.  When I typed in my url — what came up was this very blunt warning message that my site had suspicious activity and was now considered a dangerous site.  OMG — I’d been hacked! 😮

And that ominous warning page wasn’t going to let me get anywhere near my login page.  A bit of a problem, since one of the things I needed to do was go in and change passwords and update WordPress.  So I started by notifying my Webhost that I had been hacked.  I use IX Web Hosting and I have to tell you their response was great!  By this morning, they had located the malware and removed it from my site.  I was not expecting this because everything I had read about how to clean up your site after a malware attack indicated that I would have to do this myself.  Thanks, IX Web Hosting!

So then the challenge was to get Google to remove its warning page — and to do that you have to go to Google Webmaster tools and request that they re-review your site.  It took an hour or so — but then my site starting coming up without that dire warning.  Whew!

I’m still having issues with Firefox on my new computer — it pulls up the warning page every time I try to access this site, but Internet Explorer and Safari are fine.  I can access the site using Firefox on my old computer — so it has to be something with Firefox on my new computer.

In the meantime — if this ever happens to you, dear reader, go immediately to Google Webmaster Tools — it will tell you what the problem is.  Then go to your Webhost and alert them to the hack.  May this advice never have to be used…