Lookie! Larry (KnitDad) has knit a Fast Florida Footie! He made this as a sample for the knitting store where he works (Skein), and is now starting a pair for his daughter (in a larger size than I specified in the pattern).

The entry where he talks about the sock is April 27. He did this while I was away, so I missed the moment. Thanks for writing me to let me know, Larry! I’m so very behind in reading my regular blogs because of my dance concert and then the trip.

Here is the picture I promised a week ago. It is a picture of six of the Habibi Dancers (there were seven in this dance, and there are about 20 of us in the troupe) in costume for the Ojos Asi dance (song by Shakira).

My camera somehow refused to flash so I hope the detail is acceptable. These costumes for most of the dancers included beaded bra/belt sets, on top of a red skirt covering black lace underskirts. Between the red skirt and belt we wore black lace wraps with long fringe (these are sold as shawls but we use them as hip wraps). The woman at center front was the centerpiece star of the dance so she had a more elaborate costume with red bra/belt and several skirts with infinite black lace ruffles.

You can not see it, but we wore black shoes for this dance (we typically dance barefoot) because of the Spanish influence in the music. Part of the dance required stomping, a sort of bow to flamenco dance.

Oh, that is me playing Eudora, right front. You know, playing dress-up when one is over 40 is such a delight! How else could a 44 year-old knitter/computer professional get a chance to dress up in glitter and lace, stomp around and twirl around with red fabric veils? It’s just as fun as things can get, in my estimation.

More on my knitting trip (and maybe sweater news) will follow, probably tomorrow.

Home, Sweet Home
I am back home from my 4-day trip to Iowa which went just fine. Not a near-religious experience, which perhaps I expected, but just fine. Here’s the travelogue. I’ll write the knitting information later, when I get my pictures developed.

The Journey West
I got out of town 2 hours later than expected. Then I found myself 1.5 hours from home with a car overheated. I had about 5 minutes where I didn’t know what to do. Then I figured it out… a flywheel on my car was rubbing a coolant hose and it cut a hole in the hose, and then when the hose squirted the coolant on the flywheel it sprayed it all over the inside of the engine compartment. No wonder it took a while to figure out where the leak was.

In the end, I wrapped the hose with some packing tape I had, then filled it up with some water and a little coolant given to me by a nice gentleman who also stopped at the rest stop with his family (amazing the car overheated just as I pulled into a parking spot at a rest stop… I had no clue anything was wrong until that point). I drove 15 miles to a truck stop where there was a mechanic.

It was 5 minutes before 5pm on Friday at this point. This guy at the mechanic called maybe 5 places looking for the right hose with no luck. So he took the leaky hose off, cut out the bad part and put a metal pipe in it , clamping the pipe in the hose. It took 1 hour and they charged me $29. I was amazed and delighted. They could have really taken advantage of me, and the labor alone was worth more than that. Whew.

Hotel and Delay
So I drove without meandering, but couldn’t get to Nancy’s home (where I’d planned to sleep) in time for her family to sleep at a reasonable hour. I called and told her I’d find a hotel. I found a small city, Burlington Iowa, which had the last stretch of actual highway before Fairfield where I’d be studying (an hour away). Got a room for only $40. Whew. Nothing fancy but just fine.

Then I lost my eyeglasses somehow when I was in the room, wasted 45 minutes Saturday morning crawling on the floor looking behind furniture, shaking out towels, unpacking luggage. Gave up, made an “incident report” and requested that they ask the housekeeper to particularly look out for the glasses. Drove an hour to the workshop and got there 15 minutes late, could have been much worse.

Workshop Time
Had 2 days of workshops only mildly impaired by the lack of glasses. Met some good people, learned some useful and interesting things, listened to some interesting stories, sold some of my hand-dyed yarn (paid for car repair and hotel bill, a good thing). Then the best news: I got a call that the hotel found my eyeglasses.

I drove out of Fairfield on Sunday at dinner time, after a long talk with someone (an Anna, but not Zilboorg) who lives there in Fairfield now, but used to (get this) own a house TWO DOORS down from Foster Community Center here in Lansing where I work, and only half a block from the house I owned for 5 years. Small world.

Sunday Driving
I checked out Maharishi University/Management school on the way out of town. Drove to Burlington and got my glasses. Drove to Chicago. That was a long drive, because the repair guys in Michigan somehow set off the “oh no, someone is stealing the stereo” computer chip in my car and therefore my stereo would not work at all (when I turn it on, it displays the word “SAFE” and won’t play radio or cassette at all). I don’t mind driving in silence when the sun is up but I missed my music when it got dark.

Got to Chicago 2am, stayed with my friend Iris who I haven’t seen in maybe 7 months. Didn’t get quite enough sleep but got up and drove to Lansing, got to work (CityKidz Knit) 3 minutes late. Whew! Fortunately, Luann, a volunteer from the Lansing Knitting Guild, was there handling the program until I got there.

Not too bad, really. I’m gonna crawl into bed early tonight.

All in all, It was Great
I made some friends and some acquaintances. I got some time to talk with Anna Zilboorg and Merike Saarnit who ended up staying at Nancy’s house the night I was there. Tried to listen more than I talked… but with my excitement it was a big job to stay quiet. I tend to bubble over at the mouth when I’m excited.

We ate some wonderful food, including two meals at a fabulous Indian restaurant. (How can a town of 12,000 have this much good food, and my town be so lacking?) I got to drive in a part of my country that I have not seen yet. I got to take a solo driving trip again. (My last one further than Chicago was when I went to a retreat in Vermont in August 2000.) I love driving alone, but it has been a long time.

A Surprising Extra
Oh, the unexpected cool thing was I got a LOT of knitting done even besides that in the workshop. Love it. My sweater even has a collar now. All I need to do is make two sleeve cuffs, fix a hem that is flipping up very badly, and figure out how to trim the steek seam allowances inside the armholes which are too bulky right now, because I picked up stitches a good 1.5 inches further in than I had expected.

I Would Do it Again
I’m very glad I took the trip. I think I’ll stay in touch with a few of the folks I met out there. Anna, the one who used to live in Lansing, says she will be visiting here in early August. We’ll surely meet then. And time will tell how much of what I learned in the workshop will help me in my daily knitting. But meeting Nancy, Anna Z., Merike, and the rest of the workshop attendees was worthwhile, and now I’m a richer person for the entire experience.

I didn’t have a digital camera so I’ll get pics as soon as I can. More on the knitting to follow…

Well, I’m off to Iowa. I leave in just an hour or so, and will get there in time for a late dinner. I’m pretty excited.

I will be studying with Anna Zilboorg for two days. I’m so grateful, this will be a workshop of depth with someone I really want to study with. (The hat here is a pattern by Anna that I knit in December for my Knitting Guild’s hat contest… I won!!!)

I’m taking my laptop, but I don’t know if I’ll have any chances to get online while I am there. I may not check in with you folks until Monday night. Thanks so much for reading my blog, I’ll be back soon!!!

Stephanie (sojustask) wrote to say that she had finished a pair of the Fast Florida Footies. She likes my LynnH No-Purl Heel! I can’t help but beam as a mother would over her baby. Here’s what she said:

Your heel flap is the greatest and works out so cool with the varigated yarn. It even looks cool on my daughters solid color socks, reminds me of puffy pillows or something like that. Or the way African Americans do all those little braids in their hair, corn rows or something like that. I think I’m in love with this heel you invented.

Stephanie, thank you for making me smile. (I love the thought about cornrows, I see the similarity and love the concept.) You made my week, with your note! (Actually, it took me about a week to post her note, I hope she didn’t get tired of waiting.)

Stephanie’s picturetrail page can be reached by clicking the picture of her feet, or going to http://www.picturetrail.com/sojustask and then clicking Socks and Socks.

Knitting News
I am nearly done with the silver-purple sox. I finished toe decreases, so I just need to close the toe and finish the four ends for the pair. Cool biz!

This was the sort of boring pair I did, from yarn I got online that wasn’t quite as exciting in person as it sounded on the web (these things do happen). They were good wait-in-line sox, anyway. The yarn feels as though it will really wear well, maybe it has some mohair in it or something. I knit the pair on size 1 needles (it feels like sportweight yarn to me) so the gauge is really dense for excellent long wear. That will be a good thing, the way I wear my sox (indoors without shoes or slippers).

I also got on a roll today knitting on my Since-September sweater. I spent a little time at Altu’s and knit while waiting for my lunch (have I mentioned how incredible her food is enough yet?), then I stopped by to see Nancy McRay at her new shop and knit a while and chatted. Later I taught my CityKidz Knit class. I had three children today, two of them boys (Monday I also had 2 boys out of 4 kids total, yippee for that).

I got a little done on my sweater in CityKidz Knit because only one of my kidz stuck it out for the full hour, so I didn’t have a lot of guiding to do. It was sunny and a perfect day for children to play outside, I didn’t blame them at all for leaving early.

Then later the Habibi Dancers spent rehearsal time watching a video of the show we just performed on Saturday. That was fun, and it allowed me to finish the second toe on that pair of sox plus start in on the 2nd sleeve of the sweater.

The first sleeve of the sweater is too long by maybe even a few inches, and I stopped four rows before I thought it would be done. I am going to have to rip out a bit of this, unfortunately. I guess it’s good to know I’m basically done with that sleeve, though. I had wanted to finish the sleeve with a turquoise/black hem (the sleeve is purple/black) but now I’m having second thoughts. I don’t have to decide tonight.

Family
The second sleeve is going well (more than half done) because I spent some time tonight on the phone, with my brother, Eric, and then my uncle, O.T. These men are wonderful, I loved talking to them. O.T. is going to spend his birthday in Sweden, and I’m so happy for him. He sounds pretty excited about the upcoming trip.

Mom is on her way home to Michigan from Florida. She will be staying overnight with O.T. and Aunt Ann, in Alabama, tomorrow night. She and Fred think they will make it home this weekend, when I’m in Iowa studying knitting with Anna Zilboorg. (I’m getting really excited about this trip, but wondering how I’ll ever get my life together to leave Friday as planned. I guess I just go and things will work themselves out just fine.) It will be good to see mom again. I haven’t seen her since January.

Well, tonight we played at Mac’s Bar. It went very well, better than I could have imagined for two people playing acoustic bass and ukulele. The crowd sat and listened, and smiled. It was pretty wonderful.

The owner, Matt, stopped by to tell us he enjoyed our performance and he collected a business card (good thing I took the time to buy more blank cards at Staples today, and took more time to print a few). Ken (the birthday dude and front man who arranged the whole thing) seemed to be having a wonderful time.

And the band which followed us, The Tease, included a young woman playing bass who looked familiar… in fact, I knew for sure her name was Erin. Back in around 1991, she was still in High School and I was newly divorced, and we both acted/danced/sang in the play Pippin, at Riverwalk Theatre in Lansing. It was a great show at a great venue. I haven’t seen her in a number of years but it was great to talk after their set. A few of the folks from The Tease may be popping by to see us perform at Altu’s one of these times. Fun!!!

We didn’t stick around for the final three bands. I was a “party pooper” when I was young, and it’s getting worse every year. I just don’t like bars as a rule, although tonight might have been the night to change my mind. I’m sure they are still having a blast right now as I type this. The crowd was pretty funky and energetic, and it was fun to watch folks dance and enjoy the scene. I’m sure it will just get more fun as the night goes on, for those who enjoy a party environment.

But me, boring me… I just wanted to go home, sit on my heat vent and get warm (they had the doors open and I was freezing, but I’m sure the folks on the dance floor appreciated it). And I need to wake up at a somewhat reasonable hour tomorrow, as well.

This picture was taken by our friend, Larry, while we performed. (Thanks, Larry, for the impromptu job as band photographer.) I think it looks like an album cover, don’t you?

I had a short night, but I had a wonderful client appointment this morning with a lovely retired woman who was recently gifted with a computer from her daughter. That was worth an early-for-me alarm clock! Not only did the appointment go well, but the client took me (and our mutual friend who connected us) to lunch at Aladdin’s restaurant. Green Bean stew on rice with anise tea, yum.

I did a little of several things but nothing much in knitting today. I did one row on the Peace Fleece rug when I was at Foster Center (practicing the purl-with-yarn-in-back Norwegian method, very cool). I also did a couple of rounds on the Since-September sweater, sleeve #1. I knit a few rounds on the silver-purple sock when waiting in the drive through at the bank. I rinsed a few skeins of dyed yarns and put them out to dry. I made three dried skeins into center-pull balls with my ballwinder (thanks, Brian, for that fabulous gift).

I swatched a bit with two of my hand-dyed yarns but the contrast wasn’t enough between the multicolored yarn (see picture) and the solid, so you couldn’t tell what the stranded colorwork pattern even was. I need to dye a different color or overdye this solid yarn darker, perhaps. I feel like I did nothing because I did no one thing of substance. I guess I did accomplish movement toward several goals, though.

It’s odd, everything I’m knitting these days is turquoise and purple. It seemed for so long, that I could only find yarns I liked in variations of fuschia or raspberry. I have been on a serious quest for turquoise and lately I guess I’ve been doing better. Even the rug is one strand of medium-midnight blue and one strand purple. It suits me just fine this way.

Oh, too funny: Brian and I are performing as The Fabulous Heftones again tomorrow, at a very different venue for us. That is, Mac’s Bar… a sort of bar’s bar, not at all where you would expect to find an acoustic duo in formalwear playing ukulele and bass. We’re opening a multiple-band lineup, where the other bands are punk bands (the headliner of the finale band, Ken Knott, has attended two of our concerts and he asked us to perform).

The Noise, a “local” publication, had a headline saying “Punk Bands Play Mac’s” and then talks about Ken, whose birthday party this is and whose band, the Monokulators, will be the highlight of the show. It ends the article with “The veteran punk band, or band made up of veteran punks, will be playing alongside The Tease, Putty, Eight Ball Grifter, 100 Watt Head and the Fabulous Heftones…” Too funny. The Fabulous Heftones, punk ditties from the 1920’s! Gotta laugh at how that looked in print!

We’re on at 8pm tomorrow/Tuesday if anyone local is curious. I’m not much for bars, but this one is a classic as they go (though nothing is as cool as Dagwoods). Mac’s has a website, at http://macsbar.com.

I’m so excited, I went surfing through some favorite blogs tonight (after several days of being too busy to do this) and found two different blogging friends talking about me. Sarah Peasley wrote about the tea cosy I knit and gave to her, and then Larry is talking about his adventures with Fixation yarn, preparing to knit my Fast Florida Footies. I sort of enjoy this yarn and although I typically knit tightly, I don’t seem to knit this yarn as tight as it can go… so he’s having a time finding gauge. I’m crossing fingers for him in the gauge department.

Not that long ago, Jillian wrote about our first meeting in person. I was moved to tears by what she said, which was one sentence something on the order of how much she can tell I enjoy my life and am being myself.

It must seem odd to those who didn’t know me before, but I spent a lot of years unhappy and not knowing who I was. It’s hard to be true to yourself when you don’t know who that is! I still seem to think of myself as a wallflower, even though that was a very long time ago… and in fact, I may never have *looked* like a wallflower, I maybe only felt like one.

So these days, this little social butterfly is really enjoying her new circle of friends. Art (knitting/fiber in particular) has given me a place where I really know I belong. How cool is that?

Yes, Jillian, I’m really happy with my life. It’s so very wonderful to know it rubs off on others sometimes. I’m so glad to share a bit of it.

By the way, extra hugs go out to my hubby, Brian, who makes all the happiness doubled. What a gift he is to me.

OK, I’ll stop being so mushy, but it’s good to reflect on what we’ve got sometimes. May you all experience some of this peaceful joy that I often feel. Not always, but often.

Knitting news: More work on the Since-September sweater sleeve. Fun but not portable at this stage, so it’s slow. Also several inches on the boring silver-purple sox that are for brainless wait-in-line (and blog reading) knitting. They are really close to the toe decreasees, amazingly.

I also dyed several skeins of yarn in the last few days (yippee), and will be choosing tonight from those skeins for my two swap partners, to be knit as soon as the yarn is dry. The boring purple sox will be put aside until swap promises are completed. I just need to pick yarn and wind balls, and off I’ll go. I have CityKidz Knit! tomorrow so may get a start on the first pair then.

Late breaking post: I just got home from the long but glorious day dancing with Habibi Dancers. This first picture shows six of the seven dancers in a dance set to the song “Ojos Asi” by Shakira. I’m masquerading as Eudora, second from right.

(Note: the red and black blurs in this picture are veils, although we wore red skirts with black lace underskirts which also flowed nicely. I’ll post pics of the costumes up close, when the regular-camera film is developed.)

The second picture shows me on the right, balancing a glass jug (wrapped in silk fabric) on my head. Nobody broke anything tonight, all went well. Notice, though, that the hips were moving while the head stayed still. This kind of dance is a way to show off good technique: a good dancer can make many complex moves in the body without any bouncing or moving of the head.

It was a wonderful day, and a delightful concert. I’m exhausted, but it’s a good kind of tired. I’ll sleep well tonight.

Dyeing Yarns
I am already into the weekend heavily today. Foster Center is closed Friday-Sunday for the Easter holiday (don’t ask me why government employees get religious long weekends, I think it’s about good contract negotiations). With my building closed, that freed me up to do many other things.

I continued to dye more yarns today. Someday I hope I get faster at this. I really like to apply the dyes very methodically yet make them look as random as possible. This takes labor and time. I can’t see myself compromising on it, though, so I keep it up and we will see if I can gain speed once I’m more comfortable with the process and the dyes.

I am still trying new dye colors and brands all the time. I found a new blue I really like, so that is good news. However, I ordered a purple dye that is very disappointing, it is more like a muted magenta-berry. Humph. I ended up mixing purple again from other dyes. The Dyehappy list on Yahoo has given me a few suggestions for purple acid dyes so I may go on a little buying spree for all the suggested colors and I’ll see how it goes. Maybe it would be fun to make a yarn with five different purple dyes on it. I bet it would be pretty.

So far each skein is a new adventure, a new colorway. I am finding that I really prefer certain types of yarn for dyeing the way I like to dye. Unfortunately, I have a whole lot of yarns in stock that don’t fit my favorites, and I will definitely need to use them sometime. When I get new stock, though, it seems smart to really concentrate on the few yarns that I adore. This is quite the adventure!

Habibi Workshop and Concert
Tomorrow I will not be posting an entry, because of my dance workshop/concert. I will do my best to get photographs of the Shakira costumes as requested. Cross fingers that my old camera will work well. I don’t want to leave the digital camera in the dressing room unattended, but am less worried about this other camera I’ve had since about 1991 and which has been dropped enough to be grumpy about when it decides to trip the shutter. It takes great photos when it wants to! But I get so attached to my gizmos that I just can’t seem to let it go.

Busy Night at Altu’s
Brian and I went to Altu’s for dinner tonight and it was really hoppin’! Every table was occupied at one point, and people still coming in. I’m so happy that this is happening more these days for her. The old space just could not have fit that many people in it. Yippee for a busy night!

I’m going to have to miss the music there on Saturday this week. Too bad, because it’s Edna Poore and Marna Yngve, both talented musicians. Marna plays fiddle and Edna plays a number of instruments. They will play American, Irish and Scandinavian numbers. It should be a real treat. I’m sorry to miss it.

(By the way, I worked with Edna about 13 years ago and she was the one who introduced me to the local folk music community… where I later met up with Brian, my hubby. I owe Edna some good karma or something, I think!)

Readers Write
Ann wrote me after I mentioned my Peace Fleece worries. She says that she has been able to get Peace Fleece to felt but had to work pretty hard at it. I won’t give up on the rug until I give it a whirl.

Larry/Knitdad wrote to say he is starting my Fast Florida Footies for his daughter. Can’t wait to hear how they go.

He’s having a time figuring out his gauge with the Fixation yarn. No kidding, Larry, you are not at all alone. The stuff can be held very tightly or not, but in the end it’s fairly bulky cotton fiber that will only go down so much before I think it just can’t get smaller.

I found that Fixation changes gauge more than wool after washing, so I’d definitely recommend a swatch (or babysox) washed by hand and air dried before I was sure what gauge I was getting. My stockinette fabric went from 6.5 st/in to 7.125 st/in the last time I tried this (I was on size 3.0mm/2-1/2 Brittany birch needles… but I knit tight, so I’d say to start at size 2 if you knit with average tension). That’s enough to change the size of the garment. Worth a swatch if you want to be sure you can wear the thing in the end.

Sweater News
I got a little done on my sweater sleeves today, worked through the point where I did every other row in different dye lots for about 6 rows. Yippee. I have 6″ done on one sleeve and 4″ on the other. Still slow but I got to knit on it while visiting Altu today.

Speaking of Altu, she is on the heel flap for her 2nd sock ever. She figures she will probably finish the pair on Monday, her day off. It’s fun to share my love for socknitting with someone who understands, and who has been a friend even before I was knitting. She saw my sweater for the first time today and went nuts about the feel of the yarn. It’s double-thickness Brown Sheep Lamb’s Pride worsted wool/mohair. She’s an expert sweater knitter so she is now eager to finish the sock and start on a sweater in this wonderful and affordable yarn. And colorful! Their Aztec Turquoise is my favorite color in the whole world!

Dress Rehearsal
Last night was dress rehearsal for the Habibi Dancers’ annual concert. It was fun once I got over my stress about costumes. One of the dances is to a piece by Shakira (in Spanish and Arabic), and we have a zillion layers of black and red everything. Red overskirt, black lace underskirt, shoes with loud stomping heels (gotta stomp if it’s sung in Spanish, you know!), two fringed shawls around the waist, cabaret-style beaded bra and belt, red flower in the hair, black and red gauntlets on wrists, red veil. The works. And that is only one of my dances… but the other takes a little less work layering all the pieces.

The other dance is one where we balance glass jugs on our heads. Let’s pray we’re all balanced and settled for the performance. I broke one jug and someone else also broke one in the last few months as we have rehearsed this dance. If it looks easy, it can be, but one must be in a good, grounded space to have it work well.

This is the first year I’ve gone into the concert feeling that I really really know all my dances well. I’m grateful I had only two to learn this year, it really helped the stress level. I think I am going to really enjoy this Saturday. We have workshops all day and then the concert at night, then a cast party afterward. Long day! But it is fun. I just wish my dear friend Susan could be here. She moved to Arizona several years ago, but I still miss her a lot when we do our shows.

Late addition (10:20pm Eastern Time): Picture of Heirloom Breeze and swatch. Thanks to Dawn Brocco for sending this wonderful gift! Notice how good the sample cable looks in this yarn. I don’t knit cables much (I like wearing them, though) but this yarn screams out for this treatment, don’t you think?

Last night was Knitting Guild in Lansing. I love that group. It’s hard to believe I’ve only been a member a little over a year. They let me fit in right away, and for that I’m grateful. After all, this grrrl doesn’t fit in just anywhere!

Sarah Peasley gave the program on fairisle knitting last night. She did quite a good job. It’s sort of hard to show knitting to a group of 45 people but she made I-Cord and used huge needles, and it went very well. Check out her blog (click her name above) to see pics of her demo piece.

Krista was there, and Sharon, the two names I think I’ve mentioned here before. Nancy McRay and her friend Deidra were there to represent Woven Art, Nancy’s new yarn shop which starts regular hours next week.

And I found out that we have a new blogger among us: Tracy A, sweatergirl. Check out her entry for April 6. She took Sarah Peasley’s seamless sweater class, and she wore the result to guild last night. I took that class about a year ago and made my first adult sweater, a fingering weight German cotton yarn in raspberry, on size 5 needles, which made the most lovely lightweight short-sleeved sweater for attending summer weddings. Tracy made a very different sweater… hers fits more closely and is shorter than mine which is hip length. Same class (knit to fit). Fabulous class.

In fact, my Since-September double-stranded yarn sweater I’m still working on is also based on principles from that class. It has dropped sleeves instead of set in, because it’s supposed to be a sort of pullover coat, but Sarah keeps walking me slowly through the process.

I knit a little more on that sweater again last night. I had been fighting that dillemma about dye lot (on one sleeve I ran out of yarn after about an inch but I had already knit 4 inches of that dye lot on the other sleeve). I decided I’d go as far as I could on both sleeves in that dyelot by knitting one sleeve from either end of the same skein. When I get close to the end of the skeins, I’ll alternate rows for a while with the new dyelot and hope it goes OK. I just couldn’t stand ripping out good knitting on the sleeve where I’d knit further, so I made up a solution that didn’t mean I would change dyelots in different places on different sleeves. I may curse the twisting of yarn from either end of the skein, but so far it’s going fine.

I’m continuing to knit a few rows a day on the Peace Fleece Rug, at Foster. I read in Ann’s Blog that she can machine wash Peace Fleece without it shrinking much. That’s great for sox but not so good for the future of the rug I’d planned to shrink/full in the washer. Maybe I’m really knitting a lap blanket? We’ll find out when the time comes.

By the way, the picture today is of a few new yarns I have on my ColorJoy Yarns page. Not much new yet, but I have a couple pounds of yarn soaking right now so perhaps I’ll have more pictures up in a few days.

I took a bin of my yarns to guild last night and sold a few skeins to a few folks. I know my colorways are too intense for some, but that is what makes my work special. I sure can’t find enough yarns in confident colors in a regular yarn store, so I’m making them myself. Most of the newer entries are in turquoises this time, a little mellower than my personal style but they would be perfect for my mother who adores blues and greens. I’ll let you know when more yarns hit the page.

It’s summer! Well, at least it is acting that way!

It’s 82 degrees F right now. A week ago yesterday, I was shoveling 4 inches of snow, and today I went outside without a jacket. I walked barefoot in the grass, which is filled with wild violets blooming everywhere. The daffodils are popping, too. Bees are already trying to get into the daffodils, which are still a little too tightly closed to fit a bee… but they are trying.

For this cold-phobic Michiganian, it’s the season to become my real self. I will knit with wool all summer (and of course, we’ll have colder days as well) but I won’t need to wear the wool nearly as often. Ahhh, I sigh in relief!

Today at Foster Center I had 10 kids knitting, and just myself to help them out. I had two totally new knitters, and two who started last week. I also was thrilled to see that one of my older and more accomplished knitters had finished the backpack from Melanie Falick’s Kids’ Knitting book. She did a great job, it looked great. I didn’t have a camera today and couldn’t leave all those kids to go to the office and get one. I asked her to bring her backpack again next time so that we could get proper pictures.

I’m soooo proud of her! Last time I saw her, she had knit the bottom of the pack and we determined she would pick up stitches and knit circularly around it, rather than casting on a new piece and stitching together later. Next thing I see her (two weeks later), she had the whole thing assembled (thanks to Mom’s help). It took her only three weeks from start to finish, a pretty quick pace for a kid who had only started knitting this fall, and only done a few small projects before.

I have been knitting a few rows here and there again, on my Peace Fleece rug. I’m allergic to sheep and alfalfa, and this yarn has a little of both in it, so my eyes itch soon after starting on the project. I decided to take the project to Foster center so I can knit two or three rows when possible. I think I’ll finish it faster if I knit on it there. At home I have so many other things to distract me.

I also finished the babysox for Anne’s little girl. I have a few more ends to work in. I measured my gauge before and after washing (I’m using Fixation cotton/elastic yarn) and it changed a bit afterward. Very interesting stuff, this yarn. I do like it much more than other cottons, though, and the colors make me happy.

My “knit in line” project again is a pair of somewhat bland purple-gray sox. I thought the seller told me they were wool/alpaca but the more I knit with this yarn the more it feels like wool/mohair instead. These are perhaps sportweight yarn (no ball band, got them in trade online) on size 1 needles, and I knit tightly… so these are something like a bulletproof sock!

I think they will be warm and comfy when complete, but they are not fun to knit at all. The purple isn’t intense enough for my eyes, the yarn is a little scratchier than I like, the gauge is a bit too tight to be comfortable on the wrists. But it’s way better to have knitting in the bag available at a moment’s notice, than to stand in line with no knitting at all. These will be complete someday, just because of that. In fact, I’m about 3/4 the way through the heel flaps right now, so they are coming right along.

I’m still waiting on Diana’s ball-of-foot measurement for her two pair of half-knit sox, and I still haven’t finished the handpaints for the next 2 projects. Therefore, for now this is what I’ll knit until I get into the dyeing studio.

I would love to start a random-yarn stole but that takes more thinking than I usually dedicate to knitting at night after work. As it is, I have so many things already started, it would not be a great idea. I just keep realizing how much I wear the items I knit which are NOT sox. I wear my purple mohair beret several times a week, my legwarmers (alternating between 3 pair) almost every day fall/winter/spring, and I’m going to wear out my half-finger alpaca gloves if I don’t watch it! A stole I’d use a lot, but it just needs to wait a while while I shovel through the other unfinished promises, to others and myself.

I’m thinking spinning today. It’s beautiful enough to go out on the porch, at least while the sun shines, and spin a bit. I slept in after 6 full workdays and two very short nights. Loved the luxury of sleeping and sleeping and sleeping…

Once I awoke, Brian took me to breakfast at the Travelers’ Club and Tuba Museum this morning. I love going there, and we don’t go as often anymore since my food is so limited. I get tired of going to breakfast and ordering oatmeal with bananas, which seems to be my only choice at most breakfast restaurants… sigh. Usually we see someone we know at Travelers’ Club but we knew only one waitress today, Ana (she hangs out in the local music crowd and has worked at the restaurant for at least a dozen years).

On the way home, we stopped at Oriental Mart. What a fine establishment! It has every asian food possible, lots of very interesting things (and fascinating packaging) for snack foods, and a whole aisle of teas and other hot drink mixes. For a tea fanatic, this is heaven. Someday I’m going to go there and get a bunch of ingredients for Indian food, they have things I adore eating but don’t know how to cook. I’ve had a few friends from India who have cooked for me, and it’s just wonderful stuff. Someday.

Back to fiber news: someone on one of my spinning lists posted this amazing link:
   2003 International Calendar of Fiber Events

It makes me inspired to go to a LOT of places, which of course can not fit into my life easily. Just the same, it really has a lot of information that will help me find things near my home. I hope you find something worthwhile as well!

Brian and I played as The Fabulous Heftones at Altu’s restaurant again tonight. It was great fun, the place was hopping most of the time, and the crowd was appreciative.

Every time we go to Altu’s we run into people we know. Tonight, a young man Brian used to work with was there. He sat with a table of eight young musicians who had been to Ladyfest (an arts/music festival) during the day.

Then Ulyana and Sofia walked in as well. Small town! It was great to see them. Sofia had wanted to learn to knit this spring break, but as things sometimes happen, her break got very busy. (She has one more day, maybe she’ll call… but I bet she’s already overbooked. We just can’t do everything that sounds fun, can we?)

I’m getting tired! Foster has had a lot of kids this week for spring break. By today, I had several kids really excited to do knitting (even though it was officially computer time). At one point I had five knitters and two computer kids. And two of the knitters were boys who are excited to come back again and knit wristbands and headbands to wear while playing sports. I’m happy they like it and see this as something that relates to their lives.

I had another elementary-aged girl come back for the third day in a row. On Wednesday she said she was not coming back this week, but then she begged her mother to come back for two more days. The first piece she did was just a mess, about 5″ wide at one point, then it sort of pulled in from both ends in sort of a “T” shape and ended about 3″ wide. I thought yesterday she would not be returning so I bound it off and gave the knitted shape to her to take home. She said her mother put it up for everyone to see her wonderful accomplishment (she told me this at least three times, so this was very big news).

Today she started in on a new piece with new yarn, with the goal of making a small purse like one she saw in a picture of a knitting kid from summer program. She did such a good job that I allowed her to take her knitting (including needles, in process) home. I did not expect this much progress in such a short time, she really had a hard time getting it right at first. She did about 8 rows of garter stitch today with almost no mistakes, and she noticed the “hiccups” as soon as they arrived on her needles, so I could fix them for her.

It was a very rewarding week, but I’m tired! Tomorrow I teach in the morning for 4 hours (adult computer novices) then get an hour break to run errands, then 2 hours computer lab and possible knitting, then a few hours before Brian and I perform at Altus. I’ll be ready for a day off this Sunday!

I finished the slouch sox made of Buttons DK yarn!!! I wore them today (see picture). Love this stuff, it’s just great. And the new hot blue-purple is much more interesting than the old dark reddish-plum they had about two years ago when I started knitting sox. I think I’ve got enough of this new yarn to make another pair in purple with turquoise accents. This will be fun!!!

The babysox for Anne’s baby are going well, too. I did have to rip out the whole foot on one (good thing the foot is only 32 stitches around and 3.5 inches long) but I’m now at the point where I need to just make the toes and they are done. Once they are published I can show you those pictures as well.

Today I got to knit a bit. I spent about 45 minutes at the allergist’s office, plus 3 hours at Foster Center, a little time at Altu’s Restaurant and a little at home.

First, I finished the ends on my Buttons yarn slouch sox. I can’t wait to wear these! I need to grab Brian’s camera before he leaves in the morning and get some pictures of those.

Then I tried to go back to the since-September sweater, and I forgot the reason I’d stopped was because of dye lots. I re-knit the part I had ripped out last time I knit it, then realized what I’d done and stuck it back in the bag for a better time. I just can’t seem to knit anything that takes a brain when I’m at Foster.

So I started a pair of sox for my friend Anne’s baby. I figure I’ll test knit my pattern for possible summer publication one more time. I created the pattern for size 0-1 infant to size ladies’ large, and I haven’t really done much knitting for kids before where it needs to be a specific size. Of course, I have reference materials which tell me how long a size 2 baby’s foot is, but I am happy to put theory to the real-life test.

Anne’s baby was born prematurely last May if I remember right (she was due in July), three pounds and one ounce. She is doing great. Anne just bought her some size 2 shoes last week. Perfect! I’m testing the sox for sweetie pie. She is still wearing the strawberry hat I knit for her last August, which is adorable on her. I swore I would not knit for children, it seemed such a guarantee that the clothes would get wrecked or underappreciated. However, Anne is totally appreciative and the baby deserves special things for being so strong after such a challenging start in life.

I’m ready to knit the toe on one of the babysox and just picked up for gusset stitches on the other. These will easily be finished tomorrow! Gotta love the speed of tiny projects! (Picture is some very tiny babysox I knit last August, with doubled yarn… Koigu and Jawoll.)

Oh, PS… Habibi Dancers had an extra glass jug for me to dance with, so that became a sort of non-issue other than my hurt pride. (See yesterday’s post.) Whew.

It was a long day. I had kids at Foster Center who did not know me and may not be back. They were not used to our boundaries and needed a lot of instruction in that area. They were a challenge, and the experience tired me out.

On top of that, later I was dancing with a glass jug on my head and it fell and broke (fortunately it was wrapped with a scarf so the clean up was not difficult). But it sort of bummed me out. The troupe did have a spare jug for me to use in the concert, nobody was particularly bummed at me for breaking it. But it broke in front of a preschooler who was sort of freaked out by the surprise of it all. We got her mellowed out OK, but it was just an unsettling day.

Habibi Dancers rehearsal went well, anyway. We have dress rehearsal next Wednesday and our performance is on Saturday the 19th, so this week we were working on final decisions with costumes and the like. I love the women I dance with, they were my saving grace at the end of a day that could have been better. I was glad to be there.

The good news in my day is that my turquoise Buttons DK sox are almost done. I have only the toes to do and I can wear them. Maybe I’ll wear them tomorrow! Off to knit toes… tomorrow is another day, right?

At least the snow is melting.

I worked at Foster Center today for four hours in the computer lab. Because there was a break between two 2-hour sessions, I found myself there in my lab before opening time.

Fortunately, I found my most constant and devoted knitter down in the library and invited her to come up and knit with me until computer time. We had a lovely time.

We never seem to have enough yarn of the same type, to do any project of substance in only one yarn. This has made for some very creative projects. My grrl decided she wanted to do a quick spring break project she can finish easily. She cast on for a skinny scarf after checking through the bin I keep with the extra-nice yarns people have donated.

Yesterday she fell in love with a variegated yarn in pinks, corals, and pale purple, then went home and found another solid skein of pink Dale Baby Ull where the colors worked pretty well together. Today she found two skeins of denim blue Wool-Ease and a skein of very soft white eyelash to pull it all together. We laughed because when she held the eyelash in her hand, it almost looked like a little white guinea pig! It’s a big luxury for her and she is really enjoying it.

This is looking good right away. She cast on with the pastel multi held together with the eyelash, knit an inch or two, switched to a stripe of denim (she has much more of this than any other yarn), then a stripe of the pink with eyelash, and back to the blue. I told her she’s making her own version of Jillian’s rockstar scarf Knitty.com featured last fall (see picture here). The difference is that in the Knitty scarf, the eyelash is the solid section and the other parts are variegated. In both cases, the look and feel of the scarf is luscious.

She loved it, she kept petting the eyelash sections and looking at how pretty it was. This is what it’s all about, you know?

This child (she is 11) is really loving what I love, yarn and knitting. It is such a joy to spend time with her. It is a delight to knit together and talk about knitting and yarn. She laughs about her “yarn store” at home (I have allowed some of my better knitters to take home a few skeins they adore as incentive to knit at home). That was where she got her Baby Ull, it was at home begging to be in the same project as the variegated pastel she is using with it now.

As for me, I knit about 4-5″ on each sock today. I finished the gussets (does anyone else dislike these more than turning heels the way I do?) and am making my way quickly to the toe. I may finish tomorrow since I’m at Foster for 3 hours again. It would be wonderful if it happened. We’ll see.

Icky day. It snowed on the first day of spring break. This is probably not news, because apparently half this country got the same thing we got. It was maybe 5 inches here, not as much as I had heard we would get.

I did spend a little time shoveling today. I rarely shovel, Brian usually does the job (lucky me). It was not a bad day for it to be my turn. By the time I got out, the snow had stopped coming down, the wind had stopped, it was a little warmer than freezing so it was melting just a little, and things were quiet, peaceful and calm.

If I could enjoy winter, today would be the day. I was warm enough in my handknit sox (the ones I pictured yesterday, actually), my excellent Lands End high-top shoes (I rarely wear them but they are great in wet weather), my cabled handknit legwarmers, and a long wool coat with wool scarf and mohair hat. And lambswool earmuffs Brian got me in Toronto just over a year ago. If I’m warm, I’m happy… and I was plenty warm enough outside today, for once.

It’s spring break, so I’m spending at least two hours a day at Foster Center with the kids. We had knitting today… had 3 boys for about 20 minutes before the gym opened, and three girls who are regulars, who stuck around. That was fun. We had a bunch of new kids for computer lab time so I had to get them adjusted to how I work. (Can you say “boundaries?” They learn about personal space in my room.) I didn’t get any knitting done in computer lab today, it was much too active. But I did knit a little in line at the Post Office later.

I’m going nuts because I haven’t finished knitting anything in a while. I guess I finished three sample sox for the possible publication, but when it’s not a pair it doesn’t feel done (even when I don’t ever plan to make the second sock). In process I have two pair for Diana, two pair for me, and a sweater, all just over halfway done, on the “current” list.

Then I have several other pair on the “not quite ignored” list. And I’ve got three swaps in the wings waiting for dyed yarn (I wound off a good number of skeins today for dyeing this week, that’s good progress). And what I really want to make is a purple and turquoise stole because I get so cold all the time… even in summer, because of air conditioning. I’ve picked out all the pretty randomly-colored yarns for the stole, but it must wait. I can not start one more thing, or I may break!

If I’m lucky, the new kids will adjust to me quickly and I’ll get some serious knitting done in computer lab this week. Cross fingers for me!!!

Little factoids about my weekend knitting experiences:

Altu showed me her first sock on Saturday, all it has left to do is close the toe. We have so much trouble connecting that she would wait forever if she had to wait for me to show her kitchener stitch. She could see that the pair I did for her, I worked down to 8 stitches and ran the yarn through the loops twice. However, her sock is the right length and has many more than 8 stitches so that won’t work.

She decided she will finish the sock with a three-needle bindoff. She knows how to do that already and this way she doesn’t have to wait for me to teach her. She is sure that the ridge on the end of the toe will not bother her at all (I did tell her that some folks turn the sock inside out to do this so the ridge is hidden). She is pretty excited about the sock. She’s a very busy woman, with not much time where she can knit, but it is so relaxing she really enjoys it. She learned to knit sweaters as a kid, but they take so much longer than sox it’s great she can learn the smaller project at this time in her life.

Oh, I spent the weekend doubting myself over a design I’d already thought was complete. I proofknit a second size for good measure, and found a small mistake which I fixed right away. Then when the sock was done, it looked totally out of proportion and I was devastated. Finally today I decided to block it anyway, and just dousing it in cool water (it’s cotton yarn) made it exactly the measurements I had expected it to have when I planned it. I’m telling you, blocking sox can make miracles happen. I’m so relieved!

I also worked a little this weekend on a pair of sox I’ve been carrying around as my “wait in line” sox. For some reason when I went to pick up stitches for the gusset, I could NOT get the number of stitches to match. I ripped out three times (I do 2 sox at a time, on 2 sets of DPNs) and re-turned one heel 3 times. I still was slightly off (one row in the heel flap, how did that happen?) but could not for the life of me figure out why, so I fudged it and picked up the same number of stitches even though I have a different number of rows. Thank goodness these are for me, because I won’t typically fudge for anyone else.

Fortunately, the heel flap is close stitch, my no-purl heel that I usually use, and it’s really stretchy. I’m figuring with all the stretch, my feet won’t feel the difference. But I don’ t know what happened, it’s very odd. I am now about 5 rows into the gusset decreases on both sox. Whew!

I’m eager to finish something, finally. I still have 2 pair for SIL Diana waiting for a measurement, and I have 2 pair for myself about halfway done, and that sweater where I just started on the sleeves last week. I have a few other projects promised but they need hand-dyed yarn before I can begin and I haven’t been in the studio lately (and the floor down there is very wet right now because of all the rain, but then again I make the floor wet when I dye wool anyway).

This week is spring break so my Foster Center schedule is off center a lot. I hope that will free up a few sections of time for dyeing. I tell you what, my schedule for summer is already determined but I will be making some major changes this fall. I have only one day to myself and that is just not enough. I need some long stretches of time, several per week, to get my dyeing done comfortably. And everyone needs at least one day a week to rest, or the brain and the schedule both get nutty from lack of self-care. I always overschedule myself and then wonder why it’s hard to get it all done. You’d think I would learn.

We are expecting 6-9 inches of snow between 5am and noon according to one radio station. I work at Foster Center at 1pm, so I’m hoping by then the roads are driveable, at least the 3 miles of ambulance route I drive from home to the center. There are definite advantages to living close to center city!

Off to bed. I’m such a night owl, and I just must force myself to get some sleep with this time change. (Oh, the photo is a pair I made for myself a year or so ago, of Dale Freestyle worsted weight washable yarn. They are great in this cold weather.)

Well, what an interesting evening. We went to Altu’s restaurant to hear Temesgen Hussein play tonight. We sat in the middle of the room at the wonderful Ethiopian basket/tables, and I sat next to Temesgen’s wife. I’d seen her many times, but always sort of waved hello and didn’t stop to chat. She’d always sort of smile back.

I had determined that next time I saw her, I’d go over and ask her name. So tonight we sat near one another and she leaned over and said: “Didn’t you used to work for ARC?” I said yes, I actually worked there for over 6 years (it is a corporate computer training company, where I mostly taught office workers how to use Microsoft Office products).

Well, it turns out that around 1998 or so, she and a few co-workers at a previous job, took my HTML web design class. After that, I went to their office a few times to do further training. I revamped the website they had at the time, and showed them how to update what I had done.

What a small world. I never would have made the connection, but she said she had been sure she remembered my voice and couldn’t remember from where since it was so out of context. Then this week, she was doing some HTML coding and it clicked, that I had been her HTML teacher. How amazing!

Not only that, but as we were walking in, Chris and Mary Lee were walking out. I knew them in my “former life,” so to speak. I met them first when Chris worked with my ex more than a decade ago. After that, Mary Lee also took a few classes I taught for ARC sometime before I left there in 1999. It was very good to see them.

This town gets smaller every minute.

Hi, all. My, I’ve been busy.

I meant to tell you about last Tuesday night at Borders in Arborland (Ann Arbor, Michigan… about an hour from my home). I just love that group.

I had to get there late because of a dance rehearsal. However, I got there in time to see several friends I hadn’t seen in two months. And I got to meet Jillian in person for the first time! It was so good to chat a bit after corresponding via email for so long. We’ll have to get together some time when there isn’t a group to distract, but it was fun.

I was busy showing off my recent stuff (I am the original show-and-tell queen… I think I’m still amazed that I can make things I really like, so I get excited and have to show people as a little kid might) while she helped someone learn to knit continental style (holding yarn in left hand). I knit continental, but I do hold my yarn different than most people I know. It was great to watch her teach and see how it works for others.

On the way home from Borders, I had the most wonderful time driving. I love driving alone in the dark, just love it. I’ve taken many, many road trips alone. Most of my long trips I took in my old car, Martha G., a 1985 VW Golf that I had for 14 years and a quarter-million miles. See picture taken around April 1999, and notice the three stars I painted on the back hatch.

Night is my time, it’s so peaceful. Tuesday night was just as perfect as it could be. The weather was wonderful for driving, the air was clear, my glasses were without glare, and I was playing a wonderful tape, Abdel Gadir Salim All-Stars. This is a 1991 Shanachie recording no longer in the Shanachie catalog (boo hoo). The band is from Sudan, and their music is just magical stuff: brilliantly played, passionate, rhythmic, soulful. It was just the most perfect hour alone I could have had.

Fast forward to Friday night. I got to dance as Eudora at New Aladdin’s Restaurant in Frandor (Lansing), with Sally (whose stage name is Sara). I just LOVE dancing there! Just love it.

Well, for the first time, I decided to dance to the Sudanese music I had listened to in the car on Tuesday night. It was the right choice. The music has a 6/8 beat, a very danceable, almost bouncing rhythm. The piece I danced to had a theme something like “You, my love, are driving me insane.” Very passionate stuff, with a great vocal plus excellent violin and saxophone solos. I enjoyed it very much, and the audiences for both performances seemed to really love the piece as much as me. Even Amal, the head chef and one of the owners of the restaurant, told me how much she enjoyed it.

At the second show, there was a very long table with a large group of diners. In the group there were several children, including two little girls perhaps around kindergarten age. They were fascinated with our dancing and our costumes. (Kids that age tend to love the shiny costumes.) They kept peeking around the corner when they couldn’t see us dance from their chairs (the restaurant seating area is in an “L” shape). It was so very fun!

Tonight Temesgen Hussein, an Ethiopian musician, is playing at Altu’s. I’m hoping Brian and I will get to go there and hear him at least for a short while. And next weekend, we get to perform there! I can’t wait.

My sister in law, Kathleen Alcocer, writes regarding my last entry:

I’ve got three of my “ancestors” in the juried student art show at my uinversity, even though we were only supposed to enter 2 things. I got around that by entering 2 of them as a diptych.

Plus, three of the body parts I did were juried into an exhibit in St. Augustine. So, even though I’ve only *just* finished all these works, they’re getting out there pretty fast. So, that’s nice.

You go grrrl!!! (Picture is of Kathleen and Pedro’s house… this place is art, too. See the archways, even for the parking area? And you should see inside, it’s so colorful. Kathleen’s favorite color is orange so the place is sunny inside and out.)

Socks and Sweater, Progress but Slow
On the knitting front: Sock for possible publication done and blocked, and it measures as expected (halleluia, I often have gauge problems).

Also, I worked just a little on my eternal sweater (started early September, put away for months at a time, resurrected last Saturday at the Yarn for Ewe Knitters’ night out). I did about 3-4 inches on one arm, then thought it smart to do a little on the other arm (gauge worries again) and realized that a) I am out of the purple yarn for that arm, and b) the yarn I was going to use is a different dye lot, which I knew a long time ago. So I un-knit four rows so that I can alternate skeins for a while but that made me worry about the other arm where I had knit at least 10-12 rows more, and whether I should change dye lots at the same place on both arms.

I have to remind myself that I swore I didn’t care how this sweater turned out, as long as it was reeeeeeeeally warm. It will be really warm. After all, it is two strands of worsted weight Lambs Pride wool/mohair, knit as one, at 2.85 sts/inch. It’s like a very thick blanket!

I could make one arm different than the other, as so many sport garments do, with a stripe of the turquoise on one arm perhaps. Or not. I have never had a dye lot problem before, because I do sox so much… and the one adult sweater I did, I had a whole bag of yarn when I needed less than half of a bag.

So here I am unsure of where to go. To the naked eye, indoors, the purple dye lots look very much the same, but I know that sunshine shows every difference. For now the sweater is back on the “sit and wait” burner. Again. And it was cold enough today that I could have worn the thing if it were done!!!

Dyeing Day Tomorrow
The good news is that my night computer class somehow has no students in it tomorrow and next Thursday. That’s not so great for my short-term cashflow, but it will allow me a night to dye yarns. I am still behind on production (there are at least three folks waiting for me to dye them some specific yarns that I haven’t yet dyed) and it will feel good to do what I must do to get that work done.

Plus, once I have a block of time that big (my afternoon class ends at 3pm) I can get real work done. I’m somewhat relieved to be given that block of time. I have to stop by Altu’s restaurant between Foster Center and home, but since I typically stay up until past midnight, this will be a nice chunk of dyeing time. Yippee!!!

Interesting Website: Mailart and More
Oh, if you feel like surfing a little, you might like to check out this site my brother’s wife Diana sent me. (Does anyone else dislike the phrase Sister in Law? It isn’t specific enough… Kathleen is my sister in law because she’s the sister of my husband… Diana is my sister in law because she married my brother. And Judy [I haven’t mentioned her here before…her primary artform is quilting] is my sister in law because she married my husband’s brother! For some reason I really dislike the vagueness of the label “sister in law,” but as always, I digress.)

The site has some mail art, which is why Diana thought I would be interested. However, there are some other pretty interesting conceptual things there. Unfortunately, some of the pages are very hard to read, either because of tiny text or difficult color contrasts… but the pictures are worthy of some time, I think. Interesting point: I went to maybe 10 of the pages on this site, and it does not mention the name of the artist at all. That seems a bit in line with the mailart philosophy, where folks often take on a mailart pseudonym… there is a biographical paragraph but no name!

My sister in law, Kathleen Alcocer, has just put up her first draft of her first website. (No wonder she’s been on my mind in the last few days… I nearly called her yesterday but it was really too late to call.) I showed one painting of hers to you folks when I was visiting her (and hubby Pedro) not long ago.

She shows images from five different series. I had not seen her autobiographical collages or the Genetically Modified Ancestors Series, a series based on photos collected by my husband, Brian (her brother), in his genealogical research.

Kathleen is a full-time artist, but on top of that, she is incredibly prolific. There are all sorts of pieces here that she had not done when we visited!

I absolutely love her as a person, as much as I enjoy her artwork. Please go take a peek.

OK, yesterday I awoke to snow. Today it’s past noon and it’s 67 degrees. Much better.

Today I slept until 11:30 (after first being awakened by a sales call that hung up on me at 9) which I really needed. I seem to not let myself rest unless I’m actually sick, not a good thing. And even though I took a sick day yesterday, I thought I’d get a nap but pushed myself on the sock deadline instead.

Late evening yesterday, while I was proofknitting my pattern, I realized that I had made some choices early in the design that just would not work as far as explaining them in print. I would make them that way if I was knitting for myself, but this was not going to work. So I had to go back to the spreadsheet and start over. The numbers are my least favorite thing (how many inches around for 11 sizes, how many stitches is that, will that number of stitches work for the number of stitches in the repeat of the design, etc…). But I had to do it and so I did.

I’m nearly to the toe on the sample sock, so I’ll get the pattern and a scan of the sock out today, which was deadline day. Then I’ll send out the actual sock in case the publisher wants to take different photos than what I send. Whew!

If I feel better today (I’m mostly well, with small setbacks that don’t last long) I will go to Border’s “Common Thread” gathering tonight in Ann Arbor. I hope to meet Jillian tonight… we’ve been corresponding for a while (and reading each other’s blogs) and she moved to Ann Arbor maybe a month ago. Between illnesses and bad weather we haven’t met yet. Maybe tonight. Check out Jillian’s blog, Knittingfrau.

The picture is some tiny sox I did last summer out of leftover Regia Clown ringel along with a solid Regia melon color. Very fun.