Paulette rocks. She came to me maybe 2 months ago, no longer. She had a dream that she would knit socks. We dove in, and look at what she has done. A completed sock… unblocked but fresh off the needles. She had to learn how to bind off to finish this sock, because her other 2 projects were hats which ended at the top.

Two months ago we started with knit, then purl, then rib. We learned two sorts of decreases. She finished a hat. She finished another hat just like it, but with fewer “hiccups.”

Mind you, I did not know how to knit ribbing for 20 years after I learned the knit stitch. She had 2 ribbed hats in 3 weeks.

And we got right on those socks… and she learned how to use double-pointed needles with small yarn. She learned how to pick up and knit stitches. She learned how to bind off.

She knows more than I did after 2 decades of knitting (garter stitch scarves, but that’s knitting). The sock fits well, and she is eager to wear the pair so the second one is surely already on its way.

Go, Paulette!

I’m knitting samples for upcoming classes. This is very fun. I will need to write patterns for some of these items (new designs I’m making up just for the new term of classes). I am excited about this!

There is a new sockyarn by the Noro company. It’s handspun, where the spinner basically grabs a handful of one color and spins until it’s mostly run out, then overlaps it with a new color until the new color is all there is, then slowly changes to the next and next. It depends on how big your foot is, how tall each stripe is before it changes colors. My foot is really thin, size 6 narrow, and so I did a sock on size 1 needles with only 44 stitches. this made really big chunks of each color on my foot.

I made three socks with this new sockyarn. One is a sort of variation on a slip stitch pattern, easy to do with only 4 stitches and 4 rows in the repeat. It makes a really nice texture with the handspun yarn (which is textured by its nature, anyway). I think it makes the rustic nature of the handspun yarn really sing.

(For the record, there is much discussion online and off about this yarn and whether it is “scratchy.” I’d say it is rustic and wooly but not scratchy to someone who wears other wool sockyarns. It softens up and gets more springy after blocking/washing, as well. My opinion, of course. Your mileage may vary.)

The second and third socks are made with different colorways of the yarn, but the same design/pattern. I used one end of the ball of yarn to stripe with the other end of the ball, for the leg of each sock. It took a little fussing on the more subtle-colored sock, because I ended up with neutral and neutral from both ends of the ball at one point. I just broke the yarn and re-started that strand where it changed to the next color.

The super-rainbow one? I want a pair for myself, though this will be a store sample.

Now that the bright colorway is knit up, the sock reminds me of the Maximum Legwarmers I made from Sally Melville’s Knit Stitch book, contrasting a warm colorway and a cool colorway. However, my version of the legwarmers’ stripes were much more random and called for two different colorways.

The socks are one skein only, two ends and not even using up a whole skein. (It would be very hard to make two socks match using this method, though I confess I would be inclined to give it a try given how small my foot is.)

I bet you did not notice… the left and center socks were knit from the same skein of yarn. I started with the turquoise toe of the textured sock. I knit all the way to the top which was a nearly-black wool. Then I started the middle sock. I did not get to the end of the repeat until I had finished the 2nd foot (note turquoise heel on middle sock, that was where I finally returned to the sequence for the 2nd time).

I took a bunch of photos of the socks, and all of them are a bit fuzzy. I took new photos Tuesday but have not downloaded them to my laptop yet, so you get the semi-fuzzy version for now.

(Oh, and I’m also working up some new patterns, some to answer a request for proposals for a book I hope to be included in, a year and a half down the road… and one that I started a while back and am picking back up in earnest this week. Much fun, more on those as I have news to share.)

These photos have been taken over the last week and a half. I do not remember a spring so full of flowers. Often the flowers start too soon and we have a frost which kills a lot of buds. This year, the cold held on so long that nothing bloomed until we were pretty much past freeze warnings. We have not had many really warm days, maybe two, so spring still feels tentative, but it’s clear we will not see any more snow, at least.

Here are the daffodils my father planted in the early 1970s, still coming up at Mom’s house:

I took that photo in the twilight so I ended up with flash, and the yellow is sort of over-exposed. Still, I delight in the big standard yellow daffodils and the big standard red tulips that return each year, more than 30 years after my father died. What a gift these are!

Here is a view in the neighborhood behind our house:

What a view! Look at all the colors on the trees and bushes, all at one time. Wonderful.

And two views of a bush I have never noticed before. Actually, it seems I’ve seen these as small decorative bushes, but this one is as tall as me and in front of a victorian brick house in Old Town. Does anyone out there know what this bush is? It is absolutely beautiful and I think I’m in love… (unfortunately, our yard is very small and I don’t think there is room for a bush as tall as me, but I can dream)

Here is a detail. The flowers turn lacy and white at the edges when they start to fade and wither. This actually makes them more beautiful, if you ask me:

I think all that knitting and other creative work we have done on behalf of the spring’s arrival, may just be starting to work!

Paulette came to me not two months ago. She had a dream, to knit socks. First she had purchased a hat pattern, and I showed you that project two weeks ago. She finished that first hat, did a second, and started in with toe-up socks.

I present to you the foot portion of Paulette’s debut sock:

At this point she needs to knit ribbing for the leg as long as she wants to do so, and bind off loosely, and she will have a wearable sock.

I have never seen an adult starter knitter progress so quickly. I don’t expect this but she’s a determined person who is plowing through the learning curve with lightning speed. Go, Paulette!

In other news, I taught my Polymer Clay Translucents & Foils class at Yarn Garden in Charlotte last weekend. Lindsay, who has owned that shop for one year now, filled that room with 8 happy participants. One was her grandma. Grandma had this gorgeous wound “cake” of Noro wool/angora yarn and wanted buttons to go with it. Even though I confess I’m not a neutral person, have never been known for subtlety (I go for contrast every time), I helped her figure out how to make what *she* wanted for *her own project.* Just look at how nice those buttons are for the yarn!

Of course, the web is just not good at displaying subtleties in color but trust me when I say that she was pleased, I was pleased, and the whole group agreed that she got the buttons she had been working for.

Bonnie in Illinois (blcknits on Ravelry) has posted a few projects which were her spring-inducing projects this year. She has given gracious consent to sharing the photos here with you. Thanks, Bonnie!

First she posts a Breabag by Norah Gaughan (I believe it’s a Berrocco pattern). This was a gift for her 18 yr old. She lined it and made a wonderful handle complete with beads:

She also made two-color footies (socks without legs) in colors I love for spring. These were for her 17 yr old. I tell you what, if she has teenaged girls liking her knitting, she is doing something right!!! (I sure wish I’d made those footies for me…):

I ran into Cyndi on Saturday at Threadbear as I was finishing up a class. She had to show me her finished SportZig. I was thrilled, of course.

Then she continued to flatter me (I eat it up). She had taken this project on a ski weekend (early March) and knit it in one day. In the end, she was able to get two bagz out of the yarn she purchased for one.

Way cool!

Here is a photo of my SportZig and hers. Guess which is whose? (Hint… purple is my neutral, or as Brian says, it’s my beige. Never mind I like turquoise, wild hot colors and rainbows… Cyndi looks wonderful in red. Hers looks more like cinnabar in person than in this photo, I just could not get the colors true. You can see the bags turned out well.

Cathy wrote me a few weeks ago to say she had photos of her ZigBag progress, on her blog. I just love seeing everyone’s color choices. Hers looks like a spring garden, fresh and lovely.

Cathy, thanks for writing. You make my day.

Mary’s bag is beautiful, too. I have photos if I can only get time to put them on my laptop and develop them. One day at a time, right?

I really try to keep you guys up to date and not leave you waiting for posts… I’ve been crazy-busy so have fallen behind.

• We have been singing a bunch this week. Brian and I played for a private party on Friday and we have another private party next Thursday. All good.
• I have had a number of classes to teach, both computer and knitting. Saturday I teach polymer clay and Needlefelted Embellishments.
• The weather is springlike. This year it was not “April Showers bring May flowers.” This year we had flowers at the end of April, we still have them. But the last few days we have had rain. Friday it was coming down “in buckets” so to speak.
• I am knitting a baby outfit from my yarn and Knitting at Knoon’s pattern. More details and photos later.
• Brian bought me seeds for an herb garden. I have done well some years and not so well others, we will hope this year is a good one.
• I have been cooking and baking. Food is such a comfort and a joy at times!
• And I can never say enough about my beloved. How I got this lucky in life, I do not know. We play music together, we eat together, we go for walks together, we laugh and laugh. It is a good life.

Back when I can write a real column… for now it’s bits and pieces. I’m well, I’m happy… I’m busy. Hugs!

Last Wednesday my little friend Isabel turned 4 years old. She likes to sort things, such as my polymer clay buttons. She sorts by color, size, whether she can stack them or not.

I knit her eight hearts, two each in different sized yarns. All different colors.

Her first instinct after opening the package was to try to stack them. She did get 2 to stack but the 3rd did not work at all, and she went on without a hiccup to sorting by size.

This is what she came up with, at least at one point during her heart-exploration time. We had a lovely time together at the coffee shop.

I adore this child with every cell in my body. She’s wonderful company, and she turns my sour attitude around (when I have one) in about a minute or less. What would I do without Isabel? She lights up my world. In fact, I sometimes call her “Sunshine” as a nickname. It suits her.

Yarns in last photo, from top to bottom (I don’t have dye lots or color numbers handy, please understand I was knitting from stash, sometimes leftover balls I had hanging around…

Malabrigo Merino Worsted
Nashua Creative Focus Worsted (Wool/Alpaca)
Magic Garden Buttons wool/polyester “effect”
Filatura di Crosa Zara washable wool
Lion Brand Magic Stripes (sportweight sockyarn, wool/nylon)
Kroy 4ply sock yarn, wool/nylon
Fortissima Socka (?) cotton blend
Noro Kureyon Sockyarn wool/nylon

The pattern is from Anna H at Mochimochiland, free pattern here.

I danced Friday and Sunday with the Habibi Dancers, for different events. Much fun but it does take time away from the desk. Saturday I taught polymer clay at Threadbear which was fun, Sunday I ended up with no students so I worked on a knitting project while at Rae’s. It was very busy there on account of the Black Sheep guild stopping in on the way home from their retreat.

I’ve been in this business long enough now to recognize folks not in my weekly routine. While the Black sheep people came around, Rita of Yarn Hollow/Grand Rapids area said hi and we chatted (above is a photo of Rita on the right, at Allegan/Michigan Fiber Festival last August). Then I talked with Linda who took a sock class from me at Heritage Spinning a long while ago with her mother. Here’s a photo of them together wearing their socks:

The pattern was originally called “Heritage Heirloom Socks” (for Heritage Spinning, the shop where I taught the class first… and for Heirloom yarn which was what the first prototype was knit up in). Now they are called Guitar Trim Socks because they match the Guitar Trim Hat I designed after the socks.

It was really warm Friday, the wind kicked up on Saturday and it was downright chilly Sunday. I did not see snow but the National Weather Service says rain/snow likely Monday and patchy frost through Wednesday. Ugh. I know there is always a chance of snow if it is still April, but ugh.

I’m doing some work for a friend, when I’m not falling asleep at the keyboard from exhaustion. It’s a good exhaustion, anyway. I’m grateful for work and dance and friends.

Monday I am having two music friends over for a simple soup lunch (Jen Sygit and Laura Bates) and that will be a lovely payback for the work I’m pushing to finish between classes and performances.

I tell you, nobody has a job as fun as mine can be some days. Today/Saturday I taught polymer clay canework (Jelly Rolls, Stripes, Bulls-eyes and Checkerboards), at Threadbear. It was a BLAST. It always is.

Tomorrow I am at Rae’s 11-1 for a mitten class. The weather has gone mean again, we are expecting “patchy frost” for 4 days in a row and I got out my earmuffs today (after 80F+ summer temps yesterday). Mittens are a decent topic for a little longer, I’m afraid.

Next Saturday (May 3) I teach my Polymer Translucents and Foils class at Yarn Garden in Charlotte, Michigan. The class is from 11a-3p. I am showing some photos here of buttons made with this technique. Some were made by me, some by my students. The technique can be very subtle where it looks almost like mother-of-pearl or obsidian, but it can be vibrant as well. Look at the variety here!

I sure hope some of you can join me for some of my upcoming classes (baby set, needlefelted embellishments, mentioned in my earlier post here). I think you might just have a good time, too.

Sorry to those out of town… do remember that I travel to teach. Let your local shop or guild know if you would like to have me come to your area and teach you (and your friends). We will all have a great time, I’m sure of it!

I teach what we call “Knitting Study Hall” at Rae’s Yarn Boutique every Thursday late afternoon (4:45pm). This is a time where I work with knitters on whatever project they choose, for the most part. They commit to 4 weeks and can add more at the end if they need/choose to do so.

I often get beginner or near-beginner knitters, or perhaps those coming back to it after many years away from yarn and needles. It’s really satisfying for me, teaching these folks.

Sometimes we who are comfortable with knitting, assume that someone starting out must work with a simple project. We suggest scarves or dishcloths, for example. This works fine if the person in question is interested in such a project. However, for some folks they have a particular project in mind, one that is not considered a beginner project. For those people, a simple project just keeps them from the dream and sometimes diminishes their passion for knitting.

I firmly believe that if you have a passion to make a particular thing and you are willing to make a good number of stitches, you should go after that goal. After all, if you can picture something finished in your mind, you can get there with a little guidance. I have seen relative beginners make amazing projects, be they lace (check out Sophia’s knitted corset) or ribbing or socks.

Right now I have two folks working with me who are making extra-ordinary beginner projects. Kate felt a real push to make a baby blanket, knowing full well how many stitches it would take to finish. Above is a photo of her project. Cool, huh?

And Paulette? Super cool… she wanted to make a hat for charity. She picked a pattern before I met her and it had garter fabric on the edge followed by ribbing and decreases. It started on circular needles and then when the number of stitches reduced, it switched to double-pointed needles. Look at her hat!!! Her first project (or so I believe, certainly her first in my class)! Soooo cool.

What’s more, she had the goal when she came to me, that she wanted to knit socks. Of course, I was all for it.

So on her third week she started a sock project, using my First-Time Toe-Up Socks pattern. She finished the toe, the heel flap, the heel turn and picking up stitches to start the gusset (the little triangles on both sides of the foot under the ankle). Next week we decrease for the gusset and then she can finish her leg/cuff without me. Woohoo!

I took these photos last week. For some reason, I did not think to take any photos today. I did not get a shot of Paulette’s sock, nor did I get a photo of the absolutely gorgeous progress Mary is making on her (not beginner) BiggieZig ZigBag (which was my evening class, after the study hall). Rats!

This weekend was the Habibi Dancers‘ 25th Anniversary concert (and two days of dance workshops). It was a great time. You can imagine that the preparations for something that big distracted me a bit from the teaching part of my life. Now I’m diving back into my teaching realm.

On Saturday, April 26, I’m teaching polymer clay “Stripes, Jelly Rolls and Checkerboards” at Threadbear Fiberarts. (See buttons top left and bottom almost-left in photo.)

I’ve taught a buttons/beads class for years, which uses layering techniques (think thin woodgrain or ivory but in any colors you like) to make buttons that are easily wearable with handknits. I have also recently added a “Foils and Translucents” class which creates lovely pearlescent buttons which also are just great with handknitted garments.

In the polymer clay community, beads are the focus rather than buttons. Many of the beads are made with a millifiore technique, an ancient glassworking method which works best with sharp contrast, and which draws in the eye to analyze fine detail.

I have had the instinct that fancier buttons with this type of detail, might distract from a garment. However, I am reminded by students that detail is adorable in a child’s button and also great for beads.

I’ve had enough requests that I’m teaching my first millifiore (stripes, etc) polymer class ever at a yarn shop, at Threadbear (Lansing, Michigan) this Saturday from noon to 4pm. Call 517/703-9276 to register.

If you want a project on which you might place your new buttons, I’ll be starting a baby set class at Rae’s on Thursday nights starting May 1. We’ll have one class, then a week off, then 3 more weeks in a row. We’re knitting the Wee One Welcome Set from Knitting at Knoon, which includes a sweater, hat and booties.

Rae’s sample version at the shop (see photo, shown with purchased buttons) is knit with one large (half-pound) skein of my Cushy ColorSport DK washable merino yarn, in the Seaside colorway. (She had enough yarn left over from the newborn size to knit a pair of tiny pants to go with it as well.) Last I looked Rae had 6 skeins of my yarn in stock (it’s limited in supply, I dye yarn when I’m not busy teaching). She has other DK weight washable yarns in stock as well.

To sign up for the baby set class, call Rae at 517/336-9276 or email info@raesyarnboutique.com

Next week (Friday May 2, 6-8pm) I teach Needlefelted Embellishments at Threadbear. This is a fun, no-sew method of adding color to a purse, hat or other item you own. It works well on felted or non-felted items. Wool works best as a base, but I’ve seen folks needlefelt on T-shirts and denim jackets, too. (On this photo, I used yarn “squiggles” on a purchased felted beret. Click above link to see Linda’s class project from last year.)

Saturday, May 3, I teach Polymer Clay Foils and Translucents at Yarn Garden in Charlotte, Michigan, from 11-3pm. (See pink button in first photo for one possible look.) Call Lindsay at 517/541-9323 to register.

I wanted to knit spring into existence. I thought I’d use some spring green handpainted sockyarn, maybe along with some turquoise handdyed sockyarn. I made the yarns into balls. I did not even cast on.

I did choose some spring green Nashua Creative Focus Worsted (wool/alpaca, really soft and warm but not very springlike other than color). I started a hat. Today I ripped out all but about 12 rounds. I’m OK with that, but maybe I just needed to not do wooly, warm stuff while talking spring.

Then last week I taught at Threadbear and they had turquoise/aqua mohair yarn on a huge clearance price. I got enough to replace my wearing-thin favorite-of-all turquoise mohair sweater. I don’t know when I’ll knit a sweater when I don’t write patterns for sweaters, but if I can get started there will be a lot of knitting just around and around and around in circles. At least the color is very springlike. And I do wear mohair in spring and fall, as well as winter. (Do I sound convincing yet?)

I also picked up 2 balls of washable merino (about DK weight) to make some socks for me. Whenever that happens. Meanwhile the colors can speak spring to me.

Mary is taking my ZigBagZ Maxi Collection class at Rae’s Yarn Boutique right now. I took this photo of her bag a week ago (my, how time flies). This is the base of her “Biggie Zig” which is a sort of large purse carry-all. It’s bigger now, because it will be shrunk on purpose when she is done knitting.

She is thrilled with the colors she picked. I think they are dead-on perfect for her. (This is proof that you can make ColorJoy patterns with *your* colors and they can be absolutely ColorJoy for *you*.)

I am looking forward to the next time we meet (in a few weeks, I think) when I can see the sides of the bag, zigzagged in 4 yarns (the base used only 2 yarns).

Go, Mary!

Sriyana is on my ColorJoy! Ravelry discussion group (please join us, you will need to join the free Ravelry site first). I’ve mentioned her tapestry-crocheted mandalas here before. This time she has been crocheting spring into existence, and it appears to have worked, at least in her part of the world.

She participated in an art show where the theme was chickens (I can not help but wonder what the show as a whole looked like), and made this piece with a hen and wonderful textured leaves. I’m not good at crochet, but those leaves make me want to learn more, and fast!

She lives near Asheville, North Carolina. This is a wonderful community on a mountain, where they get a lot of sun. It doesn’t get too hot or too cold, and it almost always avoids the cloudcover we see here in Michigan so much of the winter. My brother nearly moved there not too long ago. I’m glad he is closer to me right now, but I know he would have loved it there, had he made the move.

So… spring has arrived in the mountains. I am very happy she has chosen to share her photos with us. Thanks, Sriyana!

Melissa lives in Australia. She is on my Ravelry ColorJoy discussion group and participates often. She wanted to participate in my “Knit Spring into Existence” project, except she is in the first bit of autumn where she lives.

Here is what she says:

When you suggested Knitting Spring into Existence, I wondered whether I might generate bad juju by joining your project, as here in Australia, Autumn clothes are appearing in stores. I never hesitate to march to a different drummer, but I also do my best to avoid contributing to undesirable climate change!

I settled on a rationalisation. I would knit (my first ever) baby booties as a symbol of new beginnings that can occur anytime in the year.

These booties are knit from yarn Melissa hand spun, and a guild friend hand dyed.

And now the coolest thing? The pattern for these booties came from a book which was written by Melanie Falick and Kristin Nicholas. (This pair wrote the incredible Kids Knitting book I mentioned yesterday.)

Yes, the same Kristin Nicholas who gave a speech on color in Detroit yesterday/Monday. (Boo hoo. I missed it.) You see, we’re all in it together, if you are a knitter. It seems we are all related somehow.

Diana/Otterwise chose this beautiful yarn to Knit Spring into Existence. She has has some challenges this spring to say it kindly, thus the shawl she started had to be frogged (rip-it, rip-it). However, she says:

I didn’t finish this shawl, it got frogged when I totally screwed it up due to brain fog. But I did knit toward spring with it.

I’ve also attached a springy photo of tree buds from up north in Gaylord.

And can’t we all benefit from some hopeful, optimistic flower buds???

Note added later: Diana reminds me that the yarn is one I dyed (I had forgotten I’d done sockyarn in this colorway). It is TipToe Sockyarn in colorway “Spring Sunshine.” No wonder she chose it for this project!

Leeann sent me a photo of her springlike yarn for my “Knit Spring into Existence” project, and I posted that photo on March 30. Here she shows that she did dive in and start her first handknitted socks. She reports that it’s so much fun she doesn’t want to knit any of her other projects.

I say that you can not buy passion, and that sort of enthusiasm for knitting anything must be embraced. That’s what I say, anyway.

Knit on, Leeann!

I have talked of Kristin Nicholas here before. She loves color perhaps more than I do. She is a knitter, and author of knitting books, embroidery books, books for kids to knit and crochet. She writes a wonderful blog, called Getting Stitched on the Farm.

She has illustrated a number of knitting books (my favorite of her illustration projects may be Kids Knitting by Melanie Falick, which is also an excellent starter book for adult knitters). When I need inspiration, I pull out Kristin Knits or Colorful Stitchery.

Kristin is in the Motor City this week to film the PBS show “Knit and Crochet Today.” She will be busy in the recording studio all week, but one night she is sneaking out to meet the fine knitters of southeastern Michigan.

Tonight, Monday April 14, she is presenting her talk about color. Here are the details from her website:

The Joy of Color Slide Presentation
City Knitting, Fisher Bldg. Detroit, MI
5:30 to 7:30
313.872.9665
www.cityknits.com

I can not tell you how sad I am that I can not go. It is not a long drive for me (Kristin lives many states east of here). However, I have to teach my last class of the term for Community Ed (it’s a makeup class because I didn’t teach when I was sick with the flu). I can not cancel or reschedule, because the new term starts next Monday. Sigh.

If you can get there, by all means do. Enjoy it for me!

I went to Ann Arbor on Friday with several hundred other knitters (and a few non-knitters) to hear Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (Yarn Harlot) speak. It was a promotional event for her new book, “Things I learned from Knitting …whether I wanted to or not.” I am very happy I went.

Every time Stephanie appears, a gathering happens where knitters convene and celebrate what they have in common. As she points out, many of us would not hang out or even get along if it were not for our yarn and needles, and the love of creating knitted items.

Some of us knit sweaters, some socks, some both. Our politics and religions are varied, our backgrounds, income level, anything you might want to use to define us, can not be defined.

I remember the days when she was “Stephanie Pearl (not Purl)” on the Knitlist. We occasionally wrote private emails to one another. I started my blog in November 2002… since I archive all personal email (yes, I’m obsessed but sometimes it is quite handy to go back in archives) I see a note Stephanie wrote to me on April 3, 2003. When I look at the Yarn Harlot blog page, the earliest archive is January 2004.

So it was early blogosphere time, and email discussion lists were how knitters met/found one another. She would write funny posts to the email list, rather than on her blog or in a book. Her posts were always a highlight of the list for me.

These days if we write, it tends to be a quick comment on the other person’s blog. She’s so busy with sometimes 300+ comments a day, that I’m sure correspondence takes up a huge amount of her time these days.

Now she’s promoting her 5th book. She is doing what outsiders think is impossible… making a living writing humorous books about being a knitter. She’s very funny to insiders, and confusing to those who have chosen to remain outside the knitting realm.

Whether you knit or not, whether her comments make sense to you or not (they do if you knit), she is authentic Stephanie. She’s real, she laughs at her human foibles.

Humans passionate over any activity (knitting, fishing, cooking, running…) will exhibit behaviors that are a bit confusing to those not similarly passionate. And these unique things can bring a chuckle without the need to feel “less than.” It’s just the product of intense immersion in an activity that brings much pleasure. In this culture sometimes we insult ourselves in order to present ourselves as humble. Stephanie avoids the insult and the postured humbleness.

Sometimes I contemplate how this very human and very approachable person has become sort of a superstar, at least in the knitting world. Let’s face it most authors can’t turn out the 750 or so listeners she had at her book launch for the last book, in New York City. She turns out hundreds of knitters at every one of her talks/book-signing events.

Superstars are sometimes worshiped rather than admired. But I think Stephanie’s real appeal is her humanness.

She admits when she’s not happy with her kids. She admits when she needs to focus on a writing deadline and all she wants to do is cast on for a new pair of socks. She admits she knit long past the point where she knew it was not working out, and admits when she has to rip out the work she did while knowing full well she would need to rip.

So many people in the public eye cover up their weaknesses. Stephanie writes books about hers, without losing her dignity in the least.

We had such a good time! I met some folks from City Knitting in Grand Rapids, (I’ve already met a few others from this reaaally great store in East Town). I am embarrassed I am going blank on their names right now, I should have taken a notepad. One of them said she had knit my Fast Florida Footies pattern, which of course made me feel good.

I met a few young women waiting in line, one from Canton and one from Dexter (I think I got that right) who were in the (second) photo above I tried to take without being noticed… see them laughing in the photo? I am not good at hiding, not at all.

Almost everyone was knitting while waiting in line. The 5th grader in that photo said she was not a knitter (and those around her were teaching her to say “not yet”). I told her I learned to knit in 5th grade.

The first photo here in the post is a crowd of folks from the Lansing area with Stephanie. This way photo-taking took less time, she could get on with signing another several hundred books for those willing to wait in line.

The last photo is the rainbow that followed us for about 30 minutes on the commute to Ann Arbor. Rae was driving (yippee) so I had time to take dozens of shots trying to capture the colors. We could see it from bottom right to bottom left, the whole arc, much of the time (and every color down to violet was easily visible to the eye, though not obvious in the photo). Gorgeous.

Stephanie, thanks for the great party! “The Knitters” had a great time, thanks to you.

This spring thing comes and goes, but we have not had snow for several weeks. As I type this, the temperature is just barely above freezing. A few days ago, we had an incredible summery few hours followed by wind and rain.

My days are incredibly full this week and next, I may give you more photos than text during that time. Off to teach Guitar-Trim Socks at Rae’s! If I’m lucky I’ll have time to go to Threadbear after work, to see Jillian Moreno and Amy Singer (Knitty) launch their 2nd Big Girl Knits book. I hope.

Spring is here, for a few hours. The temp outside is over the mark where Brian keeps the thermostat all winter. Sun is shining, flowers blooming, This ColorJoyLynn is happy and even spent a few minutes in the hammock.

However, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (Yarn Harlot) is coming to Ann Arbor tonight, speaking at 7pm. If anyone remembers, she had awful weather last time she came, her flight from Chicago got to Detroit and sent back to Chicago because of storms. (It turned out fine, knitters love to wait and knit, though of course she worried like crazy until she got there.)

So she’s bringing the weather with her again, it seems. We are expecting tornado watches between Lansing and Ann Arbor. I’m hoping she got an early flight. It was perfect here, and then at 2:26pm the wind started gusting and the clouds rolled in.

Rae and I are going straight to Ann Arbor when she closes the shop one hour early at 5pm. Rachael and Sharon (who also work for Rae) are going to be there when we get there. We’re meeting Riin and hoping to go out to dinner after the event. I hope that wherever we go, is not where the other hundreds of knitters go. This knitter wants dinner, not a line with a two-hour wait. However, waits are more pleasant with friends and a sock to knit!

Photos after Ann Arbor. Hugs!!!

Deb of Scarlet-Zebra has taken on the Knitting-spring-into-existence project, too. She is knitting some socks in a tulip colorway (zillions of colors in one skein) and she also is painting her house and painting on silk. You might want to see her photos: check out this entry on Scarlet-Zebra’s blog.

I have known Deb for several years. We met on the internet, I think the Socknitters email list, but we’ve hung out a zillion hours, had uncountable four-hour lunches (halfway between her house and mine, we both drive about an hour), and met at places like Michigan Fiber Festival in Allegan, Ann Arbor Art Fair, and Great Lakes Folk Festival in East Lansing.

We had a point where our lives changed and we did not connect enough… but now with her blog, we are reconnected once more. I am really happy about that.

Deb loves color at least as much as I do. She knit these kissing-cousin sock pairs, as a matter of fact (five years ago… amazing how time flies). The pattern is my BarberPole socks. Yarn is Cascade Fixation (DK weight cotton/lycra). But the choice, combination, and the knitting were all Scarlet-Zebra!

Um, I think maybe she was knitting spring into existence when she knit these, as well. Actually, I posted the photos originally on my blog, January 30, 2003. That is a bit early for thinking spring, but the colors surely go with the theme quite well!

I’m making a Nancy Marchant windmill hat for my “knitting spring into existence” project. I’m using a wool/silk solid purple single-ply from JKnits, and a multicolor silk/wool Noro Silk Garden. It’s Brioche stitch, but not just that, it’s Brioche two-color in the round. I’ve never done this sort of knitting before and I find it very satisfying.

The cool thing about this sort of colorwork is that you only work with one color at a time. You work an entire round with one yarn, then you switch yarns and work the next round with the second one. For folks who crave colorwork but struggle with the two-colors-at-once issue, this is a great method.

Nancy Marchant is very big into brioche stitch of all sorts. She has a very deep website and she also has YouTube videos showing the techniques required in her patterns. I used one of the videos, myself. I love how videos on the web can really enhance the knitting realm!

Nancy has free patterns for hats on her site. She calls them berets, although for the record French berets are knit in short rows going around (knit one pie slice, then knit another slice, then another until you finish, then complete the disc with a seam). This hat is knit from the top down, in the round (backwards from a traditional Scottish tam). Whatever they might be called, the hats are delightful.

I first saw her Pecan Pie pattern on Knitty, but that one has Noro Kureyon and that comes out to a larger gauge than the Silk Garden. So I went to her website and chose a hat which specified Silk Garden, so my gauge was more likely to be right.

This is very fun knitting, I highly recommend it. Here are photos of the “before” project and the first session of knitting. I’ll show more photos as I proceed.

On Ravelry, one of my Friends has posted that she finished a BottleZig, no photos yet. She did write me a nice note saying how pleased she was with my instructions. As someone who loves teaching in person, it pleases me that I can put the words together on paper to teach from afar. That note made me very happy!

Then Mary took my Maxi ZigBagZ class on Thursday this week at Rae’s. She started a bag in colors that are really her style, more muted than my typical colors. She has a heathery brown and a heathery teal as her solid colors, with a sort of beige/light brown/cream and a light greens set of multicolors. Incredible choices, and I will be very interested to see the fabric as it is created. The photo here is the knitting she was able to finish in the first class session. I got a note from her the next day and it sounds like she is zipping right along on it. Watching colors develop in the fabric, especially when one color is constantly changing, surely keeps me interested in a project!

I also see that MyMerinoMantra has started a bag, too. She had some Noro Kureyon color-changing yarn, and came in to Lansing to buy the Maxi ZigBagZ collection pattern plus two colors of Cascade 220 as her main/solid colors to go with them. This will be a lovely combination. I am eager to see how that develops as well!

As for me, I’m tired of knitting ZigBagZ but not colors next to one another. Right now I’m knitting a hat in one solid (purple) yarn and a self-striping green/turquoise/blue. Gorgeous. It’s a new technique for me, but anything that allows me to play with color contrast makes me very happy. I’ve taken a few photos and will post those as I get a chance in the next few days.

Brian and I think we may drive to Chicago for an overnight tomorrow. I am really eager to eat Indian food on Devon Street (Avenue?). I love the clothes there, too, but usually it takes me so long to find something I really want that I won’t make Brian go through the agony. I may buy some bangle bracelets as a prop for the upcoming Habibi Dancers show. I’m doing a dance that basically requires bangle bracelets for the costume. These are easy to find (they come in tubes) in that section of town.

And Patel Brothers grocery? That is a heavenly place, as well!!!

Ravelry is an online community for knitters and crocheters. It is something like MySpace, but in my experience a much more personal environment.

It has databases full of yarns, patterns, designers, books. You can have a yarn you want to use, look it up and see what others have made from it. You can have a pattern you like and look up what yarns people have used when knitting that design. You can look up a designer and see all the patterns associated with that person.

Or you can find groups (something like Yahoo Discussion Groups) where you can chat about things you have in common. I moderate a group on Ravelry called ColorJoy! which is full of creative folks from all over the world. We talk about any creative projects, not just yarn-related ones. The “spring into existence” projects I’ve been showing you this week have come from people on my Ravelry group.

So today I checked in on Ravelry to see if I needed to do anything there as a moderator. And I saw that everyone’s photo (avatar) was embellished with a hat of some sort. Diana/Otterwise got a hot green hard hat with a yellow star on it. I got a “Cat in the Hat” striped red happy lid. There are newspaper-folded hats, bishop hats, witch hats, wool toques with pom-pom, wizard hats with stars and moons, chef’s white hats, I even saw one parrothead! I love my hat. Such fun!

Things like this are not uncommon on Ravelry. There is a group there called Completely pointless and arbitrary and some time during the winter they all drew blue nosewarmers on their photos/avatars. Just for fun.

If you are interested in participating in this community, go to http://ravelry.com and sign up to be added to the list. They will send you an invitation in a few days, I’m told (at one time it was a several-month wait while they were getting the system up and running).

Maybe you have heard me “talk” of my friend Trish Bloom, the designer of the Bloom Shawl (free pattern on Knitty) and the Panes Bag. (I have several Bloom Shawls (most I knit myself, but also a solid purple one that Diana knit for me), and own one Panes Bag that my friend Teresa L. knit for me in a bag exchange at my guild a few years ago.) I adore the Bloom Shawl. The only thing that would make it better would be if *I* had designed it, sigh….

Trish’s Ravelry username is “BloominKnitiot” as is her blogspot blog. We stay in touch through the Internet, as she lives over an hour from me.

We connect at times in Lansing, usually at Threadbear Fiberarts, and I have yet to see the shop where she works, Labor of Love in Romeo, MI. We plan to schedule a polymer clay button class there sometime this year, and I look forward to that!

Trish sent me this photo as her contribution to the “Knit Spring into Existence” group project. I am flattered that she has chosen a yarn I hand-dyed (to the specifications of a knit-along group who got first dibs on that colorway, and made me promise not to repeat it again). It’s my TipToe Sockyarn, with more colors applied than usual. A sort of sherbet rainbow which is called “Midday Garden.” (No, that colorway is no longer available, though I have seven colorways currently available, from flammegarn/almost solid to multicolors.)

If you have a Ravelry account, you can go read details of the sock design on Trish’s project page. In any case, I think that this project in particular is inviting flowers (appropriate from a woman whose last name is Bloom). I’m ready.

Oh, I can not resist sharing this wonderful photo of my Multicolor brushed-mohair Bloom Shawl with optional crochet edge. I wore this shawl SO much… until I accidentally cut the edge with scissors. I still have it but have not found the courage to try and repair it. A repair will be hard because the fabric is so transparent (knit on size 15 needles). I have enough of this yarn in multicolored magenta/fuschia to make another. In my spare time? But this color is perfect for me and I’m sick over the loss. Beautiful, isn’t it?

This post is for the knitters within driving distance of Lansing, Michigan. Sorry to my out-of-area readers… I do appreciate you but you probably should skip this post and come back soon for the next one.

I never seem to finalize a class schedule. I tend to think I need to wait until it’s all final until I can announce. However, this is not going to happen this month, I’m afraid.

Some of you already know some of what I’m going to announce here, because you may be on the e-newsletter lists for the shops where I teach. I am adding classes all the time, but I’m going to tell you about the ones coming up in the next few weeks.

Tuesday, April 1 (tomorrow) 6pm-8pm	Threadbear Fiberarts	Darn that Sock - The long-term socknitters out there know that tossing out a beloved handknit sock is heartbreaking. LynnH will present two different ways of repairing a worn sock, depending on how worn the fabric is. Bring handknit socks in need of repair, and a small Chibi or other blunt needle with large eye. LynnH will bring a few spares in case you have none at this time.
Thursdays, April 3 & 24, May 8 6pm-8pm	Rae’s Yarn Boutique	ZigBagZ: Maxi Collection - Lynn’s new hit pattern using lots of color but not lots of fussing. Make a strong felted project bag. The BiggieZig is a large purse-substitute bag, and the BurlyZig is a project bag which can handle a sweater or a good portion of an afghan in progress. Lynn will guide you through color choices, combining Noro Kureyon self-striping yarns with solid-colored contrast yarns. These bags stand up to real use and will look great for a long time.
Saturday, April 12 Noon-4pm	Yarn Garden of Charlotte, MI	Perfect Hug Shawl - If you need a shawl that does not fall off your shoulders, this design in three variations stays put because it is shaped like a rainbow. There is even a Goddess-sized version for up to size 5X. A great gift, this is fast and easy, and does not take much yarn. Try your lumpy-bumpy first handspun! Good if you want to break away from scarves, or you want a quick knit with just a little bit of variety to keep boredom at bay.

This schedule is a bit light, for one because a few classes with many sessions are already started. In addition, I’m preparing for the Habibi Dancers’ annual concert which will be Saturday, April 19 at the Hannah Center Auditorium in East Lansing. We have a lot of extra rehearsals in the weeks before the show, and that is cutting in to my teaching (and singing) schedule(s) for a while.

At least it looks like Brian and I will get a day or two as a “spring vacation” in between classes and rehearsals. At one point we had planned 5 days out of state. At this point it looks like maybe we will go to Ann Arbor for one day (it’s about an hour away) and maybe Chicago for an overnight (not quite 4 hours away), with a dance rehearsal day in the middle.

After being sick for most of February, I have had to schedule/reschedule classes, plus there is now an unexpected Saturday rehearsal.. We are making lemonade and will call it two vacations, even if short and local.

I hope some of you will join me for these classes! We always have a great time.

Leeanne chose some springlike yarn (it looks like it belongs in my own stash, it’s so like my favorite spring colors), for her first sock project. She reports that this yarn felt like a spring-into-existence colorway. The socks are still in planning stages… but then again, so is spring.

‘Nette lives in Canada, north of me, and she probably needs spring to come forth even more than I do. She knit this spring-enticing hat and shared it for the “Knit Spring into Existence” project.

Thanks for the smile, ‘Nette! This hat is definitely ColorJoy, I’d say!