Well, we had a nice time together yesterday. We made it simple, because everyday pleasures are what makes a relationship good.

I made Brian an oat-applesauce bread/cake and put almonds on it in a shape of a heart. He got me some carnations (again, he knows I love carnations) and five gorgeous bags of groceries from a produce market I love but never seem to visit. Beautiful food, including asparagus, broccoli, sweet onions, apples, oranges, parsnips, turnips, and several sorts of pasta. I think I will be making several vats of soup on Sunday. Real food, real gift, real love. Gotta love it.

We had dinner last night at my friend Altu’s restaurant. It was just plain hopping! We had to wait for a table, even with the newly expanded space. Tony Sills performed with his guitar, a very good match for the holiday. And the food… just as good as it gets.

Small pleasures really make life wonderful, don’t they? I don’t even “get it” these guilt advertisements telling men they need to “get with it” or they will be in trouble, making sure they buy flowers or candy or diamonds, for goodness sake! Diamonds? In many cases that means that someone is willing to go into debt to make their partner not be mad at them. This partner would be more impressed by debt avoidance than a sparkly thing. Of course, I don’t really like diamonds anyway… but I’m not into the impression-management thing that diamonds often signal. I just want someone to treat me right when nobody is looking.

One day a year is nothing. I can tell every day, by the little things, that I am loved. That’s the real stuff. My hubby lights up when I walk in the room. I vote for that sort of real stuff!

Hi, all. I’m checking in twice in a day to acknowledge that you all are wonderful, you all make me feel loved. I really appreciate you, even those who do not comment… just knowing you are there makes me smile.

Valentine’s Day is a very hard holiday for some people, and the press surely does not take that into consideration. Remember that even if you don’t have a sweetie, it does not mean you are not appreciated and loveable! I sure appreciate you. Please be your own best partner today, and do something special like a hot bath, a scented candle, a special meal, something you love.

I am very lucky to have Brian, and I know it. He is everything I could have wanted and more. But Brian found me when we were both in our late 30’s, and I sure have had other experiences on Valentines day besides what I am having today.

My mother was widowed at 38 years old, my brother widowed at 30. My dear friend Diane is having her second Valentine’s Day without her husband, with whom she spent decades. Some of us wisely choose to be alone rather than choose a partner who is not healthy for us. There are many reasons why someone might be alone today…

I remember maybe a dozen years ago, standing in the card store, reading every card and trying to find one that just said “Happy Valentine’s Day.” Anything more flowery than that would have been a lie. Even those of us in relationships are not necessarily happy.

I get pretty upset with the media for leaving out a big portion of the population on holidays like this. Here is my valentine to all of you!

I feel bad that I did not give you a picture yesterday. I was so tired, I posted briefly, crashed early and slept a very long time. What a luxury that was!

So here is a picture for your viewing entertainment: Purple alpaca slouch sox, the same yarn as the cropped-finger gloves I posted two days ago. These are warm and soft, and a total luxury!!! Yum.

I actually finished these sox on the same trip to Florida as the gloves, but I finished the sox first. On that trip, I also finished a pair of turquoise Opal jacquard slouch sox. You will see the picture of those soon.

Off to dye some wool. See you later!

It was a long day, but a good one. I had to get up earlier than usual to go to a computer client and install the first test version of a new database I designed for them. That went well. Then I met a volunteer, a man who I met through a spinner, who wants to help me get my computer lab’s ailing computers up and running well again.

After that I taught two classes. It was a sad day there, because many of my students said goodbye today. I love my students and it’s hard to see them go. (This is community education, basic computer usage/comfort training.)

Between all that, I lucked out and got to knit a bit on my super-slouch, thick wool sox. Unfortunately, I think I decreased too many times. Now when I try them on, I really feel I need to rip them out about two inches on each sock, to make them slightly bigger around. It’s nice stuff, but the thick wool is teasing me. I want to wear them now, to get warmer feet, and instead I have to rip them out.

If I liked knitting the sox, I’ll like knitting them again. Right? Right.

Tomorrow is a studio day for me, and I’m excited. I’m planning to dye some wool yarns and some wool rovings. Yippee!!!

Finally, I had some time to take pictures. Here is a photo of the alpaca cropped-finger gloves I made on vacation in Florida. Nearly the whole pair was knit in one car or another during our five-day visit to relatives. These are very warm and toasty.

I used Ann Budd’s The Knitter’s Handy Book of Patterns: Basic Designs in Multiple Sizes and Gauges, by Interweave Press. I had to adjust some (I ended up knitting a child’s size because I did not want any bulk), but that is my style anyway.

I do wish I had knit the cuff ribbing on smaller needles than the body of the gloves. I also chose to make the fingers so that more stitches were on the back than the palm, so that there would be less bunching up of fabric in the palm. I really wanted to be able to knit wearing these (I knit continental style, with the yarn wrapped all around my left-hand fingers). I needed to make the palms less bulky in order to do it, and it worked out just fine. It did make the knitted columns look a bit twisted from the back, but I am OK with that.

Oh, for the fingers, I just knit until they were a length that seemed about right (less 4 rows) and then knit 4 rows of K1P1 ribbing, then I cast off loosely in rib. It worked great, although the ribbed finger part looks a little bulkier than the rest of the gloves. They stay put, though, and don’t roll down. Each finger I knit a different length. They looked funny all the same, believe it or not!

Because the back and palm are different, I also did some purple-on-purple embroidery on the backs (simple cross stitch) so that I could identify the back side. These are sooo warm and cozy. This alpaca has no brand name on the ball, believe it or not. It is a sort of burly sportweight which is slightly thick and thin, and I like that texture once knit. It looks handspun at first glance.

Today I also turned both heels on a sweater-weight pair of slouch sox I’m doing as waiting-in-line knitting. These should be finished in no time, now. They are a sort of turquoise tweed. This color I can wear with everything I own! I will just plain wear them out! Good thing the yarn is a washable wool blend.

I also tried to start a hat with Brown Sheep Naturespun Sportweight, by doing a single crochet. I could not remember how to crochet, at least not the official way (I was making a fabric, but my friend Arlyn tells me it was some slip stitch and not true single crochet). I only made a piece about the size of a 50-cent piece, not even two inches across, and I will probably have to rip it out and try again. It’s nice yarn, though, and I bet it will survive the ripping out just fine.

Hi, all. I had a wicked-busy day yesterday with two clients, so no posting. Today I’m trying to rest, although I have two short obligations. Fortunately, one of those obligations is my computer lab. I may get to do some knitting there!

I’m sharing with you a picture of some minisox I made which became Christmas tree ornaments as gifts to my friends in Abbott Brothers (our band). The pic is somewhat timely, because I gave Dick his Christmas gift just over a week ago, and his was one of the two pictured here. I also showed you the one I made for Barbara, back in December.

I heard today from a reader of this blog. We found many things in common, but one thing she does that I don’t, is crochet. I have known how to make a crocheted chain for years, and it is a very handy thing to know. However, other than that I haven’t really pursued it.

The truth is, I don’t like lace, and that seems to translate to the fact that I don’t like the “holes” in most crocheted fabrics. I just don’t like that look. I also like the drape one gets from knitting. Knitting is made with loops which connect to one another, and crochet is made of knots which are self-sufficient, which means that knitting has more inherent give and drape. For most things I do, the drape is desireable.

However, you all here know how much I have been frustrated by trying to make wearable berets. I wear a beret almost all the time I’m awake (I have a tendency to get cold most of the time, but even in the summer I am protecting my hair from the sun). I have purchased several cotton berets which were crocheted. Over a year ago I read a little how-to and figured out the basics of single crochet (which has very few lacey holes in its fabric and is how my purchased berets were created). I made one beret by starting in the center and increasing whenever it seemed the fabric needed it. The shape turned out well and the edge of the hat was firm enough to actually fit well. Unfortunately, I made it out of white kitchen cotton so it is most unattractive. I left it at that and went back to knitting hats, with mixed success.

Now I’m thinking maybe I’ll try another crocheted hat (one of these days, when the to-do list is a little shorter for my gainful employment). My best purchased berets were knit of a very small gauge wool yarn and then felted so that they are pretty rigid and firm. It seems that maybe I could accomplish a similar texture with a fine yarn single crocheted. And working from the center/top out, lets me adjust as I work rather than having faith that a general process laid out in a book or pattern will work with the yarn and gauge I am working in at the moment.

I have some nice coned wool yarns I picked up at two different stores, that might work well. They are nice and thin and in colors I wear well. Hmmm…

Oh, the picture is a photo my brother took of me (very close up indeed) with his new digital camera. It has not been cropped at all, this is exactly as he took the shot.

Off to do some computer work. Have a great Sunday.

What a lovely day I had. I spent the morning with my friend Tony, going to the Spinners Flock guild meeting. It’s about an hour from Lansing one way, so we get a lot of talking time. I just love talking with Tony, he is so enthusiastic. It’s so great to have a mutual admiration society, you know?

After Spinners Flock I went to work at the community center’s computer lab (where I also teach knitting). I just love my CityKidz Knit! program, the kids are wonderful, and they are so capable of thinking for themselves. A lot of my kids are 6th graders and they are so ready to learn and grow, everything seems interesting to them.

Two of the knitters came today to my computer lab, and they were very excited about the packages we have been receiving lately from members of the socknitters@yahoogroups.com email list. We were running short on needles in medium sizes, and those are coming in as well as well as some yarns that are delightful. (There are several new yarns in purple, and one skein of handspun… how in the world will I decide who can have that prize?) The girls have all these ideas of what yarn might look good in this or that project, or which person might like those colors. I love their enthusiasm.

Today I started teaching one girl to knit a hat from the top down, on circular needles. She will make a hat for her stuffed owl first, to understand the technique. Her owl is going to end up with quite a wardrobe by the time she is done! He already has a Harry Potter scarf she made during the holiday season.

Tonight Brian and I sang (as The Fabulous Heftones) at my friend Altu’s restaurant, Altu’s Ethiopian Cuisine in East Lansing, Michigan. What a wonderful time we had! It was hopping, the scene was jumpin’ as they say. There were sixteen people there between the two sets we sang, who came because I let them know we would be there. How great that was! I love performing for people I know.

Even though the restaurant usually closes at 9pm, tonight we left at 9:20 and we were not the last to go. There is a certain sound that happens in rooms full of people enjoying each other, and tonight the restaurant had that sound. It made me smile. (The photo today is a detail of a handcrafted basket Altu got for me when she went to Ethiopia a few years ago. She has similar baskets now in her restaurant, as some of the dining tables.)

I lucked out today. One of the other Habibi dancers got ill, and could not dance at the New Aladdin’s restaurant tonight. Well, there can not be anyone who loves dancing there as much as I do. She called me to see if I could substitute for her. You bet I could! I got to play Eudora (my stage name) again tonight!!!

I love everything about this gig. I get to dance at a restaurant I really respect, which has great food and good people working there. I get to dance for an audience which has a good percentage of folks I know personally. I get to dance up next to folks, to talk with them as I dance if I choose, rather than on a stage.

I get to dance indoors (some of our gigs are outdoors and I am decidedly not an outdoor grrl). I get to dance at a reasonable time of day (shows 6:30 and 8pm) in my own town, in a non-smoking, non-drinking environment. And the people who work there truly enjoy my dancing. It can not get better than this! I had a wonderful time.

Tomorrow will be busy! I am going to Spinners Flock (spinning guild, about an hour away), hopefully with my friend Tony. I have not seen him in a month and I am looking forward to his company again. Then I rush home to work for two hours in my computer lab, and then get out and get ready to perform at Altu’s with Brian, as “Lynn Heftone” of The Fabulous Heftones. It will be a busy weekend!!!

My friend Elizabeth sent me a poem today. I love poetry, yet don’t read near enough of it. (Picture today is a soft-block print I made of Elizabeth’s cabin in VT, a few years ago).

“Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver

You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting –
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.

from Dream Work by Mary Oliver
published by Atlantic Monthly Press
© Mary Oliver

Hey, somebody… remind me next time not to wait to finish the ends on one pair of sox before finishing a second pair. Ugh. I got so excited that there was a lot of yarn left over from Brian’s Regia Jacquard sox, that I started a pair for myself right away. Brian, being the patient soul that he is, did not mind if his pair would take a little longer because I had not finished the ends yet. Well…

If you use one color for cuff and foot, and another color for heel and toe, you have eight (8) ends to work in, for ONE sock. Sixteen for a pair. And that means that if you have two pair both needing ends finished, you have thirty-two ends.

I don’t mind finishing ends, really, except that I can not read my emails (or other blogs, for that matter) and finish ends at the same time. It would be the perfect task for waiting at the Allergist’s office, except I wanted to take pictures for you folks tonight, and I don’t go to the Allergist until tomorrow.

As I type this, I have three of four sox finished and the fourth is just barely started… that is, the end-finishing of those sox anyway. Funny how we finish them (the knitting) and then we finish them (the ends) a second time, before we can wear them.

I’m pleased with my afterthought heels. They LOOK funny, sort of, as if the heel were stretched out of proportion when I wear them. They look as though I should have snipped the stitches a little closer to the heel than I did. Yet I like my sox to fit snugly in the foot and loose in the cuff (slouchy) and these are good that way. I think if I had gone any looser in the foot, perhaps the sock would have slipped down into the shoe easily. Oh, I did actually make the heel smaller than Dawn’s pattern indicated… I was tired and made a calculation mistake so started decreasing faster maybe 6 rows or so before I “should.” You can see that the part where there normally would be a “heel flap” is much shorter than is typical. It worked anyway, no doubt because I love snug-snug-snug sox.

These feel wonderful. I will have to get used to how they look. I did love knitting them. The idea that I could just knit and knit a tube until I ran out of yarn, and not have to figure out when to start the heel (even most toe-up sox you have to fuss with this detail) until the end…. well, I really enjoyed that. And they fit much better than I would have expected.
(more…)

I tried to finish my afterthought-heel sox today. I did snip and pick out the stitches where the heel should go, picked up and knitted. The first try did not work (it would help if I had actually read the instructions Dawn Brocco had written about picking up extra stitches in the corner). The second try seems to be going OK but I am not ready for wearing them, or taking pictures yet.

My friend, Susan Hensel, writes that she has updated her website. She says:

Two movies have been added on the installations page…a movie for What if… and for Coming Home. These will run on Internet Explorer or Netscape 6 or higher. I usually run an older version of Netscape and only the sound comes through on that.

I have added a News and Musings page as well. I gotta’ write! My plan is to periodically add small essays and news updates on this page.

So, go have a look.

The musings page has several entries, including a thoughtful column on the marginalization of art books. If you have seen her work, you know that “book” is not literal in the sense of what we buy at a bookstore, but a starting point.

Susan makes sculptures that are based on word-ideas, she writes books and makes hand printed illustrations, binding the books by hand… she uses words and visuals in many combinations, some called collage but her sense of collage is much larger than just pasting things on a page (although it includes that as well). In making her art books, she is a sculptor, a writer, a printmaker, a typesetter, a storyteller, and more! The picture here is of her piece “The Easter Box.”

Sue’s musings page is: http://www.susanhenseldesign.com/suesmusing.html

Today I worked with my knitting club at the Community Center (where I also have a computer classroom/lab). We had seven kids today, three new knitters. Two of my regulars are starting hats on large double-pointed needles, preparing to knit sox.

After they left, the computer lab was slow. I knit more on my afterthought-heel sox, finishing the body of both socks. When I got home, I made contrasting round toes a la Dawn Brocco. Now all I need to do is choose where the heel goes, snip a stitch (cringe), pick out stitches for half a round at the snip, pick up stitches and add a heel (I’ll knit another round toe as my heel). I expect to have some pictures tomorrow.

Tonight we rehearsed with Abbott Brothers, our band that will be playing at Altu’s restaurant on the 22nd. It is so fun to prepare! We don’t play out much anymore, although they had regular weekly gigs about 20 years ago. Imagine that, 20 years ago…

I also got to knit at my brother’s house and in the car to and from rehearsal. I had decided to see how far I could get with the leftovers from Brian’s sox (the ones I finished a few days ago). I knit a rib for just over an inch and then I’m knitting a tube until I run out of yarn. I’m doing both sox at the same time on different sets of needles.

There is less yarn than I thought, but I am sure I can make it work. When I run out of yarn I will knit toes from contrasting solid yarn (long ones, longer than usual to make these a reasonable length) and then I will use Elizabeth Zimmerman’s method of adding a heel later, which she calls an afterthought heel. You snip a stitch where the heel belongs, pick out the stitches (she uses something like 60% of the stitches if I remember right. Then you pick up the stitches on double pointed needles and knit what essentially is a toe, as a heel which is replaceable.

Dawn Brocco of Heels and Toes Gazette has a version of this heel using a round toe, with something like 6 decreases in one round and then several even rounds before another decrease round. Dawn has a pattern for this (all sizes, worsted and DK weight yarns) in the Spring 2001 Gazette, called “Truly Simple Beginner’s Re-heelable Socks.” I think it’s the Summer 2001 which has the same pattern, zillion sizes again for sport and fingering weight. You can order old issues if this interests you.

Dawn’s version uses waste yarn for about half a round where the heel will go, rather than knitting the tube fully and then snipping. I guess you end up with one more row in the body of the sock that way but I doubt it will show, and I really need to knit every last bit of yarn I can in my pair. I think these will maybe end up with tiny little cuffs.