JUNK DRAWER

• Organ Donation
• Knitting
• Jill's Knitting
• Great Books

Organ Donation

Are you an organ recipient or a donor family?
I would love to hear from you and maybe even publish your transplant tale on my blog. Get in touch.

Want to know more about organ donation?
Visit Donate Life America for information.

Want to hear Jill’s real life story about a teen heart recipient and her donor family?
Click here for Jill's "This American Life" episode.

Want to watch a real heart transplant operation?
Click here to watch a transplant operation on YouTube.

Knitting

The Knitting Lady's Guide to Making a Scarf
(Use yellows and golds if you want your scarf to look like the one that Cal was knitting.)

One of the best things about knitting is that you don't need much to get started—just two needles and a ball of yarn. Oh yeah, don't forget some good lighting and your peace of mind.

I recommend starting with some medium-weight yarn. It doesn't have to be expensive, but wool or a wool blend is good because it stretches, doesn't fray like cotton and won't make your hands all sweaty. Start with needles that are at least a size 9. The bigger the needle, the faster the knitting goes, but don't get something that's too cumbersome for your hands. I like wooden needles best, but plastic is good too. They don't get too slick and let stitches slide off when you aren't looking.

The first step is casting on, which means creating the first row of stitches around the needle. This can be pretty intimidating for a beginner, so try to find someone to do this for you. (It's lots of fun and you can learn it later.) Ask the person to cast on between 15 and 20 stitches for a scarf, depending on the width you like.

Now, it's time to knit.

Step 1
In your left hand, hold the needle with the stitches and angle it to the right. With your free hand, insert the tip of the empty needle into the first stitch, from front to back, creating a T with the tips of the needles:

Step 2
Using your right hand, loop the yarn from the ball up and away from you over the front of the right needle. Then bring the yarn to the right and down between the two needles:

Whew! Got that? It sounds more complicated than it is.

Step 3
Now, while keeping some tension on the wrapped yarn, bring the tip of the right needle (with the wrapped yarn) through the loop on the left needle to the front. Use the tip of your left forefinger on the point of the right needle to guide the stitch:

Is the right needle now in front of the left one? You got it!

Step 4
Almost done. All you have to do is slide the right needle up and to the right until the loop on the left needle drops off and you have a new stitch on the right. Congratulations! You just completed your first knit stitch:

Continue knitting until the left needle is empty and you have a row of gorgeous new stitches on the right needle. Switch hands now—the right needle becomes your left—and start a new row. Keep going until your scarf is the length you like and ask someone to bind off for you. That's another fun thing you can learn once you become a whiz with the basic stitch.

As you knit, don't forget to use the Knitting Lady's mantra:

In through the front door
Run around the back
Peek through the window
Off jumps Jack

Here are some cool knitting sites:

• How to Knit a Scarf
• This pattern is a little more complicated. Get some help! But you can make a cap similar to the one on the cover of What I Call Life: Knitted Watch Cap

Jill's Knitting

It's wonderful! It's horrible! Here are my personal knitting successes and disasters, plus more yarn than I can use up in two lifetimes:

The knitting triumphs and disasters	Scarf modeled by family pet Shango. Our kitty is named after the Santeria earth religion god of thunfer and lightening.
My favorite handknit socks	Second favorite socks

My daughter Gwen's List of Great Books, in No Particular Order

Walk Two Moons, by Sharon Creech—A mixture of quirky characters and great themes.

Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen—One of the first young adult books I read and although it was probably seven years ago, I remember it so clearly.

Holes, by Louis Sachar—Great story and a pretty good movie.

Stargirl, by Jerry Spinelli—Heartbreaking, hilarious, and good overall morals.

Skellig, by David Almond—Intense and scary, but oddly uplifting.

Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson—For a little bit older kids, I'd say for 7th graders. This age seems infatuated with the topic of this story.

Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky—Also for older kids and probably my favorite book of all time. I think everyone around this age can really identify with all of the characters.

Anything by Roald Dahl—My all-time favorite writer (besides my mom), especially The BFG and The Witches

The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster—One of those books that you will enjoy at any age. Written in the style of Roald Dahl, full of puns and outrageous characters.

Island of the Blue Dolphins, by Scott O'Dell—The same general plot idea as Hatchet. It's about an abandoned girl on an island and how she survives.

Lizard Music—Daniel Pinkwater is great.

Crash, by Jerry Spinelli—This story deals with acceptance. The narrator is a high school jock/bully, but it shows his side of the story.

The Missing Piece and any collection of poetry by Shel Silverstein—He has been my idol since I was a tiny kid. His writing is witty, creepy, off-beat, and fantastic.

Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson—The favorite book of everyone in my sixth-grade class.

The Watsons Go to Birmingham—1963, by Christopher Paul Curtis—I had an obsession with this book for years. My brother and I wrote a fan letter to the author and he wrote back. Images from this book still pop into my mind.

Tales of a Fourth-Grade Nothing, by Judy Blume—This whole series is hilarious, a whole bunch of stories within a bigger story. It doesn't have the typical conflict/resolution feel to it.

The Brothers Grimm fairy tales—These stories are so dark and interesting. They feel completely different from anything kids usually read. So much better than the sanitized, Disney-ized versions.

The Big Orange Splot, by D. Manus Pinkwater—A great book with colorful pictures that you can look at forever. I know it is a picture book, but even at age 16, I still like it. It talks about being different, doing what's in your heart. "My house is me and I am it, and this is where I like to be, it looks like all my dreams."

Amelia Bedelia, by Peggy Parish—The author of this series really understands little kids and how their minds work. The character is constantly literalizing everything, using the wrong definition of the word and it makes kids feel superior. Amelia cracks me up.

That Was Then, This Is Now, by S.E. Hinton—Definitely for older kids. I had a fascination with this book and its themes—death, friendship and following your own beliefs.