Rae and I will be going to Michigan Fiber Festival (AKA Allegan) Sunday all day. It should be fun and social and sensory overload. I am looking forward to it.

If you see me, do say hello!

A week ago Sunday, Brian and I were making our way home from Dulcimer fest via a family gathering near West Branch, Michigan. It’s a beautiful part of the state, much north of us and a bit east from the Dulcimer Fest but a worthy side trip on the way home.

Brian has a cousin who now lives in Ireland. She was back in Michigan so the family pulled together a group. This family is big. You can not believe the amount of chicken they grilled, corn on the cob they prepared, the works. They had a big house, a barn, a canopy over the food, a bonfire and a huge area with lots of chairs, a badminton court, all sorts of places to hang out with bunches of other people.

When we got there it was sunny and lovely. I took photos of the lake from up on the plateau where the house stands. We planned to camp in our tent on the grounds that night. And then the most unusual summer storm blew up out of nowhere. There was no thunder or lightning, but it poured buckets for what seemed like forever.

When the downpour came, we moved as many of the chairs as we could under the 10×10 canopy with the food and a few tables. I sat in a folding chair and watched the children enjoy the downpour. In the distance I saw the teenagers playing a new sort of badminton (huge “birdie” with a ball the size of a tennis ball, and stronger rackets to handle that side. They were mostly in swimsuits anyway (the site was on a lake) so they just kept on playing when the water hit.

But the ones to watch were the little ones. There were a good number of kids too young to go to school, and they were the most fun of all. At first a little girl maybe 6 years old ran out into the rain, face raised, arms out, almost flying in celebration of it all. Then a number of other kids joined in.

It did not take long for the ground to become waterlogged. I was wearing a lightweight cotton skirt over a pair of leggings. It turned out my feet were underwater in a puddle below my chair, and my skirt became waterlogged. I shed the skirt (thank goodness for the leggings) and took photos of the kids.

The younger ones found a low point in the ground where they ended up with a natural wading pool. There was much splashing and later someone found a tiny slide which they lined up next to this pool. At one point two of the littlest boys just shed their clothing entirely, I’m sure that was more comfortable than soggy cotton clothing.

The rain just kept on coming, so thick you could barely see out of the tent. At times the rain hit the canopy above me with such force that tiny water vapor bits came down on us. I had to clean off the lens of my camera several times.

When the rain finally subsided, we decided to give up on the camping idea. We drove home that night, getting home around midnight. It was actually lovely to sleep in our own bed again.

This is the sort of thing nobody will forget. Every person at this event will keep this one in the memory banks as “remember that time when…”

In a small town named Evart, Michigan, USA every year, acoustic music lovers descend upon the Otsego county fairgrounds for over a week. There is an official event which happens from Thursday through Sunday, but people come the weekend before and stay through early the next week because they have so much fun.

Neither Brian nor I play either type of dulcimer (this festival started because of hammered dulcimer enthusiasts). However, Brian has been teaching basic ukulele workshops for the festival for maybe a half dozen years now. I’ve helped out for 3 years, but he did it alone before that. Also our friend, Bruce Evans, always shows up at Brian’s workshops. He helps us out without even being asked.

We were in Evart this year the longest time yet. I used to come up for one day, then one overnight. This year I dove in and went up from Wednesday night to Saturday noon. We went to a family gathering on Saturday or we would have stayed in Evart through Sunday.

It is getting to be a wonderful reunion to go up there now. I know enough people that it feels like “old home week” in many ways. Ukulele is starting to really take off all over the western world right now, and it is starting to show at this festival. Instrument vendors often sell out of ukuleles and the unofficial Friday night ukulele jam session gets bigger each year.

This year we signed up to play on the main stage on Thursday night. It was rainy and hot, and we had a tuxedo and gown in the car just trying to wrinkle and get messed up, so we just dove in and played right away. We knew we were leaving Saturday and there are so many acts hoping to play on Friday nights that we did Thursday… and had a wonderful time.

The crowd at Dulcimer Fest is so appreciative of our music! Not only do they like the general genre (Tin Pan Alley, mostly love songs and novelty numbers from the 1920s) but they listen to what we are doing in a focused way. Three times during our 20 minute set we had the audience clapping in the middle of the song. That touches me in a soft spot in my heart, it is so wonderful to be that appreciated.

When off stage, we connect with friends, jam with them, jam as a duo, and eat pie. Well, Brian eats pie anyway. The Lions club of Evart has the best homemade pies ever. You have choice after choice and all of them are good. Brian likes pie for breakfast sometimes, and a few snacks over the course of the week as well.

He loves a good crust and I do not make crust. Because of food allergies, I have to make a lot of foods from scratch to just get foods that nurture me and fill me. I am not fond of any cooking, though baking I like a little better.

But the mess that making crust requires is just not acceptable to me, and so I either buy frozen spelt crusts at the health food store or I make crumbles with oatmeal. (I like oatmeal better than crust, anyway.) So the pies at Evart are a special feature of the week. We enjoy the folks working the booth, as well, and I get much iced tea when I’m there as well.

I guess I could say that they also have home cooked dinners such as meatloaf. For us, fruit pie overshadows mere dinner, I guess. (Well, I can’t eat the pie but it does make me very happy that it’s there.)

I made sure to get to Karol Evans’ workshop on pronouncing Hawaiian words. With all the interest in ukulele (which is a Hawaiian instrument though used for many music types, not just Hawaiian music), there was a nice crowd at their event. At the end, Karol did a hula for us with Bruce playing ukulele and singing “Lovely Hula Hands.” She looked beautiful as ever.

Friday night once more we attended a uke jam session hosted by our friends in the Uke ‘n Sing ukulele club from the southeast corner of Michigan. A big highlight of this event for me each year, is hearing Gil Ogawa perform the Hawaiian War Chant (which was based on a late 1800’s love song, but had English words added in 1936). Gil is not just a musician, he is fully a performer and a delight to watch and hear. I loved that! (He is so expressive when singing it is hard to get a photo… this was just after he finished one or another of his songs.)

Photos: 1-3) stage acts including The Fabulous Heftones (me and Brian), Uke ‘n Sing, and a trio who met at the festival… middle guy on banjo is Sam, my knitter A’s big brother. 4-5) the first workshop in the poultry barn (it’s a fairgrounds) which was more than a bit crowded but the acoustics were good with all those big metal boxes somehow. 6) later Friday afternoon workshop in open-walled pavilion, which was followed by a ukulele jam session where we numbered over 90 participants. 7) Two views of the Lions’ booth where spectacular pie can be found. 8 ) Bruce and Karol Evans at the end of the Hawaiian pronounciation workshop.9) Gil Ogawa with guest singer Nancy Penny (thank you, Bruce Evans, for reminding me of her name), at Friday night uke jam.

At Dulcimer Festival last weekend, I spotted these three very stylish traveling quarters. Two are old GMC vehicles, and one is a new thing I had never seen before. All look just artful and lovely to my eyes.

I’ve finally really come to terms with the fact that I really do care what things look like. I drove an ugly 1985 navy blue VW Golf for 250,000 miles and I adored that car, but I did in fact embellish it by painting three stars on the back side hatch. I love my ‘98 New Beetle (not that new anymore, at 134,000 miles), though, and she is SO pretty!

Looking at these “camping boxes” really made my eyes smile. So pretty! I’d never really noticed the GMC camping vehicles before, but I guess they were planning to have a gathering of about 30 of them just outside the area where we stayed.

Too cool. Very ColorJoy. Even cooler than shiny Airstream trailers, perhaps!

We had such a great time at Blissfest near Cross Village in northern lower Michigan a few weekends back. We knew a lot of the musicians, many had Lansing connections and are in our circle of acquaintances. It was wonderful to hear them play.

I took a zillion photos. If I were to write all details about the event, I’d never finish writing. I can touch on a few photos, anyway.

It’s a pretty intense weekend. There’s a sort of anti-dress-code way of dressing, lots of tie dye and batik, lots of color. The event is a weekend full of sensory overload… colors, sounds, foods, people. Intense in all the good ways, I’d say.

The first photo above was Rachael Davis and Dominic John (Shout Sister Shout) on Saturday. These two have a lovely baby almost a year old, and are really great people to hang around with, when they have time to hang out.

There is also a full-group shot of Shout Sister Shout on Sunday, with guest guitarist Ray Kamalay (2nd to right). Ray was SO into this piece, he has been a pro musician for decades and he’s still so excited to play one more song, it’s invigorating. His favorite music overlaps the repertoire of this band, he was a perfect guest. I loved being in the audience!

Next, Detour (bluegrass). The banjo player is Kevin. Brian has known Kevin for a long time.

This is Rusty Blaides. I know Joe Wilson (also from Steppin’ in It) on pedal steel guitar center-left, and Tamineh Gueramy (also in a zillion bands… once in a fave of mine, The Weepers), center-right on fiddle. These guys really kick out the danceable tunes, I was sorry we got there (to the festival itself) just in time for their last 2 songs.

Next, some dancers just outside this small stage. Lots of dancing is part of Blissfest, and I always hope for great photos. This isn’t great but they do look like they are dancing, anyway.

This band’s name I don’t recall. at left here is Joel Mabus, and another member of the band is Ray Kamalay. These guys have been professional musicians about forever it seems… they were already old pros in Lansing before I ever hit the scene. Talented guys, who just really enjoy playing music. Together, they are unbeatable. The guy in the black shirt, center, was a guest (he’s from the band Detour, above).

A view of some camping in the wooded area on Sunday. Some folks had already packed and gone home by this time. This is a lovely area and we camped to the left of the photo.

A stick construction/gate which opens up to the artist/craft booth area. There are a number of stick gates around the festival but I’m thinking this is the grandest of them all.

A magnificent salad made just for me, with ingredients just picked that morning. This food vendor is incredible, mostly or entirely organic, and more than accommodating. I found several things to eat there over the weekend, a true miracle with the number of food restrictions I have. This salad was WONDERFUL.

Susan Fawcett of Fox on a Hill. She is a dynamo, a wonderful talent who lives in Petoskey. The instrument she’s holding has a small drum-like item at the bottom of a single string which is bowed like a fiddle. She was singing in Spanish with it, I think it’s from somewhere in Latin America but I did not catch the details. It sounded like a woodwind instrument, it was beautiful to hear. We just chanced on her demo and I’m so glad we did.

A night concert at the smaller stage, with Earthwork Music musicians (including Susan above) and the guy at front in the hat is Seth Bernard, the strong but gentle leader of the whole “clan.”

I only wish I could have bottled the energy and the music for you all. This crew is full of hot young musicians from northern lower michigan, incredible talents.

Seth and “Daisy” May Erlewine won 4th place in a national young songwriter/performer contest that Garrison Keillor had a year or two back.Just the two of them. The three bands before them were bands, not duets, I’m told.

They are that good. And their friends are equally talented and entertaining. Prime music. I was so happy to be there. The next day Brian and I both woke up singing music from this concert. Incredible.

Also notice the intent crowd members. Brian took the photos of the backstage and of the crowd.

It was SO much fun. I’d say it was worth sleeping in a tent.

…there was writing in the sand with a stick. These photos were taken at the Evart Dulcimer (Acoustic music) funfest last week. I think one dot says “Emily.” Perhaps another says “Mom?”

I can’t resist these last 2 photos of Traverse City. Two guys with tubes heading for the water… and a sign on a shop downtown.

They take their cherries very seriously in Traverse City. Bringing Cherries to the World, indeed. Hey, you can’t buy passion, so follow it when it leads!

When Brian and I were at Blissfest music festival two weekends ago, they had a kids “parade” one day. They had hired a talent who made balloon hats, and the kids got their faces painted, and they went for a festive walk.

It was just adorable… how little can make kids so happy! As for me, the colors were certainly joyful!

Enjoy the photos.

Aaah. We were on the road 4 days last week and 4 days this week (we’d planned on 5 but came home half a day early). It was fun, but I missed home.

I am not very happy sleeping in a tent, but we do not want the hassle and cost of a trailer or RV. We are also committed to attending music festivals. That means, at least for now, it’s all about figuring out how to make a tent liveable.

We have a small Eureka tent that is great against rain. Also, when it’s really cold our body heat keeps it warm enough to sleep (last year we slept in it just above freezing temperatures, and we were warm enough).

We also love how easy our current tent is to put up. I can do it alone without any struggle, though Brian tends to be the one doing all the work.

However, we are considering perhaps a move to a tent just large enough to stand up in for changing clothes, maybe even some sort of portable bed. If anyone out there has any experience with this, I’d love to hear what you know.

We had a LOT of rain this week on the road, inches and inches on Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday. There was standing water after several of the storms. Fortunately, we could take shelter while the sky broke loose, and we did have more time without rain than with it; the storms were short but mean.

We got home after dark last night, and awoke to a perfect summer day. Such a treat!

So today is a little breezy, a lot sunny, and hot, but bearable (this is Michigan, not Arizona). My kind of day. While others are sitting around miserable, I am absolutely bursting with happy energy.

It was 90F/32C today when I looked this afternoon. I do complain all winter, but right now I am so delighted I can barely hold it in!

I worked in the garden for a while. The weeds are prolific this year, between good rain and sunny days. I can not keep up in the few days I’m home. I gave it the good old college try, anyway!

I made bubble/boba tea for myself. I make it just with tapioca flavored with brown sugar syrup, and black unflavored tea. No milk or “stuff,” just simple tea and fun large tapioca bubbles. Great summer entertainment.

Right now I am typing this on the porch, my absolute favorite place in Lansing. I’m in my Mexican hammock, watching my colorful hand wash dry in the breeze. I have the laptop out here, using wireless internet. There is perhaps not a better way to spend the day.

I hope you have a wonderful summer weekend, too!

We camped in the woods last weekend at BlissFest in northern lower Michigan (near Cross Village). We saw a lot of plants, tons of trillium especially, but I could not figure out this flower.

Everywhere it was, I could not see a leaf that could be attributed to it. Here I show it next to a small maple seedling, then next to a trillium plant (or several).

My friend Pete had me go look at the base of the stem. It thickens a lot right where it joins the ground, so we are thinking that maybe the leaves come up at a different place from the flower stalk.

My camera insisted on focusing on the ground rather than the flower itself. Can anyone tell what this is from the photos?

More Traverse City. Makes you want to visit, doesn’t it?

This house was in Traverse City, Michigan when we passed by last week. There was another purple house about a block down, but it was on the wrong side of the road for me to get a photograph. Yes, I took the photo out the window and the car did not stop (though it was going slow).

I love to collect photos of purple houses. I haven’t shown you one here in a long while. Enjoy!

This window box was on a corner restaurant in downtown Traverse City (northern lower Michigan, USA). The city was very festive, it was just after the Saturday National Cherry Festival parade. It was a lovely time to be there, we ended up there at that time by total accident and it was wonderful.

We’ve been traveling. Despite the implication of vacation in the idea of “travel,” I also have deadlines. I’ve been knitting in the car and typing on the laptop in cafe’s. Not that I’m complaining…

It’s all good. Work deadlines in the summer, when one’s business is primarily focused on wool? This is a high-class problem if it’s a problem at all. And I see friends and family between knitting and typing, while on the road. That tempers the work very nicely.

Till I develop more photos, here’s one taken from the car “up north” on the way to the Traverse City area of northern lower Michigan. There are a good number of houses and barns built of rocks in this area. Lovely.

Sunday the Habibi Dancers took about a dozen women to dance at the Arab festival in Dearborn, Michigan. It was wonderful to spend a day together. We danced, we watched friends dance, we ate Lebanese food. That’s as perfect a day as one can have, if you ask me.

Here the Habibi dancers are, doing a Saudi women’s party dance. I’m in the hot pink dress at front.

Here are four of our dancers in a crowd-pleasing number (they clapped and sang along with us here):

Here is the Middle Eastern Dance Ensemble of the greater-Detroit area doing a scarf dance:

We had 22 of us at dinner between the two groups, friends and family. The restaurant had a good attitude about it at the end of what must have been a very busy weekend. And the food! There is such good mideastern food in Dearborn! Ahhh…

This is my favorite place to dance all year. I had to miss it the last 2 years and was just delighted to join in again. It was wonderful.

I’ve been back from my trip to Columbus, Ohio for the TNNA yarn-industry trade show for more than a week. It was such a whirlwind! And of course, when one has been gone from ordinary life/business for 5 days, getting home means a pile of un-finished work ready to attack when one returns.

Finally I have photos ready, and not a single one has a person in it. This is really too bad, because the most important essence of the show is the human connections we make while there.

First, my most exciting stop. I met Kristin Nicholas after over a year of contact in various ways (mostly blog watching/commenting). Here are photos of some of her designs from the book “Kristin Knits.”

Spectacular color use, don’t you agree? She does a lot of knitting colorwork but also does a fair share of embroidery (sometimes duplicate stitch, sometimes more free-form) to add even more color and/or texture. I think her style is just plain top drawer.

Other folks I spent time chatting with who also love color:

Margaret Radcliffe of Maggie’s Rags, who has a new book on color coming out late in 2009. I saw the mock-up (it was maybe a dozen pages) of the book, produced so she could show it off at the book conference and then this knitting trade show. It is going to be very exciting.

Jil Eaton of MinnowKnits. I have known of Jil for years online (what would we do without Yahoo Groups?) and I adore her color sense. She has a new line of yarn that is very exciting (MinnowMerino). It’s soft, washable (no pills, I saw a garter stitch swatch that had been washed/dried many times), 21 incredible rainbow-bright colors.

Classic Elite is putting out her yarn. It looks like a fluffy one-ply (singles for you spinners) and though she calls it worsted weight I think it’s like Brown Sheep Worsted, at 4.5st/inch (not like Cascade 220 or Nashua Creative Focus Worsted, both 220 yards/100gm and 5st/inch). For someone like me who likes pure, clear color in soft washable yarn, this is a very exciting product.

Oh, and another fun fact… Jil plays bass in a band which does a lot of 1930’s jazz. I play bass and we do mostly 1920’s very-early jazz. That was a lovely thing to discover as we were discussing yarn.

Beth Brown-Reinsel. Beth is a classic in all ways, a class act who is a good listener, patient and grounded, a great teacher and lover of all historical knitting. I first knew her through her Gansey sweater knitting book, but I’ve taken many classes from her over the years (including Norwegian Mittens, perhaps my favorite). She will be here in Lansing next weekend teaching a two-day Norwegian sweater class at Threadbear, and I may splurge if there is still room in her class when I get to Threadbear this afternoon.

I also got a little time with Joan McGowan-Michael of White Lies Designs, who does the most incredible shaped knitting! She makes curvy designs that are wonderful for girls of all shapes and sizes. I love her free “Shapely Tank” and “Shapely Tee” (drat, spelled it “shaped” rather than “shapely” when I first posted, so sorry to those who came before I added clickable links) online, and probably will make one of these one of these days.

The shapely pattern includes information on how to make bust darts/shaping for your size. Brilliant… she puts this free thing up, you see how good she is, and you’re ready to go buy her more complex designs. Good marketing, good design, nice person.

On Friday and on Monday, I also got time with my music friend, Megan Palmer, who is a singer-songwriter and lives in Columbus. I felt so grounded to be connecting with her besides all the folks on the convention floor. She took me to a teahouse on Friday, where I had Kenyan tea (memory lane, sigh) and then we had Indian food at North Market on Monday just before we started home.

The other photos here in this post were taken on rides through town in Megan’s car, or on the way out of town in Rae’s car. I Love, Love Love Cities… and this one is big enough to make me smile a lot. This next photo was taken of the stret right in front of the Convention Center. Over to the left behind that line of businesses is North Market. That market is enough reason to move to Columbus, I tell you!

With that, I am done with Columbus until next spring. I’m looking forward to that, but I need to get over to Threadbear right now and teach a ZigBagZ class. Such fun.

(Photos not Lansing… see note at end of post.)
It finally feels like summer in Lansing. It’s been crazy weather here as with most of the midwest states, with 50mph winds and trees tossed into the air like salad. I took a lot of photos but am too crazy-busy catching up after 5 days on the road to process them for you right now. Trees just broke in two.

They closed Mount Hope Cemetery to visitors (and several parks as well). There are unstable trees and broken branches blocking paths. I hope there is not a lot of damage to permanent structures, I can not see any from the street but it’s a very large place.
Several grocery stores lost all perishables. Even if they have insurance, they are all hitting their suppliers hard at the same time so we will no doubt have limited frozen food supplies for a while. In fact, one of my favorite stores has a supplier which was flooded and thus their buried computer lines were rendered useless so they had a delay getting their order filled. It is going to take time to get back in order here.

I remember when I was in Africa; how people there had a sense that things can just take time. They enjoyed one another’s company while they waited for things to happen. I practiced the mantra “I’m not in charge” the whole time I was there (I did not speak any main language in any country where I visited, so I had to trust my friends to take me places and keep me happy, fed and safe… which worked just fine).

I learned from my African friends that focusing on people and relationship is something I *do* have some control over. Weather and red tape are things I must wait out. Though I have been back from that trip for over three years, I am still very much changed by that experience.

And right now, it is hotter in Lansing, Michigan than it was most of the days I was in Africa. I am really loving it. I seem to have a defective personal thermostat… my feet can be cold at 78F degrees. I love 80-86F or so. Once we get higher than that, I still am more happy than in winter but it is definitely important to slow down and dress differently.

I’ll be wearing African or Indian clothing today when I wander forth into society. I love those clothes, I wait all winter to wear them. I never liked summer clothing before… woven cotton shorts and T-shirts leave me cold, but flowy long garments which allow me to sort of “float” down the street? I can not get enough of them.

OK, since I am not developing broken-tree photos today I will show you summery photos of my African trip. I was in Ethiopia for 3 weeks, Kenya 1 week, Egypt 1 week… between late November 2004 and early January 2005. I went with my friend Altu who was born and raised and educated in Ethiopia, but is now a US citizen and who owns my favorite restaurant, in East Lansing, Michigan.

First photo is a fruit stand in Alexandria, Egypt. Second photo is the garden of Karen Blixen, author of Out of Africa, in the Karen district of Nairobi, Kenya. Third is a beautiful street scene in Bahar Dar, northern Ethiopia, which Altu wants me to tell you is not a typical scene but definitely gorgeous.

(…writing this from a hotel room in Columbus, Ohio, USA. Photos are from Columbus.)

I live in Lansing, Michigan. It is a rather ordinary place in many ways, but the people are quite fine. The artful folks all seem to know one another… knitters, painters, poets, musicians, theatre folks, dancers… we all overlap pretty regularly, it seems everyone knows everyone sometimes.

But as a professional making a living as an artful person? Mostly teaching knitting? Lansing is the best place of all.

For one thing, our guild is very strong. Often we have 30-50 people at a meeting. Weeks when we do not have a meeting, folks gather in member homes (the location rotates) and even in the summer when there are no big meetings, the knit-in’s happen every week.

And the most unique thing going on here? The yarn shops get along. They let their instructors teach at more than one shop.

Most towns require their instructors to be “loyal” and exclusive to only their one shop. Often those instructors are also regular employees of the shop, running the cash register and the like.

In Lansing, we currently have 4 shops in the contiguous communities which are the “greater Lansing area.” I teach for three of those four, and get along well with the one where I do not teach. I also teach at a shop 30 minutes south and am lining up a new relationship with a shop about 20 minutes north.

I have taught at regional and national events. Between those and the classes I teach at the local shops, guild retreats, non-local Michigan shops/guilds, and a little bit of other creative/teaching work, I make this my livelihood.

Sarah Peasley and Sharon Winsauer are also Lansing-area instructors who are on the national circuit. At least in my case, I could not make this my career if it were not for the far-reaching vision of the local shops.

We know we need each other. We know that when the whole knitting community is strong, healthy, friendly and well-served (no shop can have all yarns and fill all needs for any knitter), our entire industry in our area will be more healthy.

There is no sense thinking we are in scarcity. There *is enough* business for us all, abundance can reign if we all open up and see the big picture, the future.

I am here at the TNNA trade show. I’ve run into “the boyz” (Rob and Matt who own Threadbear Fiberarts on the West Side) and got a hug from Matt (when I saw Rob, he was seated and happily knitting with a group of friends and I was on my way to an appointment).

One shop in Lansing (Little Red Schoolhouse Yarns, run by Linda) did not come to the show this year. The shop north of town (Lavender and Peonies, run by LeeAnne) also didn’t make it.

However, I came with Rae and Cindy of Rae’s Yarn Boutique. Sarah Peasley came with Nancy McRay of Woven Art in East Lansing. Lindsay and Juli of Yarn Garden in Charlotte are also attending. And tonight, I wish I had taken a photograph. The seven I mention in this paragraph, went to dinner together and had a wonderful time.

This could not happen in most towns. I mentioned this to Beth Brown-Reinsel today. She just could not believe that not only could I teach at multiple shops in one town, but that we would go to dinner. It is just unheard of in this business. Probably in most businesses… you don’t go to dinner with “the competition.” I love breaking that rule!

Knitters go to any shop they can visit. We will always want to check out one more shop. Often vacations are planned or at least changed, to make way to a shop or three we have not yet experienced. Anyone who has a shop has done this, at least before they opened. Recently Rae bought yarn from Linda for a particular project. Hey, we are all in this together for the long haul, it makes sense to be friendly!

So tonight I am here to tell you how lucky I am, and how clearly I am aware of my great fortune. I have a wonderful job I would not trade for anything. I have good friends I’ve met in the business. And I do not have to pretend that I am loyal when few knitters are… I’m loyal all right: to knitting, other knitters, the lifestyle. The community of knitting. All of us, no matter which store I am in.

I am a very happy and lucky woman. I’m glad to be in this life. I’m delighted to share that happiness with you today.

Monday is the last day of the show… we do our last bit of ordering and take Cindy to the airport, then drive about 4.5 hours home. It has just been a wonderful experience here in Columbus.

Photos? Two views from the patio in front of our hotel (Royal Plaza). I love cities and that nice, tall, shiny building reflecting clouds made me smile. Yet looking directly around me, it was just like a garden. There are people walking in this area all the time, locals *and* tourists. These were taken around lunchtime and I saw a lot of folks walking to lunch with work colleagues. It’s an alive section of the city, for sure. I really enjoyed knitting on the patio for a while and drinking it in. My city is not big enough for this, and I loved every minute.

The Event

What a hotbed of creative folks this trade show is! There are so many big names, approachable talent in my (knitting) industry all here in one small spot for most of a week. It’s incredibly exciting to be here.

For most people attending, this is a buy/sell show, though nobody goes home with bags of merchandise. This is where retail yarn shops order their fall yarns and accessories. In a business heavy on wool, it’s the big deal of the year.

There are also classes and a fashion show. Friday there was a luncheon (where Stephanie Pearl-McPhee/Yarn Harlot was the keynote speaker… I missed it).

The People

I am going to drop names here for the knitters who read ColorJoy. Many of these folks are friends and colleagues, some have taught me, and some I just know who they are and we have never spoken.

(I am guaranteed to forget a percentage… if I hugged you and then didn’t list your name, please be kind, it is just the sort of chaotic environment that one can not remember everything.) They are not all my best friends or anything, but it sure shows you the powerhouse that is the TNNA show.

I have run into or at least seen across the room (in approximate order of seeing them):

Jillian Moreno
Annie Modesitt
Kristi Porter
Margaret Radcliffe
Sally Melville
Lucy Neatby
Kristin Nicholas
Amy Singer
Shannon Okey
Melissa Leapman
Rick Mondragon, Knitter’s Magazine
Franklin Habit
Vicki Howell
all three authors of Knit So Fine (Lisa R. Myers, Laura Grutzeck, and Carol J. Sulcoski)
Beth Brown-Reinsel
Cat Bordhi
Cookie A.
Chris DeLongpre of KnittingAtKnoon
Chrissy Gardiner
Anne Hanson/Knitspot
Mary Moran of KnittingZone and Hiya Hiya knitting needles
Cheryl Potter (of Cherry Tree Hill Yarn)
Casey, Jess and Mary-Heather of Ravelry

From Lansing:
I am traveling with Rae and Cindy of Rae’s Yarn Boutique,
had dinner with Nancy McRae (Woven Art) and Sarah Peasley/Handknitter,
chatted with Lindsay and her mom from Yarn Garden/Charlotte, and
waved and chatted with Rob and Matt from Threadbear as we were proceeding between evening engagements.

(For the record, I know who all these people are, as do many people in my industry… but if you dropped the name of a young actor I typically would not know who you were talking about. I don’t “do” movies or TV because I don’t enjoy them, so I’m totally out of touch in that realm. If you feel out of place here with my list of names, I understand.)

This is the 3rd TNNA show I’ve attended. It’s fun to finally know some of the folks and really feel connected.

The Best Part

The most exciting thing today was finally meeting Kristin Nicholas. We have corresponded for perhaps a year, maybe more, thanks to her blog. We have tried four times to meet up in person, in three different states. Finally this time we made it work. She’s a wonderful color-talent in many media (knitting, embroidery, painting/illustration, author of lovely books, etc.), and a lovely person.

It was also a thrill to meet Carol Sulcoski. We have been corresponding a lot lately by email because of the Knit So Fine blog tour. She just lit up when I walked up to the author-signing table. It is always great to be greeted that way!!!

Next post, photos. I had written too much this morning and deleted several over-detailed paragraphs just now (since I’m finally awake enough to focus). Just suffice it to say that days are busy here and it’s all good.

Columbus, Ohio is wonderful. I spent time yesterday with music friend, Megan Palmer, at a teahouse. I also spent good chatting time with Mary Moran of knittingzone.com and Margaret Radcliffe of Maggie’s Rags. Maggie has a book coming out in December, all about using color in knitting. I’m eager to see that.

So many people are here, people I know from this business from all over. I dare not start naming names in case I leave one out. Much fun, I assure you.

There is a Teachers/Designers meeting at 8am on Saturday (today) and so I didn’t sleep enough last night. Off to get presentable and find my way to that room!

So I’m getting ready to be gone from home for 5 days. I’m going to the TNNA spring show, a yarn-buying trade show in Columbus Ohio. It’s much fun, much overload, more yarn than you can imagine.

And I’m crazy-busy trying to finish everything I wanted finished before I left. And instead our internet connection went down for about 36 hours. Whew. Thanks for hanging in there for me.

Columbus is a wonderful city. I am looking forward to the food in particular. I discovered some very fine food vendors a block or two from the convention center last year. The bubble tea and Indian food will draw me back again, for sure.

I hope to be able to see a new music friend, Megan Palmer, who is based in Columbus. Unfortunately for me (good for her) she will be out of town this weekend but we are going to see if we can connect Thursday before she leaves.

And then we get to cross fingers, toes, and eyes… that I’ll remember people I met last year at the show. There are so many people, so much distraction, that I really hope I remember people from last year.

If you know who I am and see me, please, please say hello. Sometimes people spot me across the way and don’t say hi. That makes me sad.

I’m not an accountant, I’m an artist. I’m in a touchy-feely business which is guided by relationship as much as possible. People are everything, really, in an art-based business. I want to meet you, do not be shy. Say hi!

(Here are 3 photos that are typical of how I usually look… on the subway in Toronto,  Yarn Harlot Canadian Book Launch April 2007; with Bosko and Honey a few months ago here in Lansing; and dancing with Brian at his parents’ 50th anniversary party last month. Surely this will make it easier to spot me in a crowd?)

OK, off to finish packing, sleep a few hours, and get on the road. Rae is supposed to pick me up at 8am. Ugh. I often do not get up till 10:00 or later. Fortunately, Rae and I both wake up slowly and will be kind to one another until the caffeine kicks in. We are good travel partners so that will be a fun part of the trip, actually.

Friday is the blog tour for Knit So Fine, do make sure to tune in here then!!!

We first heard of Bosko and Honey (the ukulele act from Australia) on YouTube. Then last year in April we met them in person, at the New York Ukefest (we performed Friday, they were on Saturday). We really enjoyed talking with them but with all the distraction of a ukefest and conflicting travel arrangements, we did not get enough time to get to know them as we would have liked.

Luckily for us, they are on their way through the USA again. Tonight and tomorrow night they are staying with us. We have had much good food (Mama Bears and Altu’s) , some exploration (Old Town and East Lansing, and the weather has been wonderful for that), and a good deal of music making. Tomorrow we hope for more of the same.

The photo was taken last year at NYUkefest. I really love this video of their NY Farewell in the subway station. Wonderful.

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.

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!!!

Chicago is a very liveable city. I’ve known a good number of folks who lived there over the last 15 years or so. Although getting around any city of this size is a bigger challenge than where I live, my acquaintances seemed to have enough living space and reasonable access to work and recreation… even without a car (which is quite possible in Chicago and very challenging in Lansing).

I nearly bought a roomy 4th floor one-bedroom 1960’s (apartment) condo in 1992, a good bit north of downtown (Sheridan Avenue near where Lakeshore Drive ends). It had a view of Lake Michigan, with just a park between the building and the water. I ended up buying a 2-bedroom 1920’s bungalow with attic studio and a shared driveway in Lansing, for a few thousand less. That is one of my “what if” questions, those I will never have an answer for… what if I had bought that condo and moved to Chicago? I would not have met Brian, and that is a satisfying answer enough. However, I have a feeling if I had moved, I would not have looked back.

Much of the watefront is made into citizen-accessible parks and trails for walking, bicicyling, skateboarding, rollerblading and other such fun. There is much activity, both planned by the Parks department and private folks (alone or in groups).

We almost always choose to enter and exit the Chicago area via Lakeshore Drive, even when it might take longer to do so. The views are wonderful, whether you look at the peacefulness of the water/parks to the east or the excitement of the skyline to the west.

Most of the trips I’ve taken to Chicago, I drove myself. It’s a bit hard to take photos that way, so I took advantage of my passenger status this time and take a lot of photos. I put together a “Lakeshore Drive” photoset on Flicker if you want a few more photos.

I love old neon signs. We wandered all around Chicago, mostly between downtown and the very far north. I don’t know where most of these signs were found, except that the fish sign was in Andersonville which historically was a Swedish community.

Wherever they were found, whatever their condition, lit or not… they make me smile.

We spent a lot of time this Sunday/Monday trip to Chicago, walking and exploring different neighborhoods in the city. We had never done that except for going to Devon (where Indian food, groceries and clothing make me very happy).

As we proceeded between destinations, we saw a few animals. The first two photos here we saw walking down a residential street in Lincoln Park (if I remember right). The cat in the window was first, the dog was literally next door. They were just sitting there looking out the window as though watching television or something.

But the last photos here were out of the blue… we were in the car and pulled over into a side street to check the map. As Brian was figuring out where to go next, I noticed some movement out of the corner of my eye, and saw it was a squirrel. Then I noticed a reddish-orange colored item he was carrying. After a little looking it became apparent that this was some sort of food package. I figured he was trying to get the residual food from a wrapper.

Wrong. He was unwrapping… a chocolate bar. Really. I saw the wrapper fly away and there he was, chomping away at his chocolate.

What are the chances I would ever see this, in any place, under any circumstances? Crazy!

The last several hours we were in Chicago, we decided to stick around and wait to drive out until the rush hour had mostly passed. Since Brian is fond of maps and likes to look at how things (roads, bridges, other transit) fit together, we decided to ride the elevated train that the City of Chicago calls the ‘L.’ (Some folks spell this “el” but the City uses the stylized ‘L’ in its literature.) A ride on the ‘L’ is a little bit like a walk through a 3-D map, and a lot like being a fly on the wall, peeking and listening without being noticed.

An elevated train is a wonderful perch, literally up in the tops of the tallest trees, from which to see the lay of the land. You can see the back sides of businesses, back yards, junk areas not visible from the street. You can also see spectacular vistas, peeking down a busy street or viewing an important downtown landmark from a distance.

We were amazed at how close the train goes to some of the buildings. It looked in places as though there was a clearance of less than two feet. Considering that an elevated train makes a *lot* more noise than a subway, and goes by much more often than other types of trains, it must be a significant disturbance to normal living (you have to stop talking when the ‘L’ passes by) to live there. However, the real estate surely would be more affordable for places that close to a high-noise source, and that might be a welcome tradeoff in a high-priced city real estate market.

I have uploaded 72 photos (yeah, really… and I deleted all the blurry ones) of the ride, to my Flickr account as a set. I only added comments to the last photo, noting that it was taken after we had exited the train and walked several blocks north from the station. All other photos were taken starting on the Brown line (north) starting at the Western stop, and on the way to the loop/downtown. My camera ran out of storage space just about when we hit the loop, so I took no photos on the way back up.

Since there are no comments on the photos, you will lose no information if you run the photo set as a slideshow. You can imagine *you* are on that train looking out the window as I was just Monday.

Brian and I went to Chicago early Sunday and came home late Monday (very late, actually early Tuesday in the wee hours). It was great.

We walked and walked, and ate, and walked, and ate some more. We checked out some of the fun little neighborhoods that we had not checked out in previous visits. We loved our time together without work to distract us.

I took over 400 photographs, until the SD card in my camera was full. I will take time to pull out a handful and make them into a Flickr photoset as I find time.

For  now, I need to schedule some classes so I can work in upcoming months.

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!!!