My young teen knitters are cranking out finished objects these days. First, I must show you three projects by one young lady, M. She knit my ZigBagZ Mini Collection/Baby Zig, at top left. At right, she knit a variation on my Wristwarmers/Handwarmers pattern, using two yarns.

You may not see it, but the yarn for the light green thin stripe is a luxe single-ply silk with sequins attached. Someone last year donated two very small balls (or one that the girls divided up, I don’t remember) of this lovely, extra-special yarn. This young lady has been trying to figure out a good way to use it for months. I think she made an excellent choice!

M’s project at center in the same photo is a pair of First-Time Toe-Up socks knit in a worsted-weight wool, for her mother. She started these at age 13 and proceeded to knit them in fits and starts for a number of months. This young lady is so busy with so many projects that she can (and should) rotate between them. Her mom really appreciates these socks now that it’s chilly here.

This next photo is a gift from the 2nd young teen who comes regularly to my program. About a year ago, I discovered Anna Hrachovec’s Heart pattern and introduced the kids I had then, to the pattern. This young lady has knit a good number of the originals. I am guessing what she did here was to knit something like Anna H’s pattern but on super huge needles (she told me they were size 32) with many, many strands of yarn.

You can not tell the size from this photo, but it is probably about 9″ (22cm?) tall. I pinned it to my sweater as a motif/decoration the day she gave it to me, it’s big enough to cover much of the front of a short top.

She knows me well. She picked colors she knew I would like. I’m relatively easy to figure out, but she did a better than average job of getting it right on! Notice in the last photo here, I show a huge ball of yarn and a swatch of knitting (two or three sections of a prototype “Perfect Hug Shawl” from a few years back) which I handspun myself. The wool was dyed and gifted to me by my friend Traci Bunkers of Bonkers Fiber.

Check out how similar my own yarn color is, to the heart gifted to me by A. Right on, wouldn’t you say?

I am enjoying my young knitters this term. I have a 14 year old, and a girl who will be 13 years almost any minute now. Both are very talented and able to work on their own. They are finding their own styles, something very important at that age.

This first photo is handspun yarn made by the 13 year old. She learned about spinning from Rae, and someone gave her a spinning wheel (what a huge gift to a youth). She loves it! This yarn was made of bits and pieces of different-colored rovings, some of which were gifts to her. It is her first finished 2-ply yarn.

She would love her next skeins to be all one color. Personally, I love the energy of all these colors! I’m trying to convince her to make a felted bowl with this yarn, where she will not need two items to match. We will see what she decides, since it is her yarn and not mine!

The second photo is by the 14 year old. She made these wristwarmers with handspun yarn, but Rae spun it and the young lady did the designing and the knitting. I’d say she did a pretty great job!!!

Question of the day: What sort of creativity did you use for self-expression when you were young? Was it large-motor (sports or dance), small-motor (knitting), intellectual (debate), writing, traditional art, theatre, gardening, cooking?

For me it was a little of all of the above (perhaps less intellectual although I loved English), I think. I was a very social child and so singing in choir and theatre were perhaps most important in High School. Some kids are encouraged to be more practical than creative, and they find fascinating outlets when they need to feel creative. What did you do or not do?

I’m tallying all the comments from my birthday/blogiversary week contest. The tension builds…

It is fully winter now in Lansing. We awoke Monday to several inches of wet, heavy snow. One tree near our house lost a branch because of the weight. It was white on the ground and the sky was white from corner to corner.

In the morning it did not snow much, but things got pretty nasty just as people were going home from work. I had a list of errands to run and only accomplished two. Just stopping at a red light and then trying to start again without sliding sideways, was a big effort. Home was the reasonable choice.

Of course, kids were building snowmen and throwing snowballs in our neighborhood. I did not get any photos of that, unfortunately. It was great that someone could enjoy the weather!

Monday morning I knit with the 3rd graders, again. They are so excited to knit! At this point every child has learned, each child has his/her own needles and yarn, and they are very happy about it. Some of the kids are truly amazing. I have two girls and a boy who picked it up so quickly, even faster than some adults catch on.

The personalities are so fun in this room. One boy loves the idea of knitting and can do it properly when I watch, but he is doing all sorts of creative things on that needle when I walk away. He started with 9 stitches and now he probably has 30, even with much help. He likes asking for help, so this is no problem, at least not to the child.

Another couple of the kids are in a big hurry as if it is a race. Some are so strong they pull their hands apart when working, which makes huge loops and see-through fabric. It’s still knitting, so I’m good with it. All are delighted to be part of the magic of making fabric with yarn and “sticks.”

Since this classroom is quite international, some of the kids have not seen snow like this before. They are enjoying that part, too.

So here I present to you, two photos I took this morning from the front yard of the school. Make special notice of the bright colors of ordinary things, really popping out. In one there are red fire hydrants, the other yellow gates. The yellow is a bit hard to see in this small version. (You can click on these snow photos today, and it will take you to a larger version on my Flickr page.)

You should have seen how bright the orange construction signs looked on the way home! All color becomes bigger than life when the sky and ground are fully white. Of course, a photo cannot capture the immediate surprise and color of these things in real life. Even a street sign can appear electric green on a snowy day, where we might never notice it in midsummer.

I am prepared to take it one moment at a time… I will make a point of noticing small colorful bits and other small comforts (such as the hot water bottle currently warming my feet). If I need a blue sky, I will need to wait another week. Check out our weather as predicted through Friday Night:

I get the hint. Looking for small delightful things will be the order of the day, and the next day, and the next!

Where do you find surprises, color or otherwise, in your life? Is it a garnish on a restaurant plate? Berries on a bush covered with snow? A child’s laugh in the next room? Remember, any comment this week is one more entry in my Blogiversary contest, so don’t be shy!

I am working with a 3rd grade teacher in East Lansing’s Red Cedar School (I love that she has a significantly international class, being near MSU family housing). I am slowly working through all her kids, an hour at a time twice a week, until they all get to learn knitting from me.

I’m fortunate that I have a friend who knits who is also going to this school with me. She helps the kids with their “hiccups” while I teach new kids. If I were alone, the new kids would have to wait a longer time before seeing me.

A 3rd grader typically learns knitting one-on-one. They don’t watch and then copy when it comes to fine motor skills. I sit them in a chair, I stand behind them, I put my hands on their hands and we knit together while saying a poem which reminds them of the order of movements. Then I keep saying the poem, let go of their hands, point while they move, then I stop pointing and ask them to say the poem alone.

At that point, I start with another child and they go practice alone. Some kids go on well, and some forget and we start over.

But this age is totally clear about the magic of taking two “sticks” and making fabric with “string.” They love it, they are excited to make very imperfect pieces with me.

I tried a new project with this group. I gave them nine stitches and they knit for a while, then taught them to decrease at the beginning of each row until they had a sort of “house” shape. Then we sew up the edges and they have a small pouch of sorts. their needles are made of dowels which are relatively large in comparison to the yarn, so the pouches are full of holes and not good for much more than maybe a penny. They don’t mind, they just like finishing things.

Here are the first two photos I have of finished projects. One little girl, whose mother knits at home, brought a bow to sew on her project. It looks so nice!

I think I still have 5 kids left to teach, I will hope to get 3 more on Monday. We lose a day together because of Thanksgiving, so some will have to wait until the following week.

I’m sad about that, but what can I do? There is one of me, and they each need one-on-one time, so it will take a while. The teacher and my friend are able to help the kids once they get going. They will keep it running after I am out of the picture.

For the record, just as I was losing faith that I would ever get all the kids knitting, I came into the room and a little boy in the back (who has a hard time staying focused, it seems) saw me come in and exclaimed, “Knitting!”

Then when I was getting ready to go, the kids were in the hallway putting on their coats for recess. And what did I hear, but multiple voices jubilantly reciting the knitting poem out in the hallway!

UP through the Front Door,
Dance AROUND the back,
DOWN through the window,
And OFF Jumps Jack!

This one is a bit hard to post. Please bear with me if I meander with my words a bit.

I have worked for the City of Lansing, both as a contractor and as an employee, since probably 1993. I started out as a contracted community education instructor, teaching computers when they got a grant which bought them 4 machines with Windows 3.1 on them.

Over the years I taught computers, then we started a computer lab where I supervised. I would knit while waiting for kids to ask me for a new game, and they started to beg for “sticks” and “string.”

It took me 2 years to talk my then-boss into letting me start a program. I had two adult volunteers, Luann and Jean, and a handful of teens who knew me well and were able to do basic knitting functions. I had piles of kids, but with that support we made it work.

Over the years that program (I called it CityKidz Knit!) changed and became different things, sometimes after school, sometimes summer program. In recent years it has become harder and harder to make the schedule they needed work for me.

I was a “temporary employee” (on payroll but re-hired every fall) for most of the time I was at Foster Center. This year more paperwork was required for me to be hired, including a doctor’s letter saying I was physically capable of doing my job. Except I was between doctors and nobody would write a letter for me without me paying a fee for a physical (which would probably equal about 1-2 weeks’ pay). This requirement is surely important for a soccer coach; but it was not something I wanted to pay for, to teach knitting 2 hours a week.

I decided that was my cue to just step down and start doing things in a new way elsewhere. So I moved out of my room, maybe 3 weeks ago. It was hard, and I was glad to have some moral support for the day. Some of my knitters from previous terms came by (we had made a date for this on a previous week).

I let them “trick or treat” and take as much yarn home as they wanted and could carry. Above is a photo of me with my CityKidz knitters on my last day at Foster.

One mom and a brother of a loyal knitter helped me pack up the boxes that contained my own personal belongings I had accumulated there through the years (including my beloved poster of Sojourner Truth with her knitting).

One special item on the wall was a poster-sized electric green version of the poem I use to teach kids to knit (with their right hand controlling the yarn… they don’t all have the coordination to do it any other way). We made the poster for an open house one year and it has been on the wall ever since.

It turned out that my boys at the time did most of the decorating of the poster. They included names of other kids in the program, although sometimes they were unclear how to spell those names. I find it charming. They also drew a few hand-held electronic game gizmos. Love it!

When I worked with the computer lab, I had kids who wanted to play the Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing games. I would not let them do it by looking at their hands, as true typing skill can pay the bills and fill hungry bellies (been there myself).

When I was gifted with a pink feather “boa” wrap for Christmas one year, I took it to the lab to cover hands during that game. Much fun. So on my way to the car on the last day at Foster Center, I wore a pink feather wrap to the car. Sam took a photo of me:

The necklace is a finger-knit boa which was a gift from a kid knitter. I had knitter A. do the photostyling for this photo… thanks to A. and brother Sam and mom, for being my help and my support that day.

For the record, I am teaching kids at Rae’s Yarn Boutique on Wednesday afternoons from 3pm to 4:45. It’s an extension of the program I had this summer. Kids buy a pass good for 4 sessions, for $20. They can share a pass, sell it to a friend, whatever… but there are no refunds. They need not attend every week.

I’m hoping to attract kids from very-local schools after they get out, there are 4 within walking distance. It is a different thing than a walk-in program (CityKidz Knit! was free to the kids) but this is how I have to do it, to make it work for my current life situation.

The new program is called Knitting Rocks! (The kids like this name, and I wanted it to be different than the program at Foster, since it does have different parameters.)

I still can take donated needles and yarn, though the few kid knitters I’ve kept are allergic to acrylic and sometimes other synthetics (yes, really… so is Rae and a baby I know… and I can’t tolerate polyester, myself), so natural fibers are appreciated at this time. I can use a few tote bags, but am not in need of piles of anything but needles and wool/alpaca/mohair at this time.

Oh… for anyone who has given up double-pointed needles in favor of a circ method, if you have double points in sizes 2 to 10.5, we can use those as well. In larger sizes (8 and up) , we have plenty of heavy metal DPNs but not wood, bamboo or plastic.

For the record, donations to Foster Center were tax deductable. Donations to my kids now only pay back in good karma. For some of you, that will be enough. Others, I do understand if you go elsewhere.

I don’t know who wrote the first “I love you Lynn!” note on the board. Young D. added to it. That touched my heart. Since I still work on the East Side and I dance at Foster, I still do see “my Kidz” from time to time. They know I still like them but it’s hard for all of us to adjust.

It went rather well, really. What will tomorrow bring?

I have a small handful of loyal kids this summer who followed me to Rae’s Yarn boutique from Foster Community Center. The move has been a good one for me.

I was bone-tired of working summer programs at community centers. (My first summer program was 1989 at Black Child and Family Institute where I worked 4 years, later followed by at least 5 summers at Foster Center. I think it’s OK to pass the baton.)

When you have 70+ kids in one space each day, it is intense… there is a drama-a-day, normal but high-energy. No matter what building, no matter who the kids are, no matter how much you learn to love those kids, it’s just an energy drain. I wanted to spend my focus on teaching, rather than being distracted by the drama.

At Rae’s I have kids whose families are invested in their knitting and who value what I am doing for their children. These kids knit at home. These kids are learning to knit without me, to knit from (simple) patterns.

I am really enjoying the change. I expect I’ll return to Foster in the fall, but for summer this is wonderful.

My kids at Rae’s noticed the huge knitting needles we had raced with at World Wide Knit in Public Day. They had to give these a try! Check out the photo of them exploring the possibilities!

Aaaah, summer. I love the kind of heat we get in summer here in Mid-Michigan.

It’s almost always quite liveable without air conditioning. Maybe a handful of days we use an A/C window unit so that we can sleep well. I admit that there are many days in a row at times, where one must move more slowly. I’m all for going with nature and slowing down when necessary.

Saturday was the longest day of the year. I attended a lovely wedding, much color and a good dose of humor without being disrespectful to the subject. After the wedding, Brian and I attended a music party where quality artful people hang out. A wonderful way to end the day.

On Friday I bought flowers and put them in containers by each door. I still need to get a tomato plant (someone offered me a few not long ago and I can’t remember for sure who it was… I think a knitter. Will check around.

Meanwhile I am not done planting herbs/food, some are planted and some potted plants need planting, and some are seeds. We will see what they do, or not. I always enjoy whatever I have, and each year something else is happy while another thing that had been happy in previous years, does poorly. I am not in charge!

Sunday the Habibi Dancers perform (with another troupe) at 6pm, at the wonderful Arab International festival in Dearborn (near Detroit). It is my favorite festival all year. Often I can not go, this year I can. Very good. The fest goes until 9pm on Sunday so there will be plenty of time to enjoy the whole experience.

I am very much looking forward to the whole day… not just dancing but the music and vendors on the streets. There is excellent street food, also… tons of falafel sandwiches and hummous among other goodies. Mmmmm….

The odd part is that my voicebox is still tired from all the talking in the large convention center in Columbus. I’m doing my best to avoid talking, have stayed home from a few things in the last week to rest the vocal cords. Sunday I will be car pooling in a van with 6 other folks. I hope I can just stay knitting and become invisible. Not too likely, but I can try.

OK, now remember to do a few summer things this weekend… as many of them as you enjoy doing. Here is a photo, unrelated to today’s topic but it’s one of my knitting kidz showing off her felted water bottle holder. Cool, huh?

I don’t take enough pictures during my CityKidz Knit! program. I’m so busy answering questions for two full hours, there is no time to think of photographs. It is sort of amazing, they are so busy learning new things every single week.

Last week we had some extra special knitting. This first photo is a 4th grade boy who wanted to make something on circular needles. He determined to make a hat for his younger brother (a toddler if I get it right). It was so stretchy that he was able to wear it himself for this photograph.

First he started on circular needles, knitting back and forth as if he had 2 needles, to make a non-rolling garter fabric edge. Then we joined into a tube and he knit a while for the body of the hat. And then we started to decrease for the top.

The decreases required double-pointed needles given the resources of the room. This boy was alternately very impressed with himself (working with 6 needles on one hat, actually knitting with only 2 but it looked impressive), and afraid of this new thing that looked like it might be hard enough he could mess up. Or so it appeared that was the issue, from my vantage point.

He said his heart was pounding during that last inch or so. I told him “you rock” and did admit it looked hard but reminded him that he was doing well even if it looked scary.

He worked on this hat for many weeks, a difficult thing for a child to do. I had promised him that he would finish the hat that week, in the 2 hours we had together. Unfortunately he had to wait for me a few times because of the other big deal in the room (more later) which also took my time. So at the end I told him I’d finish the last 2 rounds for him and get it all put together.

I did 2 rounds of decreases and then finished the hat. He does know how to work ends in, but I had promised a finished item and I really needed to make good on that. He is capable of doing another hat without me doing a stitch. It’s a LOT of stitches for a kid of that age, though, and I am not sure he wants to do something that “big” for a while.

The reason he had competition for my time, was that three of my girls were learning how to follow a pattern. Actually, another of my boys (an older child than most of my kids) asked if he could learn to follow a pattern, last week.

After showing them the wonderful knitted heart that Priscilla gifted me with at Rae’s grand reopening open house (see photo), we determined that making one of the MochiMochiLand.com hearts, would be perfect. (Free pattern here.) It takes me (experienced knitter) 45 minutes to make a heart, start to finish. They figured it would be a great gift for a Grandma.

So this week the boy who had requested this project in the first place, did not make it. But three girls decided to dive in without him. Some knew how to purl, some did not. Some knew how to decrease, some did not. All of them were at least working on the first heart lobe’s decreases when they left. One girl finished one side of the heart and had started a second.

My plan is, if the kids bring me a finished heart or they finish one in class, I will take photos and send them to Anna H., who is the designer of the heart pattern we are using. Anna and I have corresponded about this pattern already, and she loves to hear from folks who like her work. Of course!

The last photo here is one I took a few weeks ago. I tell you, sometimes I have over a dozen kids knitting at one time. Sometimes that is delightful fun and sometimes it pushes me. I think in this case, being pushed is good for me. At least, I feel that way after I’ve gone home and thought about it!

I have not had this much trouble posting a column every day, in years. I am busy and distracted, mostly in working my business in a more committed/focused way but also in doing my best to change my routine and habits.

The blog has been a pleasant routine for years (I tend to write columns after midnight, when Brian goes to bed) but I’ve been pushing so hard during the day that I’ve been crashing early and not posting.

I hope to get going on a new routine here yet this month, not just for the blog but for my business/ professional life. (My goal is 28 posts a month and I almost always make it, this month I’m so short I won’t be able to make it up any possible way.) And with that, I’ve said enough in the navel-pondering realm…

My Kidz

I have taken many photos of my CityKidz Knit! program this year and some I took just Wednesday but haven’t developed yet. This one is from two weeks ago, I think. Sometimes working with this many kids is a LOT of work, sometimes it is pure joy. In either case, I’m “in love” with teaching these children and it’s good for them and for me both.

I have much deskwork today, I am working on getting some of my delayed pattern projects actually laid out and sellable. We played a concert last night and I haven’t even looked at the photos but it was a wonderful time. Will talk about that when I can write more.

A Question

I appreciate each and every one of you out there. You like questions from me sometimes. So I’ll ask this:

I find that teaching children is one of the most powerful experiences I’ve had interacting with other people. I am clear that the time I spend with the kids goes with them into their future without me. (In particular, one child moved out of state. I know that she had never felt like an expert before she got to knitting class, and she really was an expert far beyond her peers in school when it came to knitting. It really helped her feel confident about herself and I am sure that will not diminish as she moves into her new life.)

Is there any experience in your own life, now or in the past, which prompts you to feel the same… that your effort will grow after you leave the environment where your experience happened?

I swore I did not have anything to finish. I was wrong.

I crocheted a colorful edging on the “hug” wrap that I made for one toddler I love. She loves color maybe more than me. It did not have to be a Christmas gift but it will be, just because of when I finished.

We went to Grand Rapids for a family function on Brian’s side. He drove and I knit. I finished an aran-weight sock today that I mostly knit yesterday.

I could knit these without looking, in the dark, in the car. There were other things I wanted to knit but they just would not work in a social setting and in the car later.

It will be no hassle to finish the other relatively soon. It’s washable alpaca/wool, and they will be much loved winter socks, very soon. I buy shoes to handle fat socks so I will be able to wear them any day I like.

I also made a handful of those mini-socks I said I’d make as ornament gifts, over the last week or two. I need to mail some off which I have not done yet, but these friends do not keep score over dates. I got in a focus on the socklets and kept going. I knit two turquoise ones and made them into earrings. They are wild, and they spin and rotate and kick my neck a bit, but I love them just the way they are.

And then I got going even smaller. I knit with darning/reinforcement thread, on size 000 US/ 1.5mm needles, a sock with a circumference of 12 stitches. These ended up being knit at 12 stitches per inch, my personal best (I’ve done 10 st/in before, but the difference between 10 and 12 is significant).

The hassle with the tiny socks is the needles. My needles are about 8 inches/ 20cm long. The sock measures half an inch across. The needles are metal so that they will not break. That means they are relatively heavy. And then at times I had three stitches on one long needle. If you breathe wrong, this means the needles fall on the floor and you have live stitches hanging out in the air for a breeze, stitches that are merely 1.5mm in size. I wear bifocals, and without a lot of light I can not see these stitches well enough to pick them back up.

I even had to do a different heel for the tiniest socklet. Normally I make a heel flap which requires picking up stitches on the sides, or I make an afterthought heel sock which requires picking up lots of stitches and which does not flatten out well when not on a foot, anyway.

I went to Rae’s shop and put myself at her mercy… she sometimes does what are called “short row” heels which look like the heels on commercially manufactured socks. I begged her to tell me how to turn a heel based on six stitches, in a short row fashion. She wrote little instructions on a tiny paper and this is my heel-turning bible for the tiniest socks.

And I listened to Rae, knit the way i was told, made a cute heel without having to pick up stitches, and finished my tiny sockie. So fun!

Oh… while I was knitting these, I was wearing a sweater with long fat wooly cuffs that were a bit too long. So what happened is that the ends of the too-long needles would accidentally stick themselves in my cuffs. And I’d move, and the cuff would grab on (after all the wool is more stretchy than the nylon I was knitting with, and more fibers were grabbing it on the sweater cuff than the sock). And, you guessed it, the stitches would be live again.

Next time I knit a tiniest sock I will wear a turtleneck only, with tightly-fitting cuffs, and if I’m cold I’ll sit on the heat vent or wear a good shawl that doesn’t reach down to my hands.

But aren’t they just as cute as a button??? I’m thrilled.

I will close with a photo that makes me smile. This is a doll scarf knit by an elementary-aged girl in my CityKidz Knit program. This girl just loves to knit. Unfortunately, sometimes my room is full of distractions. The scarf was full of very lovely short rows and seven dropped stitches (some of which are being held with safety pins and split stitch markers in this shot).

I repaired the drops for her, and will do my best to get to her house tomorrow and deliver it. I had planned to send it in the mail but misplaced the lovely piece long enough to make that not an option. Fortunately they do not live too far from me so I may venture out and make a kid smile.

I’m catching up on photos today, as I still fight some bit of this bug which makes me want to sleep all day and all night.

First here is a grouping of jars made as holiday gifts in the Polymer Clay Gift class last Sunday. We also made pens and talked about crochet hooks with polymer handles. I’m very happy with how these came out. Mine are now filled with candies as a quick gift for holidays. I am thinking of maybe putting a ribbon around the jar as well, but it’s not necessary.

You can see that there are a good number of styles available to embellish jars in this way. I love how the lid becomes a small canvas. It can be hippy-dippy or it can be elegant, or somewhere in between.

I have been working with polymer clay since 1991. My student started Sunday. I think it is hard to tell which of the jars I made and which she did. Good job, don’t you think?

The second photo is evidence of how creative a child can be. I had some kids who were quite young joining my CityKidz Knit! program in the last several weeks. When a kid is almost ready to knit, they need some small motor skills development before we get them going on knitting needles.

Sometimes I teach them how to crochet a simple chain using their fingers, just to get used to how yarn responds. And since one of my Kidz taught me how to do finger-knitting (it’s like an I-cord, a tube made of interlocking loops) I teach them that as well, before getting them going on needles.

Well, then the kids who do fine on needles also want to finger knit. And why not?

So this child, who last week knit a sweater for her stuffed animal, decided this week to finger-knit a tube. Since I only allow toys/dolls in the room if they are creating for that toy that day, she then had to figure out what to do with the tube she made, for that doll, to justify having the doll in the room.

She wrapped the tube around the doll’s head once and its neck twice, like a muffler or a headband. It looks so stylish!

Wow, guys… I fell asleep on the couch with the laptop on my lap again, and did not post my after-midnight blog entry, which is my typical schedule. I was just too tired to do my routine, such as it is!

I enjoyed your comments from my previous post. It was really thought-provoking, what you do to focus on relationships, and which challenges you have in that area during holidays. As a non-parent, I had not really thought fully about the challenges of this multi-media/marketing society, for those with children.

I have come to my own place of simplicity through years of trial and error, and children just do not have that experience. And let us face it, children are all about passion and enthusiasm! They are the perfect targets for advertisers, unfortunately.

Rachel made a point in her message, that she tends to be introspective at the end of a season, until the next season presents much promise and the overwhelm takes over once more (my words, not hers). I replied to her:

Interesting point. I know I go in cycles, too. I get overwhelmed, start saying no to things, then it frees me up, then I believe I can do everything I want. Then I say yes, then I get overwhelmed, and on it goes! I’m so predictable, it’s sort of humorous.

Once upon a time I would do things I didn’t want to do, because others wanted/expected me to do those things. When I gave up doing that, I somehow believed there would be room for everything that I wanted/chose to do. Since it wasn’t for others. Hmmm, well, a person with passion has too many things to do, even if only doing things chosen alone. Funny how that works!

I really think that passionate people will always want to do more than the timeframe that one life offers. We can actively choose or follow our nose, but we will continue to follow the muse as long as we are on this earth. I am not sure I always choose the best focus of the moment, although living with passion is definitely the life for me.

Holiday season makes everything more complicated. The weather is worse than usual, and the schedule is more full. There are expectations for gifts even in a life like mine where I mostly forego gifts (my dance troupe picks names and that group of women really enjoys the gift part of the holiday season). We need to buy or make gifts, which takes more money or time than our normal routine.

I do this over-busy thing at least two or three times a year, though I have not yet noticed if they form a pattern as far as time of year. I try to do everything I love and want to do. This is the inner teenager/optimist, who thinks there are no limitations if one is passionate. I love this state of being, it seems that anything is possible.

However, this optimism can not continue forever. I realize that I have people waiting for this or that, I try to do things and they stall for a million possible reasons. I figure out that one more time, I can’t do it all.

Reality is a rough one. I come face to face with the laundry, so to speak. Maintenance must be done, laundry and dishes to wash are created every day whether I notice them or not. My goal is to be fully adult as far as my obligations. Sometimes my inner teen is not so happy with that goal, however!

How do you balance the extra number of things to do this time of year, just when the weather fights efficiency? The lack of daylight time impacts even those in southern states, and those of us who live where it can make snow or ice, it is hard to get around far too often.

Even those reading this from corners of the world where it is summer right now, no doubt have more appointments than normal with the upcoming new year. Most cultures do some sort of relationship-enhancing activities at this time of year, no matter the belief system or weather.

Today is the last day for comments on my birthday-week comment contest. Every comment becomes one piece of paper in the hat for me to pull out when I assemble my prizes. You can comment once for every post since last Wednesday (I think I just extended my contest by one day but that is just fine in my book). Even if you do not knit, I will award you with music CDs… and if our music is not your thing, I guarantee you know someone who will really love it (sentimental favorites work for most of the retired community at this point, as well as a lot of us in all other age categories).

Photos: CityKidz Knit! last week. Girl with tree hat finished a sweater for her kitten stuffed animal and was most proud. She coordinated a photo-styling experience with hat and cat (woohoo it rhymes), told me how to make it look good.

For the record, the girl at right is 14 but taller than me, and she has been knitting with me for several years. She did some intarsia in the last month with no help from me at all, inspired by the internet. Now she is making lace from a chart she also found on the internet. (She is not holding the lace in this photo.) I told her she will know more about lace than I do when she’s done, but I’m helping as much as I can (and asking Rae when I can’t figure it out).

My Mondays are full of tasks, errands, and four hours of teaching. I get home with a worn out voice and the intent to relax.

It was SO wonderful to find food in the freezer that I could just thaw and eat for dinner. What a gift I gave myself when I made that first meal, and froze half of what I’d made for later. I feel so nurtured when I have a long day and I can come home and not fuss too much in the kitchen.

Ironically, what I did while waiting for the microwave to do its magic… is clean the kitchen. I guess that post a few days ago really got through to me. I am feeling nurtured by a tidier room.

It is not like the dishes were piled that high, but that there were a lot of things hanging out on the counter without homes. Mostly recycling or clean containers waiting for me to cook more and freeze the leftovers. Except, more of those containers than I could ever need. I tend to hoard things, I hate to waste and throw away when something can be used later. Except I’m drowning in things like that.

I am inspired to do housekeeping of other sorts… a little work with my online shop, a little checking things on Etsy, a little on this new knitting community called Ravelry. And checking emails, chatting with those of you who left comments on previous posts.

Last year I pushed all December to finish socks I’d started earlier in the year, and in January I made my LynnH SockTour 2006 page. There is something about the last month of the year which inspires a push to the finish.

I want to spend the last month of the year, though… concentrating on my relationships. Spending time and/or focus on those I love. I have been connecting quite a bit with Sis-in-Love Diana and her hubby/my brother Eric. I have been spending time with my friend who has started a new life and can use some support. I have been connecting (mostly email) with my mother.

I have not spent nearly enough time with Brian, though… mostly dinner and rehearsal each night. At least we will be singing together on Friday at Foods for Living, from 4-6… and then at Altu’s on Saturday from 6:30-8:30.

Singing together is when I feel the very most married of all. It’s a wonderful experience, making this music together (especially on stage).

I want to spend time on the quality of my relationships this month. I’m not worrying about gifts for anyone except the person whose name I drew for the Habibi Dancers’ holiday party in a few weeks. Other than that, it’s about connection.

Connecting is hard to do when things get hectic this time of year, but it’s a goal of mine. I would like to sit down and hand-write gratitude notes to loved ones and special people who serve me during the year (like nurses I love in two different doctor’s offices).

What are you focusing on this month? Just keeping the schedule can be hard with the extra events of the holidays. My friends who are mothers balance their own schedules with those of their kids. How do you connect with those you love during this busy but relationship-focused time?

Photos: Me with two of my CityKidz Knitters last February. They were both knitting toe-up socks. The girl at left was wearing the toe on her nose as a nosewarmer, as a sort of joke. Yup. Relationship counts. We have such fun! Also photo of Brian and me at Singing Festival early this year, taken by Regina. More relationship.

I realized today that I’ve perhaps always had a group of kids in my life, other people’s children, who I called “My Kids.” This started when I became a babysitter, maybe I was as young as 11 but more likely I was 13-14.

I babysat a lot in high school, I always had more spending money than my friends because of it. Then in college I came home for two summers and babysat two neighbor kids (ages 4 and 10 the first year). That was hard work, including making them lunch every day (I’m not so fond of cooking, and it’s pretty hard to make a pair with that age gap be happy with the same meal).

These days, of course, “My Kids” are the participants in my CityKidz Knit! program at Foster Community Center. I can not help it, I learn to love these kids. It is SO gratifying to see them shine in the program and begin to think of themselves as knitters even when I am not with them.

In the last week I had several donations of yarn from local knitters and the bags were in my trunk Tuesday when I arrived for the last summer session of the year. I brought in the bags and the kids’ eyes got big. It is clear in my room that the yarn is for them, it’s their yarn and there is total abundance for them at least in this one area of their lives. I love it that they can just dream and take home yarn to match their dreams.

(For the record, I always need donations of knitting needles, especially straight needles in sizes 5-13 or so. I also can use lighter weight double-pointed needles… plastic, wood or bamboo are almost unheard of in my program but their lighter weight does help the kids when learning to knit in the round. DPNs are needed in sizes 2-11 or so. Yes, you read that right. Elementary-aged kids on double-pointed needles. Relatively frequently, too! I told you these kids are worthy of my fond pride!!!)

So the kids’ eyes lit up when I came in with those bags. One bag was a clear garbage bag and i could not open it by hand. I went off to find scissors but they handled the issue swiftly. One kid sat on one side pulling on the top edge of the bag, another on the other, and they leaned away from one another until the bag burst open. The yarn burst out something like an explosion of sorts. They really loved that!

One of the younger girls dove right in to the pile, with her little tush up in the air, and it was such an amusing sight that I got out my camera. First photo here is the kids after things calmed down a little bit.

One of the kids in this first picture, I had not seen in 2 years. She moved away but came back for a visit, and happened to be in the building when I was there. I was delighted to see her! She has been knitting without me, which makes me happy. I had her fill up a few tote bags ful of yarn (I call this “Trick or Treat” and it always delights). I’m hoping I will see her again… she now lives maybe 20 minutes north of Lansing. She says she enjoys her new town. Wonderful news.

The other two photos here are finished items by “my kids.” These kids actually do a good deal of knitting when I am not with them, and they crank out works quickly. First is a shawl/wrap by a young lady who I believe will be in 6th grade next year. Last March she made up a mitten, in one day, on double-pointed-needles in the round. She needed almost no help from me, just how to close the top and a little assistance in starting her thumb. Wowie.

The yarn in her pictured project is Rowan Biggy Print, a thick/thin two-ply, donated by a blog reader in the DC area, who has sent many boxes of incredibly high-quality yarns for them t o knit and learn from/about. (Thank you, thank you, thank you… they really are learning about quality and really enjoying the yarns.)

The wrap contains 12 balls of super-chunky yarn. I am here to tell you that this is a LOT of stitches for a child this age. However, she is very good at picturing final products and sticks with things more than other kids her age. In this case, she envisioned a rug which she planned to felt/shrink after knitting. Well, then she liked it as a lap blanket better. Then she liked it as a wrap/shawl even more. Warmth!

I do encourage kids to change their minds if it makes sense, partway through projects. If they do not enjoy the yarn or the project, I give them permission to either stop or make it into something else they enjoy making more. In this case, she was just done sooner than initially planned, she did not have to take time to felt it (and take the risk she would not like the result.

She still knit all 12 balls that she had (I think there were a few other balls that made it to other kids). She changed yarn balls by tying knots, knowing she was planning to felt. Now she has ends that will be hard to hide. First is my challenge to get her a “darning” needle with a huuuuge eye so we have the right tool (I am pretty sure I have that handled). Then I’ll show her better ways to work them in.

The last photo is a young lady who received the “knitting pattern a day” calendar from someone well over a year ago. She follows patterns because of her interest in the projects in that calendar. Last year she knit a lace bookmark for someone for a Christmas gift. This year she came across this doll which she knew would really please a certain friend. All she has left is to embroider the face. Cool, huh??? Grownup knitters, please take these kids as inspiration!

“My Kids.” They are really super people… normal kids but also extra-ordinary in many ways. I’m just delighted to know them.

Oh, for those who have needles they might like to donate, the address is: CityKidz Knit!, c/o Foster Center, 200 N. Foster Ave., Lansing, MI 48912 USA.

Right now I have enough canvas bags and acrylic yarn for the most part. I always take donations of dyeable wool yarn and/or feltable yarn, and right now we’re out of Kool Aid with which to dye those yarns (bright colors are what kids love, so red, orange, yellow, green, turquoise are good but not black cherry). Thanks for your consideration.