1. First things first. I guess I need to knit more garments, you guys are wonderful. I have not had this many comments in a long while. Loving every word, thank you.
I think I do look happy in that photo, which is super cool since I seem to have many moods since the weather turned cold. It’s really great to finish something and have it work out that well.

Now the sad part. I heard on Tuesday about the deaths of two acquaintances. One day, two people. Ugh. But I will celebrate each briefly. And post photos of growing things. My tomato plants are optimists, making flowers like crazy as the weather turns chilly. I love that about tomatoes, they seem to do it every year. Grow, fruits, grow!

Here is my small attempt at honoring two people who worked and didn’t complain. Good folks who are gone now, sigh:

2. Jean Lutz was someone I met through the Mid-Michigan Knitters Guild. She volunteered with my CityKidz Knit! program at Foster Community Center the first two summers, along with Luann C.

I could not have made CityKidz happen without them. I had a LOT of kids and needed as many helpers as I could get, and they worked without complaint.

I remember we would get yarn donated in tangled messes, and then the kids would tangle it more. Jean would take that yarn home and untangle it, rewinding it by hand into center-pull balls for the kids. They thought those balls were just magical, with the yarn coming out of the middle. I thought *she* was magical for doing all that work!

Jean also volunteered at Potter Park Zoo. I know she took animals to the schools for them. I’m sure they will miss her very much over there. Good folks are worth celebrating, you know? Thanks to Jean for the work she did for me personally, and for the kids of Lansing in general.

3. Phil Wintermute was a musician in Lansing. He worked at Elderly Instruments and recorded an album under Earthwork Music’s label. I met him at his CD release party a handful of years ago, though Brian knew him before that.

His album’s name was “A Handful of Dirt.” As a happy city girl, it took me a while to understand why someone would name anything like that!

In the end, I heard the song of the same name and realized that it was about the holiness of growing things. “There is nothing so sacred as a handful of dirt” is how his lyric went.

I would always ask Phil how his garden was. We shared a love of Swiss Chard, among other things.

He was one of the most grounded, peaceful people I knew. You know, there are some people I just want to stand next to, so I can sort of get more peaceful from their vibes. Phil was one of those people.

I just wrote about Phil in the wee hours this Monday when talking about the fun at Dagwoods. I linked to his MySpace page where you can still listen to some of his songs from that album.

Phil was one half of the band “Scratch and Sniff.” It was two guys with gray hair playing mostly old time music. The other guy is Paul. The joke was: Who is Scratch and who is Sniff? The answer? Phil was “and,” and Paul was “Scratch, Sniff.” That still cracks me up. For those who knew them, it sort of fit and neither minded the joke. Here is a photo of Scratch and Sniff, Phil on left and Paul at right. I took this at Rendezvous on the Grand while they were on stage.

Here is a photo I took at Dagwoods when our friend Aki was visiting in August. The blur at left is Phil dancing with someone who I do not know. On stage is Aki at center photo and Brian at right.

4. Now the fourth thing, the hopeful thing. Kitty Donahoe, singer/songwriter once from Lansing, now from Ann Arbor, played her song “There are No Words” at the Pentagon today. The occasion was the dedication of the 9/11 memorial there. She was accompanied by two other Michigan musicians.

She won an Emmy for this song in 2002. If you want to see a web page with a video of her singing the song solo with her guitar, you can click here.

If you would like to hear an interview with Kitty, aired on WJR Detroit today while Kitty was still on the Pentagon grounds, you can go here:

http://wjr.com/Article.asp?id=883083&spid=6552

I always used to say that Kitty had the most beautiful voice in Lansing. I only stopped saying that when she moved away.

And not only is her voice beautiful, but she has this natural beauty that makes me sometimes stare at her just a little too long. She’s glowingly pretty in a relaxed, Irish sort of way, and she moves beautifully. I think sometimes she wonders why I’m looking at her! I’m an artist; I don’t paint or I might like to paint her.

But that is merely skin deep, and she’s best known as a powerful songwriter, wonderful singer and performer. It is great to see that she is being honored for that, even if the occasion might be a sad one. She found words somehow, and her song has helped a lot of folks.

—
Now, turn your focus to these lovely tomato plants who are trying to make some fruit in spite of a chill. Poor plants, they really love hot sun and now the furnace runs in the mornings.

Maybe I will bring one plant inside again this year when the frost arrives. One time I got red tomatoes in November. That was wonderful! Talk about hopefulness. We all need a little of that sometimes!

I am delighted with my Nanette Tee. It’s done, and I even wore it on Tuesday… first to Rae’s and then to Dagwoods. I love this top! It was fast to knit, it looks good, feels good, and is washable/wearable. My kind of project!

I had a spectacular mistake on another project which will cost me thousands of stitches and over 3 weeks of concentrated knitting. I will detail that big oops when I get a little time. At this point, suffice it to say that I needed a quick successful project.

This top has a gauge of 3.5 stitches per inch, huge yarn (in my case, three yarns held together which makes a flatter fabric than one fat yarn). It started by saying “Cast on 50 stitches.” Yes, that was the right way to start after the knitting letdown of the year.

I held together a cotton/acrylic aran-weight tube yarn called “Kim” (related to Kelly which I have used before, but a solid color), plus a cotton/lycra DK weight yarn called Fixation, and then a strand of a fingering/sockweight yarn in soy silk, wool and a few other fibers, handpainted by Ellen’s Half-Pint Farm.

The Kim was raspberry, the Fixation was hot yellow-green, and the sockyarn was in tropical shades from deep blue to turquoise to green to yellow-green, with one strand of white throughout the skein. Very ColorJoy!

The pattern was written by Joan McGowan-Michael of White Lies Designs. I really love the way she shapes her designs for the actual shape of a woman. I’m not a large woman but I have a few curves and she built in hip, waist and bust shaping so that it fits very comfortably (despite the thick fabric) and looks great.

I love the shoulder shaping on this. It reminds me of Judy Jetson, which for me is a very positive statement. Love that futuristic idea! I have small, rounded shoulders and this shape really looks great on me because of that.

The pattern called for me to gather it at bust level, pulling down the neckline a bit into a sweetheart neckline. As lovely as it really would be, it just is not my style. It was just a little more girly/frilly to gather it than I liked.

I showed it both ways to a handful of folks and all agreed that the square neckline was more “me” than the neckline as written. I went with it. I think I will wear it more this way.

It is interesting to see what I do and do not know about knitting. For the record, I’m over 160 pairs of socks but I’ve knit exactly one long-sleeved sweater. I also have made a summer tee, a tank top (plus this one), and a dance top (cropped). This paragraph contains the entire list of garments made for my torso. And three of those five I did not use a standard pattern, instead I did a knit-to-fit procedure. This was printed pattern #2 for me, for an upper-body garment.

Therefore, I had a few questions every once in a while, which I asked of Rae. I have knit a number of baby garments but they apparently did not have as much shaping!

I would knit this again. It does call for a lot of stretch in whatever yarn is used, so I would have to think carefully about what to knit it in next. This combination was literally what I had in the cotton-realm, already purchased and ready to go. The Fixation is really stretchy so adding that made it fit right.

I must add for the knitters out there, that having two not-very-stretchy yarns and one very-stretchy yarn was a bit of a hassle. Not enough to stop me, and I have used Fixation enough to not worry about it. However, those who are not as confident as I am about holding three yarns together might wonder if they had made the right choice.

But look at these photos… can’t you see? Definitely the right choice this time.

Oh… I used 3 balls Kim, 3 balls Fixation and one hank Ellen’s. (Actually, I barely used any of the 3rd ball of Fixation.) I used size 10 needles and then my gauge tightened up so I cast on 5 extra stitches on the back of the top to add some width (doesn’t show when wearing). I shortened the length of the waist (between hip and bust shaping) and probably needed to knit more between the hem and the first hip shaping but it’s OK with a high-waisted skirt.

How long did it take? I started swatching on August 21, cast on perhaps August 22 or 23, blocked and finished all ends on September 8 and wore it on the 9th. Two and a half weeks? That is just what I needed.

It is Tuesday again. This is a good day of the week, in my life. Tuesday nights I can go to Dagwoods (with Brian, and often with Rae) for the open mic which is hosted by Jen Sygit.

Dagwoods is an institution in Lansing, it was started in the 1940’s. This was a time when East Lansing was a dry town, so bars just outside the East Lansing City Limits did well. Somewhere in the early 1970s, they changed all that (maybe late 60s) and the places which had thrived had a rough time. Dagwoods was one of those places.

Luckily for us, it looks about the way it did when my father went there in the dry days of East Lansing. It is a tiny, crowded place, but full of great folks. The bartender is a friend, who once worked with Brian. The musicians and customers are also friends/acquaintances.

Last time we went, I had a chance to chat with Jeremy Herliczek, photographer for the NOISE newspaper. I met him when the paper sent him to my house years ago. He was to take photos when they ran an article on me and my socknitting. We talked and laughed much longer than expected, we had such fun.

Jeremy owns a blockprint I created for a Working Women Artists group show. He walked into my house and saw another from the same series on my wall, saying “I have that print, too.” I was honored. It was wonderful to see him again at Dagwoods. There is always someone I’m glad I ran into, at the Open Mic night.

It’s an excellent Open Mic. There are so many good local musicians who love Jen, that they turn out in force. It can be a roll call of Lansing talent on a busy night. I have seen Mike Ross (of Scarlet Runner Stringband), Phil Wintemute, Paul Bennett (of Scratch ‘n Sniff), the Flatbellys, Andy Wilson (of Steppin’ in It), Susan Fawcett, Tamineh Gueramy, Luke Winslow-King, Chris Dorman, Cindy Lehmkuhle and more. Every night is a different mix but it stays a quality show.

I love the whole thing. I don’t drink at all, am not a bar sort of grrl, but this is an East Side landmark with a scene I adore.

I’ve never been to Dagwoods on a night other than Tuesday. I am sure each time of the week has its own regulars and its own flavor. Tuesday nights? it’s a young, creative, funky sort of crowd. I don’t fit that description but these are my friends so I belong anyway.

Brian took a few photos of Rae and I knitting together. Rae doesn’t perform but Brian and I usually do… this was while waiting our turn. I had somehow brought my purse without any knitting in it at all. Rae had emergency yarn in her car. I had needles. I started a pair of wristwarmers in cobalt blue Ella Rae classic worsted weight wool. They might come in handy very soon!

Photos: The Flatbellys minus one, plus my Brian (peeking through from the back); me knitting with Raein a relatively quiet moment.

This blog is about artfulness in everyday life. Today it’s about making music and enjoying relationships. There was good food and some knitting involved, as well.

We attended a birthday party just over a week ago. I got a few photos of musicians jamming (they did not notice, they were very much enjoying the old-timey-fiddle tunes).

I got a beautiful shot of the birthday girl, my young knitter, A. She was having a lovely time being her social-butterfly self. I have known this young lady much longer than she has been knitting with me. Brian showed her ukulele before I showed her anything. She’s good company.

And here is a pensive shot of my dear friend Rae, as she was knitting some socks from yarn she spun herself. I like this photo, I hope she does. Some beautiful people do not like photos of themselves, it’s a mystery to me…

At some point Brian and I were singing and Rae grabbed my camera and started clicking. She got this photo while we were in the midst of some fun harmonies.

I’m not one who avoids the camera. (Do you like my new glasses? I sure like seeing better.) I am glad to have a record of our musical contribution to the otherwise fiddle-tune-focused party.

Thanks for the photo, Rae!

Music Happiness

Pardon my weekend absence, we were at Wheatland Music Festival for a few days. It was lovely, one of the best weekends I’ve had there in years. It was chilly… on Friday it got down to 47F/8.3C in the tent but I got to bed while it was still in the mid-50’s. Saturday it was warmer, though I still needed a good portion of wool items to be comfortable outside playing music until 1am.

It is inconvenient to camp in  a tent, sleep on an air mattress (there is no such thing as a good one of these, apparently) and do without running water for most of 3 days. However, there are people we see only once a year, and this is homecoming weekend if we ever wish to see them. We love it.

I got a few minutes to chat with Lansing music friend Jen Sygit. She lives in Lansing but I seem to see her most often when she is working.

Once the summer music-festival rush slows down for her, we will hope to share a cup of tea in Lansing. For now, a hello and ten minutes of chatting at Wheatland was lovely.

Jen did a songwriter presentation on Saturday just after dinner break, with three other singer-songwiters. I really enjoyed that show, all four of the performers were great. And since the songs Jen is working into her next album (coming out in January) are so strong, I was happy to see her able to sing a handful of those new songs to a large tent packed full of listeners.

I love Jen’s last album, Marshall Street, I’m still playing it several times a week. But the upcoming album (I have had the fortune to hear it in its early-development stage) is equally strong, singable, engaging. Right now the only way for most folks to hear the songs is to catch Jen live. It was great.

There is great relationship at the festival, good food and music. We go to jam with other musicians, for the most part.

Knitting Happiness

I knit on my Nanette summer top in the car on the way up, a little bit there, and most of the way home. I have since finished all the knitting and seaming, but no ends are worked in and it needs to be blocked. We will not talk about how many ends there are to hide when one holds three yarns together while knitting.

The top fits very well, is cute and comfortable. I am delighted with the minor modifications I made (mostly shortened the waist/torso section by several inches).

Rae was right, it’s shorter than most tops I usually wear. However, it is long enough to go over a straight skirt which fastens at the waist. I usually wear tunics but this looks cute in a different way. I will enjoy wearing it. Photos need to wait until Monday, I need to crash here very soon.

Computer Update

I am still fussing with my computer setup (I want to synch my Z22 palm device to MS Outlook 2003, and so far it is not working even with several software upgrades, but I have not run out of ideas). I am not having the troubles I could be having (hi, Deb!), and for that I am still grateful.

End of Summer Push

This is my last week off from Haslett Community Education (basic computer classes, mostly retirees) for the summer. I’m also heading in to the last few summer weeks off from Foster Community Center (CityKidz Knit! program, a walk-in program at a city-owned neighborhood building).

I am primarily focused on finishing the book project for my mom. I had intended to work on it last December and my health, difficulty obtaining proper software and other things got in the way. I’m so happy to be on a roll now, at least on the days when I’m home.

The Plan

Off to sleep, then a nice new start on Monday morning. Maybe I’ll have some of my famous-to-me “brown” (buckwheat) pancakes. With strawberries on them it’s a big treat to start the day right. If you missed the recipe when I posted it, click here for my no-gluten, extra-yummy pancake recipe.

As a friend says… it’s time to “hit the feathers” and sleep. Goodnight.

Photos: Jen Sygit at Wheatland 2007, my should-be-famous “brown pancakes.”

I am honored to host the first day of the Casual, Elegant Knits (new book) Blog tour! This new book is hot off the press from Martingale. The authors are Dawn Leeseman and Faina Goberstein, both of California.

Faina:
Lynn,
Thank you very much for having us today. We are very excited to have this opportunity to talk about our book. The work on Casual, Elegant Knits was very interesting and rewarding. It was so much fun to plan, choose the color schemes, select the yarns to harmonize with the stitch patterns, sketch our designs and work on other small components of the design process.

We have learned from each other and have become stronger designers as a result of our collaboration. As a side benefit of our venture we have become close friends. And now we cannot wait to see the projects from our book made by other people. These designs were ours for two years now it is time to share.

LynnH: I am happy to have you join me.

LynnH: Dawn, I understand that you have designed all the bags in the book. Personally, I’m really curious about the Triple Pocket Bag. I am very fond of the Autunno yarn you used (held along with linen), and I have designed with close stitch myself. Could you tell me about the bag?

Dawn: Sure, I would be happy to talk about it. For our Elegant Afternoon collection we wanted to design a replica of a European men’s bag. It needed to be very functional, stylish and practical so a man would like to have it.

As you know, knitted bags always have a problem with holding a shape. We had to find a way to make it sturdy. We chose Autunno from Di. Vé that was featured in the Driver’s Cap for the main yarn, and added a strand of linen that would not be necessarily visible, but would add to stability of the fabric.

A dense Honeycomb stitch pattern was selected for the body of the bag to create a nice surface texture. For the flap and pocket the Close Stitch pattern was used, to provide a subtle contrast and add some interest to the design. The needle size used was smaller than for normal density.

We worked on the initial part of this design together, but I wrote the pattern for it and knitted the bag. A stabilizing fabric lining was inserted into the bag to give the bag the structure.

Even though this was designed as a man’s accessory, we feel that it is a unisex bag and will be a great addition to a woman’s collection. Check out the pretty colors that Di.Vé has to offer.

LynnH: Thank you, Dawn. That was very interesting. I see that in the same outfit there is a hat that goes well with that bag. A few of my friends in Lansing have been very excited about this design (which I believe is very wearable by women as well as men). Who designed it?

Faina: This is one of my designs. I admire a good hat on a man. The shape of Driver’s Cap was always very interesting for me. It definitely beats a ski hat in terms of construction. I am always on a look out for different shapes. It is one of the things that I really enjoy in a design process. This type of a hat is not for very cold weather and is elegant, so it fits our Elegant Afternoon mood.

To begin this design, I needed to find the yarn and the stitch pattern that will give me the look of corduroy fabric. After some search, Autunno from Di. Vé was chosen for the color and softness. The form must be soft and must hold the shape at the same time - not an easy task. This part of design work for the book we always did together. It was so much fun to try many yarns available for us.

There was a need to reinforce the main yarn. The best solution at the time was to add the thin linen. Using small needles, these two yarns, and the Close Stitch, was a winning combination. The construction of the hat was inspired by an old hat that Dawn’s grandfather used to wear.

The hardest part for a knitter in the pattern is shaping by using short rows on the hat itself and in the visor. At the same time it is something to learn if the knitter is new to this. Short rows are used for so many different things. Shaping shoulders, neckline, darts, turning the heel, and making a circle are just a few examples. I have to confess that my first try for this hat came out too big (it is still hanging on my wall) and I had to recalculate this hat completely. I am pleased with the final result, though.

It does look like I envisioned it. It looks like it is made out of fabric. Now I am thinking that the choice of yarn was great for this hat, if you want to make it look tweedy. I can see it made out of a solid color also. I would not suggest to use any fuzzy or soft yarn like Alpaca or silk. Remember the shape of this hat is not like the shape of a beanie where your head is shaping the cap. This hat has a shape of its own and it is a complement for your head.

So, Lynn, what is new with you? What are you designing and what is in your plans?

LynnH: My primary business is teaching knitting and related subjects, and we are heading into the busy season, which is exciting. Last year I did quite a bit of teaching outside of my local Lansing, Michigan area (including Dallas-Ft. Worth Fiberfest in April ‘07) and I am putting together some plans to travel again in ‘09. This year I have released my three most popular patterns ever, including the ZigBagZ collections (pronounce ZIG-Bags), both Maxi and Mini ; and the three-colored unmatching set of six Chippy Socks for Kids.

I have always loved colorful stranded knitting. Many of my more recent patterns evolved from my teaching of new knitters, and thus used only one color of yarn. These last three designs are all very colorful stranded knitting projects.

In October I will travel to Washington DC to the Textile Museum where they currently are showing an exhibit including some hats from the Andes. I own four hats from this region which are exquisitely knit at very dense gauges, some with three colors in one row. I am working on increasing my understanding of this particular knitting niche. There is little written material available on this culturally expressive colorful knitting style/form.

I did the same type of exploration with four pairs of Turkish socks I acquired a few years back, and I have been teaching Turkish Sock Design ever since. I continue to learn about Turkish socks, which can have many different forms, and I hope to get closer to that place with these amazing hats, as well.

I have also taken out an advertisement in the Interweave Knits Gift issue this fall, highlighting the ZigBagZ Maxi Collection (two larger carry-all bags in felted stranded knitting, for a large purse or a knit project carrying bag). I will be having some ad-related festivities here on my blog during the first week that issue hits the newsstands.

Faina: Thank you, Lynn, very much. It was great talking to you.

Tune in tomorrow for the Blog tour to continue. Carol Sulcoski, one of the authors of Knit So Fine and writer of Go Knit in Your Hat, will be hosting next.

Photos of hat and bag courtesy of Martingale and Company, photographed by Brent Kane. Photo of colorwork ZigBagZ pattern, ColorJoy by LynnH

I have been taking socks in my bag for waiting-in-line knitting. I’m not on any deadlines for socks, and maybe burned out a little during the knitting frenzy of getting my sock design ready for Lark Books back in July. But there is nothing as portable as a sock, and there is nothing as miserable as me waiting in line without something to knit!

When the Kureyon sockyarn hit Rae’s shop, I had to try it out quickly. I made two sample socks for her shop, to show folks what the yarn might look like knit up. Then I had some leftovers, not enough for a pair. I decided to split the leftovers and stripe the multicolored Kureyon (it is hand-spun in Japan for the non-knitters out there) with a solid yarn also in my stash. The solid has lost its label but I think it’s Blauband.

The colors here are off. The solid is more green than it looks here, and the toe of the Kureyon is a greenish-brown. Somehow the green level is off in this photo (which I took indoors, no wonder). However, you can see that the solid really does a nice job of showing off the very-slowly-color-changing properties of the handspun.

In my official upcoming design (see tiny photo at right), still in draft form, I only striped on the leg, and I used Kureyon striped with another color of Kureyon. It was easier to knit that way, and the sock is in the shoe most of the time anyway. However, this time I thought I would run out of yarn if I did that.

In the official sock, I followed a set striping pattern which looks a little random. In the one this week, I literally was random because I was knitting it on the fly, sometimes in places where I could not see well enough to count rows.

I love toe up socks because I can knit without knowing how much yarn I really have. If I finish the foot and add a half-inch ribbing, it’s a footie! If I can knit until I have knee socks, I can go on that long or I can stop when I like how it looks. And I can use up the leftovers.

Ironically, I have done so well saving yarn that I will have leftovers from the Kureyon leftovers. This ball you see in the photo was the yarn allotted to one sock only. I have another waiting in the wings. Go figure.

Oh, for those curious about how I like the Kureyon sockyarn? I think it is exactly what we expected. It’s not as soft as some yarns because that’s the sort of wool Noro often uses. It has nylon in it and it is spun quite densely so I am guessing it will wear fine if knit densely enough.

However, it is handspun in a workshop where they have to crank out handspun at a serious pace. This is not super-fine, nor is it spun perfectly evenly. It looks handspun, which is a feature (you like it or you don’t).

It is thick-thin, not as much as the Kureyon sweater yarn but it’s not regular sock yarn either. I knit it on size 1 US needles (2.25mm) rather than the size 0US (2mm) that I usually use on standard commercial sockyarns.

I like this yarn for being exactly as it is. (I think it would make a spectacular shawl, too.) My biggest beef is that I would like to custom-order in my favorite colors. The newer colorways are closer to my ideal than the first batch. (There are a few colorways without brown or gray now, which I appreciate.) And even striping it with a solid that I love, works for making the off-colors more my style.

(Note: third photo added several hours after the first posting of this entry. The two socks at left were the first bit of the skein I’m using up with stripes in the first photo. I started with the turquoise toe of the left sock, knit to the top of that, then started the toe of the second sock, striping from both ends of the same skein when I hit the cuff. The right-side sock used two different colorways/skeins for the striping, two different skeins than the other socks.)

I have not had such a nice weekend in so long I can not remember. I hope all of you did, as well.

The weather was gorgeous, sunny, hot, and perfect for daytime hammock sitting and almost-twilight bicycle riding. I worked on my Mom’s project (phase 1 of 4 is very close to done, we are both pleased). I knit, cooked, cleaned a little, did a project I had put off a long time.

I uninstalled software I don’t enjoy using, and installed some I like better. I cleared out old stuff from the office, cleared off the desk a bit, played some music with Brian and knit some more.

On Saturday I socialized a bit, tea with Sharon P and then a birthday/music party. I even got time to read some friends’ blogs and some of my email groups.

If there are three sorts of days off, I got approximately one of each with a little work thrown in. One day of socializing, one of lazing around and one of getting work done. Life is not often this lovely.

I wish for all of you that you feel a bit of my relaxation through the keyboard as you read this. I’ll bring photos back in the next post, but right now I need to go tuck myself into bed at a not-exactly-reasonable hour.

I don’t have an appointment Tuesday till 6pm, but I have more yet on my to-do list before I go out. Mom’s project will get another real push, and I have more software configuring to do. My goal there is to make the calendar I keep on my computer for classes, synchronize with Google Calendar for the world (my family and students, mostly) to see. I hope.

I think I have all the right pieces to do it but now I need to make all the gizmos and programs talk to one another… Palm Pilot to computer, computer to Google, all with different programs going on. It’s theoretically possible so I am pursuing it, will check back here to let you know how it’s going.

Drat, I’m chatting too much and it’s almost 3am. Goodnight, my friends!!!

P.S. if you want a nice photo or a few to look at, do go visit Kristin Nicholas’ Getting Stitched on the Farm!

I am knitting the Nanette Tee by Joan McGowan-Michael, of WhiteLies Designs. I’ve known Joan online for years and finally met her this last June at TNNA. It was so great to meet her!

Joan specializes in retro-inspired and shapely designs. She knows that women have curves and sometimes the curves are larger than those expected by ready-to-wear. She knows how to design items that fit those curves in a flattering way without resorting to a baggy cover up.

I’m in love with a good number of her designs. One very new one which should appeal to a good number of renaissance-shaped women, large or small, is the Evangeline Tunic which is knit in a fine DK-weight yarn. Spectacular in all ways!

My friend Rae would look so beautiful in Evangeline, I wish I had the leisure to knit one for her. I won’t be knitting it, but I love it so much I ordered the pattern. I wanted to “vote” for this quality artfulness even if I can’t make it come to life.

But I got a “tee” called Nanette for myself. It is such a luxury to take time and knit for myself. I sometimes knit socks because I don’t need to pay attention to a pattern. However, when I knit a top, or really anything someone else designed, I am stuck looking at that pattern. It takes time and focus, and I usually do not have focus to spare.

What made Nanette work for my schedule is that it is knit of really fat yarn. Now, I did not use the specified yarn, I needed to use something from my stash. And I did not have anything this fat in my stash for summer.

So I held together three yarns… Kim, an aran-weight tube in cotton/acrylic; Cascade Fixation, a cotton-lycra springy DK yarn, and a soy-silk blend sockyarn (like Tofutsies) from Ellen’s Half-Pint Farm in Rainforest colorway which I got last year at Michigan Fiberfest (there is another quality woman-owned fiber business for you). This is very ColorJoy. It’s a trick holding the elastic yarn with two non-elastic yarns but I’m OK with that challenge.

I swatched to get 3.5 stitches an inch, at the Stitch ‘n Pitch event just over a week ago. I love the colors, with raspberry, hot green and a bunch of tropical-water colors in the fingering weight. It should be a trick washing this without the raspberry dye running into the yellow=green, of course I did not think of that till I had nearly finished the top. I guess I’ll hand wash cold or put a dye magnet in the machine. It can still be put in the drier.

Another big reason Nanette works for me right now, is that it is knit in merely two pieces (plus thin knit-on neck/arm edgings). It’s not truly a tee, it instead has wonderful shaped cap sleeves. They remind me of The Jetsons, which is odd because the sweetheart neckline is very Renaissance. Whatever the influence, they are all girl-friendly details.

I usually wear roomy tunics (read: long and baggy), but I have knit a few smaller summer tops and I really wear them more than I expected I would. this top will go well with my broomstick skirts which have so many colors in them.

I bound off the front this morning. I’m hoping to cast on the back before the sun goes down. I’m off to do just that!

So far, I’m being lazy like a good vacationer…

I don’t relate easily to the idea of Laziness. I am always working, often at things I enjoy but always on the move. My attention is not good, so I often am working on things out of order from when they maybe “should’ be worked on, but I never seem to stop.

Once, many years ago, someone wanted to hurt my feelings and called me lazy. I was so surprised that I laughed. I may be inefficient, but lazy is just not my word. Apparently that word would have hurt them, but it did not do the same for me.

Maybe because of this tendency, I’m self employed. When I worked for other people, I would work till 9pm, 11pm, even past 1am when I had a key to let myself out. There was always something more to do, and I work best in silence. People distract me (in a pleasant way) from paperwork, so I did paperwork after hours. I still do.

Now I am a company of one, for the most part. I have wonderful friends and family who knit for me at times (you know who you are… thanks), but I write the patterns and then get good input, I knit the designs at least the first time around, I print my patterns, stuff them into page protectors, take orders, print packing slips, address envelopes, create/print invoices, deliver local pattern orders to shops. If I do not knit my own samples, I make sure the samples will happen somehow, arranging yarn and knitter for each project.

I write class handouts (including typing/layout on the computer), I teach classes. I schedule (ugh). I do my own publicity/press releases, I am the photographer and then the graphic artist for all my advertisements. I answer the phone and the emails. I am the publicist, the webmaster, the marketing guru, the everything. I do most of my techie work (though thank goodness I have great help from Brian when I can’t do it alone).

I am excellent at some of these tasks, good at some, adequate at a handful and I drag myself through just a few, screaming. But every job has things we dislike, and that’s how it goes.

For the record, I’ll say it again. They say when you are self-employed that you are your own boss. I disagree. In effect, every single customer becomes your boss. In effect, you have more bosses… though you can essentially quit one without quitting them all. I have been very lucky in this area, no complaints, but it is NOT as though one can do whatever one wants when one is self employed. People who say that are trying to sell you a book or video, or something that benefits them, not you. They are cashing in on misconceptions. End of digression.

I love my work, I love my life, I love my job and my everything. Yesterday I went to a music party and took knitting along. It was actually frivolous knitting, a pattern written by someone else, just for me to wear. I have not done this sort of knitting yet in 2008, but it was still observed that I took my “work” to a party. I often do that, but in many cases it is because I work at the thing I would rather do than anything else.

I love to dance, I love to sing, but I would rather knit than either sing or dance. I live a charmed life in that way.

Today, however, is a day with no obligations. Brian has gone off on a bicycle ride and he will be gone until dusk. I am alone in the house, with Jen Sygit on the CD player to keep me company. I bound off the front of my cute frivolous summer top and will cast on the back shortly. And just plain do not much of anything important.

If the neighborhood stays relatively quiet, I will knit on the porch in my beloved Mexican hammock. Right now I’m typing this with the laptop on my lap, feet propped up sideways on the couch with the door wide open.

I have important things to do again soon. I may even do them tomorrow which is officially the holiday. But I will take my holiday today. I will try to live hand in hand with selfishness of a self-nurturing sort.

I will be creatively lazy. On the last day of August. Sigh. Summer is my friend and she is slowly pulling herself away. I will hold her hand for the day, at least.

Photos: 1) My hammock/porch a few years back, it still looks the same. 2) A huge bug I found on a tiny flower in our yard several weeks ago, the one flower in the middle of the yard with no other plants near it. This bug left and came back to the same leaf on a different day. He looked like he had lobster claws in front or something! I was told it was a cicada. There are a few cicadas making some noise today on my block, I wonder if one is this guy? 3) Same plant this week, blooming with fuzzy and bulbous bits in a light orchid color (I had remembered it purple, maybe the stems hinted at that color). What plant is this???

A week ago on Thursday night, Rae’s Yarn Boutique and Woven Art yarn shops sponsored a Stitch ‘n Pitch event at the Lansing Lugnuts minor-league stadium. We played Fort Wayne, Indiana.
I am not a sports fan by any stretch of imagination. But the Lugnuts? I love ‘em!!! The games have as much crowd-pleasing, between-the-innings entertainment as they have baseball. We did the chicken dance (see photo at right of “Big Lug” in purple, doing the chicken dance with a guy wearing an MSU Spartan flag as a superman cape), YMCA, and all sorts of other goofy and lowbrow fun dances in our seats.
They had a name-that-tune, and the girl playing got it right in under 2 seconds (photo bottom left). I didn’t know the song even when they played it at length. Yeah, I’m too old for rock ‘n roll these days, I guess.

My favorite part of a Lugnuts game is the hot-dog gun. I mean, really! I would not eat a hot dog if you paid me, but it still is my favorite.

They have an air gun, and they wrap up hot dogs, put them in this gun, and shoot them into the air above the crowd while driving a golf cart in front of the stands. People scramble to catch the hot dog as if it were a fly ball. It’s too funny, too unbelievable to be anything but cool. (Yes, I failed in the “sophisticated” department, and I’m having more fun since I gave it all up.) They also do a T-Shirt gun, same idea but not as funny.

I think the photos say it all. Click to see more detail, then click “back” to get back to this page. And yeah, they made the hot dog seller in the crowd wear a hot dog hat. I thought it was great, you sure can see him for a distance. Rae felt sorry for him (it was pretty warm out there). I like playing dress-up, so it didn’t occur to me he might not like his hat.

Knitting? Oh, yeah. I spent the time swatching for a Nanette Tee by White Lies Designs. It requires stretchy light summer yarn at 3.5 stitches/inch. That’s some serious fat yarn!

I tried one yarn, two yarns, a different set of two, and finally all three. That last try made it. The yarn is so fat I only have to cast on 50 stitches for front and 50 for the back. It should be faster than many other projects, and I will enjoy that.

When we left, it was getting dark. The fountain outside where the kids had been playing to get cool, was relatively deserted. It sure made downtown Lansing look romantic and beautiful, though, don’t you think?

Finally I had time to save the last Great Lakes Folk Festival images on Flickr for you. I have three new photosets set up for you to view as a slideshow, and I am officially done with the festivities which happened two lovely weeks ago. (The first time I posted this entry, I did not include my Friday Night photoset. Whoops!)

Friday night we danced to the Louisiana group. They know how to keep people hopping on their feet!

There were a lot of folks we knew in the tent with us that night. While I was taking photos of others, someone I did not know offered to take a photo of us dancing. It’s a nice shot. It was a fun time, believe me.

There is one set of photos showing Saturday night’s dance tent (a Mexican band of a style I’d not heard before, complete with foot stomping as a percussion instrument at times).

That night, the festival saw the best dressed dance audience of the weekend, at least the ones I saw. Check out the photos of the footwear on the audience/dancers. And of the beautiful musician/dancer who was the foot-percussionist.

Note photo below which is my talented young knitting student, A., dancing with our mutual friend Mike. They really were cutting up the rug, dancing up a storm, and having a great time.

My second new photo set is Sunday’s crowd dancing to the polka band (two photos are the chicken dance, a just-folks, silly but fun sort of party entertainment). I had the luck of running into Rae there for a half hour or so and we did the polka together until she had to go back to work.

The first two photos show the chicken dance and the third is a shot of feet: Rae and I doing the polka together. It was much fun! That day was a bit chilly and rainy. Dancing was just the antidote.

Later on Sunday I also spent time with the boy photographer whose excellent candid photos I already showed you. That was during another musical set by the band from New Orleans who we had also heard on Friday night.

Between the two bands on Sunday, there were a LOT of children dancing. I love watching the kids at the festival.

Now, here is a closeup of the percussionist-dancer’s feet. I must say I was as interested in her dress/costume as I was the music and dancing. I *so* love embroidery.

Rae and I both had classes cancel for Saturday. We have made the decision to drive down to the Chicago Area for one day, to Stitches Midwest (knitting/fiber-related conference). We made no plans ahead of time so we will go to the market (no time for classes). Our friend/colleague Sarah Peasley is teaching there, we may or may not see her but will look out for her.

A busload of folks planned ahead to go from Lansing, and I think it may be the same day we go (but we are not early birds so they are going first). Of course both Rae and I have been in the knitting business long enough to have friends from all over the country. We will be able to see a few folks we don’t see anywhere else but trade shows.

I hope to get some Indian food somewhere in/near Chicago. I know where to find Devon Avenue which is a sure bet, but it’s not near where the show is. I hope someone will give me a lead on something good that is closer.

The drive is a long haul, somewhere between 4 to 5 hours to that particular location. When I think Chicago, I think less than 4 but this is more. I do love to drive, and I really love Rae’s company. We will take turns driving and knitting, and it will be very good. I am good driving in city traffic so I’ll do that part, and the rest we will play by ear.

I’m excited. Time to sleep, or at least try to sleep. It will be very soon when the alarm goes off!

Rae and I took Sunday last week and spent the day together at Michigan Fiberfest, in Allegan Michigan. It is no surprise that we had a good time, and no surprise that when I bought things they were the color Turquoise. Well, except for the wood item, that is. (Photo below is a garden outside the fence at Allegan County Fairgrounds, visible from the parking lot. Yes, gardens are an artform!)

Here you see what I came home with. At the left of the photo is roving/combed loose wool fibers. I swore I wouldn’t buy more this year, since I havent been spinning much this year. However, Rae is encouraging me to bring my spinning wheel to her shop for slow times and knit-in times. This fiber was so perfect (I love turquoise with just a hint of green in it), and so soft yet shiny, I gave in.
It’s a blend of alpaca, merino and tussah silk. I would love wristwarmers of this, but will have much more fiber than that requires. It’s from Yarn Hollow. That’s my friend Rita from the Grand Rapids area, we met face to face last year at Allegan but she knew me from this blog. Since then we have connected quite a few times.

The two matching skeins are fingering/sockweight yarn from Ellen’s Half-Pint Farm. I love her stuff, I make a point each year to collect something from her. Ellen and her sisters are wonderful folks and the products are consistently lovely.

This particular yarn is 50% wool and 50% bamboo fiber, which is fluffy and shiny and baby-soft. I am dreaming of a tank top or short tee. At 475 yards per 4oz skein, I can probably get any number of styles out of these. I love knitted garments made of thinner yarns, and this will be wonderful next to the skin.

The last item is a hand-turned walnut darning egg by Knitting Notions. It is interesting to me that I did not set out to do this, but the three people I bought from this year I also bought from last year. Last year I was not as stuck on Turquoise and I got wild multicolored sockyarn from Rita and a purplish-magenta handpainted sockyarn from Knitting Notions. And sockyarn (including turquoise) from Ellen.

It was a more relaxed fiberfest than I’ve had in previous years. I had no appointments with anyone, no classes to teach, no obligations. We got there when we got there, we wandered around and said hello to the folks we knew, and then we left when it was good and done.

After we left, we decided to try and find food in Allegan before heading home. Rae and I tend to eat very different foods at home, but I remembered a restaurant from the three years I taught at this festival where I thought we both could find something we would like.

Allegan has rivers and bridges and hills, and the streets meander rather than sit in a grid as in Lansing. That is a bit of a challenge for a citygrrl behind the wheel! Amazingly, I was able to find my way to the place and it was still in business.

The Village Inn reminds me of places I went as a kid, maybe around 1970 or so. It has a very clear small town friendly flavor. A young man probably in high school was our very capable waiter.

The salad bar had pretty good choices for toppings on the iceberg lettuce salad mix. I had hard boiled egg and onion and black olives and carrots, which was a really satisfying meal for someone who normally has to pick and choose because of food sensitivities.

As a side story… I somehow dropped my cell phone (which I did not use all day) in the parking lot of the Village Inn. I realized it was missing that night when I got home. On Monday I started looking at replacement phones, and in the late afternoon I got a phone call from the restaurant. A customer had found it but the inside screen was broken.

The man I talked to at Village Inn sent me my phone back in the mail, and I proceeded to order a new phone. The old phone and the new one arrived on the same day (Thursday). Verizon was able to transfer over my phone list even though it was impossible to see the menus, and I was off and running around 5:30pm on Thursday after having lost the phone around the same time of day on Sunday. It could have been much worse. Thanks to Village Inn!!!